Friends, family and music industry members gathered at Nashville hotspot City Winery on Wednesday (Oct. 29) to celebrate Rodney Clawson and Lady Antebellum members Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott, and Dave Haywood on the recent chart-topping success of “Bartender.” The song is the lead single from the trio’s fifth studio album 747, and was recently certified platinum. It marks Lady Antebellum’s ninth No. 1 of their career, and Clawson’s 15th chart-topper.
Hosted by ASCAP’s Michael Martin, BMI’s Leslie Roberts, and SESAC’s Tim Fink, the trio was given various plaques and trophies to honor the song’s success.
Given the upcoming holiday, many guests got into the Halloween spirit for the occasion, including the three band members. Kelley and Haywood dressed as a human beer barrels, with Haywood completing his ensemble with a mullet wig and glasses. “We’re the most rock & roll band in the universe right now,” quipped Kelley. He later gave ample credit to Haywood for his work on the song. “We wanted to make this our most energetic record to date. He is a workaholic. He went home with a pregnant wife and found time between all this stuff to come up with these amazing riffs.”
Other adorable costumes included Scott’s young daughter Eisele in a pig costume, and Rodney Clawson’s daughter Charlie in a kitten costume.
The evening also featured Lady Antebellum in an intimate, acoustic performance of the song of the hour, “Bartender,” backed by Rodney and Charlie Clawson.

Garth Brooks has revealed the track listing for his upcoming 14-track album, Man Against Machine, due on Nov. 11 through RCA Nashville/Pearl Records (full list below). Brooks co-wrote three tracks on the album.
Samples of each of the tracks from Garth Brooks’ new album are now available on GhostTunes through the end of today (Oct. 31). From the inspirational “People Loving People,” to the tearjerker ballad “Mom,” the classic Garth-sounding “All-American Kid,” to the swing-influenced “Romeo and Juliet,” Garth describes each song on the album, while a snippet of each tune plays in the background.
“It is the perfect Garth Brooks song,” he said of “All-American Kid.” “We’re lucky enough to travel around the world playing music. The first thing I tell people is, ‘I’m American. I’m not going to change to fit your format.’ We’re not going to lose the steels, the fiddles. We’re going to do what we do, which is Country music with muscle in it. It’s Garth Brooks Country music with a hell of a lot of muscle.”
“Because it is GhostTunes, Halloween seems like the perfect time,” said Garth in a release. “[We] speak a little bit on each song as a snippet of the song was playing…We went into studio and tried it. We were all surprised to hear how cool it turned out.”
Man Against Machine will digitally release exclusively with GhostTunes, but will be available at physical retailers nationwide.
The Garth Brooks World Tour with Trisha Yearwood will play Lexington, Ky. through Nov. 1, select dates in Minneapolis, Minn., from Nov. 6-15, Greensboro, N.C. from Nov. 19-23, St. Louis, Mo. from Dec. 4-7 and Little Rock, Ark., from Dec. 12-13.
Full track listing:
1. Man Against Machine (Larry Bastian/Jenny Yates/Brooks)
2. She’s Tired of Boys (Amanda Williams/Brooks)
3. Cold Like That (Steven Lee Olsen/Melissa Peirce/Chris Wallin)
4. All-American Kid (Craig Campbell/Brice Long/Terry McBride)
5. Mom (Don Sampson/Wynn Varble)
6. Wrong About You (Adam Wright)
7. Rodeo and Juliet (Bryan Kennedy/Brooks)
8. Midnight Train (Melissa Peirce/Matthew A. Rossi)
9. Cowboys Forever (Wynn Varble/John Martin/Dean Dillon)
10. People Loving People (Lee Miller/Chris Wallin/busbee)
11. Send ‘Em On Down the Road (Marc Beeson/Allen Shamblin)
12. Fish (Chris Wallin/Wynn Varble)
13. You Wreck Me (Stephanie Bentley/Kevin Kadish/Dan Muckala)
14. Tacoma (Caitlyn Smith/Bob DiPiero)

2014 might be winding down, but Warner Bros. Nashville artist and CMA New Artist of the Year nominee Cole Swindell isn’t slowing down anytime soon. After opening shows for Luke Bryan, Swindell will gear up for Jason Aldean’s 2015 Burn It Down Tour by embarking on his own 19-city, headlining club tour this winter. Swindell’s Down Home Tour runs Nov. 13 through Dec. 20. Venues include Joe’s Bar in Chicago, Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth, Texas, Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Okla., and House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Swindell will also release a five-song digital Down Home Sessions EP, produced by Michael Carter, and featuring co-writes with Bryan, Ashley Gorley, Brandon Kinney, and more. The project will release Nov. 17 on Warner Bros. Records. He says the EP is designed to be an outlet for his songwriting and a way to give fans new music between full-length albums.
“When I was getting to make my album, I knew from the songs we had, that we weren’t going to be able to put them all on the album,” said Swindell. “A couple are songs that fans heard me play live and wondered, ‘Why didn’t that make the album?’ You can only pick so many, so the fact that my label was behind me and supporting me, letting me put out a few new songs that I feel like people should have heard on the first album—and then some are special to me.”
“The Way You’re Loving Me Now,” penned by Swindell, Carter, and Bryan, almost found a home on one of Bryan’s albums. “We wrote it a couple of years ago and always thought Luke was going to put it on [one of his albums] and I don’t know what happened with that song.”
Gorley co-wrote another cut, titled “Kiss,” from the EP. “I’m excited about having a song with Ashley Gorley who is one of my favorite writers. He came out on the road a few months ago and we hammered out five songs. I’m excited for y’all to hear the whole thing.”
Swindell, an artist and songwriter in equal measure, was named one of MusicRow‘s Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year honorees for 2014. He has penned chart-topping songs for Thomas Rhett, (“Get Me Some of That”), Florida Georgia Line (“This Is How We Roll”) and Bryan (“Roller Coaster”), as well as his own No. 1 songs “Chillin’ It” and “Hope You Get Lonely Tonight.”
“I don’t want songs I’ve written to start being forgotten about, and I feel that fans like getting new music,” he said. “As much as I love to write, I hope we’ll always be able to give them new music when we have albums out. I want to hopefully do that every year, give the fans new music and then go out and play the clubs which I started playing in. I’ve been on some crazy stages this year with some big artists, but to get to go back and play clubs, kind of how I started, and be there in the face of the fans, that’s going to be fun.”

Decosimo, the accounting firm which includes Nashville-based Decosimo Vaden, is merging with another firm, Elliott Davis, effective January 1, 2015. Veteran business manager Michael Vaden is Decosimo’s entertainment practice leader, bringing to the role more than 35 years of experience in financial/business management, tax expertise, royalty examinations/ analyses and accounting services. Vaden joined with Decosimo in 2008.

The combined firm, which will be known as Elliott Davis Decosimo, creates the region’s fifth largest accounting firm with total annual revenues of $108 million and more than 800 professionals and specialists in 17 offices across seven states – Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia – and the Cayman Islands. Shareholders of both firms approved the merger in a unanimous vote. Terms were not disclosed.

Rick Davis, Managing Shareholder of Elliott Davis, will lead the combined firm. Decosimo Managing Principal Nick Decosimo will serve on the Executive Committee, which will be comprised of representatives from both firms.