Kenny Rogers Receives Special Honor From The Smithsonian
Pictured (L-R): Ambassador Nicholas Taubman, Kenny Rogers, and museum director John Gray. Photo: Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Kenny Rogers set the tone during The Nation We Build Together gala opening at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. earlier this week.
Photo: Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Rogers performed his song “‘Merica” to a capacity crowd of 600 guests in front of the gallery that houses The Star-Spangled Banner, the actual flag that inspired the national anthem. The six-song set also included “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town,” “Lucille,” “The Gambler,” “Islands In The Stream,” and “You Can’t Make Old Friends.”
Photo: Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
AIMP Nashville Holds Panel With Pandora
Pictured (L-R): Chris Van Belkom (AIMP Nashville board member – Combustion Music), John Ozier (AIMP Nashville Executive Director – ole), Ree Guyer (AIMP Nashville Treasurer – Wrensong Music), Beville Dunkerley (Pandora), Rachel Whitney (Pandora), Michael McAnally Baum (AIMP Nashville Secretary – SMACKSongs), Dale Bobo (AIMP Nashville board member – Big Deal Music), and Brad Peterson (Regions Bank, event sponsor). [Click photo to enlarge]
The Nashville Chapter of the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) held a panel covering “Tips for Best Practices with Pandora” on Tuesday, June 20 at ASCAP’s Nashville offices.
Pandora’s Beville Dunkerly, director of Artist Marketing and Industry Relations, and Rachel Whitney, head of Country Music Programming, were on hand to provide updates on Pandora’s platform and give tips on how to maximize an artist’s imprint on the service.
ASCAP Showcases Feature Hit Writers & Emerging Artists
Pictured (L-R): ASCAP’s Mike Sistad and Beth Brinker, Marc Beeson, Andy Albert, Alyssa Bonagura, and Jimmy Robbins
ASCAP presented several showcases across Nashville during the week of June 19 featuring some of the best of ASCAP’s hit songwriters and emerging artists.
On Monday, June 19, ASCAP AMPED featured breaking songwriter-artists Hunter Phelps and Brandon Ratcliff at The Country.
Tuesday night’s showcase (June 20) at The Bluebird Cafe presented hit songwriters Andy Albert (She’s Got a Way With Words,” “If the Boot Fits”), Marc Beeson (“When She Cries,” “Hometown Girl”), and Jimmy Robbins (“It Goes Like This,” “Think a Little Less”) alongside breakthrough songwriter-artist Alyssa Bonagura, whose duo with Ruby Stewart, The Sisterhood, recently signed with Sony Music Nashville. Stewart joined Bonagura on stage during the round, which benefited Musicians Corner and was hosted by The Conservancy for the Parthenon and Centennial Park Vice President John Tumminello.
Pictured (L-R): Ryan Plappert, Maxfield Camp, Bailey Callahan, ASCAP’s Beth Brinker and Ralph Murphy, and Bonner Black
On Wednesday, June 21, ASCAP presented up-and-coming songwriter Ryan Plappert and songwriter-artists Maxfield Camp, Bailey Callahan, and Bonner Black at its monthly showcase series at The Basement.
Industry Ink: Kenny Rogers, AIMP Nashville, ASCAP
/by Haley CrowKenny Rogers Receives Special Honor From The Smithsonian
Pictured (L-R): Ambassador Nicholas Taubman, Kenny Rogers, and museum director John Gray. Photo: Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Kenny Rogers set the tone during The Nation We Build Together gala opening at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. earlier this week.
Photo: Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Rogers performed his song “‘Merica” to a capacity crowd of 600 guests in front of the gallery that houses The Star-Spangled Banner, the actual flag that inspired the national anthem. The six-song set also included “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town,” “Lucille,” “The Gambler,” “Islands In The Stream,” and “You Can’t Make Old Friends.”
Photo: Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
AIMP Nashville Holds Panel With Pandora
Pictured (L-R): Chris Van Belkom (AIMP Nashville board member – Combustion Music), John Ozier (AIMP Nashville Executive Director – ole), Ree Guyer (AIMP Nashville Treasurer – Wrensong Music), Beville Dunkerley (Pandora), Rachel Whitney (Pandora), Michael McAnally Baum (AIMP Nashville Secretary – SMACKSongs), Dale Bobo (AIMP Nashville board member – Big Deal Music), and Brad Peterson (Regions Bank, event sponsor). [Click photo to enlarge]
The Nashville Chapter of the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) held a panel covering “Tips for Best Practices with Pandora” on Tuesday, June 20 at ASCAP’s Nashville offices.
Pandora’s Beville Dunkerly, director of Artist Marketing and Industry Relations, and Rachel Whitney, head of Country Music Programming, were on hand to provide updates on Pandora’s platform and give tips on how to maximize an artist’s imprint on the service.
ASCAP Showcases Feature Hit Writers & Emerging Artists
Pictured (L-R): ASCAP’s Mike Sistad and Beth Brinker, Marc Beeson, Andy Albert, Alyssa Bonagura, and Jimmy Robbins
ASCAP presented several showcases across Nashville during the week of June 19 featuring some of the best of ASCAP’s hit songwriters and emerging artists.
On Monday, June 19, ASCAP AMPED featured breaking songwriter-artists Hunter Phelps and Brandon Ratcliff at The Country.
Tuesday night’s showcase (June 20) at The Bluebird Cafe presented hit songwriters Andy Albert (She’s Got a Way With Words,” “If the Boot Fits”), Marc Beeson (“When She Cries,” “Hometown Girl”), and Jimmy Robbins (“It Goes Like This,” “Think a Little Less”) alongside breakthrough songwriter-artist Alyssa Bonagura, whose duo with Ruby Stewart, The Sisterhood, recently signed with Sony Music Nashville. Stewart joined Bonagura on stage during the round, which benefited Musicians Corner and was hosted by The Conservancy for the Parthenon and Centennial Park Vice President John Tumminello.
Pictured (L-R): Ryan Plappert, Maxfield Camp, Bailey Callahan, ASCAP’s Beth Brinker and Ralph Murphy, and Bonner Black
On Wednesday, June 21, ASCAP presented up-and-coming songwriter Ryan Plappert and songwriter-artists Maxfield Camp, Bailey Callahan, and Bonner Black at its monthly showcase series at The Basement.
Toby Keith Coming To Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater
/by Jessica Nicholson“Wacky Tobaccy is a slogan, a saying that’s been around forever and no one has ever written it in a song,” says Keith. “The song is written to the screws, and it fits in with what we do every night with the party crowd.”
Tickets will go on sale Wednesday, June 28 at 10 a.m. at livenation.com or by phone at (800) 745-3000.
Brad Paisley Comedy Special Coming To Netflix
/by Jessica NicholsonPictured (L-R): Nate Bargatze, Jon Reep, Sarah Tiana, Paisley, Mike W. Winfield, John Heffron. Photo: Rick Diamond/Getty Images
Brad Paisley will debut a one-hour comedy special, Brad Paisley’s Comedy Rodeo, on Netflix on Aug. 15. The show was filmed earlier this year, as Paisley hosted two comedy shows at Nashville venue Zanies Comedy Club as part of the Wild West Comedy Festival.
The Netflix special will feature comedians Nate Bargatze, John Heffron, Jon Reep, Sarah Tiana and Mike E. Winfield. Actor David Hasselhoff and multi-talented Reba McEntire make special appearances.
“Year Of Lomax” Launched
/by Robert K OermannJohn Lomax III
Nashville journalist and entrepreneur John Lomax III has announced a year-long celebration of his family’s contributions to American music.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of his grandfather, John Avery Lomax (1867-1948). The “Year of Lomax” celebration will include the release of a series of recordings and the reissue of a seminal folklore book.
The contributions of the Lomax family have touched the lives of such diverse figures as Muddy Waters, Guy Clark, Beyonce, Leadbelly, K.T. Oslin, Steve Earle and Nicki Minaj.
John Avery Lomax began collecting folk songs in 1908. He and his son Alan Lomax (1915-2002) are particularly noted for a 16,000-mile collecting trip that began in 1932 and was sponsored by the Library of Congress. Their efforts resulted in saving and preserving such immortal songs as “Home on the Range,” “Irene Goodnight,” “Git Along Little Dogies,” “Cotton Fields” and “Midnight Special.”
On the trip, they discovered Leadbelly, Muddy Waters and many other folk, gospel and blues pioneers. John Avery Lomax’s 1947 book about their expeditions, Adventures of a Ballad Hunter, will be reissued by the University of Texas Press later this year.
Lomax III is collaborating on a new introduction for the book with his son John Nova Lomax, a senior editor at Texas Monthly, as well as with his cousin Dr. Anna Lomax Wood, the daughter of Alan.
The first “Year of Lomax” project, however, is an album titled Folk. This is a collection of home recordings made by John Lomax II (1907-1974) in 1969. With liner notes by his son, Lomax III, it is now available on Sounds From Lomax Discs.
“The songs my father sings on Folk are part of the soundtrack of my life,” says Lomax III. “Now you can enjoy these vivid slices of our shared American heritage.”
Lomax II helped to establish The Houston Folklore Society, whose “graduates” include Oslin, Clark and Lucinda Williams. He managed Lightning Hopkins and aided Mance Lipscomb in becoming a recording artist. He also recorded two solo albums for Folkways Records, which remain in print today.
During his varied Nashville career, Lomax III has managed David Schnauffer, The Cactus Brothers, Townes Van Zandt and Earle. He won the CMA’s Jo Walker-Meador International Award in 2010.
The Lomax celebration unofficially began last year when Beyonce included samples from Lomax field recordings on the “Freedom” track of her blockbuster album Lemonade. The David Guetta-Nicki Minaj hit “Hey Mama” began with another Lomax sample, a prison song called “Rosie.”
Joe Nichols To Release New Album In July
/by Jessica NicholsonHe released the audio for the album’s title track and first single, “Never Gets Old.” Throughout the mid-tempo track, he maintains that though time keeps passing and his body grows older by the day, his love is eternally youthful. He compares his love’s admiration to sunshine and refrains of the classic spiritual “Amazing Grace,” things that never fail to bring happiness.
The album marks Nichols’ second release on BBR Music Group’s Red Bow imprint.
Sara Evans Enlists 14 Female Songwriters For New Album
/by Alex ParrySara Evans fans don’t have to wait any longer to hear new music from the artist’s upcoming album, Words. Starting Friday (June 23), those who pre-order the upcoming album at iTunes will be rewarded with instant downloads of lead single “Marquee Sign” and title track, “Words.” Pre-order the album now at saraevans.co/words and receive songs “Long Way Down” (6/30), “I Don’t Trust Myself” (7/7) and “Diving In Deep” (7/14) in the coming weeks.
Words is scheduled to be released July 21 on Sara’s own independent label, Born To Fly Records. The 14-song collection features 14 separate female songwriters, including powerhouses Ashley Monroe, Caitlyn Smith, Hillary Lindsey, Hillary Scott, Liz Hengber, Sonya Isaacs and more. The album marks a creative reunion for Evans, pairing her with frequent co-producer Mark Bright, while Tracy Gershon and Craig Dunn provide A&R direction.
Sara Evans – Words:
NSAI’s ‘Songs I Wish I’d Written’ Voting Begins Next Week
/by Lorie HollabaughThe 165-song ballot is comprised of Nashville-associated songs that charted in Billboard Airplay Top 20 on the Alternative, Christian, Country, Pop and Rock charts between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017 and must not have been awarded the previous year. The song that receives the highest number of votes will be NSAI’s 50th Song of the Year.
Voting is open to current Professional Songwriter Members of NSAI and will run from Monday, June 26 through Sunday, July 9.
NSAI will recognize the 10 Songs I Wish I’d Written, NSAI Song of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Songwriter-Artist of the Year awards at the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala on Sunday October 23, 2017.
For more information on voting or NSAI Professional Membership please contact Shelby Yoder at shelby@nashvillesongwriters.com.
Carrie Underwood To Receive Star On Hollywood Walk Of Fame
/by Jessica NicholsonCarrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood is among the artists who will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as part of the Class of 2018.
She joins recording artists including Mary J. Blige, Sir Richard Branson, Petula Clark, Harry Connick, Jr., Ice-T, Snoop Dog, and “Weird Al” Yankovic.
Film and television stars who are part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame’s Class of 2018 include RuPaul, Jennifer Lawrence, Jack Black, Lynda Carter, American Idol’s Simon Cowell, television producer Shonda Rhimes, and Taraji P. Henson.
“The Walk of Fame Selection Committee is pleased to announce our newest honorees to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Committee looked carefully at each nominee and we feel that we have selected an eclectic group of talent that will appeal to the tastes of many fans around the world,” Vin Di Bona, chairman of the selection committee for 2017, said. “As a Walk of Famer myself, I know these honorees will remember the dedication of their stars with great memories and will be proud that they are part of Hollywood’s history now and forever. We look forward to their big day as the Walk of Fame Class of 2018 becomes cemented one by one on the most famous sidewalk in the world!”
Anyone can nominate a celebrity to be considered for a star on the Walk of Fame, though a Chamber of Commerce committee handles final selections. Once selected, the Walk of Fame honorees, or a sponsoring studio, are required to pay $40,000 for the Walk of Fame star ceremony. The funds are used to pay for the creation and installation of the star, as well as for maintenance.
Dates have not been set for the Class of 2018 star ceremonies, which must be scheduled within two years from the selection date.
Weekly Chart Report 6/23/17
/by Alex ParryClick here or above to access MusicRow‘s weekly CountryBreakout Report.
Kenny Chesney Enlists Belmont University, MTSU Students For New Music Video, Offers $5,000 Scholarship
/by Jessica NicholsonKenny Chesney. Photo: Allister Ann
Kenny Chesney is calling on Nashville college students from Belmont University and Middle Tennessee State University to create the music video for his latest single, “All The Pretty Girls.”
Chesney is inviting any student from the two universities to submit a video they’ve created for the song, including lyric videos, live action, notion, animation and more.
“Get creative. Get real. Get inside the song, and show us how ‘All The Pretty Girls’ looks, feels, and resolves,” Chesney says. “I wanna help a student filmmaker with school. And I want to give people a chance to get creative this summer.”
The winning entry – chosen by a panel from Sony Nashville, CMT: Country Music Television and Chesney’s team – will receive a $5000 scholarship, as well as having their video world premiere on CMT: Country Music Television.
While the song’s video could have easily been a nostalgic look at his own college days, Chesney instead wanted to spotlight the youth of today.
“The best moments of being young and having fun should be captured,” says the songwriter from East Tennessee. “But nobody ever talks to the people who are right in the moment of living it about this kind of thing. Rather than look back, we oughta just go to the people living it.
“I remember driving over the state line to West Virginia, playing in a restaurant, breaking down, driving back and parking in the music store lot, so I could turn in the sound system and get to class,” Chesney says. “When you have a dream, you’ll do whatever it takes. I’d like to bring some college students a little bit closer than I got… and I can’t wait to see the creativity everyone brings to this song.”
Belmont and MTSU students can click here: KennyChesneyAllThePrettyGirls.com. Contest deadline is July 23. Winner will be announced July 31.