Loretta Lynn. Photo: Les Leverett

Country icon Loretta Lynn turned 90 today (April 14).

Sony Music Entertainment and Legacy Recordings are celebrating the Country Music Hall of Famer’s birthday by dedicating a blossoming magnolia tree located outside the Frist Learning Center on the Cheekwood Estate & Gardens grounds in Nashville in her honor. The tree bears a bronze tribute plaque with the inscription: “Loretta Lynn (b. April 14, 1932) / Coal Miner’s Daughter / Music Icon / Celebrating Her 90th Birthday.”

“For generations of fans, Loretta Lynn is the heart and soul of American country music, the woman who showed us the untapped possibilities of the genre through the genius and direct perspectives of her songs and the integrity of her performances,” said Richard Story, President, Commercial Music Group, SME. “Please join me and everyone in the Sony family in wishing Loretta the happiest of birthdays along with a deep appreciation for all the magic, truth and beauty she’s shown us through her music over the years.”

Additionally, many of Lynn’s fellow artists and friends including Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood, Maren Morris, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, and more, have come together for a special birthday greetings video.

“I am getting so many big birthday wishes!” Lynn shared in a statement. “Thank you, friends, for thinking of me. I’m so happy I get to spend a little more time with you all. My family and I are planning a big dinner and, of course, cake! I love you!”

It was also announced that Lynn is donating items from her personal archives to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Among the artifacts are a 1960s yellow gingham dress sewn by Lynn and a photograph of her wearing the dress while signing autographs; the red gown designed by Lynn’s longtime dressmaker Tim Cobb and worn by her as an honoree at the 26th Kennedy Center Honors in 2003; Lynn’s original handwritten lyrics to her hit single “Fist City;” and the first edition copies of her autobiographies—Coal Miner’s Daughter (1976) and Still Woman Enough (2002)—and more.

“As a little girl, I could never have imagined that I’d write books and wear dresses that would wind up in the Smithsonian. These are the kinds of things that make me realize what an amazing life I’ve been given and grateful for what I’m able to share with the world,” Lynn offered.

Black River Records Adds Whitney Nevitt As Marketing Manager

Whitney Nevitt

Black River Records has added a new face to its marketing team with the addition of Whitney Nevitt as Marketing Manager.

Prior to joining Black River, the Indiana University alumna worked at Premiere Networks for nearly seven years where she most recently served as the Manager, Talent and Brand Integration. In that role, Nevitt worked with Premiere Networks’ national radio shows, including The Bobby Bones Show, CMT After MidNite/CMT Radio Live with Cody Alan, and Most Requested Live with Romeo.

“Whitney brings a seasoned yet fresh approach to music marketing, and her reputation precedes her in all the best ways,” notes Black River Records’ VP of Marketing Tanya Schrage. “I can’t wait to see what she brings to the team!”

“I’m so excited to be joining the Black River team,” adds Nevitt. “Having seen firsthand through my experiences in radio the meteoric rise of Kelsea Ballerini‘s career over the years, I can’t wait to contribute to the success of the rest of their incredible roster of rising artists, including Ray Fulcher, MaRynn Taylor, and Josiah Siska. I want to thank Tanya for believing me to be the right fit for this role, and I look forward to working with her and the rest of the Black River family.”

Nevitt reports to Schrage and works out of Black River Entertainment’s Music Row offices. Reach her at wnevitt@blackriverent.com or by phone at 615-780-3070.

Gene Watson Celebrates 60 Years Of His Artistry At The Grand Ole Opry

Gene Watson with Dan Rogers, Vice President/Executive Producer, Grand Ole Opry. Photo: Stephen Shepherd

The Grand Ole Opry recently honored member and legendary vocalist Gene Watson, who is celebrating 60 years in the music business.

During a performance on April 8, Dan Rogers, Vice President/Executive Producer of the Grand Ole Opry, presented Watson with the plaque after his show-stopping rendition of “Farewell Party” to commemorate his six decades as an artist, receiving a standing ovation from the packed Opry House audience.

Watson’s single “If It’s That Easy” was released to radio in 1962 via Sun Valley Records. Since then, he has charted 75 titles including 23 top 10 hits, six No. 1 country singles and five No. 1 gospel records.

Watson will release his new album, Outside the Box, this fall, as well as hit the road throughout 2022, adding more dates to his “60th Anniversary Tour.” For a full list of tour dates, click here.

Vanessa Beeswanger Joins Soundstripe As VP, Marketing

Vanessa Beeswanger

Soundstripe, a provider of high-quality, royalty-free music, video, and sound effects for creators, has hired music and tech industry veteran Vanessa Beeswanger as VP of Marketing. In this role, she will bring her experience from Splice, Kobalt Music, Microsoft, and more, overseeing all of the company’s marketing efforts, including brand and product marketing, customer acquisition, content marketing, PR, and communications.

Prior to joining Soundstripe, Beeswanger held multiple leadership roles in both music and tech for startups and large corporations. She most recently served as VP of Marketing at Splice, a leading platform for music creators, driving all aspects of the company’s brand, product, content, and performance marketing. Previously, Beeswanger was VP of Marketing at creator-centric music company Kobalt, where she led marketing efforts for AWAL’s music distribution services, helping to position the division for its eventual acquisition by Sony Music Entertainment. Beeswanger also served at Microsoft as a Marketing Communications Manager and later, a Technical Audience Marketing Manager.

“Vanessa brings an exciting breadth of marketing experience within the creator, music, and tech space to Soundstripe, and has an exciting vision for empowering even more creators through the Soundstripe brand,” says Drew Weaver, Chief Operating Officer at Soundstripe. “Her experience leading cross-functional marketing teams will be instrumental as we continue our rapid growth by providing high-quality music, sound effects, and video clips to creators at all stages, from solo social media influencers to teams within Fortune 500 enterprises.”

“I am thrilled to join Soundstripe, as I share a deep passion for the company’s mission to ‘Keep Creators Creating,’” adds Beeswanger. “The creator economy is booming and Soundstripe has established a name for itself as a provider of high-quality music and other fully licensed media, becoming an essential resource for YouTube and Instagram creators, video filmmakers and editors, Twitch streamers, podcasters, and more. I am excited to help the brand continue to grow and expand its reach to empower even more creators worldwide.”

Anthem Hosts “Songs & Stories” Writer’s Round With Kelly Archer, Trea Landon, More

Pictured (L-R): Kelly Archer, Dan Hill, Trea Landon and Adam Hambrick

Anthem Entertainment brought together award-winning songwriters Dan Hill, Kelly Archer, Trea Landon and Adam Hambrick last Thursday (April 7) to perform at Novel Edgehill in support of the W.O Smith School of Music. The event served as part of Anthem’s “Songs & Stories” program.

Throughout the evening, over $1,500 was raised and a new songwriter mentorship program blossomed to help bring music education to underprivileged kids in the Nashville community.

Breland performs onstage for “Breland & Friends” concert to benefit the Oasis Center, sponsored by Amazon Music at Ryman Auditorium on April 12, 2022. Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images for “Breland & Friends”

Rising country and R&B artist Breland took over Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium Tuesday night (April 12) as he hosted “Breland & Friends,” benefitting Middle Tennessee’s Oasis Center.

Joined by 17 of country music’s biggest and fastest-rising stars, all ticket sales and contributions went towards supporting the Oasis Center and its ongoing mission. The Oasis Center is a nationally-recognized organization which serves to help displaced young people in Middle Tennessee by focusing on promoting safety, belonging, empowerment, and generosity.

“This is really crazy. I never thought I would be able to sell out the Ryman this early in my career… It only took 17 other artists to help me do it!” Breland quipped. “We are out here for a really great cause—the Oasis Center in Nashville—to help teens in crisis. They’ll be accepting donations, but I just wanted to say that it is for a great cause and y’all came here for the right show. You’re going to have a great time. ”

Kicking things off, Breland opened the high-energy, stacked set by bringing out one-third of Lady A, Charles Kelley, as the pair gave their own version of the trio’s hit song “Need You Now.” Dripping in pitch-perfect harmonies, the two also shared a never-before-heard tune called “Told You I Could Drink,” which they wrote together.

Breland and Brittney Spencer. Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images for “Breland & Friends”

Next on the docket was a chilling duet performance with rising country/Americana sensation Brittney Spencer, who sang a captivating ode to anxiety.

“Brittney and I met about a year and a half ago, and the night that we met we had a four or five hour long conversation of just bearing our hearts and souls. We didn’t have any intention of writing, but we ended up writing this song,” Breland recalled. “Sometimes you write songs and you know they’re special but you don’t know where you’ll have the opportunity to [perform it]. The Oasis Center does a lot of work with teens that are dealing with mental health issues, anxieties, and things like that, so I thought it would be fitting to sing this tonight.”

“It was our first time meeting and he came to my studio apartment and we wrote a song. We wanted to write a song that talked about anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. I know a lot of people in this room can relate, so after we finished we realized that it wasn’t like anything that we had done before but we thought it was important,” Spencer added. “To be able to share it tonight is really exciting for us because I don’t think either of us ever thought it would happen.”

The song, which could be called “Truly Sorry,” was backed by a lone acoustic guitar. You could have heard a pin drop in the beloved mother church of country music.

RaeLynn and Breland. Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images for “Breland & Friends”

The night rolled on with infectious performances from the glittery Raelynn, the soulful Lily Rose, Australian-duo Seaforth, up-and-coming trio Restless Road, and singer-songwriter Tyler Braden who teased a song that is set to be included on Breland’s upcoming debut album, which is slated for release this June.

Also making appearances throughout the evening were multi-Platinum entertainer Kane Brown who gave a rousing performance of his smash duet “Famous Friends,” as well as Thomas Rhett singing his newest release with Breland called “Praise The Lord,” which brought the crowd to their feet. Iconic rapper and longtime country music collaborator Nelly also showed up to bring a burst of energy and funk to the set with Breland on “High Horse.”

The last 30 minutes of the set brought quite the punch with special guests such as Dierks Bentley, Jimmie Allen and Lathan Warlick, Mickey Guyton, and Russell Dickerson & Tyler Hubbard showing up to each take their turn singing with the young entertainer.

Bentley took the stage to sing a special duet version of his song “Riser,” as well as their No. 1 hit song “Beers On Me.”

Dierks Bentley and Breland. Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images for “Breland & Friends”

“Dierks has had 20+ No. 1s at country radio, but I just want to be really transparent and honest here. We look for artists in town and in country music to actively show their allyship through collaboration and through opening up their tours. Dierks took this song to country radio with me on it knowing that I had never been to country radio before,” Breland explained. “You took it to No. 1 and it’s my first No. 1 at country radio.”

Allen and Warlick joined for a debut performance of “Somebody” from Allen’s collaborative album Bettie James (Deluxe), which featured stirring three-part harmonies and a welcomed fusion of funk, soul, and country sounds. Allen also delivered a solo, acoustic version of his No. 1 hit “Freedom Was A Highway” for the packed audience.

Guyton lent her vocals on Breland’s debut song, “Cross Country,” while Dickerson and Hubbard brought the party on “It’s About Time.” Dickerson also stayed to continue the highwire energy on Breland’s “Throw It Back.”

Breland and Sam Hunt. Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images for “Breland & Friends”

“I just wanted to say, before we [sing this last song], that this has been such an incredible night. Thank you guys for coming out here and for supporting the Oasis Center and live music,” Breland shared. “The first song that I ever put out is a song called ‘My Truck’ and I had the chance to get somebody on it that really put me over the top and helped me move to Nashville.”

Breland brought out the final special guest of the night, Sam Hunt, to wrap up the hit-filled set with his breakthrough single “My Truck.”

Pictured (L-R): George Couri (888), Nate Towne (WME), Corey Kent, Hayley Riddle (WME), Chris Fox (888). Photo: Jen Kuhl

Singer-songwriter Corey Kent has signed with WME for global representation. He will work with agents Nate Towne and Hayley Riddle alongside his management team at Triple 8 Management.

In 2019, Kent signed a publishing deal with Combustion Music and has since written songs for Kolby Cooper, Brandon Jenkins, and Clark Green’s hit song, “Hit You Where It Hurts.” In 2021, he was providing support on tours with artists such as Parker McCollum, Eli Young Band, Cody Johnson, and Koe Wetzel. Kent’s song “Gold” captured 2.5 million streams and crowd favorite, “Ain’t My Day,” quickly amassed 2 million streams.

In December of 2021, Kent released his sophomore album, ’21, making its way up to the No. 4 debut album on Spotify in the US. The album’s focus track, “There’s Always Next Year” found its way onto numerous playlists, such as New Music Friday, Country Risers, Country Caffeine, Texas Music Now, Next from Nashville, and Texas Forever. He was also named Country Riser of the Month for March 2022, a program launched by Apple Music in February 2022 with Hailey Whitters.

Kent recently released his new single, “Wild as Her,” produced by Chris Farren and published through Combustion Music. The track has already garnered over 17 million streams since its release on March 4 and is steadily climbing the streaming charts. The track also hit the No. 1 spot on Apple Music’s Country Chart, landed at No. 7 on Spotify’s US Viral Top 50 Chart, and hit No. 36 on Spotify’s Global Viral Top 50 Chart as the only country act.

“I’m excited about our partnership with Nate Towne and the team at WME!” says Kent. “I was looking for a team that was passionate about our music, understood our vision, had the capacity to take us on and could match how hard we were already working. That’s exactly what we found in Nate at WME”.

“We’re thrilled to be a part of Corey’s team and to welcome such a talented singer-songwriter to our roster,” adds Towne. “Corey’s had tremendous success out on the road and we look forward to building on that.”