Back Row (L-R): BMI’s Josh Tomlinson, ASCAP’s Beth Brinker, Warner Chappell’s Ben Vaughn, Kobalt’s Jesse Willoughby, Scott Hendricks, Warner Music Nashville’s John Esposito, We-Volve’s Dane Schmidt, Tree Vibez Music’s Leslie DiPiero and Brian Kelley. Front Row, Seated, (L-R): BMI songwriter Devin Dawson, BMI songwriter Michael Hardy, Blake Shelton, ASCAP songwriter Jordan Schmidt (Photo: Jason Kempin / Getty for BMI)

BOBBY KARL WORKS THE ROOM

Chapter 629

We have No. 1 parties all the time in Music City, but it isn’t every day that we have one featuring three different recording artists, plus a superstar.

The superstar in question was Blake Shelton. The bash for his 26^th chart topper, “God’s Country,” was staged on Wednesday eve (Aug. 7) at his fabulous Ole Red downtown nightclub.

“God’s Country” co-writers Devin Dawson (BMI) and Michael Hardy (BMI) both have recording contracts, and the latter is making noise with his full-on wacky “Rednecker,” billed as HARDY. The third “God’s Country” writer is Jordan Schmidt (ASCAP), who writes for Tree Vibez, the publishing company owned by Florida Georgia Line. Which explains the presence of that duo’s Brian Kelley. The event was led by ASCAP’s Beth Brinker and BMI’s Josh Tomlinson.

“This is an all-star No. 1 party, if ever there was one,” said Warner Chappell’s Ben Vaughn.

“When you have two of your best friends up here and your label mate, it doesn’t get better than that,” said Devin, who records for Warner Music Nashville, as does Blake.

“Blake, you are so YOU, and that’s the kind of artist I want to be,” Devin continued. “You are inspiring.” His twin brother, Jacob Robert Durrett, plays drums for HARDY, adding to the event’s familial complexity.

“Everybody’s my family,” said Hardy, who has five songs on the current country chart. This is his third chart-topping song, but a special one: “I’ve wanted a Blake cut ever since I moved to town, so this is very unreal.”

“It takes a village to make this happen, and unfortunately I don’t know the names of all the villagers,” said Schmidt. He has had 82 cuts and five No. 1 hits as a writer.

“Songs like this show that everybody on this stage knows no boundaries,” said Kelley. “This is why we all moved to Nashville, to chase crazy dreams.”

“God’s Country” is Devin Dawson’s first chart topper. BMI’s Tomlinson got choked up when he talked about the accomplishment, because he and Devin were college classmates at Belmont.

WMN’s John Esposito said, “Give it up for Josh and his emotion.

“You guys have no idea how happy I am,” Espo added. “It’s the most-streamed country song released this year, and it’s still selling 100,000 a week.”

BMI songwriter Devin Dawson, BMI songwriter Michael Hardy, Blake Shelton, ASCAP songwriter Jordan Schmidt (Photo: Jason Kempin / Getty for BMI)

Fabulons working the room included stage presenters Brandi Simms (CMA), Jesse Willoughby (Kobalt) and Scott Hendricks, plus Leslie Roberts, Leslie DiPiero, Mike Sistad, Sherod Robertson, Andrew Kintz, Becca Walls, Shannon McCombs, Shane Tarleton, Diane Pearson, Justin Niebank, Chuck Aly, Brenden Oliver, Preshius Harris, Kristen Williams, Katherine Richardson, Wes Vause and Todd Ramey.

Before the event, Blake said he was in a vehicle on his ranch in Oklahoma when he first heard “God’s Country.” He called Scott instantly and recorded the song four days later.

After Garth Brooks saw Blake sing it on the ACM Awards, he asked him to record their “Dive Bar” duet. Blake is now touring with another superstar, George Strait.

Blake expressed regret that Adam Levine is leaving The Voice, but said he was grateful to have show vet and girlfriend Gwen Stefani joining the judging panel.

He added that he has recorded “a ton” of new material but, “I don’t know when or how it will see the light of day….I just want to record songs and release ‘em. The label’s going to try to put something together [to include “God’s Country” and his new other new songs]. I’m just havin’ fun. At this point in my life and career, everything is icing on the cake….The fact that I’m still up here talking about it is thanks to people like you guys.”

Hootie & the Blowfish are back with the band’s first new album in nearly 15 years, Imperfect Circle. The project is due out Nov. 1 on Universal Music Group’s Capitol Nashville imprint, and is available for pre-order now. According to a story in USA Today, the album will feature background vocals from Sheryl Crow, and finds the band collaborating with Lucie Silvas on a track Rucker co-wrote with pop star Ed Sheeran.

Following the nostalgic Group Therapy Tour this summer, fans now eager to hear new music by the band can get early access to a first track called “Rollin’” available exclusively at Hootie.com, before it becomes available for purchase and streaming on Sept. 6.

Hootie and the Blowfish members Darius Rucker (lead vocals), Mark Bryan (guitarist), Dean Felber (bass) and Jim “Soni” Sonefeld (drums), have sold more than 25 million albums to date following the release of their debut project Cracked Rear View in 1994, which included hits “Hold My Hand,” “Let Her Cry,” and “Only Wanna Be With You.”

Remaining Group Therapy Tour Dates:
August 8           Columbia, Md. | Merriweather Post Pavilion
August 9           Canandaigua, N.Y. | Constellation Brands-Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center
August 10         New York, N.Y. | Madison Square Garden
August 11         New York, N.Y. | Madison Square Garden
August 16         Detroit, Mich. | DTE Energy Music Theatre
August 17         Noblesville, Ind. | Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center
August 18         Des Moines, Iowa | Iowa State Fair
August 22         St. Paul, Minn. | Minnesota State Fair
August 23         East Troy, Wis. | Alpine Valley Music Theatre
August 24         Tinley Park, Ill. | Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
August 29         Toronto, Ont. | Budweiser Stage
August 30         Hershey, Penn. | Hersheypark Stadium
August 31         Hartford, Conn. | XFINITY Theatre

September 5      Charlotte, N.C. | PNC Music Pavilion
September 6      Birmingham, Ala. | Oak Mountain Amphitheatre
September 7      Nashville, Tenn. | Bridgestone Arena
September 11    Columbia, S.C. | Colonial Life Arena
September 12    Columbia, S.C. | Colonial Life Arena
September 13    Columbia, S.C. | Colonial Life Arena

October 4          Dublin, Ireland | 3Arena
October 6          Bristol, England | O2 Academy
October 7          Leeds, England | O2 Academy
October 9          Glasgow, Scotland | Barrowland
October 10        Glasgow, Scotland | Barrowland
October 12        London, England | Eventim Apollo
October 15        Manchester, England | O2 Apollo
October 16        Birmingham, England | O2 Academy

Monument Records artist Walker Hayes‘ new single, “Don’t Let Her,” is a cute and uplifting but devastatingly honest song that chronicles a conversation between Walker and a hypothetical man taking his place in the life of the woman he loves, if something were to happen to him.

Written by Hayes, with Andrew DeRoberts and Shane McAnally, and produced by McAnally and DeRoberts, “Don’t Let Her” has been showing potential to become a new fan-favorite, like that of “Halloween.”

MusicRow: I loved Halloween, but I think I might actually love this one more.

Hayes: Damn, thank you. I appreciate it. I love that because, you know, I thought I would never outdo “Halloween.” The song people are obsessed with that song. And I love hearing people say that they love [“Don’t Let Her”] even more than that.

MR: This song is a little dark. What prompted you to write “Don’t Let Her”?

Hayes: So, Laney, my wife, she would laugh at when she tells you this but it’s so true, I’m the emotionally dramatic one. I’m the high feeler of our relationship. And she talks me off of those over-romanticizing ledges and she allows me to communicate all of my feelings all the time. And I was in the UK and had been away from her and the kids for 10, 11 days plus. So this was like a 16-day trip, I was going very dark places in my head. They are where I recharge my batteries, and so I had just had enough of the road. I’m very much a homebody, so that’s weird that I travel for a living, but I miss them. And I just began to write this love song to Laney.

And it wasn’t to her immediately. And honestly, when I began the song, I didn’t know that it was to anyone. I just was talking about her and I was listing specifics about her because, to me, the most endearing form of flattery is when you can tell somebody, “Hey, when you smile like that, I know it means this.” And, “When you fix your coffee, I know you’re going to dump that honey for four seconds, you know, and then you’re going to put in coffee next.” I just thought it was sweet to say, “Hey, I noticed these things about you.” And then the last line, I completely out of the accident wrote, “And if she misses me…” You know, at first I was going to say, “Show her this picture, or Play her this song.” Then I was like, no, you know, if she misses me, I don’t want her to be sad. And then that opened the road to a song to whoever might take my place if something were to happen to me.

Laney and I’ve always, since we were in 11th grade, we’ve always played the game. of, “What would you do if something happened to me?” We’ve always asked that and we’ve always answered it with these like elaborate, “I would never love again, you’re irreplaceable. You’re so funny. You’re so cute.” We’ve always done that.

It was kind of a miraculous coming together of many things and many emotions, and I love where it landed. I’m so proud. You mentioned “Halloween” and these are examples—”Don’t Let Her” and “Halloween”—that’s how I love to write love songs. I feel like they’re very true and they’re honest about the, maybe the darker, the harder, the uglier side of love, but also the most beautiful part I love is to me the unconditional part. And to me that’s what “Don’t Let Her” speaks to, if you will.

MR: You mentioned the ‘Honey in her coffee’ and you have lines about her ‘Hating glitter’ and you ‘Watching your grammar’ around her. How do you put those specific qualities in a song and still try to keep the song universally relatable?

Hayes: Well, a guy told me—and I kinda did this in my music before this person told me this—but they told me that personal is actually universal. A lot of songs are hits that are very vague and generic, but I personally feel like the most important thing in songs are the details, the personal artifacts that you place in a song because that allows a listener to put themselves within that story. A lot of people have said when they watch the lyric video of “Don’t Let Her” that they see themselves in high school, they see themselves getting married, they see themselves at the beach. And to me that’s what the personal pieces of a song do for people. If it’s all vague, you may never grab someone and bring in their story, they may just listen to a song and never insert their own life. I think when you get someone to insert themselves inside a story, that’s when they become a fan.

I mean, I’ve always loved songs that did that. Kenny Chesney’s “There Goes My Life,” you know, with the American Express line, the “She covers up the refrigerator,” and going up the stairs with bouncing curls. You just picture a standard house with a refrigerator and I just love lines that grab you like that and kind of take you inside the room.

MR: What was Laney’s reaction to “Don’t Let Her”?

Hayes: Oh, she loved it. I mean, Laney is the sweetest human on the planet, but I think when you’ve listened to songs from somebody for 15 years, you’re rarely blown away, especially by the love songs. And this one, this one really got her. Usually, and in the case of this song, the way she hears music first is I text her a line or two or I’ll text her a chorus. I did that with this song and she was like, “I get teared up just reading this.” So, yeah, she really loved it. And it’s a love letter to her and it’s what I would say to her at home if nobody ever heard it. I think she really has an appreciation for this song, like “Halloween.” She’s always loved “Halloween,” and I think she loves this one even more.

MR: You’re doing a new video series with Laney called ‘The Hayes Of Our Lives.’ Tell me about that.

Hayes: So that’s been fun. The song has been fun to promote because it’s not as much of a lonely song to promote. You know, it’s about Laney. It’s about our life together and our kids. And so many people ask me, “What was it like doing this?” You know, “What was it like being at Costco and still writing?” and I’m always like I wish more people would ask Laney because she was there for everything. And so that’s been fun to include her. And I mean, my fans are crazy about Laney. They love her and they’re so sweet about her and they just think she’s a rock star.

And, you know, we don’t have this famous elaborate life. And I think people love seeing the holes and sheet rock on our walls and they love seeing our broken stove and they love seeing us in our pajamas, and I feel like including her and just the reality of our life is soothing to the public. And I’ve always said I felt like people need to meet Laney because she’s very, there’s things that she just doesn’t care about that I feel like other women knowing that she doesn’t, it inspires them to not care. Anyway, I’ve loved sharing her with the world and obviously, I love when people love her as much as I do. I’m so proud, those ‘Hayes of Our Lives’ [episodes], I watched them like it’s not even us. Like they’re funny to me. They make me laugh.