“I was listening to an interview that John Mayer did and he said that he never makes a second record, he just keeps making a first record. I feel like that is exactly how I feel with this album,” says singer-songwriter Lauren Daigle, who released her own sophomore album of original work, Look Up Child, on Centricity Music on Sept. 7.
The project is the long-awaited follow-up to Daigle’s debut project How Can It Be, which released in 2015 and earned the contemporary Christian Music artist a platinum certification from the RIAA. How Can It Be is one of only five albums in the Christian genre to attain Platinum status since 2003, and the first from a female artist since 2001. Daigle also released the holiday album Behold in 2016.
How Can It Be, and Daigle’s unique sound, became one of the CCM industry’s biggest success stories in recent years, earning three gold-selling singles, “Trust In You,” the title track “How Can It Be,” and “First.”
Last year, her collaboration with Reba McEntire on “Back To God” earned Daigle another No. 1 single. “You Say,” the first single from Look Up Child, followed suit, cresting atop the Hot Christian Songs chart.
“I feel like this is a child of its own,” she says of Look Up Child. “This is the first time I’ve released music having an audience already, whereas when you are releasing music for the very first time, you are kind of throwing it out there and guessing who the people will be that listen to it and fall in love with it. With this album, I’m writing songs for faces that I’ve gotten to see throughout the years on the road.”
Given that Daigle and Centricity have become one of the biggest success stories to come out of CCM music in the past few years, many would expect that Daigle and company would release a follow up album as quickly as possible.
That didn’t happen. Instead, Nashville resident Daigle decamped back to her native Louisiana for about a year.
“I heard Adele say once that she had to go away for four years so she could experience life again and write from that place,” Daigle says. “That’s the exact same approach I had. I took a season off just to breathe and process everything I had been going through.”
Daigle spent time with friends and family, away from the bustle of the music industry. She visited campgrounds along Highway 1 in California, and traveled to Mexico.
“My life was flipped upside down in a second,” she recalls of the swift success of her album. “Just four years ago, I was waiting tables at Chuy’s. So in that process it’s been honestly super surreal, seeing, just moments that you didn’t know how to prepare for so it meant you just had to jump in. All of the success and failure and disappointment and excitement, it all kind of weaves a little tapestry in your heart, and then you go into work on another project and it subconsciously comes out.”
Like Adele, Daigle’s voice is saturated with soulful influences and holds an impressive range, most notably displayed on the album’s captivating opener “Still Rolling Stones,” a track that resembles Adele’s early hits such as “Rumor Has It.”
“I told my producer, ‘I want to sweat in the set.’ Like in New Orleans, everybody is dancing and people are getting sweaty and it’s just this beautiful moment of community. I really wanted to capture that essence on this record. I think that’s the song that did it.”
Daigle formally began the writing and recording process on her second album, Look Up Child, in January, reuniting with writer-producers Jason Ingram and Paul Mabury, who helmed her first album. Clustered in Mabury’s studio atop a wooded hill in Franklin, Tennessee, Daigle and team penned nine of the album’s 13 songs within three weeks.
Throughout the album, stringwork enhances her voice, thanks to Nashville musicians and the arrangement work from Brett Mabury, who happens to be Paul Mabury’s twin brother. The orchestra would create one of Daigle’s favorite moments on the record.
Lauren Daigle
“That was the first time that I’ve experienced anything like that. I’ve never been in a studio with an orchestra. A song called ‘This Girl’ is the most personal song on the record, and the orchestra did this string piece with the piano. At the end of that piece the entire orchestra was silent. Nobody could break the silence because the moment in the room was so heavy and you could see tears start to fall down people’s faces.”
The album holds tightly to piano and string-based arrangements, even as it sneaks in hits of doo-wop (“Your Wings”) and a vintage Lauryn Hill-esque arrangement of the hymn “Turn Your Eyes.”
“There are so many moments during making the album where we would just pull out that [1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill] record and just listen to it. Paul always says, ‘The history is in the music. If you want to make good music, you have to know the history.’ In making this record, we also studied a lot. He put on a Roberta Flack or Andrae Crouch, and I would just sit there and marvel.”
Daigle’s love of soulful pop & R&B vocalists is the product of a childhood filled with elements of jazz, pop and zydeco.
“This is kind of comical, but I didn’t even know what CCM was until I was already in it. They would say like, ‘This CCM station,’ and I would be like ‘What is CCM?’ It wasn’t until then that I really learned.”
Daigle grew up enthralled by the music of iconic vocalists Celine Dion and Whitney Houston, and initially pursued a pop career. As a teenager, Daigle competed on American Idol for three seasons, to varying degrees of success. During her Idol experience, Daigle realized she longed to return home to lead worship at her church.
A series of quirky events placed Daigle onstage in front of Centricity Music execs while she was a college student at the University of Louisiana. While Daigle was a backup vocalist for a music group, the group was invited to attend a Centricity Music artist retreat, a musical conference that allows aspiring musicians to perform for and interact with music executives in the Contemporary Christian Music industry. The day of the group’s performance, the lead singer was rushed to a hospital for an emergency appendectomy, leaving Daigle to take on lead vocal duties. Centricity execs were captured by what they heard.
Daigle signed with Centricity and over the course of two years, that breakthrough debut album would earn the singer six Dove Awards, two Grammy nominations, and an American Music Award.
Look Up Child’s lead single, “You Say,” was actually penned shortly after the release of her debut album, on a rare day off in Nashville in the middle of her tour.
“I loved the message of the song,” Daigle says, “but because the life of How Can It Be wasn’t over, I was like, ‘I don’t want to release it yet. I think it needs to be part of a project.’ So my label was so kind in honoring that and waited to release it for two-and-a -half years.”
The wait was worth it, as the song is Daigle’s latest No. 1 single.
Luke Bryan, UMG Nashville Launch 32 Bridge Entertainment With First Signing Jon Langston
/by Jessica NicholsonPictured (L-R): UMG Nashville VP Business & Legal Affairs Rob Femia, UMG Nashville COO Mike Harris, KP Entertainment President Kerri Edwards, UMG Nashville EVP A&R Brian Wright, UMG Nashville President Cindy Mabe, UMG Nashville SVP Promotion Royce Risser, Serling Rooks Hunter McKoy Worob & Averill LLP’s Greg W. Brooks; (Front) UMG Nashville Chairman & CEO Mike Dungan, Jon Langston, Luke Bryan
Singer-songwriter Jon Langston has signed a record deal with Universal Music Group Nashville and 32 Bridge Entertainment, and has released his debut single “When It Comes To Loving You.” The Georgia native is the first artist under Luke Bryan’s new label with UMG Nashville, 32 Bridge Entertainment and will be worked in conjunction with EMI Records Nashville.
“When It Comes To Loving You,” which Langston co-wrote with Dan Isbell and was produced by Jody Stevens, is a soulful song that tells the heartfelt story of a young man illustrating his favorite memories, and yet none of them compare to the moments spent with the girl he loves.
“The ability to start a record label thru my record label is such a dream come true for me. It allows me to see an artist like Jon Langston, trust my heart and sign him,” explains Luke Bryan. “I’ve been watching Jon and hearing about his fan following for some time. More important is that he is in it for the right reasons—he loves making music, he loves the fans and he’s out there working his tail off. I want him to blaze his own trail but if he’s having a bad day or he doesn’t know how an angle of the business works, I want to be there to give him advice or just go fishing.”
“Spending the past four years on the road and seeing fans show up night after night singing along to every song has been such an amazing time,” shares Jon Langston. “Now joining the EMI Nashville team and UMG Nashville family is another honor that I’m so thankful for. Luke has been such a great role model on so many different aspects of this business. I will forever be grateful. Getting the opportunity to do this on another level is something I will work hard at and won’t take for granted! Let’s Go!!!”
In 2013, Langston released “Forever Girl” on YouTube, the first song he ever wrote by himself. That release kicked off his music career which has culminated in 15 sold out shows this year and 160 million career streams.
Currently on his first headline tour, Prob’ly In A Bar Tour, which will run through the end of the year, Langston will also be a guest on Luke Bryan’s Farm Tour 2018.
Lauren Daigle Returns With Long-Awaited Album ‘Look Up Child’
/by Jessica NicholsonThe project is the long-awaited follow-up to Daigle’s debut project How Can It Be, which released in 2015 and earned the contemporary Christian Music artist a platinum certification from the RIAA. How Can It Be is one of only five albums in the Christian genre to attain Platinum status since 2003, and the first from a female artist since 2001. Daigle also released the holiday album Behold in 2016.
How Can It Be, and Daigle’s unique sound, became one of the CCM industry’s biggest success stories in recent years, earning three gold-selling singles, “Trust In You,” the title track “How Can It Be,” and “First.”
Last year, her collaboration with Reba McEntire on “Back To God” earned Daigle another No. 1 single. “You Say,” the first single from Look Up Child, followed suit, cresting atop the Hot Christian Songs chart.
“I feel like this is a child of its own,” she says of Look Up Child. “This is the first time I’ve released music having an audience already, whereas when you are releasing music for the very first time, you are kind of throwing it out there and guessing who the people will be that listen to it and fall in love with it. With this album, I’m writing songs for faces that I’ve gotten to see throughout the years on the road.”
Given that Daigle and Centricity have become one of the biggest success stories to come out of CCM music in the past few years, many would expect that Daigle and company would release a follow up album as quickly as possible.
That didn’t happen. Instead, Nashville resident Daigle decamped back to her native Louisiana for about a year.
“I heard Adele say once that she had to go away for four years so she could experience life again and write from that place,” Daigle says. “That’s the exact same approach I had. I took a season off just to breathe and process everything I had been going through.”
Daigle spent time with friends and family, away from the bustle of the music industry. She visited campgrounds along Highway 1 in California, and traveled to Mexico.
“My life was flipped upside down in a second,” she recalls of the swift success of her album. “Just four years ago, I was waiting tables at Chuy’s. So in that process it’s been honestly super surreal, seeing, just moments that you didn’t know how to prepare for so it meant you just had to jump in. All of the success and failure and disappointment and excitement, it all kind of weaves a little tapestry in your heart, and then you go into work on another project and it subconsciously comes out.”
Like Adele, Daigle’s voice is saturated with soulful influences and holds an impressive range, most notably displayed on the album’s captivating opener “Still Rolling Stones,” a track that resembles Adele’s early hits such as “Rumor Has It.”
“I told my producer, ‘I want to sweat in the set.’ Like in New Orleans, everybody is dancing and people are getting sweaty and it’s just this beautiful moment of community. I really wanted to capture that essence on this record. I think that’s the song that did it.”
Daigle formally began the writing and recording process on her second album, Look Up Child, in January, reuniting with writer-producers Jason Ingram and Paul Mabury, who helmed her first album. Clustered in Mabury’s studio atop a wooded hill in Franklin, Tennessee, Daigle and team penned nine of the album’s 13 songs within three weeks.
Throughout the album, stringwork enhances her voice, thanks to Nashville musicians and the arrangement work from Brett Mabury, who happens to be Paul Mabury’s twin brother. The orchestra would create one of Daigle’s favorite moments on the record.
Lauren Daigle
“That was the first time that I’ve experienced anything like that. I’ve never been in a studio with an orchestra. A song called ‘This Girl’ is the most personal song on the record, and the orchestra did this string piece with the piano. At the end of that piece the entire orchestra was silent. Nobody could break the silence because the moment in the room was so heavy and you could see tears start to fall down people’s faces.”
The album holds tightly to piano and string-based arrangements, even as it sneaks in hits of doo-wop (“Your Wings”) and a vintage Lauryn Hill-esque arrangement of the hymn “Turn Your Eyes.”
“There are so many moments during making the album where we would just pull out that [1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill] record and just listen to it. Paul always says, ‘The history is in the music. If you want to make good music, you have to know the history.’ In making this record, we also studied a lot. He put on a Roberta Flack or Andrae Crouch, and I would just sit there and marvel.”
Daigle’s love of soulful pop & R&B vocalists is the product of a childhood filled with elements of jazz, pop and zydeco.
“This is kind of comical, but I didn’t even know what CCM was until I was already in it. They would say like, ‘This CCM station,’ and I would be like ‘What is CCM?’ It wasn’t until then that I really learned.”
Daigle grew up enthralled by the music of iconic vocalists Celine Dion and Whitney Houston, and initially pursued a pop career. As a teenager, Daigle competed on American Idol for three seasons, to varying degrees of success. During her Idol experience, Daigle realized she longed to return home to lead worship at her church.
A series of quirky events placed Daigle onstage in front of Centricity Music execs while she was a college student at the University of Louisiana. While Daigle was a backup vocalist for a music group, the group was invited to attend a Centricity Music artist retreat, a musical conference that allows aspiring musicians to perform for and interact with music executives in the Contemporary Christian Music industry. The day of the group’s performance, the lead singer was rushed to a hospital for an emergency appendectomy, leaving Daigle to take on lead vocal duties. Centricity execs were captured by what they heard.
Daigle signed with Centricity and over the course of two years, that breakthrough debut album would earn the singer six Dove Awards, two Grammy nominations, and an American Music Award.
Look Up Child’s lead single, “You Say,” was actually penned shortly after the release of her debut album, on a rare day off in Nashville in the middle of her tour.
“I loved the message of the song,” Daigle says, “but because the life of How Can It Be wasn’t over, I was like, ‘I don’t want to release it yet. I think it needs to be part of a project.’ So my label was so kind in honoring that and waited to release it for two-and-a -half years.”
The wait was worth it, as the song is Daigle’s latest No. 1 single.
Jason Aldean Proves He’s A Hometown Hero At Nashville’s High Noon Tour Stop
/by Eric T. ParkerPerhaps most inspiring about Aldean’s set is the hope it brings. The showman unfolded a drama with his set list, infusing hometown pride while indulging fantasies about escapism at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena Sept. 7.
The finely tuned set glamorized dirt bikes, back roads, drag racing, eighteen-wheelers, powerstroke diesels, thermoses and water towers to delight of a sold-out audience. Of course, the Broken Bow Records superstar’s consistent brand is more inclusive, covering loves gained and lost with titles like “The Truth” or his latest single “Girl Like You,” which goes for adds today (Sept. 10).
Aldeans High Noon Tour has touched down in over 30 towns from coast to coast this summer, ever proving “Hicktown[s]” can be found outside of “Flyover States.”
The set impresses with the appropriate, hard-driving intro “Gettin’ Warmed Up” and takes fans through “Lights Come On,” a title about a “six-string circus” coming to town, seducing and glamorizing the allure of love and money that come with show business. With confidence, Aldean delivers “Rearview Town,” finally looking in the mirror one last time at a town of “broken hearts and rusted plows” he never thought he’d leave.
Aldean then drops you off at “Crazy Town.” A song about becoming a star in Nashville, the track is Aldean’s equivalent of Reba’s rags-to-riches tale “Fancy” as he sings: One year they repossess your truck/and the next you make a couple million bucks.
For the most part, each title speaks of fondness from where Aldean came from. Songs like “Tattoos On This Town” reflect on hallowed ground while “Amarillo Sky” remembers the struggle it took to live out those dreams, no matter the scale. “They Don’t Know” gives street cred, speaking from the inside, while graphics of mud slingers dance behind on video walls. He’s not just singing redneck anthems, he is speaking for many still inside those small towns.
As a whole, his setlist tells a story of human experience—struggle, self identification and pride. Aldean’s voice remains strong, 13 years in to his career and his longtime New Voice band plays tightly and subtly choreographed, to make the most impact for a show, worthy of earning Entertainer of the Year, for which Aldean reigns for ACM the past three years, and is nominated for at the CMA’s on Nov. 14 (final round ballot closes Oct. 23).
The whole production speaks to the superstar status of Aldean. The video walls and lighting were top notch. Unfortunately, pyrotechnics of any kind—CO2, flames or fireworks—were left behind on this tour, which is also touching a handful of extra large stadium venues.
Special guests Lauren Alaina and Luke Combs complemented the first-class show perfectly. Combs’ fans impressively cheered as loud as a crowd for a teenage heartthrob, and Alaina’s voice soared as she beamed with personality.
Date Set For 54th Annual Academy Of Country Music Awards
/by Jessica NicholsonThe Academy is also announcing the return of marquee ACM Party for a Cause events, including ACM Stories, Songs & Stars, ACM Topgolf Tee-Off and the ACM Awards Official After Party, taking place on April 5, April 6 and April 7, respectively.
Chris Tomlin Reveals Track Listing, Cover For New Project ‘Holy Roar’
/by Lorie HollabaughChris Tomlin recently revealed the cover and track listing for his new album, Holy Roar, to his followers on social media. The new album includes Tomlin’s new single “Nobody Loves Me Like You,” which was made available last month as part of a four-song digital-only EP. HOLY ROAR was produced by Ed Cash and Bryan Fowler and is the follow up to Tomlin’s Never Lose Sight album containing three of his 16 No. 1 singles including the Platinum-selling “Good Good Father,” “Jesus” and “Home.”
Surrounding the album release, Tomlin is launching a Canadian tour this month. His Christmas tour, Chris Tomlin Christmas: Christmas Songs of Worship, will also run Nov. 30-Dec. 16, 2018. Tickets for the Christmas tour will be available on this Wednesday, (Sept. 12) at christomlin.com.
Country Music World Embraced Burt Reynolds
/by Robert K OermannBy Robert K. Oermann
Few of the obituaries for Burt Reynolds noted that the Hollywood icon was also a “country star.”
The movie great, who died Thursday (Sept. 6) at age 82, only made one country album and appeared just once on the country-music hit parade. But he was massively popular with country fans, incorporated country music into his film soundtracks and cast more than a dozen country stars in his features.
Although Burt Reynolds played many roles, his portrayals of moonshiners, cowboys, outlaws, NASCAR drivers, rebels and other country archetypes became his most famous film characters.
The soundtrack of Reynolds’ breakthrough film, 1972’s Deliverance, yielded the Grammy-winning country hit “Dueling Banjos” by Eric Weissberg. The plots of such Reynolds vehicles as White Lightning (1973), Gator (1976) and Stroker Ace (1983) were rooted in country culture.
Reynolds came to Nashville in 1973 to create Ask Me What I Am as his country LP. Issued by Mercury Records, it was co-produced by Bobby Goldsboro and Buddy Killen. Despite songwriting contributions from Goldsboro, Red Lane, Ed Bruce and Dick Feller, the album was a commercial failure.
Burt Reynolds returned to Nashville in 1975 to film W.W. & The Dixie Dancekings. Its premiere was held in Music City, as well. In it, he portrayed a crook who promotes a country band. The cast included Don Williams, Roni Stoneman, Lorene Mann, Tootsie Bess and several other country personalities.
The film launched the movie careers of Jerry Reed (1937-2008) and Mel Tillis (1932-2017). Both would be featured in several other Reynolds films, and Reed, in particular, would have a successful acting career on his own. Reed’s second feature with Reynolds was Gator in 1976.
Already a sizable movie star, Burt Reynolds ascended to superstardom with 1977’s Smokey and the Bandit. Although panned by critics, it found a massive audience in Middle America and grossed more than $100 million.
Reed again appeared opposite Reynolds in this film. He also co-wrote the movie’s soundtrack and sang its big country hit, “East Bound and Down.”
Also appearing in Smokey and the Bandit was John Schneider, unbilled in a crowd scene. Two years later, he would inherit Reynolds’ redneck/outlaw persona in the smash hit 1979-85 TV series The Dukes of Hazzard. The two became friends in Hollywood, and Schneider succeeded in Nashville via a string of hit country records in 1984-88.
In the 2016 documentary film Bandit, Brad Paisley, John Rich, Toby Keith and others discussed Smokey and the Bandit’s indelible relationship to country music. In the days following Reynolds’ death, Bandit was screened repeatedly by CMT.
Smokey and the Bandit II was issued in 1980. In addition to Reed, Tillis and Don Williams, the cast included Brenda Lee and The Statler Brothers. All five contributed songs to its soundtrack, as did Tanya Tucker, Roy Rogers and The Sons of the Pioneers. Burt Reynolds sang “Let’s Do Something Cheap and Superficial” on the soundtrack, and his single of it made it to No. 51 on the country charts.
The handsome headliner had a long-term relationship with his Smokey movies co-star Sally Field, whom he later described as “the love of my life.” But he also had notable romances with Nashville-bred pop vocalist Dinah Shore (1916-1994), who was 20 years his senior, and with country superstar Tammy Wynette (1942-1998).
The 1981 Reynolds road-race feature The Cannonball Run again featured Tillis. By this time, Burt Reynolds was in the midst of a five-year reign as Hollywood’s top box-office moneymaker. During this same era, he won six consecutive People’s Choice awards as America’s favorite movie actor.
So his pairing with country superstar Dolly Parton in 1982’s Best Little Whorehouse in Texas was headline news. In the film, Reynolds sang “Sneakin’ Around” as a duet with her. Parton’s remake of “I Will Always Love You” became the soundtrack’s big hit. Whorehouse continued Reynolds’ success streak, becoming a huge box-office hit and winning a best-picture Golden Globe Award.
Jerry Reed co-starred in 1983’s Smokey and the Bandit Part 3, with Reynolds taking a backseat via a cameo appearance. The soundtrack included contributions by Lee Greenwood and Ed Bruce. Mel Tillis reunited with Reynolds for 1984’s Cannonball Run II.
Burt Reynolds next triumphed as a television star. His Evening Shade series of 1990-94 was a major hit. Once again, he offered screen roles to his country-music favorites. During its five-year run, the top-rated Evening Shade featured such guest stars as Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Tammy Wynette, K.T. Oslin, Kenny Rogers and Jerry Reed, as well as Terry Bradshaw.
Similarly, his 1991-92 TV talk show Burt Reynolds Conversations With booked Gill, Parton, Randy Travis and Tanya Tucker as well as Hollywood royalty.
Reynolds and McEntire co-starred in the 1993 TV movie The Man from Left Field. Goldsboro composed the soundtrack music, a job he performed the same year for the TV western movie The Wind in the Wire. This co-starred Reynolds with Randy Travis. The movie star also appeared in the 1993 music video for the Travis tune “Cowboy Boogie.”
The 1997 film Boogie Nights restored Reynolds’ status as a respected actor. The film garnered him his finest reviews since Deliverance, won him a Golden Globe award and earned him an Oscar nomination.
In 2005, Reynolds co-starred in the hit movie update of The Dukes of Hazzard. Willie Nelson and Junior Brown were also featured.
The aging cinema thespian returned to Tennessee to portray a washed-up actor in 2016’s The Last Movie Star. It was shot and premiered in Knoxville and featured the Nashville Film Festival in its plot. Again, his performance was roundly praised by reviewers.
Burt Reynolds had been ill, but his death last week was unexpected. Over the weekend, Parton, Schneider, Travis and McEntire all offered memorial tributes to their fellow “country star.”
Rod Phillips Named Executive Vice President Of Country Programming Strategy at iHeartMedia
/by Lorie HollabaughRod Phillips
Rod Phillips has been promoted to the new position of Executive Vice President of Country Programming Strategy at iHeartMedia, the company announced today. Phillips will continue to report to Tom Poleman, Chief Programming Officer for iHeartMedia, and Brad Hardin, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the iHeartMedia National Programming Group.
In his new role, Phillips will continue to lead the Nashville-based iHeartCountry team in overseeing iHeartMedia’s country formats, and further extend the company’s country brands across multiple platforms including broadcast, digital, social and live events. He’ll also continue to guide and develop the company’s roster of country programmers and on-air talent, as well as book artists and produce events for iHeartMedia including the nationally-recognized iHeartCountry Music Festival, and head up iHeartCountry’s music discovery and emerging artist initiatives, including the Artist Integration Program and the On the Verge program, which has played a key role in breaking artists like Granger Smith, Maren Morris, Luke Combs, Lauren Alaina, Devin Dawson, Carly Pearce and Morgan Evans.
Phillips has more than 25 years’ programming experience and has led the iHeartCountry team since August 2015. He previously served as iHeartMedia’s Senior Vice President of Programming for the Southeast Region, Program Director and on-air personality for KISS 103.5 in Chicago, and Operations Manager for iHeartMedia’s Miami/Ft. Lauderdale market. In 2011, Phillips helped develop “The Bobby Bones Show,” the top-rated nationally-syndicated country morning show, working closely with Bones to expand the show’s original format and moving “The Bobby Bones Show” from Austin to Nashville for its successful transition into country radio in February 2013. He is a graduate of the University of Kentucky.
“Rod has done an amazing job leading our iHeartCountry brand, which reaches millions of Country music fans across America each month,” said Tom Poleman. “He’s been the key force in our continued success in the format and our continued position as the largest and most well-respected Country broadcast network in the U.S. We’re excited that he’ll be taking an even larger role here to help further guide our Country programming in over 150 markets.”
“As Country music continues to increase in popularity with audiences across America, iHeartMedia has more Country brands than ever before and our station ratings are on the rise,” said Phillips. “I couldn’t be more excited to continue to lead the iHeartCountry brand based here in Nashville.”
Logan Ledger Signs With Rounder Records
/by Jessica NicholsonLogan Ledger
T Bone Burnett‘s Electro Magnetic Recordings has announced its artist Logan Ledger has signed to Rounder Records.
Ledger is in the studio with T. Bone Burnett, who is producing his debut album, slated for release in 2019. He will preview material from the project on Friday, Sept. 14 at the Mercy Lounge during AmericanaFest in Nashville.
“The Rounder team and I are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Logan, a young singer and writer who easily qualifies as Nashville’s best kept secret,” said Rounder Records President John Strohm. “Rounder has a long history of successful projects with T Bone, and we are humbled to be a part of what we believe will prove to be one of the finest productions of his remarkable career.”
T Bone Burnett added, “A couple of years ago, my great friend Dennis Crouch sent me a recording of a song called ‘Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me’ by a young singer and writer named Logan Ledger. He had, and has, a voice filled with history. I could hear echoes of one great singer after another in his tone. He sang without artifice. As we have been working together over the last couple of years, I have begun to discover the wide territory he is able to cover, and I look forward to exploring these new worlds of music with him.”
Ledger said, “Ever since I was a kid listening to Doc Watson and Norman Blake records in my childhood home and dreaming about a life in music, Rounder has been an important presence in my life. It’s an honor to be working with a record label that not only proudly represents decades of our musical tradition, but also believes that history continues to inform our future sonic landscape.
“It has been a real privilege to work with T Bone on this record. We share a musical vision for the twenty-first century born from the deep well of American music. It has also been a joy to play alongside my gurus (both musical and otherwise) Dennis Crouch, Russ Pahl, and Jay Bellerose.”
Californian native, Ledger came to music fairly early: he began singing as a young child and started playing old-time and bluegrass music on guitar at age 12. Enamored of early roots music recordings of Appalachian ballads and string bands from the 1930s, he soon discovered the music of Hank Williams and George Jones—he describes it as “a bomb going off in my mind”—and devoted himself wholeheartedly to learning all he could about country music.
After college, he briefly returned to the Bay Area where he played with a bluegrass band, but quickly realized the need to move to Nashville. In Music City he threw himself into writing and performing.
RIAA Reports 253 Song Awards, 57 Album Awards For August 2018
/by Eric T. ParkerFor country, Brett Young achieves a Platinum plaque for his self-titled debut alongside Chris Young‘s The Man I Want To Be. Jason Aldean‘s Rearview Town earns Gold certification.
Single action goes to Lady Antebellum for achieving 9x Platinum status on “Need You Now.” Hunter Hayes‘ “Wanted” earns 5x Platinum, while Luke Combs Earns 3x Platinum for “Hurricane.” Cam earns 2x Platinum “Burning House” alongside Chris Janson‘s “Buy Me A Boat,” Combs’ “When It Rains It Pours,” and Trace Adkins‘ 2007 hit “You’re Gonna Miss This” and 2005 hit “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.”
Billy Currington‘s “Do I Make You Wanna” earns Platinum status alongside three Brett Eldredge tunes: “Mean To Me,” “Mercy” and “Lose My Mind.” Chris Young is back on the Platinum list with “The Man I Want To Be” and “Losing Sleep,” as is Dan + Shay‘s “Tequila” and “Nothin’ Like You.” Devin Dawson also achieves those million-moving stats with “All On Me” in addition to Combs’ “One Number Away,” Lee Brice‘s “That Don’t Sound Like You” and Old Dominion‘s “No Such Thing As A Broken Heart,” “Song For Another Time” and “Written In The Sand.” Adkins also sees his “Ladies Love Country Boys” reach the Platinum mark.
For Gold singles, Carrie Underwood‘s “The Champion” achieves the mark, as does Cole Swindell‘s “Flatliner,” Kenny Chesney‘s “Get Along,” Combs’ “Beautiful Crazy” and Adkins’ “Just Fishin’.”
Exclusive: Abby Anderson Brings Grooves And Soul To Debut EP
/by Jessica NicholsonAbby Anderson
I’m driving fast and I’m not holding back, newcomer Abby Anderson sings on “This Feeling,” a track from I’m Good, her debut EP for Black River Entertainment, which releases today (Friday, Sept. 7).
While those lyrics are an apt description of the young girl Anderson sings about, who is grappling with both the euphoria and eagerness that surround an early romance, they also suit the artist herself.
Last weekend, the 21-year-old Anderson appeared as part of Dierks Bentley’s Seven Peaks Festival in Colorado, and will make her Grand Ole Opry debut this weekend. She will join Brett Eldredge’s The Long Way Tour, which launches Sept. 13.
Sitting in the Black River recording complex, just days before her album release, this transparent and vivacious Texan is more than ready to bare her soul—and soulful sound—to the masses on her project.
“When I was thinking about the songs to include, I honestly wanted songs that made me smile, made me happy,” she tells MusicRow. “I love music that makes my heart happy. All I want is to give a lot of joy in this world.”
The EP is filled with dance-worthy, empowering tracks like “Dance Away My Broken Heart” and the swaggering kiss-off “Naked Truth.”
But the gorgeous “Make Him Wait,” the EP’s sole ballad, proves Anderson can step outside the realm of flirty fun and fully engage a listener even in the quieter moments. The track, penned with Tom Douglas and Josh Kerr, is the centerpiece of the EP, filled with wisdom handed down from Anderson’s parents.
“Writing with Tom and Josh is like college,” Anderson says. “I’m not going to college—I didn’t even apply to college—but writing with them and so many other talented writers, I feel like I’m in school every single day to learn how to get better at my craft. We wrote this song in about 45-minutes. It’s everything my parents taught me about boys and dating.
“Being raised in a house full of girls, I think it was very important to my parents to teach us where our worth comes from. You don’t have to find your worth only in a relationship or a guy. A guy doesn’t have to get his value from dating, either. They just helped us to understand that we are worth something. And it’s ok to trust your worth with someone [who is] worth your trust.”
Anderson comes from a family of seven children (six girls and a boy), and all of them inherited their parents’ musical talents.
“I’m a little biased, but my dad’s tenor voice is beautiful,” she says, before relating how her mother once made the trip to Nashville to pursue a country music career of her own, before meeting Anderson’s father and moving to Texas.
All of the Anderson children were given piano lessons from an early age.
“I hated them, absolutely hated them,” Anderson recalls of her lessons, laughing. “But then, my mom showed me YouTube videos of Elvis Presley and Ray Charles, and I was hooked. And growing up in Texas, country [music] was always being played in the car. Vince Gill is big for me, The Judds, K.T. Oslin, Linda Ronstadt, all those soulful voices.”
Another of those indelible influences was music of the late Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, who died Aug. 16. “I cried that day, that was a hard one,” Anderson recalls. “But that woman, her music, she’s going to live forever.”
She graduated high school early and moved to Nashville in 2015. Shortly after, Anderson connected with Liz Morin and Ronna Reeves, who passed her music along to Black River Entertainment’s VP, A&R Doug Johnson.
“I met with him and he asked me to come back the next week and the whole label was downstairs. I played a few songs and they asked me a lot of questions and a week later I had a deal.”
With that signing, she joined Black River, home to breakthrough artist Kelsea Ballerini.
“Kelsea’s amazing. She’s leading the pack for women in country. I was fortunate to open for her about two years ago, even before I signed with Black River. She invited me on her bus and we chatted. She advised me to write with your friends and to surround yourself with good people. I’ve definitely done that.”