Rick Elias, a founding member of late CCM artist Rich Mullins’s A Ragamuffin Band, died Tuesday, April 2, following a battle with cancer. He was 64.

Elias was born Jan. 7, 1955 in San Diego, California. He attended Azusa Pacific University. After playing in bands including Harlequin, Vision, and the Rick Elias band, he moved to Los Angeles in 1984 and later signed with Alarma Records in 1990, to release the album Rick Elias and the Confessions; the single “Confession of Love” reached No. 4 on the Christian Top 40 chart.

From 1993 until 2002, Elias worked as a founding member of Mullins’s A Ragamuffin band. He also wrote and produced music that was included in movies such as That Thing You Do!, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Dawsons Creek and more. He produced artists including Mullins, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Aaron Neville and others, and released four solo albums.

A benefit concert was held for Elias in February in Franklin, Tennessee to raise money for medical expenses. The concert featured performers from the original 1998 The Jesus Record, including Elias, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and A Ragamuffin Band (Elias, Mark Robertson, Jimmy Abegg, and Aaron Smith). The Jesus Record had been scheduled as the ninth release from Mullins, before his untimely death in 1997. His foundation, A Ragamuffin Band, and record company determined to move forward with recording the project in his honor, alongside guest artists who were his friends. The project included two discs; Disc One — the nine rough song demos recorded by Mullins, and Disc Two — the studio version of the same songs, produced by Elias.

In addition, Elias’s work has received awards and nominations from the Gospel Music Association, The United Catholic Music and Video Association, and the Nashville Music Awards.

After relocating to Nashville, Elias became an adjunct instructor at the Contemporary Music Center in Brentwood, Tennessee, teaching music business classes, as well as becoming a real estate agent.

He is survived by wife Linda Tollner Elias. Together they have four children, sons Graham Griffith, Zack Elias and Taylor Elias, and daughter Amber Elias Gould (husband Hamilton Gould, and their two children).

Funeral information has not been released at this time.

Russell Dickerson is celebrating his first multi-Platinum certification with his No. 1 single “Yours,” off the full-length debut album by the same name. “Yours” is also nominated at Sunday’s ACM Awards, for Song of the Year. Dickerson penned the song alongside Parker Welling and Casey Brown.

The hit has earned over 297 million worldwide streams to date, and Dickerson followed it with his sophomore No. 1 “Blue Tacoma.” His current single “Every Little Thing” is approaching Top 30 now. Next, he joins Thomas Rhett on the road for the Very Hot Summer Tour, kicking off next month.

“This is a huge week for us with ‘Yours’ hitting double Platinum and going into ACM’s week with a Song of The Year nomination,” said Dickerson. Adding, “‘Yours’ really is the song that could. It still just keeps on surprising us!”

Big Machine Music has promoted Michelle Attardi to Director, Publishing. Joining BMM in 2017, Attardi will continue to represent the independent music publisher’s songwriters including Brandy Clark, Jonathan Singleton, Laura Veltz, Josh Thompson and Jessie Jo Dillon, among others.

BMM General Manager Mike Molinar commented, “Michelle is everything you can hope for in a publisher: great ears, passionate and aggressive. She is a wonderful advocate for our writers, while also supporting so many creatives in our community.”

“I’m thankful to represent such an incredible roster of songwriters and proud of all this team is accomplishing together,” said Attardi. “I’m so grateful to be surrounded by some of the most talented creatives in the world and continue my pledge to support their dreams and do my part in enabling their potential. A sincere thanks to Mike Molinar and Scott Borchetta for their continued confidence and support.”

Attardi can be reached via michelle.attardi@bigmachinemusic.net and 615-846-7739.

As two of the soon-to-be inducted newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame, the timing couldn’t be better to celebrate the influence of Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks.

In 1990, then-Arista Nashville leader Tim DuBois saw something in two young singer-songwriters—Ronnie, an Oklahoma native with a sturdy, gospel-inflected voice, and Kix, a potent stage performer and vocalist hailing from Louisiana. Both fine songwriters, as evidenced by two tracks they penned within a week of meeting each other: “Brand New Man” and “My Next Broken Heart.”

By 1991, “Brand New Man” would earn the newly-minted duo Brooks & Dunn their first No. 1 single, with “My Next Broken Heart” becoming their second chart-topper.

The reaction from country radio—and country listeners—was immediate. Brooks & Dunn’s first four singles all reached the pinnacle of the country charts. “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” a groovy 1992 track seemingly custom-made for neon-lit honky-tonks and dusty dancefloors, revitalized line dancing across the U.S. and became an enduring classic for the duo.

Though Brooks & Dunn were put together, by the mid-’90s, it was hard to imagine them apart.

Brooks & Dunn earned the CMA Vocal Duo of the Year honor for eight consecutive years from 1992 through 1999—and followed with six more consecutive wins in the category from 2001-2006. Along the way, they amassed 20 No. 1 hits, two Grammys, and more than 30 million in album sales, and became known as two of the hardest-hitting live entertainers in country music.

In September 2010, the duo ended as they began, wrapping their Last Rodeo tour with a rendition of their debut single “Brand New Man,” before a sold-out crowd at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.

Now, nearly three decades after their first chart hit, Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks are witnessing—and collaborating with–a whole new generation of artists influenced by their music.

Brooks & Dunn’s upcoming album, Reboot (out Friday, April 5), marks the first studio album from the duo since 2007’s Cowboy Town.

The album’s genesis came from B&D manager Clarence Spalding—along with some inspiration from Luke Combs and Kacey Musgraves.

“Somebody sent me a clip of Luke Combs doing ‘Brand New Man’ with a couple of his band guys. He was wearing Brooks & Dunn gear, that was real flattering,” Dunn tells MusicRow, settling in beside Brooks for an interview at a barn on Dunn’s property just south of Nashville, decorated in the familiar western tones often seen on the duo’s videos and stage production.

“And Ronnie sent me a copy of a version of ‘Neon Moon’ that Kacey Musgraves was doing,” Brooks adds.

“Of course, we already had a group of people covering our songs—Keith Urban was opening some shows with ‘Brand New Man,’ and now it’s morphed to another group. So, we’re three musical generations down from where we were, in a way.” Brooks says.

Spalding took notice of the cover choices, and the ‘90s country influence nestled in the sounds of artists like Combs, Midland, Jon Pardi, and Cody Johnson, all of whom are part of the Reboot project.

“It happened quickly,” Brooks says. “[Clarence] made one phone call. He said, ‘If I don’t hear back from them today, I’m going on down the line.’ And it happened like that. He’d call back and go, ‘Got ‘em, bam.’ ‘Got ‘em, bam.’”

“I wish I had thought of it,” Dunn quips.

Rather than lifting the duo’s s pre-recorded vocals from previous albums, or recording vocals separately and having them digitally added to the mix, Ronnie and Kix recorded each collaboration live in the studio.

“I think the first day of recording was with Luke [Combs] on ‘Brand New Man,’” Brooks says. “That same day, I think we recorded with Jon Pardi and Kane. We got like four cuts that day.”

Thomas Rhett guests on “My Maria,” a cover of a 1970s B.W. Stevenson hit that earned Brooks & Dunn their second Grammy in 1996. Brooks made the request to have Ashley McBryde collaborate on a sparkling version of “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone.” Musgraves brought her full band into the studio, adding some sultry disco undertones to “Neon Moon.”

“She had a very definite idea of how she wanted to approach the song,” Dunn recalls. “And Kacey is as far out into that realm that we ventured.”

“Ain’t Nothing ‘Bout You” gets a slow burn treatment courtesy of Brett Young, while Cody Johnson offered a stripped down acoustic rendition of “Red Dirt Road.”

Other tracks, such as Midland’s take on “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” and Jon Pardi’s “My Next Broken Heart,” hew closer to the original, by design.

“Jon’s a Sacramento boy and worked for his dad’s construction company,” Dunn notes. “He’s the one who walked in and said, ‘I want it done exactly like the record. I don’t want anything to deviate. That is what influenced me and that is what I like to do.’ So he was spot on with it.”

They called on producer Dann Huff, who has produced on albums for several of the artists involved with Reboot, as well as Megadeth, Keith Urban, LeAnn Rimes, Bon Jovi, Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, Reba, Taylor Swift and numerous others.

“It was fun,” Brooks says. “Dann said his greatest challenge was…he kept saying, ‘I’ve had more anxiety over this project than anything, just due to the fact that I feel like I need to honor the original versions, but at the same time give them a subtle twist.’”

“They have a nickname for Dann in music, they call him the sniper,” Dunn says. “Any time someone needs a project done within budget and within a certain amount of time, he can do it. And you’re having to herd a lot of cats for a project like this. He’s a great organizational wizard.”

Most of the artists selected their own favorite B&D song to cover. One of the most startling was Kane Brown’s choice of the 2005 hit “Believe,” which served as a visceral showcase for Dunn’s rich voice.

“That’s one of the most challenging vocals for me to do,” notes Dunn. “The second he walked up to the mics, we were facing each other, there was no set way to do it, we were just going to start singing and try to swap off and see what happened. I heard him sing and the whole room got quiet. He has the chops.

“He wasn’t competitive at all, he just slid in there and did his own thing in a really cool way. I think Dann said, ‘Well, when Ronnie’s singing that high stuff at the end, whatta you wanna try to do about that?’ And Kane said, ‘Let Ronnie sing that high stuff!’ I remember talking to Dann after the recording and he was like, ‘That’s that thing I’m wanting people to see about Kane. He’s got it.’”

“I don’t think any of us have seen that side of Kane,” Brooks says. “So he’s stepping right into this song that’s going to be a challenge as a singer more than anything else.”

Brothers Osborne’s improvisational rendering of “Hard Workin’ Man” amplifies its soul and pride, turning the blue-collar tribute into a guitar-thrashing, blues-soaked embodiment of those giving work (and life) their all. For Brooks & Dunn, the track just might be the most full-circle take of any on the album.

“Kane brought up that Brothers Osborne liked to do this ‘70s hippie stoner kind of thing, with elongated leads and instrumentals and stuff. And we’re going, ‘that’s right where we came from.’ Back in the day we were listening to that stuff, grew up on it.”

Given the star power and high-octane collaborations, one might naturally presume an all-star concert or more music from the superstar duo could be on the way. Dunn says no plans for more B&D collaborations are in the works for either at the moment, aside from the Country Music Hall of Fame induction later this year, several Vegas shows and a handful of festival dates. Earlier this year, the duo made a surprise appearance during Kacey Musgraves’ Ryman show, joining her on “Neon Moon,” and say more surprise appearances with their Reboot cohorts are possible.

“We are taking it one step at a time. We never say never…it’s like the mafia. It keeps pulling you back in,” Dunn says.

 

When it was originally announced that many in country music’s ranks would celebrate Loretta Lynn’s upcoming 87th birthday with an all-star bash at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, the Coal Miner’s Daughter herself joked that she wished country star Keith Urban would jump out of a birthday cake for her.

No joke, that moment happened Monday evening (April 1) as the reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year honored Lynn by climbing out of a blue cake onstage and wishing her a happy birthday.

“Miss Loretta—you asked me to jump out of a cake for you—and I would do it again every time!” Urban later shared on social media. “Thank you for a truly surreal and gorgeous night of music, heart, stories, magic, and LOVE!!!!!”

Musically, there were a number of highlights. Urban sat at a piano to perform Lynn’s “Blue Kentucky Girl.” Darius Rucker was game to take on Lynn’s controversial 1975 hit “The Pill,” while Cam sounded at once delicate and defiant on “Rated X.”

“Tonight, I want you to enjoy every standing ovation, because it’s all for you,” said Cam, who also hosted the event. “We’re all here to celebrate and thank this great lady for making a much better, much more beautiful and much more truthful place for the last 87 years, and we hope for many more to come.”

Lynn’s inspiration and influence on most of today’s female country artists was palpable, as Miranda Lambert performed Lynn’s first No. 1 single, 1966’s “Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind),” before joining her Pistol Annies sisters Angaleena Presley and Ashley Monroe for a rendition of “Fist City.”

Kacey Musgraves offered “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man),” while the newly-formed group The Highwomen (including Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile, and Amanda Shires) welcomed Natalie Hemby for lush four-part harmonies on “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”

Carlile’s soaring, supple voice was a pleasure as she offered a rendering of “She’s Got You,” recorded by Lynn’s late friend and singer Patsy Cline. Brandy Clark offered a sterling rendition of “You’re Looking At Country.”

Tanya Tucker brought out a bouquet of flowers after a performance of “While I’m Living” with Carlile.

Many of Lynn’s classics were collaborations with duet partners including Conway Twitty, and the evening’s tributes were filled with tasteful pairings. Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood performed “After The Fire Is Gone,” while Alan Jackson and Lee Ann Womack offered a rousing take on “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man.” Jackson brought Lynn a single yellow rose in a Jack Daniel’s whiskey bottle, calling the offering “a perfect example of country music.”

The applause in the arena was thunderous as George Strait took the stage, for his own “Amarillo By Morning.” Martina McBride opened the concert with Lynn’s debut single from 1960 “I’m A Honky Tonk Girl.” Together, Strait and McBride performed “Lead Me On” later in the show.

John Carter Cash and Ana Cristina Cash offered “Keep On The Sunny Side,” while Lynn’s half-sister Crystal Gayle collaborated with Peggy Sue on “Sparking Look of Love.” Gayle then presented her signature “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.”

In 2005, Lynn earned her second Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Collaboration, for the track “Portland, Oregon,” with Jack White. White was on hand last night to perform the track with Margo Price, before he also offered the Lynn-penned “Have Mercy.” Price, who is eight months pregnant, said she was giving her daughter the middle name Lynn, also sang “One’s On the Way.”

The evening closed Lynn leading the way in a traditional “all-sing” on the living legend’s signature “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

Lynn turns 87 on April 14.