The John Denver estate is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his beloved song, “Rocky Mountain High,” teaming up with Sony Legacy to digitize John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High. The concert special, which will air on PBS in spring 2023, was filmed in 1974 at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater and features many of Denver’s hits of the time.

The title track from his 1972 album was Denver’s first top 10 album and was officially recognized as a state song of Colorado in 2007. A limited-edition blue vinyl reissue of the album is out now on Windstar Records and Secretly Distribution.

In the early 70’s, Denver was one of the first artists to share an environmental message through his music, contributing to a number of charitable and environmental causes. He has received a number of civic and humanitarian awards over the years, including the Presidential World Without Hunger Award for his work with The Hunger Project and UNICEF, the National Wildlife Federation Conservation Achievement Award and the NASA Medal for Public Service.

A two-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and Poet Laureate of Colorado, Denver released 23 studio albums in his lifetime. He is best known for songs such as “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” “Sunshine On My Shoulders,” “Annie’s Song” and “Rocky Mountain High.”

Denver has sold over 33 million records, earned seven Billboard Top Ten Albums in the U.S., and has notched seven multi-Platinum, 13 Platinum and 20 Gold certified albums.

Rocky Mountain High Track List:
Side One
1. Rocky Mountain High
2. Mother Nature’s Son
3. Paradise
4. For Baby (For Bobbie)
5. Darcy Farrow
6. Prisoners

Side Two
1. Goodbye Again
2. Season Suite: Summer
3. Season Suite: Fall
4. Season Suite: Winter
5. Season Suite: Late Winter, Early Spring (When Everybody Goes to Mexico)
6. Season Suite: Spring

Country songwriter Brad Warren launched his The Good Grief Good God Show podcast on Tuesday (Nov. 1). The debut episode featured Porter’s Call Founder and Executive Director Al Andrews and singer-songwriter Jeffrey Steele.

Over the course of his 20-year music career, Warren has had much success alongside his brother, Brett, as The Warren Brothers duo. The Emmy-winning and Grammy-nominated musicians have written over 30 songs for Tim McGraw, as well as tracks for Taylor Swift, Steven Tyler, Toby Keith, Keith Urban, Faith Hill, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blake Shelton, and Dierks Bentley.

In 2020, Warren and his family’s world was turned upside down when he lost his first born son, Sage, to an accidental fentanyl overdose. Talking with his peers and those who have also experienced loss helped Warren to heal, leading him to create The Good Grief Good God Show, during which he discusses the topic of grief while offering personal stories of his journey to living with loss. The podcast aims to connect with those going through the long lasting healing process.

“I was approached by podcast producer Matt Peveto in Austin this year about doing this sort of podcast. Despite my initial hesitation, I started thinking of how much I would have loved hearing something like this throughout my grief journey,” shares Warren. “One morning I was discussing the podcast idea with my wife and she told me ‘You are doing this. You know God wants you to do this.’ And that was that. When my wife, Michelle, and God agree on something I don’t argue. I just do it.”

The Good Grief Good God Show will air monthly on every first and third Tuesday across all major audio platforms and on YouTube. This season will feature songwriters Aimee Mayo, Casey Bethard and JT Harding, as well as sports agent Tim O’Neil, three-time Grammy winner Ashley Cleveland, and Texas singer-songwriter Cory Morrow with more to be announced.

The Recording Academy will reveal the 65th Annual Grammy Awards nominees across all 91 categories live from the Grammy Museum on Nov. 15 at 11 a.m. CT.

Through the Academy’s annual process of accepting proposals from the creators and professionals that make up its membership body, several landmark changes went into effect in June for the upcoming awards. Among them, five new categories have been created, including Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical; Best Alternative Music Performance; Best Americana Performance; Best Score Soundtrack For Video Games And Other Interactive Media; and Best Spoken Word Poetry Album.

Additionally, a new Special Merit Award will be given out for Best Song For Social Change, which celebrates a song that addresses a timely social issue and promotes understanding, peace building and empathy.

“We are so excited to celebrate all of this year’s Grammy nominees who contributed to such a prolific year in music,” shares Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. “With the addition of five new categories and a new, diverse class of voting members, we look forward to honoring all of this incredible music and the people who made it.”

The event will stream live at live.Grammy.com and on the Academy’s socials. The full list of nominees will be published on the Grammy website immediately following the presentation. Presenters will be revealed in the coming weeks.

The 65th Annual Grammy Awards will return to Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, Feb. 5. The show will broadcast live on CBS and stream live and on-demand on Paramount+ at 7 p.m. CT.

Multi-Platinum trio Cheat Codes are making the trek into the country music scene with their debut country album, One Night in Nashville – Presented by the Cheat Codes, available on Jan. 27, 2023.

Coming off of their last single with Russell Dickerson, the album’s next release, “Lose You,” features country superstar Jimmie Allen.

“I’ve been a fan of Cheat Codes for a while,” Allen explains. “They did a song with my friends Lee Brice and Lindsay Ell, and the co-writers of ‘Lose You’ are friends of mine–Nick Bailey and Levon Grey. Man, I get to work with Cheat Codes and do a song written by two of my friends? I’m all about it! We’re just glad for the song to be out for the world to hear it.”

After many albums in the EDM, pop and rock genres, the upcoming project signals a further journey into their signature genre bending. Having each been influenced early on in their lives by country music to some degree, the trio knew country was their next step after a trip to Nashville, when it all started to come together.

What followed was a special song with Lee Brice and Lindsay Ell and an invitation to play with them at Stagecoach 2022. From there, collaborations started to happen and the official album was born.

“We’ve always wanted to be able to experiment, push the envelope, and blur the lines between different types of music,” the band shares. “Going to Nashville after us making one country song turned into us wanting to make an entire album with country artists. We knew it was a different world musically from the one we lived in but we knew we wanted to be a part of it.”

One Night in Nashville – Presented by the Cheat Codes Track List:
Cheat Codes x Little Big Town x Bryn Christopher – Never Loved You Again
Cheat Codes x Lee Brice x Lindsay Ell- How do you Love
Cheat Codes x Jimmie Allen – Lose You
Cheat Codes x Lady A – Something’s Coming
Cheat Codes x Matt Stell – When You Know
Cheat Codes x Russell Dickerson – I Remember
Cheat Codes x Maddie & Tae – Already Hungover
Cheat Codes x Mitchell Tenpenny – What’s It Gonna Take
Cheat Codes x Brett Young – Hurt That You Gave Me
Cheat Codes x Mackenzie Porter – One Night Left
Cheat Codes x Dolly Parton – Bets on Us

Russell Dickerson Scores Fifth Platinum Track With ‘She Likes It’

Russell Dickerson has notched his fifth Platinum single with “She Likes It,” featuring Jake Scott. The Triple Tigers recording artist wrote the hit alongside Scott and Josh Kerr.

This new RIAA-certification follows Dickerson’s previous chart success with “Yours” (3x Platinum), “Blue Tacoma” (2x Platinum), “Every Little Thing” (Platinum), and “Love You Like I Used To” (Platinum).

Dickerson’s latest song “Blame It On Being Young” is out now, and his new album Russell Dickerson will be released on Nov. 4.

 

 

Indie Publishing Companies Bring Back Horton Hears A Hit Publisher Crawl

Nashville’s top independent publishing companies came together to revive the Horton Hears A Hit publisher crawl last week. The round-robin style pitch meetings connected music publishers along Music Row’s 16th and Horton Avenues with country artists and their A&R representatives.

This year’s participants included Big Machine Music, Big Yellow Dog, Creative Nation, Jody Williams Songs, Sea Gayle Music, SMACK Songs, Big Loud and Tape Room Music along with recording artists Dustin Lynch, Maddie & Tae, Priscilla Block, John Morgan, and more.

 

 

Jelly Roll Surprised With Gold Certification Plaque For ‘Son Of A Sinner’

Jelly Roll was surprised with a Gold certification plaque for his Top 10 and climbing country hit “Son of A Sinner,” at the Grand Ole Opry on Wednesday night (Oct. 26). The Stoney Creek Records artist has held the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Emerging Artist for 11 weeks.

His first headlining show at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, benefitting Impact Youth Outreach, will take place on Dec. 9.

 

 

Blessing Offor Makes Grand Ole Opry Debut

Rising artist Blessing Offor made his Grand Ole Opry debut on Tuesday, Oct. 25.

On the Opry stage, he performed a stripped-down version of his track “Tin Roof,” before bringing the full band on to play his Top 5 radio single “Brighter Days,” which received a standing ovation from the crowd.

His full-length debut album My Tribe will be available on all major music streaming platforms on Jan. 13.

 

 

Granville Automatic Joins Bonfire Music Group’s Touring Roster

Bonfire Music Group has added Nashville duo Granville Automatic to their touring roster.

Granville Automatic is made up of singer-songwriter Vanessa Olivarez and songwriter-guitarist Elizabeth Elkins. They have toured extensively for over a decade, often logging more than 100 dates per year, including recent support for The SteelDrivers. Bonfire agent Joe Lekkas will handle the group’s U.S. and Canadian dates.

“Bonfire Touring is excited to add the talented Granville Automatic to our roster,” Lekkas says. “I am looking forward to working with Elizabeth and Vanessa and continuing to expand the foundation they’ve built.”

The duo plans to hit the road in 2023 in support of their recent album Tiny Televisions, a companion piece to the duo’s first book, Hidden History of Music Row.