Songwriter/producer Ashley Gorley has teamed up with industry execs John Dennis and Charly Salvatore to sign Avenue Beat to an exclusive publishing deal with their respective companies, Tape Room Music and Dennis Entertainment. The joint-venture marks the trio’s first publishing deal and is the first partnership between Tape Room Music and Dennis Entertainment.

“Blain, Kelly, and I couldn’t be more excited to be working with Avenue Beat. They are not only amazing vocalists and producers with their own sound, but they are first and foremost songwriters. Their songs are full of fresh ideas and melodies with an honest perspective. We are pumped to have them as part of the Tape Room family!” said Tape Room CEO Gorley.

The trio of childhood friends from Illinois includes Savana Santos, Sam Backoff and Sami Bearden. In 2016, the group moved to Nashville and have spent the past three years writing and crafting music.

“Charly and I are thrilled to work with such an immensely talented group of people. We wanted to surround Avenue Beat with a team that could share our vision and help take them to the next level both creatively and musically. We aimed high and thankfully Ashley and his team recognized how special Avenue Beat is. Ashley, Blain, and Kelly have been amazing to work with,” remarked Dennis, owner of Dennis Entertainment.

Signed to Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Avenue Beat will head out on the road with Mason Ramsey as direct support on his 2019 How’s Your Girl & How’s Your Family spring tour.

While in Australia this week for CMA’s touring series, Introducing Nashville and the CMC Rocks music festival, a selection of Country artists and music industry executives received international awards on behalf of the Country Music Association.

Country artist Ashley McBryde and CMA Vice President of International Relations and Development, Milly Olykan, presented Chugg Entertainment Managing Director Susan Heymann with the CMA Jo Walker Meador International Award backstage at CMC Rocks with the entire festival team in attendance, including Co-Director of CMC Rocks & CEO of Potts Entertainment Jeremy Dylan, who is the son of the festival’s founder and former CMA Board member, the late Rob Potts. The CMA Jo Walker Meador International Award recognizes outstanding achievement by an individual advocating and supporting Country Music’s marketing development in territories outside the United States.

Luke Combs and Cam presented Australian Country artist Travis Collins with the CMA Jeff Walker Global Country Artist Award backstage at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney prior to Comb’s show on his sold-out Australian tour. The CMA Jeff Walker Global Country Artist Award recognizes outstanding achievements by a Country Music artist signed outside of the United States who has furthered the popularity of country music as well as brought attention to the Country Music format in their foreign based territory. Collins also opened for Combs in Sydney. This year, the award was presented to two acts, the other recipient being British Country duo Ward Thomas, who received their award from Cam earlier this month while she was in London for a CMA Songwriters Series show during the C2C: Country to Country festival.

Additional 2019 CMA International Award recipients include BBC Radio 2 Radio Host Baylen Leonard, who was presented the CMA International Country Broadcaster Award earlier in March by Bob Shennan, BBC Director, Radio & Music and CMA Board member, during CMA’s U.K. Task Force meeting in London. CMA also awarded Kacey Musgraves with the International Artist Achievement Award prior to her performance at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.

The CMA International Awards honor industry executives and artists who have supported and made a difference towards the growth and promotion of Country Music in the international market place. Nominees are recognized in five categories acknowledging their dedication and efforts in growing opportunities for Country Music in their local territories.

MusicRow Magazine’s eighth annual Rising Women on the Row event will be held Tuesday, March 26, at Omni Hotel Nashville.

This year’s honorees include Sandi Spika Borchetta (Big Machine Label Group, Sr. VP Creative), Janine Ebach (Curb|Word Music Publishing, VP), Kelly Janson (Kelly Janson Management, Manager), Meredith Jones (Creative Artists Agency, Agent), Lenore Kinder (Paradigm Talent Agency, Agent), and Jennifer Turnbow (NSAI, Sr. Director of Operations).

Leading up to the event, MusicRow is spotlighting each honoree with a brief Q&A.

Lenore Kinder is at the helm of the touring careers of Kacey Musgraves, Tori Kelly, Weyes Blood, Lucie Silvas, Anna Moon, Elise Davis, TAELA, and LUME. In addition to managing the live aspect, she strategically identifies opportunities in film, TV, branding, and other avenues that elevate her clients’ repertoire. Prior to transitioning to the agency side, Kinder gained 10 years-experience as a talent buyer for AEG Presents & Messina Touring Group. She garnered a number of accolades, including Pollstar’s Rising Star award, and ACM’s Don Romeo Talent Buyer of the Year recognition, curating North American tours for Kacey Musgraves, Kelsea Ballerini and The Lumineers. She is also responsible for growing the tours of Mumford & Sons, Adele, and Imagine Dragons from clubs to arenas in the Southeast region. Kinder accelerated her career with a move to Nashville in 2006 after serving as Director of Operations at local Knoxville, Tennessee venue Blue Cats.

MusicRow: What is the biggest lesson on leadership you have learned in your career?

It is an acquired skill that requires being mentally and emotionally available to your team. You have to know when to lead, and when to step back to allow them to shine. Good leaders are not always at the front of the room, but they’re always leading the charge.

MR: Who has been one of your biggest mentors and what has he or she taught you?

From my promoter perspective, Louis Messina is someone that I look up to professionally – he empowers his team to “be the boss.” His employee retention is second to none – he is a curator of dreams not only for his clients, but also for his staff.

From my agent perspective, Jonathan Levine has been such an inspiring leader to work with and alongside. His tenacity and compassion for his clients, staff and family are unparalleled – he’s a force and I’m deeply honored to learn from the best.

My wife is another mentor – she leads with courage and kindness. Leading from fear is a lonely place to be…

MR: Describe a time that you took a big risk in your career, and how did it pay off?

Making the leap from promoter to agent didn’t feel like a huge risk professionally, but the internal change was profound. It pushed me to think outside of the box in all areas of life. I feel deeply honored to represent the clients I’ve amassed in such a short time. I like to believe my renewed perspective has helped bring them success.

MR: As Nashville continues to grow and evolve, what changes in the music industry excite you the most?

DIVERSITY; ideas that generate from a silo mentality are merely self-fulfilling prophecies. Art has no boundaries and therefore the people representing it shouldn’t either.

MR: Favorite Nashville place to hold a business meeting/lunch?

Joe’s Crab Shack

 

(City National Bank, Tri Star Sports and Entertainment Group, and Loeb & Loeb are again the Presenting Sponsors for the 2019 Rising Women on the Row.)

Morgan Evans is heading overseas for a set of six shows in Europe in September. The Australia native will play five headlining dates across multiple cities as well as a festival appearance at The Long Road in Lutterworth, U.K. The performances mark a return to the U.K. for Evans, who has built a fan base across the pond with previous headlining shows and a 2018 appearance at the C2C Festival in both London and Glasgow.

Tickets will be available starting Friday (March 29), and can be purchased via morganevansmusic.com.

This European run adds to Evans’ packed tour schedule for the year as he’ll join Rascal Flatts’ Summer Playlist Tour and make several festival performances including Tortuga Music Festival, Country Thunder, Off The Rails Festival, Carolina Country Music Festival, Country LakeShake and more.

Evans’ latest single “Day Drunk” spent 25 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on country radio in Australia, and two weeks at No. 1 on the TMN Hot 100 airplay chart, making him the first country artist to achieve the feat since 2009 when Taylor Swift reached the top of the chart with “Love Story.”

Dates for Morgan Evans’ World Tour:
Sept. 3 – Dublin, Ireland – Green Room at The Academy
Sept. 4 – Glasgow, Scotland – Oran Mor
Sept. 5 – Liverpool, U.K. – Arts Club Loft
Sept. 6 – London, U.K. – Borderline
Sept. 7 – Lutterworth, U.K. – The Long Road Festival
Sept. 9 – Berlin, Germany – Frannz Club

Over the past seven years, Nashville-based pop artist Lennon Stella’s career would give most newcomers envy.

In 2012, Lennon (then 12 years old) and her sister Maisy (then 8) uploaded a video of the duo offering startling sibling harmonies on a cover of Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend.” The duo Lennon & Maisy then went viral (earning more than 30 million views to date), and soon, the sisters joined the television show Nashville, with Lennon portraying Maddie Conrad, the musically talented, tough-minded eldest daughter of country superstar Rayna Jaymes, while Maisy portrayed younger sister Daphne. The series, which aired first on ABC then on CMT, concluded in 2018. During the show’s run, the sisters grew up before a worldwide audience.

Even in the midst of filming for Nashville, Stella began working her own music, and her own perspectives, into the show, including “Saved” and “Without Warning.”

Now 19, Stella has one solo EP to her credit, titled Love, Me, which released in 2018. The release signaled that Stella had grown into her own, both as a person and an artist.

“It’s amazing having that freedom,” she says of creating the EP. “There’s no boundaries and there’s no one telling you what you can and can’t do. You can just create with amazing people. It’s the best feeling. With the show, I was on that for six years and that gave me the time to explore and not have any pressure of ‘Oh I have to put something out,’ because I was putting music out through the show or I was filming and didn’t have time.”

Stella launched her first headlining outing, the Love, Me Tour, earlier this week with two sold-out shows in Toronto, and performs her first stateside show tonight in Boston.

“We just did all the rehearsals so I feel a little pressure, but I think it’s more the pressure I put on myself,” Stella told musicrow.com, before launching the tour. “I feel so comfortable in the people that are coming to the show. I feel accepted for who I am, and with social media I feel connected to them all already. I’ll read their DMs and know how they feel about the music so in that sense I don’t feel pressure from others as I do myself. The thing for me is to find the dynamic of the show. I’m so comfortable just playing my guitar but I also want songs where I can jump around and have fun.”

In anticipation of the run of shows, Stella just released a new track, “Bitch (takes one to know one),” which she penned with co-writers Erin McCarley, Thomas Troelsen, and Kate York, and produced by Rob Knox.

“Usually I always write from something I’m feeling or an experience, but Erin came up with the idea of the concept and brought it to me. It was the idea of a guy calling a girl a bitch and having the response of ‘It takes a bitch to know a bitch.’ It was a bit of girl power thing, and we painted a picture and made a story around that. It’s a cool message if it’s said correctly.”

The vocals for “Bitch (takes one to know one)” were recorded in Nashville, with the production via Los Angeles. Though being so well-known for her work on Nashville, when it came time to create her own solo album, Stella opted to keep her creative home in Nashville’s ever-diversifying music scene, instead of decamping for other music hotspots.

“I love the creativity that comes from here and that everyone is so loving and supportive of each other,” she says. “That’s so rare and inspiring to be around. I’ll always be in Nashville. I love to go to New York or L.A., and be able to come back and have my base here.”

Later this year, she will open shows for The Chainsmokers and 5 Seconds of Summer on their North American tour–including a show at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.

“I’m so excited. I remember when my manager told me I got the opening slot, it was my sister’s birthday and I was on the plane and I was about to take off. I was hysterically bawling and I freaked out. At that point, I’ve never toured before, so it’s crazy that my first tour is happening the same year that I will be opening for them.”

She looks at her own headlining shows as somewhat of a warmup for those opening slots.

“After I finish my tour, I feel like I’ll have ideas of what I want to change or improve on. The Chainsmokers are a totally different genre than me, so I think that’s why they asked me to do it. So hopefully what I do with my set now, it’ll just get better for those shows.”

And yes, with all of those high-profile collaborations with the likes of Halsey and Kelsea Ballerini that The Chainsmokers are known for, it’s probable that we might see Stella making a cameo during The Chainsmokers’ set.

“That’s definitely something that’s been talked about, for sure. I can imagine that happening.”