Pictured (L-R): Big Machine Records’ Jim Weatherson, Longshot Management’s Rob Baker, Jeannie Seely, Carly Pearce, The Grand Ole Opry’s Sally Williams, Longshot Management’s Aaron Kinssies, 650 WSM’s Bill Cody Photo: Chris Hollo, Grand Ole Opry

Carly Pearce celebrated a momentous occasion Wednesday night (June 13): her 50th Grand Ole Opry appearance. Pearce first made her debut in the famed circle on May 30, 2015, and was just as proud the 50th time she stepped onto the hallowed stage to be introduced by Opry member Jeannie Seely and 650 WSM host Bill Cody.

Pearce told the crowd she held such a special place in her heart for the Opry and would still be  just as excited to sing there for the next fifty years. The Kentucky native kicked off her set with “If My Name Was Whiskey” before launching into her No. 1 “Every Little Thing” and capping the celebration off with her new single “Hide The Wine.”

“I love country music and country music fans more than anything and the Grand Ole Opry will always be the most precious thing to me,” said Carly.

Pearce is set to head to the Radio Disney Music Awards on June 22 where she is nominated for The Freshest! – Radio Disney Country Best New Artist.

Photo: Sonni Young

Lightning 100 is partnering with Project 615 once again this year during their annual “615 Day,” this Friday, June 15 featuring a block party at Richland Park. New this year to the celebration will be a 6 p.m. concert with performances by local artists Smooth Hound Smith, Jeremy Lister & Friends, and Goodbye June. The station will also feature 24-hour local programming throughout the day, including live on-air performances and interviews.

The free, family friendly event is being held in the West Nashville neighborhood and will feature music from Musicians on Call, over 50 vendors including food and craft beer trucks, video gaming trucks, local vendors, and non-profits.

The 2018 615 Day celebration will benefit Musicians on Call and their mission to bring live and recorded music to the bedside of patients in healthcare facilities. With Lightning 100’s continued yearly expansion of the 615 celebration and with the Project 615 partnership, the city’s local businesses and musicians have adopted the “holiday” as its own. Project 615, known for capturing the spirit of Nashville with unique graphic designs on apparel and other products, has long been a local business with a global mission. Other partners helping make the 615 Day possible include M.L. Rose Craft Beers & Burgers, Lipman Brothers, Google Fiber, Habitat Yoga, Mountain High Outfitters, Cohub, and Major Family Chiropractic.

“One of our most important initiatives as Nashville’s independent radio is to help Nashville artists. The Local Lightning Spotlight started in 2005 and was one of the first official programming features we implemented to highlight local music,” said Gary Kraen, VP Programming. “Over the last 13 years, we’ve continued to expand this initiative and now local artists make up 25-30 percent of our music playlist.

The station will also be broadcasting from Project 615’s West Nashville location mid-day and then bring their afternoon drive show with Analee to the 615 Day site at Richland Park.

Dailey & Vincent

The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) has announced Jamie Dailey, of Dailey & Vincent, will deliver the Keynote Address at this year’s IBMA Business Conference, on Tuesday, Sept. 25, at the Raleigh Convention Center in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. Dailey will deliver insight on this year’s conference theme, “Branding Bluegrass.”

“I’m honored to be asked to be the keynote speaker at IBMA this year,” says Dailey. “We have an incredible and legit industry, but we face a lot of challenges and uncertainty. However, there are unique and interesting opportunities available to us if we only take the time to search them out and study what could be. I’m excited to bring my perspective on branding. We need forward and unbounded leadership for our genre to grow, thrive and most importantly survive. It’s time to grow and move the music we love to the masses and keep it alive forever.”

The IBMA further outlines the “Branding Bluegrass” theme with the following description:

From front porches and kitchen tables, to the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, and from there around the world, Bluegrass has become a globally recognized phenomenon, a style of music whose identity rings loud and clear – and high and lonesome. The strength of this image inspires and challenges bluegrass professionals to make our voices heard; to tell our own stories to fans old and new; to communicate our brands. We must consider how every decision we make in art and business shapes our brands and the stories we tell about ourselves, both individually and as a genre, and how strategic decision-making can ensure that our stories resonate with the people we want to reach while remaining true to our roots.

“We often underestimate the power of our branding decisions, or lack thereof, on professional success or failure,” says Paul Schiminger, Executive Director of the IBMA. “Jamie Dailey, along with his musical partner Darrin Vincent, has left nothing to chance. Through a conscious and methodical process, they created a brand that has catapulted their careers. We are excited to have Jamie provide important insights that can help us all rethink how we create our own success.”

The Country Music Hall Of Fame is among 14 recipients who will receive grant money from The GRAMMY Museum Grant Program. The program will award $200,000 in grants to recipients in the United States and Canada to help facilitate a range of research on a variety of subjects, as well as support a number of archiving and preservation programs.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will receive $15,000 to help preserve, digitize, and ensure public access to 316 rare interviews with performers, songwriters, and music executives from one of the world’s most significant country music oral history collections. The Museum will make these singular recordings searchable and accessible via their online digital archive and via its onsite Collections’ Reading Room.

Funded research projects include a study that will examine how rhythmic cues can improve movement for older adults and people with Parkinson’s disease, and a study that will examine how neural integration through music enhances long-term memory, among others. Additional preservation and archiving initiatives will rescue and organize 400 hours of at-risk reel-to-reel tapes of Native Radio—Bay Area, and digitally restore rare kinescopes of the 1950s television series “Stars Of Jazz” (KABC-TV, 1956-58); among others.

“The Recording Academy has proudly supported our GRAMMY Museum Grant Program since its inception,” said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of the Recording Academy and Chair of the GRAMMY Museum Board. “To date, we have awarded more than $7.3 million to more than 400 grantees. The work we help fund includes an impressive array of projects that are at the forefront of exploring music’s beneficial interchange with science, and that maintain our musical legacy for future generations. The initiatives announced today exemplify the Academy’s and GRAMMY Museum’s pledge to uphold music’s value in our lives and shared culture.”

Funded by the Recording Academy, the GRAMMY Museum Grant Program provides funding annually to organizations and individuals to support efforts that advance the archiving and preservation of the recorded sound heritage of the Americas for future generations.

Artist Growth has grown from a tour-managing tool to an all-encompassing platform that can be used by business managers, production managers, labels, promoters, agents, publicists, travel agents, drivers and the musicians themselves — all at the same time.

Team members can organize everything from events calendars, day sheets, travel, deal info, tasks, tour merchandise, sales, tickets, finances and reports on AG. The customizable, point-and-click interface works on desktop and mobile (Android and iOS), and is a cloud-based system in which anyone on a team can be logged in at the same time and give updates in real-time.

Universal Music Group and execs and managers at Red Light Management, Vector Management and Maverick have all adopted AG to keep track of tours and streamline communication. The company, which got its start in 2012, is currently tracking more than $2.5 billion in tour revenue and nearly $700 million in expenses, with total event guarantees tracked at around $1.7 billion.

The company has announced a new strategic partnership and equity investment with Pinnacle Financial Partners that will fuel growth in 2018 and help bring a new model of financial services to touring entertainers.