W.S. Holland. Photo: Eddie Michel Azoulay
Longtime Johnny Cash sideman W.S. “Fluke” Holland passed away on Wednesday (Sept. 23) in Jackson, Tennessee, at age 85.
Holland was the superstar’s only drummer throughout his career. He joined Cash’s The Tennessee Two in 1960, which prompted the group’s renaming to The Tennessee Three. He played on all of Cash’s hits thereafter, remaining by his side until Cash retired from the road in 1997.
Born in Saltello, Tennessee in 1935, Holland graduated from high school in Jackson in 1953. He began working with fellow Jackson resident Carl Perkins the following year. When Perkins went to Sun Records in Memphis, Holland accompanied him.
He played on all of the classic Perkins Sun Records sides, including “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Honey Don’t,” “Boppin’ the Blues,” “Glad All Over,” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” and “Matchbox” in 1956-59. He also played on records by various other Sun artists, including Roy Orbison, Carl Mann and Billy Lee Riley.
He was present at the famed late-1956 Million Dollar Quartet session at Sun, which joined the forces of Perkins, Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
Perkins’ increased drinking, a serious automobile accident and waning disc success led to Holland leaving his band in 1959. The following year, Cash hired him to join bassist Marshall Grant and lead guitarist Luther Perkins in his band. Holland’s “train-like” rhythm subsequently became one of the distinguishing elements of Cash’s sound.
His drumming can be heard on “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town,” “Five Feet High and Rising,” “I Got Stripes,” “Ring of Fire,” “Understand Your Man,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Daddy Sang Bass,” “A Boy Named Sue,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” “Man in Black,” “One Piece at a Time” and many more Johnny Cash singles. In addition, Holland is on the landmark Cash LPs Live at Folsom Prison (1968) and Live at San Quentin (1969).
He was also on the 1969 Bob Dylan album Nashville Skyline, alongside Cash. Other stars who recorded with Holland include Dale Watson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Western, Marty Stuart, Johnny Horton, Steve Goodman and George Jones.
After 1997, the drummer toured with his own W.S. Holland Band, extending his career as a working musician to seven decades. He was a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He has been called the most important drummer in country-music history.
In 2019, Holland published his autobiography, entitled Behind The Man in Black: The WS Holland Story. He died of congestive heart failure.
W.S. Fluke Holland is survived by his wife Joyce Lindsey Holland, daughters Kim Holland Lovelace and Krista Holland. The family will receive friends for a visitation on Saturday at West Jackson Baptist Church from 10 a.m. until noon with the funeral beginning at noon. He will be buried at Ridgecrest Cemetery.
Memorial donations can be made in his honor to either West Jackson’s Hartland Ministry or YouthTown of Tennessee.
Unearthed Earl Thomas Conley Tracks Set For Release In New ‘Promised Land’ Collection
/by Lorie HollabaughEarl Thomas Conley fans can rejoice, because some brand new music from the beloved country legend will soon see the light of day. BFD/Audium Nashville is releasing Earl Thomas Conley – Promised Land: The Lost Album, a compilation of a dozen tunes originally recorded by Conley in 2000 and 2001, tomorrow (Sept. 25). Conley died on April 10, 2019, at age 77.
“This collection of music was one of dad’s last endeavors of putting together an album,” Conley’s youngest daughter Erinn Scates said. “Here you will find some of his most thoughtful lyrics and heartfelt mementos. Dad was a man who wore many hats. A painter, a craftsman, a sketch artist but music, most of all, was his truest passion. To his loyal fans, thank you for loving him as much as we did. This last album is dedicated to you and the man who spent the last years of his life devoted to it.”
Conley wrote/co-wrote all 12 Promised Land tracks in the early and mid-‘90s, and recorded some of the songs as demos during that time, but the tracks were never released. At the dawn of the new millennium, Conley circled back to the tunes and cut them.
Earl Thomas Conley – Promised Land: The Lost Album Track Listing:
1. Better Said Than Done (Earl Thomas Conley, Charlie Allen Bouton, Nelson Larkin)
2. Love’s the Only Voice (Earl Thomas Conley, Carole Scates)
3. Workin’ My Way Down (Earl Thomas Conley, Bob Corbin, Bat McGrath)
4. How Much Heartache (Earl Thomas Conley, Ron Reynolds)
5. My Heart’s Just Her Old Stompin’ Ground (Earl Thomas Conley, Ron Reynolds)
6. That’s What a Fool Deserves (Earl Thomas Conley, Ron Reynolds)
7. Takin’ Me Away From the Promised Land (Earl Thomas Conley, Ron Reynolds)
8. Those Clouds I’ve Been Walkin’ On (Earl Thomas Conley, Ron Reynolds)
9. I Still Love the Girl (Earl Thomas Conley, Ron Reynolds)
10. Your Love is Worth It All (Earl Thomas Conley, Nelson Larkin, Ron Reynolds)
11. Physical Attraction (Earl Thomas Conley, Wade Kirby, Randy Scruggs)
12. She Just Wants to Dance (Earl Thomas Conley, Ron Reynolds)
Newcomer Andrew Jannakos Breaks Through With Viral Country Hit “Gone Too Soon”
/by Jessica NicholsonAndrew Jannakos. Photo: Anthony Stone
Former The Voice contestant and indie artist Andrew Jannakos has a debut song roaring up the charts. This week it sits at No. 12 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Within days of its official release, “Gone Too Soon” earned 28,000 downloads and more than 2.4 million digital streams. The song also debuted at No. 1 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart, at No. 2 on the all-genre Digital Song Sales chart, and at No. 1 on the Emerging Artists list.
“It was a really humbling experience,” Jannakos tells MusicRow. “You see songs go viral all the time, but when it happens to you, and I see people then start streaming all my other music and my platforms start going up, it feels great to see that our hard work is paying off.”
These chart successes are not too shabby for a guy whose first-ever performance in front of an audience came less than two years ago—in front of millions of people when he did the blind auditions for The Voice.
“It was pretty terrifying,” he recalls. “It’s crazy to look back and think how far I’ve come as a performer. It’s all about dedication. I’m young and I’m hungry, and I’m ready for whatever gets thrown at me.”
He joined Team Adam [Levine], and though he was ultimately eliminated during the battle rounds, the encouragement from the likes of coaches Levine and Kelly Clarkson were enough to spur Jannakos deeper into music and songwriting.
In January, Jannakos wrote “Gone Too Soon” alongside Jason Afable and Josh Bricker during a homespun writers retreat at a cabin in Chattanooga, Tennessee, just weeks before the pandemic forced co-writing sessions to shift to virtual co-writes.
“I had written with Josh a few times. I hadn’t written with Jason before but I had heard great things about him as a writer so I was excited,” Jannakos says. “ Somebody threw out the line, ‘Man, they’re gone too soon.’
“Music is so subjective to change that it could mean a lot of different things. To me, the meaning for this song is my fiancée. When we first started to date, she had a one-year-old son. She didn’t really want to introduce me to him at first, so she would always come over and then have to leave. So for me, it was about her always having to be gone too soon. When we finished the song, I remember looking around the room and just feeling like the song was special.”
Jannakos, like every artist, saw the majority of his shows canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he and his fiancée Katie turned to social media to help keep promoting his music—which turned “Gone Too Soon” into a viral sensation.
“I had 22 of my shows—which, to an independent artist like myself who nobody knew two months ago, was a good bit—I had all of them cancel. But you take the negatives and turn them into positives. So we just went on social media and were able to make something out of it.”
His fiancée encouraged him to release snippets of the song on TikTok prior to its official release, and that turned into 9 million views, helping Jannakos build a base of more than 600,000 subscribers on the platform. It was around that time he teamed Nashville-based managers Andrew Cohen and Anthony Stone to further fuel the song up the charts.
“It’s been cool to see what they bring to the table, with lots of good things to come,” Jannakos says.
Since “Gone Too Soon” has broken through on the music charts, Jannakos has been in talks with a few labels and says he had “more opportunities come up over the past couple of weeks and co-writes with people that are incredible.”
This year is doubly special for the singer-songwriter, as he revealed he and his fiancée Katie are set to wed this weekend. While he’s currently making regular trips to Music City, he says a more permanent move to Nashville is in the very near future.
Matt Stell’s New EP ‘Better Than That’ Due In October
/by Lorie HollabaughMatt Stell has made the most of his quarantine time by putting together a new project, Better Than That. The new EP is set for release on Oct. 16 and was co-produced by Matt with Ash Bowers.
Better Than That features five new songs, including the EP’s title track, which is available now along with the “Better Than That” lyric video. In addition to the new tracks, the EP includes the single “Everywhere But On,” his multi-week No. 1 Platinum-certified smash “Prayed For You,” as well as the recently-released “If I Was A Bar.”
“I think the silver lining to quarantine and being off of the road is that I’ve been able to focus on writing and becoming more creative,” said Stell. “I’m really proud of these new songs, so it’s exciting to finally get them out to the fans.”
BETTER THAN THAT EP Track List:
1. Everywhere But On (Matt Stell, Paul Sikes, and Lance Miller)
2. If I Was A Bar (Dan Isbell, Zack Kale, and Jonathan Singleton)
3. Prayed For You (Ash Bowers, Matt Stell, and Allison Veltz-Cruz)
4. Better Than That (Joe Fox, Phil Barton, and Matt Stell)
5. I Love You Too (Seth Alley, Matt Stell, Ryan Peterson)
6. Sadie (Nate Cyphert, Sam Roman, Parrish Warrington, and Diederik van Elsas)
7. Chase it Down (Jarrod Ingram, Blake Hubbard, Brian Maher, and Matt Stell)
8. Look at Me Now (Joe Fox, Seth Ennis, and Thomas Finchum)
Singer-Songwriter Queeva Inks Publishing Deal
/by Jessica NicholsonPictured (top row, L-R): Joe Carter (Carter and Company Mgmt), Mike Taliaferro (Songs of New Town); (bottom row, L-R): Queeva, Tim Medlin (Songs of New Town)
Singer-songwriter Queeva has signed a publishing deal with Songs of New Town.
“We are thrilled to add Queeva to our songwriter family,” said the publisher’s Tim Medlin. “Her level of talent is a rarity and we can’t wait to see what we can achieve together.”
Queeva has earned more than 1.3 million streams to date. “Above Water,” the first track from her upcoming EP, has been added to Spotify’s “Wild Country,” “Next From Nashville,” and “Fresh Finds” playlists.
The Mavericks Sign With APA
/by Jessica NicholsonThe Mavericks, who recently released their first Spanish/Latin album, En Español, have signed with APA for global representation in music touring, branding/marketing and more.
En Español recently reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s Latin Pop chart. The group celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, performing more than 120 shows in 2019.
Produced by Raul Malo and long-time collaborator Niko Bolas (Neil Young, Prince, Sheryl Crow), the line-up for the new album includes Malo’s fellow Miamian and charter band member Paul Deakin on drums, as well as veterans Eddie Perez on lead guitar and Jerry Dale McFadden on keyboards. The band is also joined on both the album and on stage by their renowned Fantastic Five sidemen.
“We’re thrilled to be represented by Akiko Rogers and her team at APA,” The Mavericks’ Malo said. “We feel this is the right opportunity and the right time to have all our business under one roof, and we look forward to a long and successful relationship.”
Chaz Cardigan’s New EP ‘Holograma’ To Drop Oct. 22
/by Lorie HollabaughChaz Cardigan has revealed the track list for his upcoming new eight-track EP Holograma, due out Oct. 22. Fans who pre-save the EP will instantly receive the dreamy, slow-burning new single “Room” plus “Everything’s Wrong” and “Middle of the Road.”
“When we started writing ‘Room,’ it just snapped me back into being 16. I realized that feeling of being in love for the first time is something I’ve been chasing for so long,” says Nashville-based artist Cardigan, who penned the track with ROBOPOP (Maroon 5, Lana Del Rey), who also produced, and Jon Green (James Bay, Kylie Minogue). “We really dug deep and tried to make it as tactile and specific as possible, with lots of little details, like the map of Ecuador he had on his wall.”
On the new collection, Cardigan makes a new leap in what he calls “cracking codes to emotion,” sharing a batch of songs that show incredible growth in both his life and his music. “Room” comes on the heels of Chaz’s standalone single, “Live A Little,” which can be heard in the promotional campaign for Tiny World, a new Apple TV Plus documentary series narrated by Paul Rudd that premieres Oct. 2. It also follows his breakthrough track “Not Ok!” which reached the Top 20 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart.
Throughout Holograma, he showcases the eclectic musicality he first began honing as a kid in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. A classically trained pianist who taught himself to play guitar, bass, and drums, he started gigging in punk bands at 11, covered classic songs in Louisville bars during high school, and later produced in a Nashville hip-hop collective. After releasing his debut album, I, he put out a series of singles that all ended up on Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist – a triumph that soon earned him the distinction of becoming the first artist jointly signed to Capitol Records and Loud Robot, the record label from J.J. Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot. He is also signed to management company Hard 8 Working Group, which operates in Nashville, New York and Los Angeles.
Holograma Track List:
Carrie Underwood To Celebrate The Season With New HBO Max Original Christmas Special
/by Lorie Hollabaugh(Photo by Joseph Llanes)
Carrie Underwood will star in an exclusive new HBO Max Christmas special which will premiere this holiday season. She will appear on the new concert special with a live orchestra and choir and perform a mix of both traditional favorites and new original material from her first ever full-length Christmas album, My Gift, which is out tomorrow (Sept. 25). The holiday event is set to shoot this fall.
“Carrie Underwood is a multi-faceted talent and we are thrilled to be partnering with her and our friends at Playtone to bring a dose of holiday cheer,” said Sarah Aubrey, head of original content, HBO Max.
“The journey of writing and recording this album started last year when I finished my tour and we could have never anticipated the circumstances we would be in this year,” said Underwood. “Creating this album has been good for my heart, and I’m thrilled to get to share it with the world and to bring it to life with Playtone and HBO Max.”
The Max Original special will be executive produced by Gary Goetzman and Tom Hanks for Playtone, along with Underwood and her manager, Ann Edelblute.
Legendary Johnny Cash Drummer W.S. "Fluke" Holland Dies At 85
/by Robert K OermannW.S. Holland. Photo: Eddie Michel Azoulay
Longtime Johnny Cash sideman W.S. “Fluke” Holland passed away on Wednesday (Sept. 23) in Jackson, Tennessee, at age 85.
Holland was the superstar’s only drummer throughout his career. He joined Cash’s The Tennessee Two in 1960, which prompted the group’s renaming to The Tennessee Three. He played on all of Cash’s hits thereafter, remaining by his side until Cash retired from the road in 1997.
Born in Saltello, Tennessee in 1935, Holland graduated from high school in Jackson in 1953. He began working with fellow Jackson resident Carl Perkins the following year. When Perkins went to Sun Records in Memphis, Holland accompanied him.
He played on all of the classic Perkins Sun Records sides, including “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Honey Don’t,” “Boppin’ the Blues,” “Glad All Over,” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” and “Matchbox” in 1956-59. He also played on records by various other Sun artists, including Roy Orbison, Carl Mann and Billy Lee Riley.
He was present at the famed late-1956 Million Dollar Quartet session at Sun, which joined the forces of Perkins, Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
Perkins’ increased drinking, a serious automobile accident and waning disc success led to Holland leaving his band in 1959. The following year, Cash hired him to join bassist Marshall Grant and lead guitarist Luther Perkins in his band. Holland’s “train-like” rhythm subsequently became one of the distinguishing elements of Cash’s sound.
His drumming can be heard on “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town,” “Five Feet High and Rising,” “I Got Stripes,” “Ring of Fire,” “Understand Your Man,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Daddy Sang Bass,” “A Boy Named Sue,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” “Man in Black,” “One Piece at a Time” and many more Johnny Cash singles. In addition, Holland is on the landmark Cash LPs Live at Folsom Prison (1968) and Live at San Quentin (1969).
He was also on the 1969 Bob Dylan album Nashville Skyline, alongside Cash. Other stars who recorded with Holland include Dale Watson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Western, Marty Stuart, Johnny Horton, Steve Goodman and George Jones.
After 1997, the drummer toured with his own W.S. Holland Band, extending his career as a working musician to seven decades. He was a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He has been called the most important drummer in country-music history.
In 2019, Holland published his autobiography, entitled Behind The Man in Black: The WS Holland Story. He died of congestive heart failure.
W.S. Fluke Holland is survived by his wife Joyce Lindsey Holland, daughters Kim Holland Lovelace and Krista Holland. The family will receive friends for a visitation on Saturday at West Jackson Baptist Church from 10 a.m. until noon with the funeral beginning at noon. He will be buried at Ridgecrest Cemetery.
Memorial donations can be made in his honor to either West Jackson’s Hartland Ministry or YouthTown of Tennessee.
Grand Ole Opry To Welcome Back Limited In-House Audiences Beginning Oct. 3
/by Jessica NicholsonBeginning Saturday, Oct. 3, the Grand Ole Opry will welcome back limited in-house audiences—capped at 500 ticketed attendees—marking the first live audience shows since the Opry paused such performances on March 13. The Oct. 3 concert will also kick off the Opry’s 95th anniversary celebration, including performances from Dierks Bentley, Vince Gill, Lorrie Morgan, and Terri Clark. Bentley, who was inducted as an Opry member on Oct. 1, 2005, will also celebrate his 15th Opry induction anniversary.
The limited audience for the show will include fans who had previously held tickets for each night’s show.
“With gratitude to the artists who have visited the Opry since March, staff members and partners who have ensured the Opry went on every Saturday, and a worldwide audience for tuning in over the past six months, we are so excited as we plan to welcome fans back to the Opry House,” said Dan Rogers, Opry vice president and executive producer. “So many loyal fans make plans early to be a part of our birthday weekend every year, and I am especially excited that many of those devoted familiar faces will be in the first in-house audience since late last winter. Of course we will only be truly happy when we can return to capacity audiences and full Opry shows that are known around the world.”
The Opry has partnered with Nashville Public Health Department and Vanderbilt Health to develop operating plans for the shows, including socially distanced seating (which allows those in the same group to be seated together, though distanced from others), mandatory masks for all guests, Opry House operations and production staff, temperature checks for all staffers, enhanced cleaning practices and no food/beverage service.
Though the Opry closed its doors to live, in-house audiences in March, it has been a musical beacon the past six-and-a-half months during the pandemic through its one-hour livestream via Circle All Access’s social channels, as well as Circle TV, SiriusXM and the Opry’s 650 WSM AM and wsmonline.com which have helped keep the Opry’s shows going strong week after week. The livestream has consistently been in the upper echelons of Pollstar‘s Livestream chart, averaging more than 1 million viewers each week. By the time the Opry welcomes audiences back to the Opry House, it will have played 29 consecutive Saturday night broadcasts with no live audience. Artists including Garth Brooks, Luke Combs, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, Marty Stuart, Carrie Underwood, Jeannie Seely, Blake Shelton and more have taken part in Opry shows since the pandemic began.
This Saturday, Sept. 26, Opry members Marty Stuart and Connie Smith will step onto the Grand Ole Opry stage along with Sierra Hull at 7 p.m. CT for the 4,943rd consecutive Saturday night broadcast.
Chase Wright Discusses His Journey From College Track Star To Country Newcomer
/by Jessica NicholsonChase Wright. Photo: Kirsten Balani
Four years ago, Indiana native Chase Wright was an economics major and college track star at DePauw University, collecting wins in 100-meter and 200-meter races. Sometime between college classes and time on the track, he picked up a guitar and taught himself to play John Legend’s “All Of Me” and “Vandalizer,” a track from Sam Hunt’s early mixtape Between The Pines.
He began lending his voice and guitar work to his own original songs and uploading cover renditions of Mitchell Tenpenny’s “Drunk Me,” Kane Brown’s “Heaven” and others to Instagram and YouTube. Morris Higham Management moguls Robert Filhart and Clint Higham saw a few of those Instagram videos and reached out to the rising singer/songwriter, suggesting Wright sign up for an ASCAP songwriter’s workshop. From there, Wright began making regular trips to immerse himself in Nashville’s songwriting circles, before moving to Music City a week after his college graduation.
Wright later inked a management deal at Morris Higham Management, as well as a publishing deal at the company’s publishing arm Toby & Molly Music.
During a recent Zoom visit with MusicRow Magazine staffers, the singer-songwriter offered acoustic renditions of his new music, including the heartfelt ballad “Wish You’d Miss Me” and a song he penned during one of his early trips to Nashville, titled “Drive.” He also offered his debut single, “My Kinda Morning,” which he co-wrote with Matt and Josh Jenkins, with production by Zach Abend.
Bright guitars frame his half-sung, half-spoken tale of a romance-filled evening that lingers past the break of day, with melodies wrapped in spacious production, and rap-inspired cadences.
“It was just about this night in college that last until the morning,” Wright says. “Josh wanted to take a chance with the production behind it so I think it ended up being this really powerful piece. I feel like it represents my musical background and compiles it into one.”