Scott Scovill. Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
Scott Scovill is an award-winning entrepreneur, creative director, producer and Founder of Moo TV, a global leader in video production. Under his leadership, the company has grown into one of the industry’s top production firms, producing more than 1,000 live events each year and earning multiple Video Company of the Year honors.
Throughout his career, Scovill has directed live concerts and produced major television specials, including a CBS special featuring Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. He has received numerous industry awards, including a CMA Touring Award for his work with Garth Brooks and Visual Designer of the Year honors for Brad Paisley’s world tours.
Beyond his production career, Scovill is an avid traveler who has visited nearly 60 countries. He also enjoys pursuing new challenges, from learning to play hockey as an adult and earning a spot on an all-star team to becoming a professional photographer, with work featured on an album cover for Alan Jackson. He is also a singer-songwriter with multiple albums and continues to perform internationally.
Scovill is the author of Tenacious: The Art of Relentlessly Pursuing Your Wildest Dreams, a memoir and motivational guide that shares the lessons, experiences and mindset that helped shape his career. The book features insights from leaders across music, sports, business, the military and space exploration, offering readers practical encouragement to pursue their goals with persistence and purpose.
MusicRow: Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Poestenkill, New York on a farm.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
What kind of music were you into growing up?
Top 40. I listened to Casey Kasem’s top 40 Countdown relentlessly, and that was my choice. But whenever we were on vacation or out doing things together as a family, it was Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers and John Denver. Tons of John Denver.
Did you know you want to go into music while you were growing up?
No, I had no idea what I wanted to do.
Tell me about school.
I graduated last in my class in high school. They just decided to pass me to move me on. I was unable to do my homework when I was a kid. When I would try and do my homework, I would have an anxiety attack and my grades showed that. Despite that, I decided that I felt like I would go to college. It was always expected of me that I would be the first person in my family to go to college. I did, and I flunked out of college as well.
Right around that same time, a psychologist diagnosed me with fear of failure, and it’s really interesting to have a diagnosis after all that time of feeling broken and just feeling like you just weren’t a good person. He said that it would be easier for me to grab a red hot stove and hang on and maim myself than to actually try.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
How did that affect your next steps?
With that diagnosis, and while flunking out of college, I was at a really rock bottom moment when a girl that I cared very much for was killed in a car accident, and I just bottomed out. I was waiting tables at Howard Johnson on the side of the highway, not my dream job, and I wasn’t very good at it.
While there, a tour bus rolled into the restaurant and had a space shuttle painted on the side, and I wanted to wait on that table. I thought maybe these people worked for NASA. I ran to the hostess and begged her to sit them in my section, and she did. But I watched them get off the bus and was very disappointed to see them wearing all black with long hair. I did not know what a tour bus was obviously. [laughs]
I take their drink orders and ask them what’s the deal with the bus. One of them in a very heavy Irish accent says they work for U2. That blew my mind. It amazed me that you could work for U2 for a living. I didn’t get it. I had a million questions, and they invited me to a show.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
Did you go to the show?
I drove three hours to the show and had an incredible time learning about the industry. The show ends, I’m still picking their brains. They had a show right there again the next day, and invited me to come back, and told me to get there early.
As soon as I got out of the car, I was able to park right by the buses. We got my tickets sorted out and walked down into the arena and Bono and Edge walk up to the guy who’s escorting me and start talking to him about something. Mind you, this is right as The Joshua Tree album came out and U2 is the biggest band in the world. I was starstruck.
When I walked away from them, it struck me that I had just met two of my heroes, but I was more interested in what had been happening backstage and learning about this industry.
After hanging out more with the crew and learning and observing everything, it was time for the show. The lights go out and everybody goes nuts. 15,000 people screaming at the top of their lungs. That’s when I had a paradigm shift. I stood there in the dark and realized this is what I was going to do with my life.
What were your first steps getting into the live music world?
Over the next two weeks I brewed up the worst plan in the history of worst plans. It was devastatingly bad, but my plan was that I was going to quit my job and quit school. They were throwing me out of school anyway, so that wasn’t hard. I moved into my Subaru BRAT, which was a compact car with a truck bed, and I was going to sneak in every night and work for free until I learned enough and proved that they should hire me.
I wanted to be upfront with the crew and tell them I was doing it. I knew they couldn’t give me permission, but to them, I wouldn’t look like I was sneaking in. I was being sneaky with security, but not with the crew. So two weeks later, I found the venue, I found the tour buses and where the crew will be. They were flying in from Europe, and I’m waiting in the lobby of the hotel. I went up to the guy in charge and told him my plan. He must’ve thought I was completely nuts.
Every night, I waited at the top of the ramp and piled in with the stage hands and walked down the ramp and just looked like I didn’t want to be there and blended right in. I also made myself a laminate that was white and had radio codes and such. I saw that they made laminates that had notes for their truck packs and what the radio channels were. Two is sound, three is lights. So I made myself a fake laminate that had that on it. I did get stopped several times and would pretend I left my laminate on the bus, and try a different entrance. I almost got arrested three times doing it. There were very lengthy conversations with the police.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
How long did you do that?
Five weeks. I got walking pneumonia at one point. It was pretty brutal. Almost fell asleep driving from city to city.
Pittsburgh was my last show. I got out of my car and some of the crew guys had told me the band’s management had an argument with the union over something, and it was mentioned that I was there and the union fined the band $5,000 for having non-union labor on site. That’s how it ended.
What came after U2?
After the whole tour, I knew I wanted to do video. The Joshua Tree Tour was one of the first tours to ever have video. If I got into video, I would be on the bottom rung of maybe a two rung ladder.
Lawrence Anderson, who was on the U2 tour with me, called and told me the video projectors they use are a nightmare, and nobody knows how to run them. Nobody’s good at it. Nobody wants to learn. There was a training center for them in Syracuse, New York. I finagled my way into there, which wasn’t normal, because usually a company sponsors you to get in.
What happened after completing the class?
There was someone else in the class that eventually got me a job with his company in D.C. I did corporate video in Washington DC for two years. I hated it and loved it at the same time. I loved that I was learning, but it had nothing to do with music, and it was a lot of pressure. I was failing and I was having breakdowns. I was in tears at times and all the things that dysfunctional people do when they’re trying to get over their worst fears. We got one music gig in the two years I was there, and we did so horribly at it. They fired us the next day.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
How come?
We didn’t have the technology. We were the wrong company for it. I didn’t even know what we didn’t know, but I wanted to find out. The next stop of the tour was in D.C., so I pulled a card out of my old playbook and I snuck in. It was a stadium rap tour. I figured out who was in charge and went down and asked him a bunch of questions. He eventually realized I wasn’t who I was pretending to be. We got into it and had to be split up. The guy who split us up had just gotten onto the Rolling Stones tour. We really hit it off, and he eventually got me onto the biggest tour at that time. I spent the next 13 months traveling the world with the Stones, 23 countries. It was awesome.
What did you do after the Rolling Stones?
After the Stones, I went to David Bowie, which was unbelievably cool. Definitely the coolest show I’ve ever done. I also did tours with Paula Abdul, Whitney Houston and Ozzy Osborne.
One of the three owners of the company I was working for loved country music. Alan Jackson‘s team had seen Paula’s show, and they reached out and asked if they could have the same equipment and people Paula had. Before I knew it, I was packing my bags.
So this is how you got to Nashville?
Yes, in 1992. I’ll admit, I struggled with the structure of country music. I came straight from Ozzy Osborne to this new structure. I showed up for the first show and Mark McClure, Alan’s fiddle player, walks up with a chew in his mouth and his bow, and just hits my notes with his bow. I had called the fiddle a violin, so all of my notes were off.
Mark told me they couldn’t figure out why I was here. I was a guy from New York with hair down to my butt who knew nothing about country music. It was a rough start, but Mark and I went on to be great friends. Alan and I formed a great partnership that went on for 22 years.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
And where did Moo TV come in?
A few years in, I talked to my boss Lee Griffin because I was frustrated that nobody knew what to do with video screens. People kept hiring their video director or their brother-in-law that went to film school to create content. Those people are very talented, but they’re all conditioned to tell a story inside a rectangle. What they don’t get is that the rectangle is a part of the story. It is not the whole story.
I asked for Lee’s permission to moonlight a little bit and start a company that creates content for shows, because I wanted to make Alan’s show great, and maybe we could do that with our other clients too. It was so much money and equipment, I felt it needed to be a business for tax reasons and all that. He initially said no, which shocked me. A week later he asked if I was still thinking about it. He told me no because he was afraid he’d lose me. He offered to be my 50/50 partner in it. We went into business and made Moo TV the first ever creative content company.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
Who were some of your first clients?
Alan, Tim McGraw, Vince Gill, Amy Grant and Martina McBride. We did some awesome creative stuff with those guys, and I was really proud of it. It made people want to work with us. I remember doing some really cool stuff for Lone Star and just having a blast.
I had a VHS library of stock. I would find something interesting and then plug the tape in. Then I’d get on the phone and order the clip numbers in the specific resolutions I needed and ask for it to be delivered via beta tape. That was how we would get stock footage.
How did the Nashville base eventually grow?
I went to Lee and told him we needed a Nashville office full time, and that I was going to run it. I was doing that for a decade. In 2002, I got a phone call that Lee was murdered. I spent three months pretty lost and depressed. Eventually, one of my employees asked all the other employees and clients if they would come work for me if I started a company like Lee’s and how they could help. It was a great way to keep some part of Lee alive.
I went to the bank and got the biggest loan they would give me, I mortgaged my house, and I got a loan from Sony to get some of the cameras. I also got a loan from the projector company and a few others, eventually ending up with a bunch independent loans, and seven different credit cards.
At this time, the government mandated that television had to go to high def. TV stations were starting to switch to high def and they had nowhere to put their standard definition gear, which was all we needed. It’s all anybody used in the industry at the time. I built automated eBay searches for what we needed. I would click one button on my little Macintosh notebook and then go make dinner. It would take all of dinner for my ISDN modem to load all of the searches. It’d be like 40 tabs full of everything I needed.
It took years to dig out from under the debt, but we were kind of like the Millennium Falcon of the video industry. We were held together by gaff tape and dreams, but we were outperforming everybody else. That was the start of Moo.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
What made you want to write your book?
Moo TV was nominated for video company of the year, seven years in a row at the Pollstar Awards. During the seventh nomination, we finally won. I ran up on stage, I get the award and I give a little speech that looks smooth. But when I got off stage, I fell against the wall. I had an anxiety attack. I didn’t know that I was afraid of public speaking. I’d never had to get up in front of a group like that.
To get over the fear, I went and spoke at a couple of colleges. At the second college I spoke at, I changed a young lady’s life. She had quit school that day. She started crying halfway through my talk and afterwards had decided she was not going to quit school after listening to me. I offered to mentor her. She eventually graduated and I had learned that public speaking is powerful.
I had met Cameron Harold who is a well known public speaker. After hanging out with him for a day, he told me I should write a book. I brushed it off at first. The next day his publisher called me. After much convincing, I decided my story was one worth telling.
At first, someone else was going to write the book for me. They sent me the first chapter, and it didn’t feel right. I had written my own version of the first chapter, and my publisher and I both agreed that I needed to be the one to write my story.
What’s a moment that your little kid self would be proud of?
Me and my girlfriend were walking through Times Square and above us is a billboard that is cycling my face with the book on it in Times Square, the same day I was going to NBC Studios to talk about my book on national television. That was a surreal moment.
Inaugural Music City Kickoff Concert Set For September
/by Lorie HollabaughThe concert will feature performances by Lee Brice, Gabby Barrett and Payton Smith, and marks the official start of a weekend of college sporting events hosted by the Nashville Sports Council.
The festivities continue Sunday (Sept. 6) at Bridgestone Arena for the second annual Sprouts Farmers Market Broadway Block Party and a women’s college volleyball double-header. Later that evening, the action shifts across the Cumberland River to Nissan Stadium for the inaugural Liberty Mutual Music City Kickoff, a college football season opener between the Louisville Cardinals and Ole Miss Rebels.
“We’re continuously looking for creative ways to engage locals and tourists with new sporting events and continued elevation of Nashville’s favorite traditions,” says Scott Ramsey, President and CEO of the Nashville Sports Council. “Nashville has long been known as Music City, and we’ve worked tirelessly to make it a sports destination as well. This inaugural concert brings the two together for an unforgettable holiday weekend of entertainment.”
Tickets for the Music City Kickoff Concert go on sale to the general public tomorrow (July 10).
AUDION Foundation Launches Inaugural Creative Mentorship Program
/by Lorie HollabaughThe AUDION Foundation, a new nonprofit dedicated to supporting Nashville’s emerging creative community, has announced a list of industry professionals who will serve as mentors in its inaugural Creative Mentorship Program.
AUDION’s Founding Mentor Class has earned Grammy awards and nominations, RIAA Diamond Certifications, CMA, ACM, BMI, and SESAC Song of the Year honors, SESAC Songwriter of the Year nods, CMA’s Triple Play Awards, BMI Millionaire Awards, BMI Multi-Platinum awards, Golden Globe and CMT Award nominations, and Dove Awards. Their work encompasses more than 30 No. 1 songs, and inclusion in countless films, thousands of TV episodes and commercials, millions of records and video games sold worldwide, and billions of streams.
“Every successful creative can point to someone who reached back to pull them forward at a pivotal moment in their journey – someone who changed the trajectory of their career,” says Zac Koffler, president of the AUDION Foundation. “This program exists to create more of those moments. Nashville has long been defined by creatives supporting other creatives and industry leaders elevating up-and-comers, and we are honored to continue that tradition in a highly intentional and impactful way. Every mentor participating in this program understands a simple truth: careers are often shaped by people willing to believe in you before the rest of the world does. Together, they represent the creative heartbeat of Music City.”
Spearheaded by AUDION Foundation Team Members Koffler, Martha Kenny, James Dail and Max Abrams, the Creative Mentorship Program is designed to meet creatives wherever they are in their own journeys and amplify their efforts through unique mentorship opportunities such as co-writes, creative collaborations, career conversations, and real-world industry opportunities. The program will launch later this year with an inaugural cohort of 10 selected mentees who will each collaborate with up to six mentors. The number of program participants will grow in future years.
Applications for AUDION’s Creative Mentorship Program are available now. Participation is free, and applicants must be 18 years of age or older and reside within 30 miles of Nashville.
The 2026 AUDION Founding Mentor Class:
Anna Wilson – Artist, Songwriter
Anthony L. Smith – Songwriter, Producer, Publisher, Manager
Austin Nivarel – Songwriter, Producer, Multi-Instrumentalist
Belles – Artist, Songwriter
Derek George – Songwriter, Producer, Musician, Publisher
Dwayne Wright – Songwriter, Producer, Musician, MD
Emily West – Artist, Songwriter
Gabe Lee – Artist, Songwriter
Gina Waters Miller – Music & Leadership Strategist, Talent Manager
Greg Camp – Artist, Songwriter, Composer, Producer
Greg Lucid – President, Lucid Creative Services
Haley Teske – Booking Agent
Heather Morgan – Songwriter
Jake Hoot – Artist, Songwriter
James Marsh Jr. – Director of Radio Accounts, Warner Records Nashville
James Otto – Artist, Songwriter
Jamie Moore – Songwriter, Producer
Jeff Cohen – Songwriter
JoJamie Harr – EVP, Recorded Music, BMG
Lance Alleman – Booking Agent
Madeline Edwards – Artist, Songwriter
Mike Reynolds – Artist & Label Management, MNJR
Monty Powell – Songwriter, Producer
Norman Jacob – Artist & Label Management, MNJR
Phil Hughley – Producer, Songwriter, Artist
Rachel Whitney – Streaming Executive
Rudy Newman – Artist & Label Management, MNJR
Tammi Kidd – Songwriter
Wendy Moten – Artist, Vocalist
Wil Merrell – Artist, Vocalist, ‘Artistpreneur’
Get After It Media Launches New Streaming Platform Heartland+
/by Lorie HollabaughHeartland+ provides live streaming from Get After It Media’s network lineup, including The Heartland Network, Retro TV, Rev’n Action, and Hasbro Legends. Viewers can also enjoy Unbeaten Sports Channel, along with Stingray’s television shows, including Stingray Hooked (fishing), Stingray Stand-Up (stand-up comedy), and Stingray Qello (concert specials and music documentaries). Viewers can enjoy country music programming, classic television, automotive and outdoor entertainment, action sports, championship wrestling, iconic toy franchises, and more.
The on-demand library brings together beloved TV favorites spanning generations, including The Carol Burnett Show, The Best of The Ed Sullivan Show, The Real McCoys, Bonanza, The Lucy Show, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, and The Beverly Hillbillies, along with additional comedies, westerns, variety shows, and nostalgic favorites. Heartland+ also showcases an expanding collection of feature films, acclaimed music documentaries, and concert experiences including Sting, Elton John, Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire.
Heartland+ is also home to original programming including Barbecue Country, Country Fix, Keith Stegall’s High Dollar Hill, and The Heartland Network’s new hosted video series, Heartland Hits, artist interviews, live performances, and additional exclusive content. The platform also features 17 Stingray streaming music channels spanning Adult Pop, Alternative, Latin, Soul & R&B, Country, Classic Rock, Jazz, Easy Listening, Spa, Greatest Hits, today’s chart-toppers, and decade-based favorites from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, 2000s, and today.
Heartland+ delivers a diverse collection of content accessible anytime across mobile devices, tablets, smart TVs, and web browsers. Viewers can access Heartland+ on the website or by downloading the Heartland+ app from Google Play or Apple. Heartland+ is also available on Android TV, Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku, and coming soon to LG and Samsung smart TVs.
Industry Ink: Eric Church, CMHOFM, Blake Whiten, Charlie Reece
/by Lauryn SinkEric Church & Epiphone Unveil Hummingbird Dark
Eric Church.`Photo: Courtesy of Epiphone
Eric Church and Epiphone have partnered to release the Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Eric Church Hummingbird Dark, a special limited-edition signature acoustic-electric guitar modeled after Church’s beloved Gibson Hummingbird. The guitar is available now.
“For me, a great guitar is about expression—finding something honest and putting it out into the world,” says Church. “We’ve been working on this Epiphone Hummingbird Dark, and it’s been with me out on the road for the past two years, part of that journey every single night. It’s where songs take shape, where ideas turn into something real. I’m excited for other players to get their hands on it and see where it leads them, because that’s what this is all about—finding your voice and having the right partner to help you say it.”
Marc Scibilia Visits CMHOFM Songwriting Camp
Photo: Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Marc Scibilia recently visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s intermediate-to-advanced Songwriting Camp as a guest artist, where he answered questions about his career and performed “By Your Side” and “More to This.”
Blake Whiten Celebrates Album Release With National TV Debut & Hometown Release Show
Blake Whiten. Photo: Turner Rosen
Blake Whiten celebrated the release of his debut album, Something To Say, with his national television debut on NBC’s TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle. Live from New York City, Whiten performed his current single “Bet On That.” Watch the performance here.
He returned home to Six Mile, South Carolina on Sunday (July 5) for a celebration that drew hundreds of people to Durham’s Convenience Mart for a performance, bonfire and more.
Charlie Reece Signs With Red Clay Cartel In Partnership With ADA
Charlie Reece. Photo: Dennys Ilic
Charlie Reece has signed with Red Clay Cartel in partnership with ADA, the independent label and artist services arm of Warner Music Group.
“I’m incredibly grateful for this partnership with ADA and Warner Music Group and to be part of the launch of Red Clay Cartel,” says Reece. “It means a lot to have the opportunity for my music to be heard and to keep building from here.”
“We’re excited to partner with Red Clay Cartel as they begin building their roster with Charlie Reece,” adds MaryLynne Drexler, Global Head of Content Acquisition and Business and Legal Affairs. “They have a clear artist-focused vision and a long-term approach to development, and we look forward to supporting their growth and future releases.”
Eric Paslay & Love And Theft To Headline Nashville Dance Fest In September
/by Lorie HollabaughEric Paslay and Love And Theft are set to headline Nashville Dance Fest 4, the International Country Dance Festival which is returning to Music City Sept. 4-6.
The competition set over Labor Day weekend will feature live concerts, more than 70 dance workshops, and thousands of visitors from around the globe. It has quickly become one of North America’s premiere country dance events, and is also home to the Honky Tonk World Championships, featuring elite dancers from around the globe competing for world championship titles, in addition to Open and Pro-Am competitions taking place all weekend long.
The celebration begins Sept. 3, with the official Nashville Dance Fest Launch Party at Category 10 in downtown Nashville.
The festival, hosted at the Nashville Palace and neighboring Scoreboard Bar & Grill, transforms more than 90,000 square feet into an immersive country music and dance experience featuring eight dance floors, an outdoor concert stage, competitions, workshops, vendors and social dancing. Other artists set to perform throughout the weekend include Browning Snider, Angie K, Josiah Siska, Kylie Frey, Kaleb Sanders and Moss.
“Nashville has always been known as Music City, and we’re proud that Nashville Dance Fest is helping establish it as a global destination for country dance,” says Taylor Winston, Co-Founder of Nashville Dance Fest. “People arrive here as strangers and leave as lifelong friends. Whether you’re stepping onto the dance floor for the first time or competing for a world championship, everyone is welcomed into this incredible community.”
Tickets, VIP packages, competition registration and the complete schedule are available here.
Canadian Country Music Hall Of Fame To Induct Ron Kitchener
/by Lauryn SinkRon Kitchener will be inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame as the 2026 Stan Klees Builder inductee during a ceremony taking place as part of Country Music Week 2026, scheduled for September 16–19 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
“Ron’s impact on Canadian country music has been felt for over three decades, all through his deep belief in artists and the careers he has helped shape,” says Amy Jeninga, President, CCMA. “He has consistently championed talent and built opportunities where few existed, and this induction recognizes that lasting contribution. We are proud to welcome Ron into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame and look forward to celebrating his legacy in Saskatoon.”
As the Founder of RGK Entertainment Group, Kitchener’s career has spanned more than three decades as a music executive, entrepreneur and artist manager.
Beginning with his first management client, Jason McCoy, in the mid-1990s, Kitchener has guided the careers of acclaimed artists including Johnny Reid, Dean Brody, Corb Lund, Doc Walker, The Road Hammers, Tim Hicks, Madeline Merlo and Hunter Brothers, among others. In 2003, he founded Open Road Recordings. Under his leadership, the label has sold millions of albums, produced 20 No. 1 singles and more than 120 Top 10 country radio hits, earned more than 100 Gold, Platinum, and multi-Platinum certifications and helped introduce major international artists, including Taylor Swift, to Canadian audiences.
Establishing a Nashville office in 2007 through the management division and publishing company Roots Three Music helped Kitchener build lasting connections throughout music city. He represented U.S. artists like Blackjack Billy and The Mavericks and worked to strengthen relationships between Canadian and international music communities serving in influential leadership positions including as Chair of the CCMA Board of Directors and International Director at the CMA. Across his management and label ventures, the artists and projects Kitchener has championed have earned five JUNO Awards and 56 CCMA Awards. Individually, Kitchener has been named CCMA Manager of the Year 14 times, Industry Person of the Year three times, while Open Road captured Record Company of the Year for 6 straight years from 2009 to 2014.
Beyond his professional work, Kitchener has remained deeply engaged in philanthropy and community support. Alongside his family, he has supported initiatives including local hospital foundations in his community and SickKids, and he is an original member of 100 Men Who Care Halton Hills. His charitable efforts have also included Open Road Recordings’ 15 Acts of Kindness campaign, launched for the company’s 15th anniversary, as well as ongoing support for MusiCounts and the Unison Fund.
“After producing my first campus concert, I was all in,” shares Kitchener. “While this is a rollercoaster business, there’s nothing better than when the song, the artist, and an enthusiastic live audience singing every word unite — it’s magic. I’ve been blessed to be part of bringing some of those moments to life, and it’s why I’m so deeply honoured by this recognition. I am indebted to Stan Klees’ legacy and to all those who paved the path before me. At the end of the day, it’s the talent up front and the tireless teams promoting the art from behind the scenes who make the long days worth it — lots of laughs, many cheers, and a few tears. That’s life in the music business, and I’m grateful for every second of it.”
Dustin Lynch Spotlights The Hits On New ‘Setlist Staples – 10 #1’s’ LP
/by Lorie HollabaughDustin Lynch is offering up a collection of fan favorites on his latest album Setlist Staples – 10 #1’s, available everywhere Aug. 28.
After more than a decade of chart-topping hits, sold-out shows and unforgettable moments shared with fans, Lynch gathered up the songs that never leave the setlist for the new collection, which includes “Hell of a Night,” “Seein’ Red,” “Small Town Boy,” “Mind Reader,” “Good Girl,” and “Thinking ‘Bout You (feat. MacKenzie Porter),” among others.
“These are the songs that have stayed with me and the fans from the very beginning,” shares Lynch. “No matter how much new music I make, these are the records that always find their way back into the show. They’ve become part of the soundtrack to so many memories over the years, and I love getting to relive those moments every night onstage.”
While fans revisit the songs that built his live show on the new album, Lynch continues writing new chapters with his latest single “Easy To Love,” which is currently climbing the charts. As Lynch expands his career reach from festival stages and arenas to nightlife venues and dance floors, Setlist Staples – 10 #1’s serves as both a look back at the moments that helped define his journey and a reminder that his story is still being written.
1. “Hell of a Night”
2. “Seein’ Red”
3. “Thinking ‘Bout You” (feat. MacKenzie Porter)
4. “Where It’s At”
5. “Chevrolet” (feat. Jelly Roll)
6. “Ridin’ Roads”
7. “Mind Reader”
8. “Good Girl”
9. “Stars Like Confetti”
10. “Small Town Boy”
A Decade of Growth: Inside First Horizon Bank’s Music Industry Expansion [Interview]
/by Sherod RobertsonPictured (L-R): Ben James, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Music, Sports and Entertainment Group for First Horizon Bank; Andrew Kintz, Executive Vice President, Music, Sports and Entertainment Group for First Horizon Bank; Bryan Bolton, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Music, Sports and Entertainment Group for First Horizon Bank. Photo: Courtesy of First Horizon Bank
It started with borrowed furniture, a sublet office on Music Row, and zero loans, deposits, or revenue. When First Horizon’s Music, Sports and Entertainment (MSE) group launched in the summer of 2016, Andrew Kintz and Bryan Bolton felt the pressure to generate business quickly.
Ten years later, they have grown into a coast-to-coast team of 21 bankers operating out of Nashville, Atlanta, and Miami, with clients spanning New York and Los Angeles and beyond.
The group has originated over a billion dollars in financing for the music industry. What began as a scrappy bet on a niche market has grown into a well-established specialty lending and private banking operation in the entertainment business.
Today, approximately 89 percent of the group’s revenue flows from five cities: Nashville, Atlanta, Miami, New York, and Los Angeles. This concentration speaks to both the geography of the music business and the intentional focus the team has maintained.
Kintz, Executive Vice President, Bolton, Senior VP and Managing Director, and Ben James, Senior VP and Managing Director, are key members of the leadership team. Kintz and Bolton operate out of Nashville’s Music Row office. James leads the firm’s East operations from Atlanta. Together, they sat down with MusicRow to reflect on what the last decade has taught them, what has changed in the music industry, and where they see things heading next.
Pictured (L-R): Andrew Kintz, Executive Vice President, Music, Sports and Entertainment Group for First Horizon Bank; Bryan Bolton, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Music, Sports and Entertainment Group for First Horizon Bank. Photo: Courtesy of First Horizon Bank
While Kintz and Bolton set up their first office inside SESAC’s Nashville building in 2016, James joined the team through a parallel journey. After years of experience in music finance at SunTrust, James was recruited into Iberia Bank’s Sports & Entertainment group, founded by longtime music finance leader Alex Hernandez.
Iberia Bank and First Horizon merged in 2019, and Hernandez and Kintz brought the teams together to form First Horizon Bank’s Music, Sports and Entertainment Group.
While the merger was a key inflection point in the bank’s growth, streaming changed everything.
If there is a single moment the team points to as the catalyst for explosive growth, it is 2016, the year streaming revenue finally turned upward after years of declining revenue in the music industry.
For years, banking had been comfortable lending against the underlying music copyrights of publishing rights. Record label revenue had cratered from the early 2000s and the cash flows from master recordings were simply too unpredictable to leverage. 2015 was the first year many industry observers realized streaming wasn’t just a niche revenue stream.
Then streaming changed the math.
As Kintz explains, the cash flows from master recordings started behaving similarly to those of publishing assets with some predictability and measurable growth.
“All of a sudden, this entire huge group of clients we were not calling on became open to us and we got super excited,” shares Kintz. “In the overall industry, people got really interested in these assets from both a strategic perspective and as a financial asset.”
Labels, funds, and investors who had been sitting on master recordings suddenly had a bankable asset. And First Horizon was positioned to move fast.
James adds, “You started to see the investor pool broaden as more traditional investors started getting into the copyright game because they started to better understand it. Over the years, it has become a more traditional asset class as investors look for yield.”
Bolton shares that one of the group’s most innovative contributions to music industry finance is an option to “replace the advance” which offers an alternative financing structure. In the traditional model, a label or publisher advances money to an artist or writer, then recoups that advance from the future royalties. For the artist or writer, it comes with real costs. The full advance is considered taxable income and often commissionable. Also, the label or publisher ties up its own capital in the process.
Pictured (L-R): First Horizon Bank’s Jack Spangler, Tyler Marler, Daniel Webster, Ben James, Ben Jelks, Christy McDaniel, Debbi Hooper, Andrew Kintz, Colby Shepperson, Reuben Coopwood, Bryan Bolton, Alex Strong and Parker McRoy. Photo: Courtesy of First Horizon Bank
The alternative structure is more nuanced. The artist or writer comes directly to First Horizon for a royalty loan. The loan incurs interest but is repaid as royalties come in. Because it is structured as debt rather than income, the artist pays taxes only as royalties arrive each year, not on the lump sum advanced in the beginning of the deal. Commissions are not triggered until the royalties are earned and the label retains its capital to invest elsewhere.
“It is literally the efficient allocation of capital. It is more efficient for us to put bank capital to work,” says Kintz. The deal works for everyone at the table and it represents exactly the kind of creative financial structuring that defines how First Horizon approaches client services.
For a long time, investing in music felt like a vanity play. You could see and touch a building. You could run the numbers on a manufacturing company. But for the music industry, the investable side felt abstract, emotional, volatile, and unquantifiable.
That perception has fundamentally changed, and the team at First Horizon has watched it happen in real time over the last decade.
Several forces drove the shift. The first was data integrity. Kintz points to the contrast between the 1980s, when tracking a song’s global consumption was essentially impossible, and today, when streaming platforms generate granular, real-time royalty data at scale. When a bank can see exactly how much a copyright is earning, in every market, on a monthly basis, the asset becomes much easier to value and underwrite.
Another force was the arrival of institutional capital. Private equity giants such as KKR, The Carlyle Group, Blackstone, and Apollo have all launched specialized vehicles and joint ventures to actively acquire music catalogs, royalties, and publishing rights. The influx of institutional money has done more than just validate the asset class. It has brought powerful advocates to Capitol Hill lobbying for songwriter and artist rights.
The Music Modernization Act is one example of how advocacy translated into laws that help not only copyright owners, but also make music more bankable.
Relationships drive their business, not transactions. Bolton describes the foundation as deceptively simple by doing what you say you are going to do, tell the truth even when the news is hard, and never resist picking up the phone.
James adds, “It’s important to not be transactional. I try to never forget it’s always about the people.”
That culture runs through the internal team as much as the client roster. Kintz describes their banking group as genuinely invested in one another. This fosters a work environment that is the kind of place where a colleague’s baby shower becomes a team event and where people show up not because they have to, but because they care about the person.
Looking into the future, no conversation about the music business is complete without addressing AI, and the First Horizon team receives this question constantly.
Their take is measured. For their core business, lending against established catalogs with multi-year track records and proven fan bases, they are not particularly worried. The cash flows are stable, the consumption data is clear, and the emotional bond between audiences and artists is not something an algorithm can manufacture.
Speaking of the deep emotional connection people have to music, Kintz shares, “We do not believe AI can take that away. Velvet Sundown, [an AI-generated artist], might be an interesting listen, but at the end of the day, there is no deep emotional connection.”
Where the team sees real risk is for emerging artists. A market flooded with AI-generated music makes discovery harder for early-stage creators trying to break through the noise.
But they also see AI as a tool. Songwriters are already using it to test arrangements, explore alternate tempos, and develop ideas faster. And companies are building AI-powered royalty collection tools that could help ensure artists actually get paid what they are owed. The winners and losers dynamic is real, but it mirrors what the industry experienced with the internet.
A decade in, First Horizon no longer feels like the younger sibling in the music banking world. The team is being invited into deals led by other institutions, and they are leading deals that bring others to the table. The steady, compounding growth they have built in headcount, deal volume, revenue, and geographic reach has earned them a seat at the table.
Kintz sees consistent growth, expanding relationships, and a business that continues to attract bankers who are equally passionate about music and finance.
“The pie keeps getting bigger and that, to me, is an encouraging sign,” says Kintz.
From a sublet office with borrowed furniture and no revenue to a billion-dollar origination business in ten years, First Horizon has proven that the music business, understood on its own terms, is as bankable as any industry in the world.
Tyler Nance To Launch First-Ever Headline Tour In October
/by Lorie HollabaughTyler Nance. Photo: Justin Mayotte
Tyler Nance will kick off his first-ever headline tour, the “Midwest Memoir Tour,” on Oct. 28 in Oxford, Mississippi.
The trek will feature stops across the Southeast and Midwest in Tuscaloosa, Lexington, Asheville, Athens, and more, with a Nashville stop on Nov. 7 at the Exit/In. Hudson Macready, Brendan Walter and Ian Harrison will join as support.
General on-sale begins Friday (July 10) here.
The announcement follows a busy stretch for Nance, who not only made his Grand Ole Opry debut but also marked his first-ever performance at CMA Fest last month. Currently on the road supporting Gavin Adcock, the Missouri native has continued his rapid rise since the release of Midwest Memoir, fueled by his current radio single, “Keeps Me Sane,” a breakout hit that has helped propel him to more than 187 million global streams.
“Midwest Memoir Tour” Dates:
Wed., Oct. 28 | Proud Larry’s | Oxford, MS *
Thu., Oct. 29 | 40 Watt Club | Athens, GA *
Fri., Oct. 30 | Wendell’s Dippin Branch | Anderson, SC *
Sat., Oct. 31 | New Brookland Tavern | Columbia, SC *
Wed., Nov. 4 | Rick’s Cafe | Starkville, MS ^
Thu., Nov. 5 | Gallette’s | Tuscaloosa, AL ^
Sat., Nov. 7 | Exit/In | Nashville, TN ^
Wed., Dec. 2 | The Burl | Lexington, KY ~
Thu., Dec. 3 | Zanzabar | Louisville, KY ~
Fri., Dec. 4 | A&R Music Bar | Columbus, OH ~
Sat., Dec. 5 | Revival | Asheville, NC *
* Supported by Hudson Macready
^ Supported by Brendan Walter
~ Supported by Ian Harrison
My Music Row Story: MooTV’s Scott Scovill
/by Madison HahnenScott Scovill. Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
Scott Scovill is an award-winning entrepreneur, creative director, producer and Founder of Moo TV, a global leader in video production. Under his leadership, the company has grown into one of the industry’s top production firms, producing more than 1,000 live events each year and earning multiple Video Company of the Year honors.
Throughout his career, Scovill has directed live concerts and produced major television specials, including a CBS special featuring Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. He has received numerous industry awards, including a CMA Touring Award for his work with Garth Brooks and Visual Designer of the Year honors for Brad Paisley’s world tours.
Beyond his production career, Scovill is an avid traveler who has visited nearly 60 countries. He also enjoys pursuing new challenges, from learning to play hockey as an adult and earning a spot on an all-star team to becoming a professional photographer, with work featured on an album cover for Alan Jackson. He is also a singer-songwriter with multiple albums and continues to perform internationally.
Scovill is the author of Tenacious: The Art of Relentlessly Pursuing Your Wildest Dreams, a memoir and motivational guide that shares the lessons, experiences and mindset that helped shape his career. The book features insights from leaders across music, sports, business, the military and space exploration, offering readers practical encouragement to pursue their goals with persistence and purpose.
MusicRow: Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Poestenkill, New York on a farm.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
What kind of music were you into growing up?
Top 40. I listened to Casey Kasem’s top 40 Countdown relentlessly, and that was my choice. But whenever we were on vacation or out doing things together as a family, it was Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers and John Denver. Tons of John Denver.
Did you know you want to go into music while you were growing up?
No, I had no idea what I wanted to do.
Tell me about school.
I graduated last in my class in high school. They just decided to pass me to move me on. I was unable to do my homework when I was a kid. When I would try and do my homework, I would have an anxiety attack and my grades showed that. Despite that, I decided that I felt like I would go to college. It was always expected of me that I would be the first person in my family to go to college. I did, and I flunked out of college as well.
Right around that same time, a psychologist diagnosed me with fear of failure, and it’s really interesting to have a diagnosis after all that time of feeling broken and just feeling like you just weren’t a good person. He said that it would be easier for me to grab a red hot stove and hang on and maim myself than to actually try.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
How did that affect your next steps?
With that diagnosis, and while flunking out of college, I was at a really rock bottom moment when a girl that I cared very much for was killed in a car accident, and I just bottomed out. I was waiting tables at Howard Johnson on the side of the highway, not my dream job, and I wasn’t very good at it.
While there, a tour bus rolled into the restaurant and had a space shuttle painted on the side, and I wanted to wait on that table. I thought maybe these people worked for NASA. I ran to the hostess and begged her to sit them in my section, and she did. But I watched them get off the bus and was very disappointed to see them wearing all black with long hair. I did not know what a tour bus was obviously. [laughs]
I take their drink orders and ask them what’s the deal with the bus. One of them in a very heavy Irish accent says they work for U2. That blew my mind. It amazed me that you could work for U2 for a living. I didn’t get it. I had a million questions, and they invited me to a show.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
Did you go to the show?
I drove three hours to the show and had an incredible time learning about the industry. The show ends, I’m still picking their brains. They had a show right there again the next day, and invited me to come back, and told me to get there early.
As soon as I got out of the car, I was able to park right by the buses. We got my tickets sorted out and walked down into the arena and Bono and Edge walk up to the guy who’s escorting me and start talking to him about something. Mind you, this is right as The Joshua Tree album came out and U2 is the biggest band in the world. I was starstruck.
When I walked away from them, it struck me that I had just met two of my heroes, but I was more interested in what had been happening backstage and learning about this industry.
After hanging out more with the crew and learning and observing everything, it was time for the show. The lights go out and everybody goes nuts. 15,000 people screaming at the top of their lungs. That’s when I had a paradigm shift. I stood there in the dark and realized this is what I was going to do with my life.
What were your first steps getting into the live music world?
Over the next two weeks I brewed up the worst plan in the history of worst plans. It was devastatingly bad, but my plan was that I was going to quit my job and quit school. They were throwing me out of school anyway, so that wasn’t hard. I moved into my Subaru BRAT, which was a compact car with a truck bed, and I was going to sneak in every night and work for free until I learned enough and proved that they should hire me.
I wanted to be upfront with the crew and tell them I was doing it. I knew they couldn’t give me permission, but to them, I wouldn’t look like I was sneaking in. I was being sneaky with security, but not with the crew. So two weeks later, I found the venue, I found the tour buses and where the crew will be. They were flying in from Europe, and I’m waiting in the lobby of the hotel. I went up to the guy in charge and told him my plan. He must’ve thought I was completely nuts.
Every night, I waited at the top of the ramp and piled in with the stage hands and walked down the ramp and just looked like I didn’t want to be there and blended right in. I also made myself a laminate that was white and had radio codes and such. I saw that they made laminates that had notes for their truck packs and what the radio channels were. Two is sound, three is lights. So I made myself a fake laminate that had that on it. I did get stopped several times and would pretend I left my laminate on the bus, and try a different entrance. I almost got arrested three times doing it. There were very lengthy conversations with the police.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
How long did you do that?
Five weeks. I got walking pneumonia at one point. It was pretty brutal. Almost fell asleep driving from city to city.
Pittsburgh was my last show. I got out of my car and some of the crew guys had told me the band’s management had an argument with the union over something, and it was mentioned that I was there and the union fined the band $5,000 for having non-union labor on site. That’s how it ended.
What came after U2?
After the whole tour, I knew I wanted to do video. The Joshua Tree Tour was one of the first tours to ever have video. If I got into video, I would be on the bottom rung of maybe a two rung ladder.
Lawrence Anderson, who was on the U2 tour with me, called and told me the video projectors they use are a nightmare, and nobody knows how to run them. Nobody’s good at it. Nobody wants to learn. There was a training center for them in Syracuse, New York. I finagled my way into there, which wasn’t normal, because usually a company sponsors you to get in.
What happened after completing the class?
There was someone else in the class that eventually got me a job with his company in D.C. I did corporate video in Washington DC for two years. I hated it and loved it at the same time. I loved that I was learning, but it had nothing to do with music, and it was a lot of pressure. I was failing and I was having breakdowns. I was in tears at times and all the things that dysfunctional people do when they’re trying to get over their worst fears. We got one music gig in the two years I was there, and we did so horribly at it. They fired us the next day.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
How come?
We didn’t have the technology. We were the wrong company for it. I didn’t even know what we didn’t know, but I wanted to find out. The next stop of the tour was in D.C., so I pulled a card out of my old playbook and I snuck in. It was a stadium rap tour. I figured out who was in charge and went down and asked him a bunch of questions. He eventually realized I wasn’t who I was pretending to be. We got into it and had to be split up. The guy who split us up had just gotten onto the Rolling Stones tour. We really hit it off, and he eventually got me onto the biggest tour at that time. I spent the next 13 months traveling the world with the Stones, 23 countries. It was awesome.
What did you do after the Rolling Stones?
After the Stones, I went to David Bowie, which was unbelievably cool. Definitely the coolest show I’ve ever done. I also did tours with Paula Abdul, Whitney Houston and Ozzy Osborne.
One of the three owners of the company I was working for loved country music. Alan Jackson‘s team had seen Paula’s show, and they reached out and asked if they could have the same equipment and people Paula had. Before I knew it, I was packing my bags.
So this is how you got to Nashville?
Yes, in 1992. I’ll admit, I struggled with the structure of country music. I came straight from Ozzy Osborne to this new structure. I showed up for the first show and Mark McClure, Alan’s fiddle player, walks up with a chew in his mouth and his bow, and just hits my notes with his bow. I had called the fiddle a violin, so all of my notes were off.
Mark told me they couldn’t figure out why I was here. I was a guy from New York with hair down to my butt who knew nothing about country music. It was a rough start, but Mark and I went on to be great friends. Alan and I formed a great partnership that went on for 22 years.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
And where did Moo TV come in?
A few years in, I talked to my boss Lee Griffin because I was frustrated that nobody knew what to do with video screens. People kept hiring their video director or their brother-in-law that went to film school to create content. Those people are very talented, but they’re all conditioned to tell a story inside a rectangle. What they don’t get is that the rectangle is a part of the story. It is not the whole story.
I asked for Lee’s permission to moonlight a little bit and start a company that creates content for shows, because I wanted to make Alan’s show great, and maybe we could do that with our other clients too. It was so much money and equipment, I felt it needed to be a business for tax reasons and all that. He initially said no, which shocked me. A week later he asked if I was still thinking about it. He told me no because he was afraid he’d lose me. He offered to be my 50/50 partner in it. We went into business and made Moo TV the first ever creative content company.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
Who were some of your first clients?
Alan, Tim McGraw, Vince Gill, Amy Grant and Martina McBride. We did some awesome creative stuff with those guys, and I was really proud of it. It made people want to work with us. I remember doing some really cool stuff for Lone Star and just having a blast.
I had a VHS library of stock. I would find something interesting and then plug the tape in. Then I’d get on the phone and order the clip numbers in the specific resolutions I needed and ask for it to be delivered via beta tape. That was how we would get stock footage.
How did the Nashville base eventually grow?
I went to Lee and told him we needed a Nashville office full time, and that I was going to run it. I was doing that for a decade. In 2002, I got a phone call that Lee was murdered. I spent three months pretty lost and depressed. Eventually, one of my employees asked all the other employees and clients if they would come work for me if I started a company like Lee’s and how they could help. It was a great way to keep some part of Lee alive.
I went to the bank and got the biggest loan they would give me, I mortgaged my house, and I got a loan from Sony to get some of the cameras. I also got a loan from the projector company and a few others, eventually ending up with a bunch independent loans, and seven different credit cards.
At this time, the government mandated that television had to go to high def. TV stations were starting to switch to high def and they had nowhere to put their standard definition gear, which was all we needed. It’s all anybody used in the industry at the time. I built automated eBay searches for what we needed. I would click one button on my little Macintosh notebook and then go make dinner. It would take all of dinner for my ISDN modem to load all of the searches. It’d be like 40 tabs full of everything I needed.
It took years to dig out from under the debt, but we were kind of like the Millennium Falcon of the video industry. We were held together by gaff tape and dreams, but we were outperforming everybody else. That was the start of Moo.
Photo: Courtesy of Scovill
What made you want to write your book?
Moo TV was nominated for video company of the year, seven years in a row at the Pollstar Awards. During the seventh nomination, we finally won. I ran up on stage, I get the award and I give a little speech that looks smooth. But when I got off stage, I fell against the wall. I had an anxiety attack. I didn’t know that I was afraid of public speaking. I’d never had to get up in front of a group like that.
To get over the fear, I went and spoke at a couple of colleges. At the second college I spoke at, I changed a young lady’s life. She had quit school that day. She started crying halfway through my talk and afterwards had decided she was not going to quit school after listening to me. I offered to mentor her. She eventually graduated and I had learned that public speaking is powerful.
I had met Cameron Harold who is a well known public speaker. After hanging out with him for a day, he told me I should write a book. I brushed it off at first. The next day his publisher called me. After much convincing, I decided my story was one worth telling.
At first, someone else was going to write the book for me. They sent me the first chapter, and it didn’t feel right. I had written my own version of the first chapter, and my publisher and I both agreed that I needed to be the one to write my story.
What’s a moment that your little kid self would be proud of?
Me and my girlfriend were walking through Times Square and above us is a billboard that is cycling my face with the book on it in Times Square, the same day I was going to NBC Studios to talk about my book on national television. That was a surreal moment.