Flatland Cavalry. Photo: Fernando Garci.

Flatland Cavalry’s new album, Welcome to Countryland, will be released July 2 and is available for pre-order now. In advance of the release, the album’s first single, “Some Things Never Change,” is out today (May 14).

Produced by Jake Gear and recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios, Welcome to Countryland showcases 14 new songs, including collaborations with Hailey Whitters and Kaitlin Butts. Through this project, the band hopes to make their mark on the country music landscape, exploring some of life’s most universal themes with their sense of storytelling and musicianship.

“We spent our time off the road in 2020 working diligently towards this new record. The support from our fans, friends and family gave us hope to ‘go for broke’ and pour our hearts and souls into the writing and creating of this new batch of songs,” shares lead singer Cleto Cordero. “I think it is our favorite record that we’ve created to date because it was made during such a critical time in our journey, which, I think, brought a whole new sense of wonder and significance to the project. We can’t wait to give our fans what we believe is our most meaningful album to date!”

Since forming in 2012, Flatland Cavalry has toured relentlessly across the country, building a passionate grassroots fanbase as they went. Based in both Texas and Nashville, Flatland Cavalry consists of Cordero (vocals, acoustic guitar), Jason Albers (drums, background vocals), Jonathan Saenz (bass, background vocals), Reid Dillon (electric guitar), Wesley Hall (fiddle) and Adam Gallegos (piano, keys, mandolin, banjo).

Welcome to Countryland Track List:
1. Country Is… – Cleto Cordero, P. Palomino
2. Some Things Never Change – Cleto Cordero, Ava Suppelsa
3. A Cowboy Knows How – Luke Combs, Dan Isbell, Jonathan Singleton
4. Gettin’ By – Cleto Cordero, Jason Nix
5. Well Spent Time – Cleto Cordero
6. Life Without You (feat. Kaitlin Butts) – Cleto Cordero, Brian Keane
7. No Ace In The Hole – Jason Albers, Cleto Cordero, Reid Dillon
8. It’s Good To Be Back (Round Here Again) – Cleto Cordero
9. Tilt Your Chair Back – Cleto Cordero, Ryan Necci
10. Fallen Star – Cleto Cordero
11. Daydreamer – Cleto Cordero, Adam Landry
12. Dancin’ Around A Fire – Cleto Cordero, P. Palomino
13. Off Broadway – Cleto Cordero
14. …Meantime (feat. Hailey Whitters) – Cleto Cordero, Lainey Wilson

According to the new CDC health and safety guidelines for COVID-19, any individual who has been fully vaccinated no longer needs to wear a mask whether indoors or outdoors.

In addition to the new mask protocols, fully vaccinated individuals will also be able to bypass social distancing procedures, except under certain circumstances where it is required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial law or regulation. Similarly, businesses and workplaces can still uphold their own protocols regarding COVID-19 regulations.

President Biden took to social media to share the news and to encourage those who have not yet gotten vaccinated to do so.

As more people have received their vaccinations, we have begun to see guidelines ease and a slight return to normalcy. In the music world, that has taken shape in the form of tour announcements for artists like Dan + Shay, Luke Bryan, Thomas Rhett, Eric Church, and many more.

Visit the CDC website for more information on the new CDC guidelines or to find a vaccination site near you.

Pictured (L-R): Rory Levine, Vice President, Digital Strategy & Engagement; Haley Montgomery, Manager, Awards & Membership; and David Sassano, Executive Assistant to Academy of Country Music CEO, Damon Whiteside.

The Academy of Country Music has announced new hires within three departments. Rory Levine joins as Vice President, Digital Strategy & Engagement; Haley Montgomery has been named Manager, Awards & Membership; and David Sassano is now Executive Assistant to Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside.

Levine joins the Academy of Country Music most recently from The Atlantic where he led consumer recruitment and registration efforts, supporting a slate of 150+ premiere live journalism events staged across the U.S. Prior to that, he served as Vice President, Marketing and Audience Engagement at CMT, heading consumer-facing advertising campaigns, promotional partnerships, and social media activation. Over the last year, he has worked as a marketing and brand strategy consultant for a variety of businesses, including the Grand Ole Opry, Blake Shelton’s Ole Red restaurants, public-private partnership state organization Launch Tennessee, and user-generated content showcase tool TINT.

In his role at the Academy, Levine is responsible for building and executing strategies for the organization’s digital portfolio, aiming to build and develop authentic communities across platforms. Levine reports to Whiteside, and can be reached at rory@acmcountry.com.

Originally from Huntsville, Alabama, Montgomery joins the Academy of Country Music as Manager, Awards & Membership. Previous stops for Montgomery include Opry Entertainment Group (OEG) as Manager for the Artist & Label Relations team, where she served as a liaison between artists’ teams and the various properties across the OEG portfolio. Montgomery spent three years working on the strategic partnership team at the Country Music Association. There, she managed the assets owed to CMA’s 50+ brand partners across the team for all of their tent pole events. Her previous personal accounts have included Vera Bradley, Playstation, Crocs, KIND bars, Philosophy, Rent the Runway, Monster, Cracker Barrel and more.

In her role as Manager, Montgomery is responsible for supporting all initiatives and development of the Academy’s membership, as well as spearheading the Awards & Voting processes. Montgomery reports to Tommy Moore, Vice President, Artist & Industry Relations and Board & Governance and can be reached at haley.montgomery@acmcountry.com.

Sassano joins the Academy of Country Music as Executive Assistant to Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside. Previously, Sassano spent 14 years at Warner Music Group as Director of Operations & Administration. Sassano has been responsible for many duties ranging from supporting C-level executives, organizing board meetings and managing major office moves both in New York and Nashville.

In his current role as Executive Assistant, he will provide administrative support to the CEO, Board of Directors and Executive Team. He reports directly to Whiteside and can be reached at david.sassano@acmcountry.com.

“The Academy is thrilled to welcome Rory, Haley and David to the team,” says Whiteside. “Each of these professionals brings with them valuable expertise and knowledge of the country music industry that we know will provide a fresh perspective to the ACM team, helping to propel us forward in our future endeavors!”

Anderson Benson’s George Anderson and Brent Daughrity on the floor of Lloyd’s of London

Anderson Benson, a privately-held insurance and risk management firm headquartered in Nashville, has been appointed as a Coverholder by Lloyd’s of London for a worldwide Media Liability E&O (errors and omissions) program.

Anderson Benson has been covering songwriting, composing, producing, creating, and distribution; licensed or original music content; all forms of dissemination including online, commercial release, streaming, TV commercials, background music for programs and movies; actions for emotional distress arising from the music content and associated advertising and promotional videos and more since inception.

The firm’s coverage is made up of Music, Publishing, Film, and Social Influencing and is tailored for each sector including songwriters, composers, music catalogues, artists, record labels, music publishers and social influencers. Anderson Benson’s coverage is broad in form but the key component is music copyright, including affirmative cover for royalties forming part of a damages settlement.

Now, as an appointed coverholder by Lloyd’s of London, Anderson Benson has expanded its coverage and now has the authority to underwrite, make decisions and issue coverage in-house.

“This coverage is critical in today’s environment for a lot of reasons,” says George Anderson, president and co-founder of the firm. “It had not been modernized in years, so this is revolutionary from an insurance and risk management standpoint in that it’s been years since this coverage has been updated. The world changes about every six months now, and this coverage is very nimble in that way. It’s changing on a monthly basis and our coverage very fluid on terms. Social influencers were not even a part of this a year ago, now it’s a very large part of it.”

Brent Daughrity, a partner at Anderson Benson, speaks on the value of social media content as intellectual property, and how social influencers can benefit from protection. “It’s no different than a song. It’s original content that is filmed, produced and released. The big thing is protecting them in the event that a suit is brought alleging infringement in some way.”

Additionally, Anderson Benson can protect social influencers from regulatory fines—a fee that can be accrued when a social media post does not disclose a paid advertising agreement—as well as NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and future unknown risks.

“What we have done is created wording within the policy forms to pick up these new exposures,” Daughrity says. “Prior, the forms were really black and white, associated with a true songwriter or true film producer. That’s the flexibility of being appointed Coverholders with Lloyd’s. We have the ability to manuscript coverage as needed.”

Anderson sums, “Copyright infringement, intellectual property, errors and omissions, those are all critical risks and perils that protect anybody’s balance sheet—whether it be the owner of a catalog, a songwriter, a social influencer, or anyone in between.”