Pictured: John Prine, Dave Ragland, Inversion Vocal Ensemble, Brandi Carlile, Teresa Carlile, Tanya Tucker. Photo: Wade Punch

Thistle Farms, the nonprofit for women survivors based in Nashville, hosted a sold-out show on April 3 at the Ryman Auditorium. The “Love on Fire” event included performances by Ruby Amanfu, Brandi Carlile, Shemekia Copeland, Levi Hummon, Inversion Vocal Ensemble and John Prine, along with readings by survivors of trafficking, prostitution and addiction.

Amy Grant received the The 2019 Thistle Farmer of the Year Award for many years of generous support and service. Tanya Tucker joined Carlile for an unannounced, show-stopping rendition of her massive hit, “Delta Dawn,” which closed out the night with a standing ovation.

Levi Hummon opened the night with “Love Heals,” a tune he penned with his father Marcus Hummon and Tom Douglas, about the organization that was begun by his mother—Becca Stevens, Thistle Farms Founder & President—over two decades ago.

“Watching Levi sing our theme song on the Ryman stage was a proud moment as his momma and the founder of Thistle Farms,” reflected Stevens. “All the artists sang about love’s healing power. We are thrilled we have already raised $270,000 to provide more women survivors housing and jobs. We also loved getting to share our story with all the Brandi Carlile and John Prine fans!”

Brandi Carlile. Photo: Wade Punch

Pictured: Thistle Farms Fundraiser 2019 Amy Grant, and 2015 Thistle Farms graduate Kristin McWilliams. Photo: Wade Punch

Pictured: Jaimee Harris, Mary Gauthier, Lisa Oliver Gray, Shemekia Copeland, Will Kimbrough. Photo: Wade Punch

Pictured: Brandi Carlile and John Prine. Photo: Wade Punch

Miranda Lambert is bringing some major girl power to the road this Fall on her Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars Tour which will kick off Sept. 13 in Uncasville, Connecticut. Maren Morris and Elle King will join Lambert for the fun as well as Pistol Annies, Tenille Townes, Ashley McBryde and Caylee Hammack on various dates.

The tour runs through Nov. 23 and will hit 10 fairs and festivals across the country including Cheyenne Frontier Days, Country LakeShake, and the Watershed Festival, as well as cities like New Orleans, Milwaukee, Wichita, and Jacksonville.

“I’m so excited and honored to be on tour with some of my favorite artists, who each inspire me in a different way,” shared Lambert of the all-star tour roster. “Maren Morris is a fiery fellow Texas girl that isn’t afraid to take a risk and be who she is. Elle King is a brave, confident and unapologetic artist who is honest about her life and uses it for her art. My fellow Pistol Annies are not only some of my best friends and writing partners, but also make me want to be a better artist every time we take the stage together. Tenille, Ashley and Caylee are all women who have something to say and they do it their own way. They are the next generation of fearless female artists and I’m so thrilled to share a stage with them.”

Citi is the official presale credit card of the Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars Tour 2019, and Citi cardmembers will have access to purchase presale tickets beginning Tuesday, April 9 until Thursday, April 11 through Citi Entertainment. Tickets begin to go on sale to the general public Friday, April 12 MirandaLambert.com and via Live Nation.

Fairs & Festivals:
Saturday, June 8                      CMA Music Festival || Nashville, Tenn*
Friday, June 21                         Country LakeShake || Chicago, Ill. (Pistol Annies)*
Wednesday, July 17                 California Mid-State Fair || Paso Robles, Calif.*
Thursday, July 18                     Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena at Harvey’s || Lake Tahoe, Nev.*
Wednesday, July 24                 Cheyenne Frontier Days || Cheyenne, Wyo.*
Friday, August 2                       Watershed Festival || George, Wash. (Pistol Annies)*
Saturday, August 10                 Boots & Hearts Music Festival || Oro-Medonte, Ontario*
Friday, August 16                     Country Thunder Alberta || Calgary, Alberta*
Friday, August 30                     The Great Allentown Fair || Allentown, Penn.**
Saturday, August 31                 Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa || Atlantic City, N.J.**

Featuring Elle King, Pistol Annies and Caylee Hammack:
Friday, September 13               Mohegan Sun Arena || Uncasville, Conn.
Saturday, September 14           Mohegan Sun Arena || Uncasville, Conn.
Thursday, September 19          Van Andel Center || Grand Rapids, Mich.**
Friday, September 20               Huntington Center || Toledo, Ohio**
Saturday, September 21           BB&T Arena at Northern Kentucky University || Highland Heights, Ky.**

Featuring Elle King, Pistol Annies and Tenille Townes:
Thursday, September 26          Royal Farms Arena || Baltimore, Md.**
Friday, September 27               Charleston Coliseum || Charleston, W.Va.
Saturday, September 28           Nationwide Arena || Columbus, Ohio

Featuring Maren Morris, Pistol Annies and Tenille Townes:
Thursday, October 3                 Cajundome || Lafayette, La.**
Friday, October 4                      Smoothie King Center || New Orleans, La.**
Saturday, October 5                  Centurylink Center || Bossier City, La.**
Thursday, October 10               State Farm Center || Champaign, Ill.**
Friday, October 11                    Pinnacle Bank Arena || Lincoln, Neb.**
Saturday, October 12               Denny Sanford Premier Center || Sioux Falls, S.D.**

Featuring Elle King, Pistol Annies and Ashley McBryde:
Thursday, October 17               Fargo Dome || Fargo, N.D.
Friday, October 18                    Fiserv Forum || Milwaukee, Wisc.
Saturday, October 19               Xcel Energy Center || Saint Paul, Minn.
Thursday, October 24              TaxSlayer Center || Moline, Ill.
Friday, October 25                   JQH Arena || Springfield, Mo.**
Saturday, October 26               INTRUST Bank Arena || Wichita, Kan.**

Featuring Maren Morris, Pistol Annies and Tenille Townes:
Thursday, November 7            John Paul Jones Arena || Charlottesville, Va.**
Friday, November 8                 Colonial Life Arena || Columbia, S.C.**
Saturday, November 9             Amway Center || Orlando, Fla.

Featuring Maren Morris, Pistol Annies and Ashley McBryde:
Thursday, November 21          VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena || Jacksonville, Fla.
Friday, November 22                Infinite Energy Arena || Duluth, Ga.
Saturday, November 23           Greensboro Coliseum || Greensboro, N.C.

*currently on sale
**on sale Friday, April 12; remaining dates on sale timing to follow

Little Big Town dropped a poignant new song, “The Daughters,” today (April 5). Written by Karen Fairchild, Sean McConnell, and Ashley Ray, the new track, previewed at CRS 2019, is the first available music from the Grammy-winning band’s forthcoming ninth studio album.

“The Daughters” video (Dancers Cut), also out today, was directed by Dano Cerny and features ethereal performance footage of the foursome and contemporary dance showcasing choreography from Andrew Winghart. The gorgeous footage was shot in an empty gymnasium built in 1948 in Portland, Tennessee.

Little Big Town will perform the television world premiere of “The Daughters” on the upcoming 54th Annual ACM Awards this Sunday live on CBS, 8 p.m. ET.

Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative issued a research brief examining the inclusion among male and female artists in country music. The brief investigates the age and gender of artists across the Year-End Billboard Hot Country charts from 2014-2018. Songwriter gender for 200 songs was evaluated. Additionally nominations for the past five years of ACM Awards nominees were assessed in four categories.

The study found that 16% of artists across 500 top country songs from 2014 to 2018 were female. Among top performers, male artists had roughly twice as many credits as top female artists did across the sample.

Not one of the top-performing women was over the age of 40, while all but one of country’s top-performing men had reached or exceeded that age.

The study states: Women are not only disadvantaged in the country market, but their age illuminates a sell by date that their male counterparts do not experience. Looking at the 101 unique or individual artists on the charts, the mean age sample wide was 37 for males and 34 for females. Thus, career longevity is much shorter for female than male artists—a pattern also found across other entertainment platforms.

Women represented 12% of songwriters across the two years studied – one positive finding emerging from this report is that female artists were more likely to work with female songwriters than male artists were across that period. Finally, only 15% of ACM nominees in four major categories from 2015 to 2019 were female – in several years, not one woman was nominated in the Entertainer and Songwriter of the Year categories.

“While the results of this study might not be surprising, they illuminate the fact that gender and age play a role in restricting the careers of female country music artists,” Smith says. “Women—especially women over 40—are noticeably absent as top performers on the charts evaluated in this genre.”

Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN), part of Universal Music Group, a founding partner of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, continues its commitment to furthering diversity and inclusion in country music by examining its own data on recruitment, signing and promotion of new male and female talent.

Cindy Mabe, President of UMGN, said, “Country music has always been defined by storytelling that reflects the lives of everyday peoples’ joys and struggles. The current state of country music only provides the perspective of 50% of the population. We clearly have a problem. Our job is to amplify our artists’ voices and help them introduce their stories and connect to their audience. This has gotten increasingly harder and limiting over the last few years, especially for women and it has dramatically affected the perspective, reach and depth of our country music genre. Taking a reflective, disciplined look into our own actions can only help inform and influence our decisions going forward so that all of our artists’ voices are heard.”

Additionally, in line with the solutions presented in the brief, several groups have made commitments to work with the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative in the following ways: YouTube Music has committed to working with the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative to examine the digital popularity of country artists by gender. By doing this work, YouTube can demonstrate the role of artist gender in audience preferences within this genre. Women Nation, Live Nation’s division focused on advancing women in the live music business, has committed to examining audience demographics for country music festivals and concerts. This will provide new insights into how audiences seek out performers in country music and whether any differences exist by gender. Ali Harnell, President and Chief Strategy Officer, will oversee this effort for Women Nation.

“The work that the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative is doing is critical to identifying where the problem is. I’m eager to be a part of the solution to create equity for female artists, particularly in the country genre,” said Harnell.

Earlier this year, the Academy of Country Music initiated a Diversity & Inclusiveness Task Force – which has already met – to set specific goals with regard to evaluating voting criteria and Awards processes, increasing diversity in all Academy decision-making spaces, such as Committees, and increasing representation on the ACM Awards telecast, and more.

“The ACM Awards reflect the current state of the country music industry, and our nationally-televised show amplifies that reflection. The Academy exists to grow and strengthen the genre, and a diverse and inclusive organization and industry will inevitably further those objectives. We are all in this together,” said Pete Fisher, CEO of the Academy.

Committing to these analyses signals an openness by these companies to being key leaders for inclusion in country music. According to Dr. Smith, “The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative is calling on other labels and industry partners—especially those in radio—to undertake similar analyses in their own businesses. With a rigorous investigation of what data tell us about audience preferences and behaviors, it is possible to confront antiquated beliefs about what consumers want to create an environment where great music by male and female artists thrives.”

Read the full report here.

Nashville-based artist Darrin Bradbury has signed with ANTI- Records.

“Partnering with ANTI- Records is a dream come true. Their long history of championing innovative and offbeat artists is not only awe-inspiring as a listener but humbling as a writer. Their roster speaks loudly and without reservation for itself and I am honored to have the opportunity to contribute to it,” Bradbury said.

He recently released the track “Newark,” a love letter to his hometown in New Jersey. He also has an album in the works for later this year.

““Newark” is a song I didn’t like at first. I don’t often write with so much on my sleeve; not at least without a healthy dose of cynicism and self-deprecation along with it,” Bradbury explained. “There’s an earnestness to the northeast that I tried to capture with this song; a hopefulness that persists despite inevitable odds. In short, I was homesick. So I wrote something that I felt would hit close to home.”

This month, he joins Robert Earl Keen for five shows, and also has dates on the books with The Milk Carton Kids. He has previously toured with Margo Price, Billy Joe Shaver, Wanda Jackson and more.

ANTI- Records is recording home to Wynonna, Neko Case, Tweedy, Elliott Smith and more.