Drake White is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day tonight with the one-year anniversary of his weekly “Wednesday Night Therapy” livestream shows. White and his band, The Big Fire, will celebrate the milestone with this week’s special guest, Hayes Carll.

White was one of the first artists to launch a streaming live show as the gravity of the pandemic became apparent, kicking off the hour-long shows on March 18, 2020. Kip Moore, Colbie Caillat, Frankie Ballard, Dillon Carmichael, Ryan Berg of The Voice, and Hannah Dasher are among the many artists who have joined White at his Whitewood Hollow barn in Nashville for a “Wednesday Night Therapy” session.

In partnership with #SaveOurStages, The Cadillac Three has released their new video for “Long After Last Call,” sending out a startling reminder of the empty independent venues across the globe.

The Nashville-based band released two records in 2020, including Country Fuzz and Tabasco & Sweet Tea. They also live-streamed concerts through Country Fuzz Presents, in an effort to support local venues through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The music video, filmed in Sturgis, South Dakota before the pandemic surged across the world, features TC3 frontman Jaren Johnston strumming through “Long After Last Call” as director/producer Dylan Rucker captures the intimate scene that was later expected to be edited with additional footage. But as dates were postponed and then cancelled, TC3 found themselves moving into new creative spaces and adjusting to life off the road.

“We shot Jaren’s performance in September 2019 with the intention of adding in more context once we got back to Nashville at the end of our tour. Kelby [Ray] and I were going to be the bartenders closing down the bar while Jaren played in the empty room at the end of the night, but then the holidays happened, we started the Country Fuzz Tour and COVID hit,” says drummer Neil Mason. “We uncovered what we had recently and really loved how it felt, taking us right back to being on tour, but now, seeming to have foreshadowed all the empty venues around the world currently. Without independent clubs like these, The Cadillac Three wouldn’t exist. If you can, we hope you’ll help us support them too through the NIVA Emergency Relief Fund.”

This week, the ACM nominated band is highlighting Nashville’s Exit/In, renting out their marquee to coincide with the release of “Long After Last Call.” The beloved institution recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, opening in 1971 and becoming an integral part of independent venues around Music City. As the pandemic and the impending building sale have the doors closed, owner Chris Cobb and his wife Telisha hope of opening once again.

SoundExchange has upgraded its data exchange system for record labels and music publishers.

Called the Common Works Registration Pre-Fill, the new feature improves the compatibility of data that flows through SoundExchange’s Music Data Exchange application, a centralized system that facilitates the exchange of sound recording and publishing data before recordings are released in the market.

The feature integrates CWR data into the MDX workflow, simplifying the data submission process for publishers. Publishers will now be able to make claims in MDX using pre-populated data from their CWR files. For previously submitted CWR files, publishers will be able to respond to requests for data in less than a minute, and publishers submitting new CWR files will be able to respond within 24 hours of submission.

The upgrade will create greater efficiencies in the data exchange between labels and publishers and is part of a multi-year effort to continue leveraging the use of data to streamline systems and increase transparency across the music industry.

“The integration of CWR submissions represents an important step in the evolution of MDX,” says SoundExchange Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Anjula Singh. “By empowering labels and publishers to share data with greater ease and efficiency, we are laying the groundwork for improved data and transparency, not only within MDX but also within the larger music industry.”

To access the new feature, users must have a registered account with MDX and a CWR feed set up within the system. Non-MDX users can request an MDX account for free, while existing users who are not yet submitting CWRs through MDX can contact info@musicdataexchange.com to set up their feed. Users who are already submitting CWRs through MDX can start taking advantage of the feature right away.

Multi-Platinum, Grammy award-winning artist CeCe Winans just released her first ever live worship album, Believe For It.

The project, recorded live in Nashville, is Winans’ first non-holiday album since 2017. Believe For It offers 12 engaging tracks from the most-awarded female gospel artist of all time, including some of the biggest songs in Christian music today such as, “King of Glory,” “Hunger,” and “Worthy of It All.” It also features two new songs, “No Greater” and the title track.

Winans recently spoke with MusicRow about making her live album with the complications of a pandemic, leading her non-denominational Nashville Life Church with her husband during this difficult time, and working with Carrie Underwood of her upcoming gospel project.

MusicRow: This is your first ever live album. How do you record a live album during a global pandemic?

Oh man. We were scheduled to do it before the pandemic, I think it was supposed to be last May. Then, of course the pandemic happened in March and everything changed in everybody’s life. So towards the end of the year, we were like, ‘Okay, let’s do it.’ I’m like, ‘Wow, I never thought my live record would happen with no people.’ But it was at the time when you could have a few people there, socially distanced, so we did that. Between the live band singers and the few people we could have, we had a good time. My prayer was just Lord, help me to capture the spirit of joy and peace, everything that we all need right now. Let us do that. When I heard it back, I was just grateful because I felt like God did that for us.

What inspired you to do a live album to begin with?

When I tour live, every night is different. The audience pulls different things out of you. My prayer is that God will fill my mouth and the night will flow and bless those people who are there. Very seldom does one night look like the next—really never.

Church is my favorite place to be. I love coming together, and with last year and how we couldn’t come together the way we were used to coming together, it just showed me even more how much I love coming together. So for this particular live record, making something where people could come together and sing along live was the best way to go.

Kyle Lee produced the album, which marks your first time working with him.

What an awesome guy; an awesome producer, but an incredible heart. He’s worked a lot with Leeland and done a lot of worship live records. I had a great time with him.

Kyle had a co-producer, Dwan Hill. Dwan has been my musical director for a couple of years now. Kyle welcomed him to co-produce with him, because my thing was I wanted to capture what I do [live], the way I do it. In picking the songs and the arrangements, making sure that it was done in a way that everybody can embrace. In music you have different genres, you have different styles, some lean to a certain group of people more than others, and it was important to me that it was a CD produced in a way that every church could embrace.

Speaking of church, tell me about leading your Nashville Life Church through a pandemic.

Wow. It’s been a challenge. You miss people. People have dealt with isolation. We have been back at church, we were out only for a few months. When the pandemic happened, we had never been online. We weren’t streaming online or anything [before then]. So when the pandemic happened, all of a sudden our creative team…it was just amazing how they responded. So out of the pandemic, we now have an incredible online service and incredible creative team. But it’s been rough. It’s been rough because first of all, I’m a church girl. I love being in church. I love seeing my brothers and sisters every Sunday and throughout the week. That’s probably the roughest part for me, but I’m blessed with family. I’m blessed with a husband. I’m blessed with my children. I had my first grand-baby, so it’s not like I’m somewhere lonely. You have a lot of singles and a lot of people whose families are not here, a lot of people who don’t have family and that’s where my heart really breaks. So we are trying to make sure they feel connected by creating things online and having Zoom life groups. All of that has been crucial.

It’s really taught us how to minister in a different way. I choose to look at the goodness that came out of it. It stretched us, but it made us care more.

Why was Believe For It the right title for this album?

First of all, ‘Believe For It’ is the last song that we [chose for the album]. We had chose the songs that we were going to do. and most of the songs are cover songs as, again, we wanted people to sing along. We wanted songs that people already love and know, and we also knew we would do a couple of new ones. But we were really done. If I would have recorded this last year, the time I was supposed to record it, ‘Believe For It’ wouldn’t have been on there. [When we were done with the album,] we listened to it and we were like, ‘This is a good record.’ We really felt great and we were happy with it, but it seemed like we needed one more thing, something that was more of an anthem. So they started writing and sending me different ideas.

When I heard ‘Believe For It’ I was like, ‘That’s it.’ Because this is what the church needs to hear, this is what everybody needs to hear. People who are hurting, people who are looking around and realizing that the family that they entered 2020 with no longer exists, people that have to rebuild their lives, people who are fighting right now for their lives, the sick, they need to believe again. We have to encourage them to have faith in God. This song does that. This song is a powerful song. It’s a decision that people have to make that no matter what they’ve gone through, no matter what they’re feeling like right now, they have to believe because that is what God responds to. He responds to our faith. If I can encourage people to believe, then the Bible says that whatever you pray for, if you believe, it will be yours.

You collaborated with Carrie Underwood on her upcoming gospel project, My Savior.

I had a great time. I met her years ago when she first won on American Idol. I knew she was talented, but right after that, we sang at the White House together so I got a chance to meet her up close and personal. I got a chance to hear her sing and I was like, ‘Oh, she can really sing!’ I’ve loved seeing her career blossom the way it has since then.

I don’t know how I heard it or if somebody sent it to me, but I heard her sing ‘How Great Thou Art.’ There’s no words to express, it was one of the greatest renditions I have ever heard. So I was getting ready to do my Compassion Live concert, and they were asking me what guests I wanted. I told my management I would love to ask Carrie. It was right before Christmas, and they reached out to Carrie’s management and management was like, ‘Oh my God, Carrie is trying to find her because she’s doing a hymns record as she wants CeCe to do a duet with her on ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness.’ But the thing is, we’re almost done and can she do it this week?’ I was in town, and of course I know ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness,’ so I was like, ‘Sure, I’ll do it.’

We had fun. I looked at her and I said, ‘Hey, are you ready for what God will do with this project?’ She looked at me and said, ‘Yeah, I think so.’ Because these songs are powerful, anointed songs and her voice is spectacular. She’s introducing old, powerful songs to a new generation and to a new audience. I think that’s spectacular.