Randall King Celebrates Upcoming Shot Glass Release With Invite-Only Show

Just one day after making his Grand Ole Opry debut, Warner Music Nashville’s Randall King celebrated his forthcoming major label debut album, Shot Glass, with an invite-only show at the Nashville Palace on March 16.

Industry and fans alike gathered for King’s 30 minute set, which was filled with honky tonk tracks from the upcoming release. The debut record will be available everywhere tomorrow (March 18).

 

Kat & Alex, Shelby Darrall To Join Restless Road As Direct Support

Restless Road, composed of Zach Beeken, Colton Pack and Garrett Nichols, have announced the direct support for their upcoming “Bar Friends Tour.”

Kat & Alex and Shelby Darrall will join the trio on the upcoming trek. The tour will kick off in Milwaukee on April 6 with visits to New York, Chicago, Boston and Dallas, as well as sold out shows in Nashville and Pittsburgh. For a full list of dates, click here.

Restless Road’s first official radio single, “Growing Old With You,” is set to impact stations on March 28 via Sony Music Nashville’s RCA Nashville imprint. The song previously held the No. 1 slot on Billboard’s Digital Country Song Sales chart.

“It really does feel like a dream come true to be able to launch our own headlining tour and have our single be available at radio,” notes Pack.

“Thank you to the songwriters and for everyone who has shown us so much love out on the road the last two years, we can’t wait to show you what we can do,” adds Nichols.

 

King Business and Financial Management Moves To New Nashville Office

King Business and Financial Management (KBFM) has moved their Nashville office to a new part of Music City. The office is now located at 509 Craighead St, Suite 110, Nashville, TN 37204.

To christen the new building, KBFM commissioned local graffiti artist Troy Duff to add a custom design of the KBFM logo.

KBFM is an entertainment business and financial management firm providing services to international touring and recording artists, songwriters, producers, publishing companies, record labels and entertainment professionals.

 

Maggie Rose & Wanda Jackson Featured In Pickers Original Vodka Mural Series

Pickers Original Vodka, Tennessee’s first craft vodka, has unveiled the next mural in its ongoing series. The newest installment honors Maggie Rose and Wanda Jackson and is located at Exit/In at 2208 Elliston Place.

The mural series serves to highlight Pennington Distilling Company’s pledge that $1 for every bottle of Pickers Original Vodka sold at Middle Tennessee bars, restaurants, and venues that support live music will be donated to Music Health Alliance. For every $1 donation, MHA is able to provide $30 in life-saving healthcare resources.

“It was an honor to be featured in a mural on the exterior of the historic Exit/In, but what made it even more special was the fact that I was pictured next to rockabilly hero and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Wanda Jackson,” shares Rose. “Thanks to Pickers Vodka for letting me be a part of their campaign supporting the wonderful work of the Music Health Alliance.”

Jeff and Jenny Pennington, co-founders of Pickers Vodka, add: “We are excited to honor Maggie Rose and Wanda Jackson with this mural at Exit/In. Also, we are proud to help the Music Health Alliance in their mission to support all musicians for many years to come.”

Pickers Vodka commissioned Nashville mural artist Bryan Deese to launch the mural series in 2020. So far, the series has featured LadyCouch, Moon Taxi, Chris Schruggs, Guthrie Trap, Sam Bush & Kendell Marvel, Alyanna Royale and Jerry Pentecost. Additional murals will be commissioned through 2022.

SOLID is holding its 2022 Music Row Madness fundraiser on May 17 at Nashville’s Topgolf.

Registration for the 12th annual fundraising event is now open to the public for teams of six to eight. Participants are required to meet a $1,000 donation minimum to play. Spectators are also able to purchase tickets for $35 in advance or $45 at the door.

The team registration deadline is Monday, May 9. To register your team, click here.

“Being able to announce Music Row Madness as our first and largest fundraiser during our 25th anniversary year makes it all feel real. We are finally enjoying in person events like we were doing before the pandemic,” says Avery King, who is serving her second term as President. “I have full faith in our membership, alumni and the rest of our Nashville community in coming out to support our SOLID Shares partners and helping us reach our goal of $60,000.”

Proceeds from Music Row Madness will go to benefit the 2022 nonprofit SOLID Shares Partners: ACM Lifting Lives, Equity Alliance,  Music Makes Us, The Onsite Foundation, and  The Store

SOLID is a Nashville-based organization for developing music business professionals dedicated to improving the future success of the music industry. Over the last five years, the organization has donated over $400,000 to local charities and nonprofits and more than 300 hours of their time to the Nashville community.

UTA has added Mary Allen to its team of Music City agents.

Allen previously worked as a founding agent at Mint Talent Group. Before Mint, she spent six years as a booking agent at Madison House in Boulder, Colorado. Her roster includes French electronic music artist CloZee, The Polish Ambassador, The Funk Hunters, Apashe, Tripp St., Memba, Rome in Silver, NotLö, Veil, sumthin sumthin, Player Dave, and more.

Aaron Arkin and Vatana Shaw have also joined the company as a Music Crossover Agent and Music Brand Partnerships Agent, respectively. Both of them will be based in Los Angeles.

“We are thrilled to welcome Mary, Aaron and Vatana to the UTA team,” shares David Zedeck, Partner and Co-Head of Global Music. “Their combined expertise in touring, development of music-driven content and brand partnerships will be integral as we continue to expand the scope and resources of our music department.”

Allen’s addition follows a series of new hires over the last 18 months that include Scott Clayton, Nashville office co-heads Jeffrey Hasson and Matthew Morgan, and Nashville-based agents Brett Saliba, Matt Korn, Zach Hartley, Emily Wright, Emily LaRose, Marissa Smith, Elisa Vazzana and Buster Phillips.

Morgan Wallen kicked off his three-night stay at Nashville’s Bridgestone arena with a jam-packed evening of music on Wednesday (March 16).

His entertaining show covered a lot of his 30-song, top-selling sophomore project, Dangerous: The Double Album. The project, which topped the all-genre Billboard 200 Albums year-end chart with 3.2 million units sold in 2021, also just won Album of the Year at the 2022 ACM Awards.

Interestingly, the singer started his set tenderly, rising up onto the stage, seated at a piano to play his most recent No. 1 hit, “Sand In My Boots.” Wallen donned a brown corduroy pearl-snap shirt, jeans and Tecovas, and smiled up into the crowd who cheered furiously.

After ramping things up for “Something Country” and “Up Down,” Wallen addressed the hometown crowd.

“My name is Morgan Wallen. I really appreciate you being here tonight,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who believed in me for a long time in the building tonight, a lot of people who have been through a lot with me. This is very special to me.

“Most of the songs we’re going to play tonight just won ACM Album of the Year,” he added. “And it wouldn’t have been possible without y’all.”

Wallen played 17 songs from Dangerous, in addition to some older material. He sounded great throughout the night, sometimes with an even more pronounced country accent than what’s featured on the recordings. Fans raged for his redneck-and-proud anthems, “Still Goin Down,” “Country Ass Shit,” and “Somethin’ Country.” The women in the audience, of which there were many, squealed over his romantic side on “Silverado For Sale,” “Somebody’s Problem,” “More Than My Hometown,” and “Seven Summers.”

Wallen also kept the visual affects to a minimum. The two big screens stayed on him most of the time, and his stage lit up with flames and smoke on his more hard-hitting tracks. But as it turns out, he didn’t need much pizzazz. If Wallen and his arsenal of streaming hits weren’t enough, he enlisted a lot of special guests throughout the night.

Frequent collaborator and label-mate Ernest, who Wallen referenced throughout the night when telling stories behind some of the songs, finally joined him on stage to perform their collaboration, “Flower Shops.” Bridgestone Arena went wild for Ernest, and the Nashville native gleamed back.

Jimmie Allen joined him at one point to perform a rousing version of Wallen’s debut single, “The Way I Talk.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was when Country Music Hall of Famer Ronnie Dunn casually strolled out onstage to help Wallen sing “Talkin’ Tennessee.” The two then traded verses on “Neon Moon,” with Wallen grinning ear to ear at the legend. “You’re killin’ it man!” Dunn told him.

Both Hardy and Larry Fleet, who served as openers for the show, re-joined Wallen at some point to sing with the star.

A highlight of the evening came with Wallen’s cover of Jason Isbell‘s “Cover Me Up.” He instructed concert-goers to pull out their cell phones to light the arena as he sang. His signature rasp, paired with thousands of people singing along, made for a special moment.

Wallen closed his set with an encore of “Heartless,” his new single “Wasted On You,” and his first No. 1, “Whiskey Glasses.”

Throughout the night, Wallen spoke with a lot of pride for his homestate, and a lot of love for his fans.

“For me it was always music and baseball,” he said. “I always imagined myself playing the World Series or something. I never thought I’d be in Bridgestone Arena singing music, that’s for sure. But it feels like the World Series for me tonight.”

Hardy was also thrilled to play for a Nashville crowd. The singer-songwriter leaned heavily into his rock sensibilities throughout his high-energy set, even playing his brand new rock single “Sold Out.” He was visibly psyched performing “4X4” and “Unapologetically Country As Hell,” showing off his significant growth in confidence as a showman.

“I’m very thankful to call myself a hit songwriter at this point in my career,” Hardy told the crowd before performing a hit he co-wrote for Blake Shelton, “God’s Country.” He also brought special guests for the first Nashville night. Lauren Alain and Devin Dawson joined him for their hit song, “One Beer.”

Larry Fleet got the evening started with some songs from his first full-length album, Stack Of Records. Later he joined Wallen onstage for his critically-acclaimed track “Where I Find God.”

Wallen, Hardy, and Fleet will hit the Nashville stage again Thursday and Friday night. Tickets are still available here.