Arista Nashville held an event at Jay Joyce‘s East Nashville studio, Neon Cross, Thursday afternoon (Feb. 4) to give the industry its first look at the newly-signed band LANco.

The five-person group was introduced by Sony Music Nashville Chairman and CEO Randy Goodman, who spoke about A&R VP Jim Catino‘s staunch support, which became infectious among the staff. An offer to sign the band after Joyce helped tune a studio sound came when Goodman witnessed the energy of the stage show.

The story goes: LANco lead singer Brandon Lancaster was wrapping up a shift selling hot dogs at Bridgestone Arena when he spotted Joyce, introduced himself and shared some music. Joyce soon began developing the act, which showcased six songs at the producer’s church-turned-studio. Eric Church and Little Big Town have famously recorded at Neon Cross, which comes complete with dim mood lighting, laminate paneling, and wooden cross behind the stage.

With enough on-stage energy to fill a stadium, Lancaster—alongside bandmates Tripp Howell, Eric Steedly, Jared Hampton, and Chandler Baldwin—surfaced a style that seemed to combine the moves of Luke Bryan with the cadence of Sam Hunt or Old Dominion, melded with the musical framework of Coldplay or Imagine Dragons.

A pulsing, larger-than-life “Long Live Tonight” is now at country radio. In addition to the debut single, the 20-somethings played through a series of songs on banjo, electric organ and slide electric guitar. The group strummed through an electric and echoey “American Love Story,” energetic “Troublemaker,” and a cool “Singing at the Stars,” as well as “Win You Over” and “We Do.”

Hailing from Kentucky, Georgia and the Nashville area, the band shared memories of hitting the road in their RV and playing to college crowds on Friday nights.

“We were here a year ago playing for our friends, the same place we cut our record,” said Lancaster before he jumped around the audience, beating a floor tom with a drum stick. “Thank you to Jay for letting us be in your studio. Our lives have been incredible these past few years and we could not thank you enough.”

Appropriately, hot dogs were on the menu, catered by Riffs food truck.

Mark Herndon, the former drummer for the band Alabama, has written a memoir titled The High Road: Memories from a Long Trip. It will be available on April 1 via Fresh Ink Group in Roanoke, Texas.

Herndon will be promoting the book at Country Radio Seminar next week. Although he is no longer a member of the band, Herndon was included when Alabama was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005.

“I began writing this book as a collection of my life memories to share with my daughter. I had longingly wished that my dad shared his stories with me, and I didn’t want my daughter to live with that same regret,” Herndon said. “Sure enough, after putting pen to paper, recollections flowed and I had enough copy to make a manuscript. I became confident enough in my story and with positive encouragement and inquiry from loyal fans, I decided to share the story of my life on written page.”

According to press materials, the book “offers recollections and insight into Mark’s childhood as a military brat, parental bonds, his romantic and marital relationships, travels around the world as an aviator and entertainer, and everything in between.”

LOCASH Set For Morning Show, Late Night Debuts

LOCASH will make their national morning show debut on NBC’s Today on Feb. 24. That will be followed by their late-show debut on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live on March 16.

The duo of Preston Brust and Chris Lucas broke through in 2015 with “I Love This Life,” which was co-written by Chris Janson and Danny Myrick. LOCASH’s new single is “I Know Somebody.”

“Hard work is really starting to pay off for us,” Lucas says. “We have been seeing the response live. People are singing it back to us. It’s an amazing feeling, for sure.”

Brust adds, “Every day is so exciting. I know this sounds like a cliché, but dreams do come true. We have worked so hard to get to this point. It’s so surreal.”

 

Scotty McCreery Returning To ‘American Idol’

Scotty McCreery taped an episode of the farewell season of American Idol earlier this week. For three days, the Season 10 champion mentored two of the Top 24 contestants (their names cannot be revealed at this time) and shared lessons learned from both his experience on the iconic television show and in his career. He also performed duets with both singers.

The episode of American Idol featuring McCreery, along with five other returning Idols, will air on Feb. 11 on FOX.

“I remember how important it was to me during my time on Idol to meet and learn from all the great artists who visited the set and offered their advice,” McCreery said. “I was proud to be able to come back and offer whatever guidance I could to my two talented contestants. This is their season and their show. I was there to help them shine…and I believe they both did!”

 

 

Joe Nichols Participates In IPF Campaign

Joe Nichols is raising awareness of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a little-known disease that took the life of his father, Michael.

The campaign is called “Breathless: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at IPF.” It brings together people sharing real stories about how IPF has touched and impacted their lives and educates and empowers those who may be at risk to get diagnosed early. IPF, which causes permanent scarring of the lungs and difficulty breathing, affects as many as 132,000 Americans.

 

Marty Brown Making Opry Appearance After 23 Years

Producer/songwriter Keith Stegall‘s recently launched Dreamlined Entertainment Group has announced the release of Marty Brown’s single, “Make You Feel My Love.” To celebrate the single, Brown will perform on the Grand Ole Opry stage for the first time in 23 years on Saturday (Feb. 6.) Brown recorded for MCA Nashville in the early 1990s.

Brown performed Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love” on Season 8 of America’s Got Talent after taking a lengthy break from his music career. The performance earned Brown over 7 million YouTube views and caught the attention of Stegall.

Brown is managed by Joe Carter and Mike Tallaferro.

The highly influential, Grammy Award-winning gospel group The Fairfield Four has lost member Robert Hamlett.

Hamlett died on Monday, Feb. 1, at age 84. He had been a member of the group for more than 30 years.

The Fairfield Four is one of America’s most enduring gospel-music acts. Founded at Nashville’s Fairfield Baptist Church in 1921, the group became radio stars on WSIX in the late 1930s. Lead tenor Sam McCrary (1913-1991) joined in 1935. He made The Fairfield Four a nationally recognized force when the group joined WLAC in 1942. Its program became a CBS network fixture for the next decade. McCrary’s daughters are today’s popular group The McCrary Sisters.

The Fairfield Four underwent several personnel changes over the years. The group began recording in 1946. It issued more than 100 titles on such labels as Bullet, Champion, Dot, Delta, Nashboro, MGM and Old Town. Its signature song became “Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around.”

McCrary became an ordained minister in 1954. He reorganized and revived The Fairfield Four in 1980. Robert Hamlett joined in 1984, just as the group was poised to achieve its greatest successes.

During the next few years, The Fairfield Four appeared at Carnegie Hall, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the Smithsonian Institution’s Festival of American Folklife. The singers were regulars at Nashville’s Summer Lights downtown celebrations, as well as at the Tennessee Grassroots Days events in Centennial Park.

Hamlett and the group performed on records by Elvis Costello, John Fogerty, Dolly Parton and Amy Grant. The National Endowment for the Arts honored The Fairfield Four with its National Heritage Award in 1989. In 1995, the group won a Lifetime Achievement prize at the Nashville Music Awards. The group was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

In 1998, The Fairfield Four won a Grammy Award for its CD I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray. Hamlett and the group appeared as gravediggers in the film O Brother Where Art Thou. In 2002, its soundtrack won the group its second Grammy Award.

Hamlett continued to sing with The Fairfield Four during the ensuing decade. He performed on the 2014 PBS-TV special Rock My Soul, filmed at Nashville’s Downtown Presbyterian Church. The group’s most recent album is 2015’s Grammy-nominated Still Rockin’ My Soul.

Funeral arrangements for Robert Hamlett have not been announced.