Caylee Hammack will release her very first major label album, If It Wasn’t For You, on Friday (Aug. 14) via Capitol Nashville, and at 26, she is already well-versed in one of the core tenants of crafting enduring music: bone-crushing honesty.
Every song on her spunky, eclectic, 13-track album offers vignettes from her life story, woven with words of hope, determination, heartache, entanglement and above all, inspiration.
The Ellaville, Georgia, native started singing publicly at age 13, with some peer pressure from her dad, who encouraged her to enter a local talent show. A teenaged Hammack sang a karaoke version of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”—but it was a rough beginning for the teen.
“I just flopped, I completely flopped,” Hammack recalls. “And what was beautiful was the kids sitting watching the talent show started singing with me, and the adults started singing with me until I got back on my feet and finished the song. Oh I was so mortified. I went home crying, locked myself in the bathroom, laid on the floor and was like, ‘I’ll never sing again.'”
A local venue owner happened to be in the audience and offered to let her perform at his club, which featured classic country music. From there, the ambitious Hammack got a fake ID, a full band, a sound system and a trailer from the money she made performing at the club and began performing shows all around the South. She remembers those early gigs bringing $500 a night at times, which then had to be split among all the band members.
“I didn’t make anything, but honey, I was living the dream, and building up a good following,” Hammack says.
One of those followers happened to be fellow Georgia native and country superstar Luke Bryan, who heard Hammack’s music through a CD his mother sent him.
“Luke Bryan called me when I was about 17 and said I needed to move to Nashville,” Hammack recalls. “I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m ready yet,’ so he told me to do what I need to do and tell him when I arrived in Nashville. Then he called again and talked to my dad and was basically like, ‘Look Mr. Hammack, I told your underage daughter that she needs to move 400 miles from home, but I really do think she needs to do it.’ And he was like, ‘I apologize because I’m a daddy and if someone called my kid and told them to move away, I’d be pretty mad, too.’ But I think that was just a big validation for my dad because my dad went every single weekend to my shows, and then he’d get up at 6 a.m. and go to work. For him, I think it was a validation that all those honky-tonking nights were worth it.”
Just as Hammack was set to move to Nashville and attend Belmont University on a scholarship, she met an older boy in her hometown.
“We were kind of in a secret relationship because he was older. I told him I was moving but that I would drive back seven hours every weekend to see him. I just loved hard. That’s why I don’t give my heart out easily, because when I do, it stings.”
The boy swore he couldn’t live without her, and, in Hammack’s words, she “bet on the wrong horse.” She gave up the college scholarship for love, and stayed in Georgia—until she found out the boy was cheating on her a few months later. She tried to reinstate the college scholarship, but it was too late. Hammack hung around her hometown for nearly a year. After another relationship fizzled, she says, “I realized love was not going to fill this story for me. I needed a clean slate.”
She threw all her clothes in trash bags—“low key luggage,” as she calls it—and moved to Nashville in 2013. She ended up spending the night in her car in a Target parking lot before she found a more stable place to live. Using the same fake ID she had used in Georgia, she went to the bars on Lower Broadway to look for a job.
She wound up performing and working at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. She worked at Tootsie’s for about two years, while doing co-writes and networking around town. She joined ASCAP’s GPS Program, and eventually found a publishing home at Universal Music Publishing Group Nashville.
In 2017, at age 23, she faced another battle, when her aging Nashville residence burned due to faulty wiring while she was away at her first songwriters’ retreat, causing Hammack to lose more than $50,000 in belongings.
“So me and Tenille Townes roomed together during the retreat,” Hammack recalls. “The second or third day I got a call that my house had burned down. No one told me this when I rented it, but it had already burned in the ’70s and in the ’80s. Third time’s the charm, I guess.”
Her circle of Nashville friends helped Hammack pull through, particularly Townes.
“At the retreat, I sat on the patio and just cried. Tenille sat down beside me and just held me and was like, ‘You don’t know anyone here, but I’m here for you.’ That’s really when our friendship started. It’s funny that as my personal life was falling apart, it was all soot and ashes, my professional life started thriving,” Hammack says.
Around that time, Dierks Bentley’s longtime manager Mary Hilliard Harrington heard a demo version of “Family Tree” that Hammack and producer Mikey Reaves had made on a $500 demo budget. “She kept beating down the door of my publisher Cyndi Forman,” Hammack says.
Though Hammack was familiar with the ins and outs of the songwriter and music publisher side of the industry, she says, “I was scared of the artist side. I knew the artist’s life was not an easy one.”
Many of Hammack’s initial reservations center around the unrealistic expectations often put on female artists in country music.
“The thing that held me back was a mixture of self imposed fears and doubts, and also things I pulled from conversations. I was told about how in the ’90s there was a female artist they took to a fat camp because she was a little overweight. When I would hear some people in the industry talk bad about an artist, I listened. And hearing all those little things I was like, ‘So one day you’ll love me, and one day you’ll hate me. One day you’ll tell me that I’m great, and one day you may not.’ But now, at 26, I finally feel in control of my destiny.”
Just as she did after the fire, Hammack forged ahead, and placed her trust in Harrington, Forman, and their teams. “At that second meeting, I told Mary, ‘You know what? I literally have nothing left to lose. So let’s do it.’ It was perfect timing. My entire team is nearly all women and they have been my rock.”
Hammack already had a slate of songs from working as a staff songwriter, but she and producer Reaves went into the studio, spending up to 12 hours a day funneling those years of heartbreak, disappointment, hope, anxiety, fear and determination into the songs on If It Wasn’t For You.
“These songs, every single song on this album, has a true story behind it. And I can go through every single lyric and tell you why that lyric is there, what it came from, where I derived it from.”
Indeed, the intricately detailed songs trace the entire project; “Sister” serves as a tribute to her sibling, while “Family Tree” honors every member of a tight-knit family, whether they stay rooted on the same soil the family has known for decades or strike out on their own.
A few weeks after the fire, Hammack booked a co-write with Thomas Finchum and Andy Skib, where Hammack told them about a saying her father had told her for years.
“He would say, ‘All beautiful and strong things are forged in fire.’ Iron is nothing until you work it in the fire. It’s weak; you have to work it over and over in a fire before it’s strong.” That session yielded the album track “Forged in the Fire.”
The first verse recounts how she found her grandmother’s quilt underneath a soggy piece of sheetrock while she was sifting through the rubble of her scorched Nashville home.
“The sheetrock had fallen over when the fire through, and saved it, protected it. I still have it on my bed. God sent me so many signs through that fire. I do a lot of artwork, and all of my artwork burned, except my blank canvases, my brushes, and all of my paint. And I still had one guitar, the one my father had bought for me my senior year as a high school graduation gift.
“I just thought, ‘God, alright, you just gave me a clean slate. You took all of my product, years of artwork, you took years of instruments that I had saved for—took everything. But you left me the tools I needed to create.’”
Hammack penned “Looking For A Lighter” on her 23rd birthday, working with Hillary Lindsey and Gordie Sampson. The track was inspired by the junk drawer in Hammack’s kitchen, where she found that lighter, as well as that fake ID she moved to Nashville with, the one that listed her age as 23.
“I thought, ‘Oh, wow, I’ve caught up with it,’” she says. “I had never thought about, ‘One day you’ll catch up to the age you’d pretend to be.’ Then there was this big wadded up envelope in the back. I pulled it out, and it was the letters from the boy that ‘Small Town Hypocrite’ was written about. I just sat there and thought, ‘Why is it that every time I cut loose, I run into you?’”
That same boldness that led Hammack to write such intimate lyrics on the album, also led her to experiment with different sounds in the studio, adding a sitar to “Redhead,” and incorporating sounds of hammers and nails as a tribute to Hammack’s father, who is a water well driller. During “Looking For A Lighter,” the drums are stroked with sandpaper instead of steel brushes. Elsewhere, cake pans were used as cymbals and a wooden knife box used for percussion.
“It was so much fun to create this album because I had no expectations,” Hammack says.
Hammack welcomes several of her friends and fellow artists on the debut album. Two of Hammack’s closest friends, fellow artists Townes and Ashley McBryde join on “Mean Something,” while music icon Reba McEntire sings on the aptly-named “Redhead,” which Hammack wrote for an older cousin with fiery red hair.
“It was a wish of mine, and this is why I 100% believe in manifestation now,” she says of having McEntire on the track.
“I’ll be honest I hadn’t even thought about putting a duet on the album, because it’s my first one,” Hammack says. “I started naming friends, and my manager, Mary [Hilliard Harrington] said, ‘Those are great. Now tell me who is one person you would want to sing on your stuff even if you think it’s impossible?’”
“I thought, ‘How amazing would it be if we had THE redhead—country music’s iconic redhead—on a song I wrote for my red-headed cousin who got teased for her hair, this song I wrote to make her feel better about her red hair?'”
In a dream-come-true moment, Hammack met her musical idol at House of Blues studio to record the duet.
“She was so gracious and professional. I remember asking, ‘Can she just sing ALL the lyrics? Just let her sing the entire song,’” Hammack recalls with a laugh. “And they were like, ‘Well, you have to be on it for it to be a feature.’”
Beyond the guest artists, Hammack honors her musical idols within her production choices.
“Gold” simmers in an unvarnished, folk-rock vibe similar to Patty Griffin, while “Preciatcha” offers a nod to Sara Bareilles. The intro to “Just Friends” is a nod to the music of Dolly Parton. She says the album’s finale, “New Level of Life,” “is really me bowing down to Cake, and Bowie, and some of the rockers that came before me.”
Hammack lives by the mantra, ‘Be who you needed when you were younger,’ in much the same way she looked up to powerhouse vocalists such as McEntire and Adele.
“I remember when Adele came out, and it was like, ‘Oh my God, you can be a normal size and still be valid as a human being and a creator.’ I just wanted to see someone like me, that was weird and dorky, and just wanted to make music the way I wanted.
“I just want to tell the nitty gritty truth. I want to be vulnerable. I want people to have a safe space at my shows. That’s what I’ve tried to make with my music, and what I’ve tried to make with this album. I just hope that it translates.”
Caylee Hammack On Her Debut Album: "I Just Want To Tell The Nitty Gritty Truth"
/by Jessica NicholsonCaylee Hammack will release her very first major label album, If It Wasn’t For You, on Friday (Aug. 14) via Capitol Nashville, and at 26, she is already well-versed in one of the core tenants of crafting enduring music: bone-crushing honesty.
Every song on her spunky, eclectic, 13-track album offers vignettes from her life story, woven with words of hope, determination, heartache, entanglement and above all, inspiration.
The Ellaville, Georgia, native started singing publicly at age 13, with some peer pressure from her dad, who encouraged her to enter a local talent show. A teenaged Hammack sang a karaoke version of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”—but it was a rough beginning for the teen.
“I just flopped, I completely flopped,” Hammack recalls. “And what was beautiful was the kids sitting watching the talent show started singing with me, and the adults started singing with me until I got back on my feet and finished the song. Oh I was so mortified. I went home crying, locked myself in the bathroom, laid on the floor and was like, ‘I’ll never sing again.'”
A local venue owner happened to be in the audience and offered to let her perform at his club, which featured classic country music. From there, the ambitious Hammack got a fake ID, a full band, a sound system and a trailer from the money she made performing at the club and began performing shows all around the South. She remembers those early gigs bringing $500 a night at times, which then had to be split among all the band members.
“I didn’t make anything, but honey, I was living the dream, and building up a good following,” Hammack says.
One of those followers happened to be fellow Georgia native and country superstar Luke Bryan, who heard Hammack’s music through a CD his mother sent him.
“Luke Bryan called me when I was about 17 and said I needed to move to Nashville,” Hammack recalls. “I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m ready yet,’ so he told me to do what I need to do and tell him when I arrived in Nashville. Then he called again and talked to my dad and was basically like, ‘Look Mr. Hammack, I told your underage daughter that she needs to move 400 miles from home, but I really do think she needs to do it.’ And he was like, ‘I apologize because I’m a daddy and if someone called my kid and told them to move away, I’d be pretty mad, too.’ But I think that was just a big validation for my dad because my dad went every single weekend to my shows, and then he’d get up at 6 a.m. and go to work. For him, I think it was a validation that all those honky-tonking nights were worth it.”
Just as Hammack was set to move to Nashville and attend Belmont University on a scholarship, she met an older boy in her hometown.
“We were kind of in a secret relationship because he was older. I told him I was moving but that I would drive back seven hours every weekend to see him. I just loved hard. That’s why I don’t give my heart out easily, because when I do, it stings.”
The boy swore he couldn’t live without her, and, in Hammack’s words, she “bet on the wrong horse.” She gave up the college scholarship for love, and stayed in Georgia—until she found out the boy was cheating on her a few months later. She tried to reinstate the college scholarship, but it was too late. Hammack hung around her hometown for nearly a year. After another relationship fizzled, she says, “I realized love was not going to fill this story for me. I needed a clean slate.”
She threw all her clothes in trash bags—“low key luggage,” as she calls it—and moved to Nashville in 2013. She ended up spending the night in her car in a Target parking lot before she found a more stable place to live. Using the same fake ID she had used in Georgia, she went to the bars on Lower Broadway to look for a job.
She wound up performing and working at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. She worked at Tootsie’s for about two years, while doing co-writes and networking around town. She joined ASCAP’s GPS Program, and eventually found a publishing home at Universal Music Publishing Group Nashville.
In 2017, at age 23, she faced another battle, when her aging Nashville residence burned due to faulty wiring while she was away at her first songwriters’ retreat, causing Hammack to lose more than $50,000 in belongings.
“So me and Tenille Townes roomed together during the retreat,” Hammack recalls. “The second or third day I got a call that my house had burned down. No one told me this when I rented it, but it had already burned in the ’70s and in the ’80s. Third time’s the charm, I guess.”
Her circle of Nashville friends helped Hammack pull through, particularly Townes.
“At the retreat, I sat on the patio and just cried. Tenille sat down beside me and just held me and was like, ‘You don’t know anyone here, but I’m here for you.’ That’s really when our friendship started. It’s funny that as my personal life was falling apart, it was all soot and ashes, my professional life started thriving,” Hammack says.
Around that time, Dierks Bentley’s longtime manager Mary Hilliard Harrington heard a demo version of “Family Tree” that Hammack and producer Mikey Reaves had made on a $500 demo budget. “She kept beating down the door of my publisher Cyndi Forman,” Hammack says.
Though Hammack was familiar with the ins and outs of the songwriter and music publisher side of the industry, she says, “I was scared of the artist side. I knew the artist’s life was not an easy one.”
Many of Hammack’s initial reservations center around the unrealistic expectations often put on female artists in country music.
“The thing that held me back was a mixture of self imposed fears and doubts, and also things I pulled from conversations. I was told about how in the ’90s there was a female artist they took to a fat camp because she was a little overweight. When I would hear some people in the industry talk bad about an artist, I listened. And hearing all those little things I was like, ‘So one day you’ll love me, and one day you’ll hate me. One day you’ll tell me that I’m great, and one day you may not.’ But now, at 26, I finally feel in control of my destiny.”
Just as she did after the fire, Hammack forged ahead, and placed her trust in Harrington, Forman, and their teams. “At that second meeting, I told Mary, ‘You know what? I literally have nothing left to lose. So let’s do it.’ It was perfect timing. My entire team is nearly all women and they have been my rock.”
Hammack already had a slate of songs from working as a staff songwriter, but she and producer Reaves went into the studio, spending up to 12 hours a day funneling those years of heartbreak, disappointment, hope, anxiety, fear and determination into the songs on If It Wasn’t For You.
“These songs, every single song on this album, has a true story behind it. And I can go through every single lyric and tell you why that lyric is there, what it came from, where I derived it from.”
Indeed, the intricately detailed songs trace the entire project; “Sister” serves as a tribute to her sibling, while “Family Tree” honors every member of a tight-knit family, whether they stay rooted on the same soil the family has known for decades or strike out on their own.
A few weeks after the fire, Hammack booked a co-write with Thomas Finchum and Andy Skib, where Hammack told them about a saying her father had told her for years.
“He would say, ‘All beautiful and strong things are forged in fire.’ Iron is nothing until you work it in the fire. It’s weak; you have to work it over and over in a fire before it’s strong.” That session yielded the album track “Forged in the Fire.”
The first verse recounts how she found her grandmother’s quilt underneath a soggy piece of sheetrock while she was sifting through the rubble of her scorched Nashville home.
“The sheetrock had fallen over when the fire through, and saved it, protected it. I still have it on my bed. God sent me so many signs through that fire. I do a lot of artwork, and all of my artwork burned, except my blank canvases, my brushes, and all of my paint. And I still had one guitar, the one my father had bought for me my senior year as a high school graduation gift.
“I just thought, ‘God, alright, you just gave me a clean slate. You took all of my product, years of artwork, you took years of instruments that I had saved for—took everything. But you left me the tools I needed to create.’”
Hammack penned “Looking For A Lighter” on her 23rd birthday, working with Hillary Lindsey and Gordie Sampson. The track was inspired by the junk drawer in Hammack’s kitchen, where she found that lighter, as well as that fake ID she moved to Nashville with, the one that listed her age as 23.
“I thought, ‘Oh, wow, I’ve caught up with it,’” she says. “I had never thought about, ‘One day you’ll catch up to the age you’d pretend to be.’ Then there was this big wadded up envelope in the back. I pulled it out, and it was the letters from the boy that ‘Small Town Hypocrite’ was written about. I just sat there and thought, ‘Why is it that every time I cut loose, I run into you?’”
That same boldness that led Hammack to write such intimate lyrics on the album, also led her to experiment with different sounds in the studio, adding a sitar to “Redhead,” and incorporating sounds of hammers and nails as a tribute to Hammack’s father, who is a water well driller. During “Looking For A Lighter,” the drums are stroked with sandpaper instead of steel brushes. Elsewhere, cake pans were used as cymbals and a wooden knife box used for percussion.
“It was so much fun to create this album because I had no expectations,” Hammack says.
Hammack welcomes several of her friends and fellow artists on the debut album. Two of Hammack’s closest friends, fellow artists Townes and Ashley McBryde join on “Mean Something,” while music icon Reba McEntire sings on the aptly-named “Redhead,” which Hammack wrote for an older cousin with fiery red hair.
“It was a wish of mine, and this is why I 100% believe in manifestation now,” she says of having McEntire on the track.
“I’ll be honest I hadn’t even thought about putting a duet on the album, because it’s my first one,” Hammack says. “I started naming friends, and my manager, Mary [Hilliard Harrington] said, ‘Those are great. Now tell me who is one person you would want to sing on your stuff even if you think it’s impossible?’”
“I thought, ‘How amazing would it be if we had THE redhead—country music’s iconic redhead—on a song I wrote for my red-headed cousin who got teased for her hair, this song I wrote to make her feel better about her red hair?'”
In a dream-come-true moment, Hammack met her musical idol at House of Blues studio to record the duet.
“She was so gracious and professional. I remember asking, ‘Can she just sing ALL the lyrics? Just let her sing the entire song,’” Hammack recalls with a laugh. “And they were like, ‘Well, you have to be on it for it to be a feature.’”
Beyond the guest artists, Hammack honors her musical idols within her production choices.
“Gold” simmers in an unvarnished, folk-rock vibe similar to Patty Griffin, while “Preciatcha” offers a nod to Sara Bareilles. The intro to “Just Friends” is a nod to the music of Dolly Parton. She says the album’s finale, “New Level of Life,” “is really me bowing down to Cake, and Bowie, and some of the rockers that came before me.”
Hammack lives by the mantra, ‘Be who you needed when you were younger,’ in much the same way she looked up to powerhouse vocalists such as McEntire and Adele.
“I remember when Adele came out, and it was like, ‘Oh my God, you can be a normal size and still be valid as a human being and a creator.’ I just wanted to see someone like me, that was weird and dorky, and just wanted to make music the way I wanted.
“I just want to tell the nitty gritty truth. I want to be vulnerable. I want people to have a safe space at my shows. That’s what I’ve tried to make with my music, and what I’ve tried to make with this album. I just hope that it translates.”
Zach Williams, for KING & COUNTRY Lead Dove Nominations
/by Sarah SkatesThe Gospel Music Association (GMA) announced Thursday (Aug. 13) the nominations for the 51st Annual GMA Dove Awards, with Zach Williams and for KING & COUNTRY leading the Artist nominations with five nods each, including Artist of the Year. In addition, Hillsong Worship, Kirk Franklin, and Jonathan McReynolds each scored four nominations.
The awards will air exclusively on TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) on Friday, Oct. 30, featuring a variety of unique pre-recorded performances and acceptance speeches.
In non-artist nominations, Jason Ingram leads with eight, along with Ed Cash, Jonathan Smith, and Jordan Sapp receiving seven each. Notable first-time nominees include Kanye West (Rap/Hip-Hop Album of the Year), Gloria Gaynor, We The Kingdom, and Unspoken.
Voting for the final winners will run Aug. 20 – 27.
This year’s highly anticipated nominations were collectively presented by artists Brooke Ligertwood (Hillsong Worship), Joel Smallbone (for KING & COUNTRY), Anthony Brown, Christine D’Clario, Joseph Habedank, and Aaron Cole from their individual homes across the country.
To watch the announcements, visit GMA’s Facebook or YouTube page.
“The GMA is honored to continue its legacy of celebrating our diverse creative community and the music that moves us and ministers to us all, especially during these trying times,” GMA President Jackie Patillo said. “We believe this year, especially, our community and our world need to show love to one another and, above all, recognize and worship our faithful Creator.”
The following nominations were announced live:
ARTIST OF THE YEAR:
for KING & COUNTRY
Hillsong Worship
Lauren Daigle
Tasha Cobbs Leonard
Zach Williams
SONG OF THE YEAR:
“Almost Home” (songwriters) Barry Graul, Bart Millard, Ben Glover, Mike Scheuchzer, Nathan Cochran (publishers) 9t One Songs, Ariose Music, So Sappy Music, Tunes of Mercyme
“Burn The Ships” (songwriters) Joel Smallbone, Luke Smallbone, Matt Hales, Seth Mosley (publishers) CentricSongs, Kilns Music, Method of the Madness, Shankle Songs, Shaun Shaenkle Pub Designee, Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp., WC Music Group
“Deliver Me (This Is My Exodus) (songwriters) Desmond Davis, Donald Lawrence, Marshon Lewis, Robert Woolridge (publishing) QW Publishing, Williams Stokes Publishing House and Primary Wave Bears, Shonnamacmusic, ROB BASS INC, Desmond Davis Designee
“Dead Man Walking” (songwriters) Emily Weisband, Jeremy Camp, Jordan Sapp (publishers) Capitol CMG Paragon, Only In You Publishing, Songs By J Sapp
“Holy Water” (songwriters) Andrew Bergthold, Ed Cash, Franni Cash, Marin Cash, Scott Cash (publishers) Andrew Bergthold Designee, Capitol CMG Genesis, We The Kingdom ASCAP Designee, We The Kingdom Music
“King of Kings” (songwriters) Brooke Ligertwood, Jason Ingram, Scott Ligertwood (publishers) Fellow Ships Music, Hillsong Music Publishing Australia, So Essential Tunes
“Love Theory” (songwriter) Kirk Franklin, (publisher) Aunt Gertrude Music Publishing LLC
“Nobody” (songwriters) Bernie Herms, Mark Hall, Matthew West (publishers) Be Essential Songs, Highly Combustible Music, House of Story Music Publishing, My Refuge Music, One77 Songs
“Rescue” (songwriters) Jason Ingram, Lauren Daigle, Paul Mabury (publishers) CentricSongs, Fellow Ships Music, Flychild Publishing, See You At The Pub, So Essential Tunes
“Rescue Story” (songwriter) Andrew Ripp, Ethan Hulse, Jonathan Smith, Zach Williams (publishers) Anthems of Hope, Be Essential Songs, Cashagamble Jet Music, EGH Music Publishing, Songs By Fishbone, Wisteria Drive
“See A Victory” (songwriters) Ben Fielding, Chris Brown, Jason Ingram, Steven Furtick (publishers) Fellow Ships Music, Music By Elevation Worship Publishing, SHOUT! Music Publishing Australia, So Essential Tunes
“The God Who Stays” (songwriters) AJ Pruis, Jonathan Smith, Matthew West (publishers) Be Essential Songs, Cashagamble Jet Music, Combustion Five, Highly Combustible Music, O77 Songs, Two Story House Music
“Way Maker” (songwriters) Osinachi Kalu Okoro Egbu (publisher) Integrity Music Europe
NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR:
Chris Renzema
Cochren & Co.
Elle Limebear
Switch
We The Kingdom
GOSPEL ARTIST OF THE YEAR:
Jekalyn Carr
Jonathan McReynolds
Kirk Franklin
Tasha Cobbs Leonard
Travis Greene
POP/CONTEMPORARY RECORDED SONG OF THE YEAR:
“NOBODY” – Casting Crowns (feat. Matthew West) – (songwriters) Bernie Herms, Matthew West, Mark Hall
“Burn The Ships” – for KING & COUNTRY– (songwriters) Joel Smallbone, Luke Smallbone, Seth Mosley, Matt Hales
“Dead Man Walking” – Jeremy Camp – (songwriters) Jeremy Camp, Emily Weisband, Jordan Sapp
“Rescue” – Lauren Daigle – (songwriters) Jason Ingram, Lauren Daigle, Paul Mabury
“Holy Water” – We The Kingdom – (songwriters) Andrew Bergthold, Ed Cash, Franni Cash, Martin Cash, Scott Cash
SOUTHERN GOSPEL RECORDED SONG OF THE YEAR:
“This Is The Place” – Gaither Vocal Band – (songwriters) – Gloria Gaither, Williams J. Gaither, Gordan Mote
“The God I Serve” – Karen Peck & New River – (songwriters) Rebecca Bowman, Sonya Yeary, Karen Peck Gooch, Jimmy Yeary
“What Kind Of Man” – Legacy Five – (songwriters) Kenna Turner West, Jason Cox, Sue Smith
“The Power Of An Empty Tomb” – The Erwins – (songwriter) Joel Lindsey
“Can I Get A Witness” – The Sound – (songwriters) Kenna Turner West, Brent Baxter, Jason Cox
CONTEMPORARY GOSPEL RECORDED SONG OF THE YEAR:
“Blessings on Blessings” – Anthony Brown & group therAPy – (songwriter) Anthony Brown
“Won’t Be Moved” – Gene Moore – (songwriters) – Bryan Sledge, Cedric Smith, Demeon Reeves
“People” – Jonathan McReynolds – (songwriter) Jonathan McReynolds
“B!g” – Pastor Mike Jr. – (songwriters) Michael McClure, Curtiss Glenn, Rodney Turner
“Truly Amazing God” – Travis Greene – (songwriter) Travis Greene
GOSPEL WORSHIP RECORDED SONG OF THE YEAR:
“Miracle Worker” – JJ Hairston – (songwriter) Rich Tolbert Jr.
“Something Has To Break” (Live) – Kierra Sheard, featuring Tasha Cobbs Leonard – (songwriters) J. Drew Sheard, Kierra Valencia Sheard, Mia Fieldes, Jonathan Smith
“Promises” – Maverick City Music – (songwriters) Aaron Moses, Lemuel Marin, Carrington Gaines, Dante Bowe, Joe L. Barnes, Keila Alvarado
“Proverbs 3” – Todd Dulaney – (songwriters) Todd Dulaney, Jaylen Moore, Isaac Tarver
“Only You Can Satisfy” (Live) – William McDowell and Chris Lawson (songwriters) William McDowell, Chandler Moor
WORSHIP RECORDED SONG OF THE YEAR:
“King of Kings” (Live at Qudos Band Arena, Sydney, AU/2019) – Hillsong Worship – (songwriters) Brooke Ligertwood, Scott Ligertwood, Jason Ingram
“Goodness of God” – Jenn Johnson – (songwriters) Ben Fielding, Brian Johnson, Jenn Johnson, Ed Cash, Jason Ingram
“The Blessing” (Live) – Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes, Elevation Worship – (songwriters) Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes, Chris Brown, Steven Furtick
“Way Maker” – Leeland – (songwriter) Osinachi Okoro
“Great Things” – Phil Wickham – (songwriter) Phil Wickham, Jonas Myrin
RAP/HIP HOP ALBUM OF THE YEAR:
Not By Chance – Aaron Cole
Work in Progress – Andy Mineo
HEATHEN – GAWVI
Jesus Is King – Kanye West
MOOD // DOOM – Social Club Misfits
ROCK/CONTEMPORARY ALBUM OF THE YEAR:
Out of Body – Apollo LTD
War – Demon Hunter
Love Letter – Disciple
Declaration – Red
Victorious – Skillet
POP/CONTEMPORARY ALBUM OF THE YEAR:
THE STORY’S NOT OVER – Jeremy Camp
Citizens of Heaven – Tauren Wells
Reason – Unspoken
Live At The Wheelhouse – We The Kingdom
Rescue Story – Zach Williams
SPANISH LANGUAGE ALBUM OF THE YEAR:
Soldados – Alex Campos
Shekinah (Live) – Barak
Aleluya (En La Tierra) – Elevation Worship
Origen y Esencia – Jesus Adrian Romero
Sinergia – Un Corazon y LEAD
Full list of nominees here.
Dolly Taps Superstar Friends For Upcoming Christmas Album
/by Lorie HollabaughDolly Parton is bringing some much-needed holiday cheer to 2020 with the announcement of her upcoming Christmas album, A Holly Dolly Christmas. Due out October 2 on Butterfly Records in partnership with 12Tone Music, this marks her first holiday album in 30 years.
This festive collection includes timeless classics as well as a few original tracks. The album features duets with some of Parton’s friends including Michael Bublé, Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley Cyrus, Jimmy Fallon and Willie Nelson, plus a special song with her brother Randy. Parton penned five tracks solely on the record, which includes one additional co-write with Kent Wells.
The first single coming off A Holly Dolly Christmas, will be her duet with crooner Bublé, “Cuddle Up, Cozy Down Christmas.” The album is available now for physical and digital pre-order.
“I am so excited to announce my new Christmas album A Holly Dolly Christmas. I have recorded several Christmas classics like ‘Holly Jolly Christmas,’ as well as some new material that I hope might become Christmas classics. I’ve recorded five duets with five very special artists as you can see,” says Parton. “I figured since everybody probably wouldn’t get to celebrate Christmas as usual this year, I wanted to be creative instead of sitting around at the house this summer. So I put on my mask, gloves and practiced social distancing, as well as all of the wonderful musicians and singers, and we proceeded to put together what I think is some of the best work that I’ve ever done. Kent Wells produced the album. As you know, Kent has been my friend, band leader and producer for many years. He’s outdone himself on this one. I’m just hoping that you’re gonna love it as much as we loved putting it together. So enjoy and MERRY CHRISTMAS!”
A Holly Dolly Christmas Track Listing:
1. Holly Jolly Christmas
2. Christmas Is (feat. Miley Cyrus)
3. Cuddle Up, Cozy Down Christmas (feat. Michael Bublé)
4. Christmas On The Square
5. Circle Of Love
6. All I Want For Christmas Is You (feat. Jimmy Fallon)
7. Comin’ Home For Christmas
8. Christmas Where We Are (feat. Billy Ray Cyrus)
9. Pretty Paper (feat. Willie Nelson)
10. Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
11. You Are My Christmas (feat. Randy Parton)
12. Mary, Did You Know?
A Thousand Horses Charges Back To Radio With New Label Home
/by Lorie HollabaughA Thousand Horses has released a new song to radio, “A Song To Remember,” that will serve as their debut single since signing with Dave Cobb’s Low Country Sound and Elektra Records. In partnership with Warner Music Nashville, the track is also the lead single from their upcoming album, Let The Band Play On.
Co-written by Michael Hobby [vocals], Brad Warren, Brett Warren and Christopher Stevens, the song is also featured in the band’s ATH At Home series, a weekly video series featuring acoustic versions of their songs as well as covers airing every Friday on their social platforms.
The video for “A Song To Remember” was recently released as well. It was filmed in Watertown, Tenn. on a stormy afternoon that Hobby says provided “the perfect backdrop for illustrating the isolation of heartbreak purgatory the song speaks to.”
Since debuting on the country scene with their 2015 hit “Smoke,” which quickly went Platinum, the band has gone on to rack up more than 100 million streams. Let The Band Play On is due out later this year.
Gone West Parts Ways
/by Sarah SkatesMembers of the band Gone West are going separate ways. Colbie Caillat and Justin Young are splitting from bandmates Jason Reeves and Nelly Joy. On Wednesday, Caillat posted the news on Instagram.
The country quartet was comprised of two couples. Reeves and Joy are married, while Caillat and Young called off their five-year engagement a few months ago.
In June, Gone West released its first-full length album, Canyons, via Triple Tigers. That followed the success of debut single “What Could’ve Been,” which had by then earned more than 40 million streams, and more than 10 million views of the music video.
Dave Cobb, Gena Johnson Detail John Prine’s Final Recording, “I Remember Everything”
/by Jessica NicholsonJohn Prine
On June 11, Nashville’s music community was still reeling from the death of one of its shining lights and musical poets, John Prine, who died in April at age 73 due to complications related to COVID-19. That evening, artists including Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, Sturgill Simpson, Bonnie Raitt, Margo Price and Kacey Musgraves participated in a livestream concert, offering performances of their favorite Prine classics from their homes, as thousands across the country tuned in to pay tribute to the giver of classics such as “Angel From Montgomery” and “Sam Stone.”
As the evening drew to a close, the fitting coda was Prine’s own warm, intimate voice, as his final recorded song, “I Remember Everything,” was officially released.
The week of June 23, after decades of winning accolades including Grammys, American Music Awards, Americana honors, and an induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Prine added one more bittersweet, posthumous accolade, as “I Remember Everything” became Prine’s first No. 1 song on a Billboard chart, debuting atop the Rock Digital Song Sales chart.
“He had played that for us around Thanksgiving last year,” recalls producer Dave Cobb, who captured Prine’s performance of the song alongside engineer Gena Johnson. “We were with John and his family and friends at his house and he pulled out his guitar. He was excited about the next album and that was just him playing a new song he wrote. It certainly wasn’t meant to be the last song he wrote. We had plans to go into the studio this summer, which is terribly sad. He was like a 15-year-old excited to play us his new song.”
Prine co-wrote the song alongside longtime collaborator Pat McLaughlin. Johnson and Cobb captured Prine’s recording of the song a few months later, in the same cozy home where Cobb first heard it, setting up a few simple microphones in Prine’s living room, with Prine accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. Cobb and Johnson stopped by Prine’s house around 10:30 in the evening, just after Cobb had finished a different session.
“I think he was on tour and had some health issues and had to come back home,” Cobb recalls. “His wife Fiona called and said they wanted to capture the song while it was fresh. It was very informal and it was really more documenting the song. They were going to make a documentary about him so we were literally just going by to capture the song. John is one of the few people with the ability to play a new song and it feels timeless, like you’ve always known it. It feels like it could have been on his first record in a way.”
The song reads as one taking stock of the moments, faces and spaces that have given purpose and meaning throughout their life.
I remember every town and every hotel room/every song I ever sang on a guitar out of tune. I remember everything/ things I can’t forget, Prine sings.
“I just thought it was one of the songs we were going to put on his next album—not his last album,” Cobb recalls. “He was cutting up and cracking jokes, just typical John Prine.”
“It was basically one take,” Johnson says of the recording session. “I got there early to set up and John did a couple of run-throughs just to warm up before we recorded. With John, it was like, every single thing he sang was cool.
“His love for Fiona was the biggest thing,” Johnson continues. “There’s the line, And I remember every night/ Your ocean eyes of blue. I remember when he sang that line, he just looked up at Fiona and smiled. That was really special,” Johnson recalls.
“I definitely had tears in my eyes,” she recalls learning of song’s chart-topping success. “I never thought I would be in his living room, recording the very last thing he recorded. I teared up when I was recording the song because you are in the presence of somebody that means so much to so many people, but there’s also the way he made you feel as an individual.
“It was heavy when he passed. I definitely took it hard and immediately thought of Fiona and the boys and how they have made me feel like family from day one, when I was working on [Prine’s 2018 Grammy-nominated album] The Tree of Forgiveness. Seeing that [chart success] happen was beautiful to watch.”
“He was full of life, and funny and happy to see people. I have no words for how much joy that guy had. He loved his family, his friends, his career—and the mustard he kept in his suitcase,” Cobb said.
Prine is posthumously nominated for Artist of the Year at the 2020 Americana Honors & Awards, set for Sept. 16 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Prine previously won the Artist of the Year honor in 2005, 2017 and 2018. During his career, he took home three additional Americana honors, including Album of the Year in 2019 for The Tree of Forgiveness, Song of the Year for “Summer’s End” (2019), and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting (2003).
Industry Ink: Charlie Worsham, Banner Believers, Evergreen Entertainment
/by Lorie HollabaughCharlie Worsham For Gilda’s Club
Charlie Worsham
Gilda’s Club Middle Tennessee will hold its 2020 Red Door Bash, on Thursday, Sept. 3 featuring special guest Charlie Worsham. The virtual event begins at 6:30 p.m. and supports the organization’s mission of offering free cancer support for people in Middle Tennessee. The event will be co-hosted by Gilda’s Club President and CEO Harriet Schiftan and award-winning news anchor, filmmaker, and writer Demetria Kalodimos. Honorees include Juli and Earl Fitz, Cathy and Clay Jackson, and Felice Apolinsky.
Click here for tickets and details.
Banner Believers Adds Justin Lee Partin
Pictured (L-R): Camilla Kleindienst, Banner Music; Justin Lee Partin; John Giovagnorio, Manager. Photo: Banner Music
Nashville-based publishing company Banner Music is adding rising country artist Justin Lee Partin to its Banner Believers roster. The program releases songs from artists who write with Banner Music’s staff songwriters.
Partin co-wrote his single, “Waiting On The Weekend,” with Banner Music writers Daniel Kleindienst and Alex Dooley. Country star Craig Campbell is featured on the track and brings his country charisma and spirit to the storyline. The single has an official release date of Aug. 21 and can be pre-saved here.
Partin hails from the small town of Branford, Florida.
Evergreen Entertainment Launches Indie Management Model
Evergreen Entertainment, a management group focusing on independent artists, has launched in Nashville. Co-founded by Maria Herrera, who has seven years of experience as a publicist and artist development consultant, and John LeDew, who was a music booking agent and event manager for five years, Evergreen evolved to boost the careers of independent artists. The company’s mission is to provide affordable, simple, transparent, and effective services for indie artists, offering both an “á la carte” menu as well as full-service management agreements.
Evergreen Entertainment also offers a fan-driven subscription service called The Collective that allows fans to become a part of Evergreen’s community and engage with the roster of artists on a personal level. Fans receive exclusive merch, VIP, discounted show tickets, letters from their favorite artists, and Collective-only opportunities to engage with the artists.
Evergreen Entertainment’s first artist is Mcclendon, a Nashville indie who recently branched away from his band Painted West to start a solo career. He is set to release an EP in September.
ACM Lifting Lives: ‘On The Road Again,’ Brothers Osborne, Autism Lab At Vanderbilt
/by Lorie HollabaughWillie And Friends Rework ‘On The Road Again’ To Aid ACM Lifting Lives
Brothers Osborne To Play Free Live Stream Show Benefiting Lifting Lives
Brothers Osborne
Brothers Osborne: Let’s Play Live, an exclusive free live stream concert, is set for August 21 at 7 p.m. CT. The duo will perform the free show live from outside of Tulsa, OK with no live audience, and during the virtual concert, fans will be encouraged to donate to ACM Lifting Lives COVID-19 Response Fund. The donated funds will go to help individuals in the country community who are currently in need of pandemic relief assistance.
ACM Endows New Lifting Lives Autism Lab At Vanderbilt
“Since 2012, ACM Lifting Lives has partnered with Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC) on a week-long residential program for musically talented individuals with Williams Syndrome, which affects 1 in 10,000 people. This camp has held a dual purpose of studying Williams Syndrome and other developmental disabilities by providing music enrichment through both performance and education, and we are so thrilled to be able to partner with VKC on another scale,” said Lyndsay Cruz, ACM Lifting Lives Executive Director. “Given our commitment to people with developmental disabilities, Vanderbilt invited us to build on our partnership through support of a program to bring the healing power of music to a much larger population: children with autism spectrum disorder, who now represent 1 in every 59 children in the United States.”
Nashville’s Verge Records Celebrates One-Year Anniversary
/by Jessica NicholsonMickey Jack Cones
Just over a year ago, Mickey Jack Cones teamed with ONErpm founder/CEO Emmanuel Zunz to relaunch Zunz’s Verge Records, bringing a Nashville label presence to the multi-faceted production, distribution, publishing administration, and marketing company that represents more than 300,000 artists, labels and video creators, from the DIY level to those seeking more highly customized, hands-on solutions.
Cones, a longtime producer/engineer for Trace Adkins, signed the superstar singer to the label earlier this year. The multi-genre label also represents Nashville pop duo Kid Politics, as well as singer-songwriter Jay Allen and Scott Stevens. Cones says he was impressed with the company’s digital-first strategy and multi-genre approach.
“There’s so many artists that record such great music, and producers go in there and they bust their tails, but they get into the normal system and it takes them sometimes so long to be recognized and to have that success,” Cones says.
“With partnering with ONErpm and relaunching Verge, our mission was to give artists another opportunity, a forward-thinking opportunity, and another option to immediately get their music out and almost use the public as a focus group. You’re putting the music out to let them know what’s working and if it’s working, then you go to radio. And so it’s just kind of a 180-degree turn on the mindset of what I grew up with in town for 25 years, and the system that put me on the map as a producer and a manager and a publisher.”
For Cones, Zunz and the Verge Records and ONErpm team, the focus is broader than gaining radio traction for artists.
“It’s not just about trying to get a number one on the chart. It’s about growing their socials. It’s about growing their YouTube subscribers,” Cones says. “We’re truly trying to give an artist every option they could get at a major, but treat the rollout differently. We have radio metrics set up in our structure. When we release a song, if the song has a certain number of non-playlisted streams, playlisted streams, or YouTube views within a certain number of weeks, we will kick in radio.
“With Trace, we grew his YouTube subscriber base 33% within three months. And I’m not saying that’s all because of us, because it Is Trace Adkins, but it’s just a great combination and we’ve proven we’re a great fit together.”
Cones has produced, published, engineered and written for artists including Adkins, Dustin Lynch, Joe Nichols, Jason Aldean, George Strait, Eric Church, Thomas Rhett, Luke Combs, and more. He has also gained experience as a manager and publisher through launching companies including COR Music Publishing, COR Artist Services, and COR Audio Productions.
Verge Records serves as the Nashville label outpost for ONErpm, which celebrates a decade in business this year. ONErpm has 22 offices around the globe, and boasts more than 1,000 artists per day signing up for distribution through the ONErpm platform, and label services such as Verge allow them to offer additional services with certain artists.
Originally founded in 2006, Verge began as a social enterprise that won a grant from New York University’s Stern School of Business ‘Maximum Exposure Business Plan Competition’ to sign artists from impoverished areas, and reinvest profits from those releases in the artists’ communities to fund music education programs. The newly re-emerged Verge Records also contributes a portion of its annual profits to charitable organizations.
Emmanuel Zunz
“The idea when I started Verge was to find artists within impoverished neighborhoods or marginalized neighborhoods and then use a portion of the profits to invest in music education programs in those same neighborhoods, to create this cycle of artist development,” says Zunz.
Zunz shifted his focus to ONErpm, but says he “always had the passion make Verge work. It was my first love.”
ONErpm also operates a multi-channel network on YouTube, with more than 5,000 YouTube channels, and distributes music to all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple, Tidal, Pandora and more.
Cones met Zunz in 2015, while he was working with Jordan Walker and Johnny McGuire through his COR Entertainment company, and he was managing Donica Knight and American Idol’s Taylor Hicks.
Cones says, “I was releasing all this music and kind of acting as a label and ONErpm was our distribution company at the time. So when we started with Walker McGuire, we got them over 10 million streams in three months, between myself and Emmanuel, and that helped land them a label deal at Broken Bow. Of course, it was a great artist, a great song. A few years later, when he said he wanted to bring Verge Records back, I knew I wanted to partner with him. He’s got his way of thinking about the world, because he’s so global. And I’m in the Nashville scene, so I’ve got my mind wrapped around things here. So we kind of got to balance each other out in a great way and it made the most sense.”
Verge’s musically-diverse roster also takes advantage of Nashville’s strong pop and rock scene, with the signing of Kid Politics. Cones was introduced to the band’s music when he happened upon one of their shows at Nashville venue The Sutler.
“From the first note—and they played for like 45 minutes—I thought they were so impressive. My shoulder was so tired because I was videoing every song. I don’t ever do that. People were commenting after the show, ‘That’s the best music I’ve heard in Nashville in forever.’ They’ve got arena style pop hits that are just radio ear candy. They write and produce everything that they’re cutting.”
The group will release a single, “Cool With It,” later this month, along with a new video.
“Everybody is so visual and everyone has all this data and content at their fingertips. So we feel like that’s a strong branding core for all of our artists,” Cones says. “A lot of places will wait until a single gets to the Top 20 or so before they put a video out. But, we want to put the best foot forward and we’re releasing content more frequently. We’re trying to do official videos with every release, especially with these newer artists, because it gives fans a lot more insight to the artist, much more quickly, and gain traction much more quickly. That’s one of the reasons we set it up to be digital-first this way, because we want to make sure the artist is making money on their music. Traditionally, artists will tell you the last place they make money is on their music. It’s always touring or if they write the song.”
The company’s digital-first operations and steady stream of content has become essential as tours have been postponed or canceled for artists at every level due to COVID-19.
“With Kid Politics, [lead singer] Kelby and the rest of the group were self-producing, but they felt like it needed more polishing. I said, ‘Well, I’ll put you together with a producer and we’ll make this work.’ Of course that was all prior to COVID. But once that hit, they were like, ‘Well, we don’t want to just sit and not put music out.’ So they ended up sending me their files, and I ended up working on the projects with them just to get it out to the people. But also, when the studios were shut down, musicians couldn’t even get in the same room. You could maybe get somebody to mix a file and deliver it via Dropbox, but being able to camp out and close mixes together and do all that, people just weren’t doing it.
“Now that sessions are starting to open up a little bit, people are putting out more music. But that was a little obstacle because the same thing happened with Jay Allen. Luckily the Scott Stevens tracks were already finished prior to COVID, so we’ve had those in the cans. The whole creation and writing process, it’s slowed it down a little bit, so you just have to figure out how to bob and weave.”
RJ Stillwell And Partners To Bring New Life To Historic Building
/by Sherod Robertson421 Union St. building, Nashville, Tennessee.
RJ Stillwell, CEO and Founder of Sound Healthcare & Financial, along with his business partners under the name Historic Restorations, are bringing a historic building back to life in downtown Nashville. Historic Restorations, the development group, includes Stillwell along with former artist manager Patrick Pocklington, singer/songwriter Jason Mraz, and contractor Andrew Eshelman.
Stillwell tells MusicRow, “As a resident of downtown Nashville for over 16 years, I’ve always enjoyed urban living. Aside from music, serving our creative community and philanthropy, my additional passions include urban architecture and interior design. I’m especially excited about this new project with Patrick, Andrew and Jason because it provides us the opportunity to give new life to one of my favorite historic downtown structures, the 421 Union St. building.”
Located in Printer’s Alley Art District, the building was erected in 1901 and was first housed by Parrish Shoes. The space has a long history as a bank, Liberty Bank & Trust, before being purchased by Howell H. Campbell in 1940, the founder of the iconic local brand, Goo Goo Cluster.
The building is most recently home to Nashville’s first sushi restaurant, Koto Sushi Bar. The space features 20 foot ceilings that will be expanded and transformed into a modernist loft boutique hotel, focusing on design and technology.
Photo: Downtown Nashville, looking east down Union Street from 5th Avenue. Courtesy of the Tennessee State Library & Archives.