The 10th Anniversary of the CMA Songwriters Series will be celebrated on Oct. 15 at The Parish in Austin, Texas. Songwriters Hall Of Fame member Bob DiPiero will serve as host of the event. DiPiero has had more than 1,200 songs recorded by artists, countless hit singles, and an astounding 15 No. 1 hits.
Other songwriters set to perform include Rob Hatch, Jamey Johnson and Raul Malo.
Hatch has penned songs for Rhett Akins, Terri Clark, George Jones, Jake Owen, Gretchen Wilson, and more. He has two No. 1 songs with Randy Houser’s “Goodnight Kiss” and Lee Brice’s “I Don’t Dance.”
Two-time CMA Award winner Jamey Johnson is best-known for his 2008 hit “In Color.” He is also credited as co-writing hits including Trace Adkins‘ “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk,” and George Strait’s “Give It Away.”
Malo is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer that is best-known as the lead singer of Country group The Mavericks and the co-writer of many of their singles.
For nearly a decade, the CMA Songwriters Series has been exposing fans across the country and the globe to the artisans who, through their craft, pen hits that touch the lives of millions of music fans. Since it began at Joe’s Pub in New York City in 2005, the CMA Songwriters Series has presented more than 75 shows in 15 cities, including Austin, Boston, Belfast, Chicago, Dublin, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C. at the renowned Library of Congress. The series has featured 132 of music’s most gifted storytellers who collectively have 71 CMA Song of the Year nominations.
Tickets go on sale Friday, Sept. 12 (10:00 AM/CT). To order tickets, visit CMASongwritersSeries.com, or theparishaustin.com.

Keith Urban’s Raise ‘Em Up Tour is coming to a close, so his crew made a cool video to mark the occasion. *Journey* along with Urban, Jerrod Niemann, Brett Eldredge and the crew as they “Faithfully” celebrate life on the road.

Curb Records celebrated the release of Lee Brice’s new album with a lunchtime event featuring Mike Rogers on the grill, custom t-shirts, and corn hole. (Read MusicRow’s coverage of Brice’s project in this post.) “Lee Brice has turned in an amazing body of work and it is a great reason to celebrate,” says Taylor Childress, VP, The Curb Group. “Our industry is built on the backs of talented artists, without them, none of us would be here, and this celebration was an awesome reminder! We couldn’t be more proud of the efforts and hard work Lee Brice and his team have put forth in creating this album.”
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Leadership Music will present a conversation with revered A&R ladies Martha Sharp and Mary Martin in its quarterly series, Off the Record on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at 12:00 noon at Sambuca. MTSU professor and award-winning journalist Beverly Keel will moderate.
Sharp is the writer of two million-selling songs and served as Sr. VP of A&R at Warner Bros. Records. Before retiring in 1995, she had been instrumental in signing and developing the early careers of Randy Travis and Faith Hill.
Martin headed the A&R department at Mercury Records, encouraged Bob Dylan to work with The Band, and was involved with the signings of Leonard Cohen, Emmylou Harris and Vince Gill. She also worked with Van Morrison and Rodney Crowell.
The event is open to the public. $25 Leadership Music alumni/$35 non-alumni. To register click here.
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In preparation for his 25th anniversary in music in 2015, Aaron Tippin has signed with Absolute Publicity for exclusive representation.
“We’re overjoyed to add the ‘Hardest Workin’ Man In Country Music’ to Absolute’s client roster,” says Absolute Publicity President Don Murry Grubbs. “We’re proud to represent Aaron for this great career milestone.”
Tippin’s fame launched in 1990 with the release of “You’ve Got to Stand For Something,” which he followed with hits “Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly,” “There Ain’t Nothing Wrong with the Radio” and “Kiss This.”
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Heather McBee is exiting her role as Operations Director for America’s Morning Show. McBee helped launch the nationally-syndicated program over a year ago and acted as the show’s liaison for record labels and affiliates. McBee has 20 years of industry experience, including a long tenure with Sony Music Nashville, which ended with her serving as VP/Marketing & Web Initiatives. She can be reached at hmc@heathermcbee.com or (615) 584-8741.

BOBBY KARL WORKS THE ROOM
Chapter 467
This is the 50th anniversary of the Academy of Country Music, and what better way to celebrate than with the publication of a commemorative book?
That was the agenda at the Country Music Hall of Fame on Wednesday (9/10). The book in question is titled This Is Country, a sumptuous coffee-table tome loaded with photos and souvenir “stick-ins” like ticket, program, newsletter and award-certificate reproductions.
For you music-industry folks out there, a “book” is a thing with paper pages that you turn after reading collections of words on them that are longer than tweets. I doubt that there are more than 100 of you who have read one in the past year. That’s why the sentence, “I have written a book” has a status on Music Row that ranks just below, “I am the hair stylist for Gloriana,” or “I have a line of dialog on this week’s episode of Nashville,” or “I had a cut on the last SheDaisy album.”
Those of us who value book authorship beg to differ. For one thing, it means you’ve brought forth something that will last forever. For another, it demands a helluva lot of creative labor.

“It’s the hardest work I’ve ever done,” said author Lisa Lee. “It’s like giving birth….This is one of my proudest moments.”
We applauded her long and loud in the museum’s ACM Gallery. “She came up with the idea for the book,” said the ACM’s Bob Romeo. Not only that, “Years ago, we didn’t have a staff. I said, ‘Lisa, you’re going to have to build one.’ She has met that challenge. In seven years, Lisa has built a great department.”
Lisa joined the ACM in 2007. She soon realized that the 50th anniversary was impending, so she sought out the ACM’s four founding figures. Two of them – Chris Christensen and hit songwriter Eddie Miller – have died. So she began in 2009 by interviewing survivors Mickey Christensen, then 91, plus Tommy Riggins. Tommy, a West Coast performer and radio promoter, came up with the idea for the ACM while on the golf course. Mickey, who has since passed away, owned the Red Barrel nightclub, which she offered as the host venue.
D.J. country awards for West Coast artists were staged in 1963 and 1964. Then the first official ACM meeting took place on Feb. 17, 1965. The first ACM awards presentation was on Feb. 28, 1966 at the Hollywood Palladium. The book notes that the CMA had been formed in Nashville in 1958, but had not yet mounted an awards show.
Founders Tommy and Mickey, “were so excited [about the book idea],” Lisa reported. “They lit the fire.” They also led Lisa to early ACM honoree and champ yodeler Janet McBride, who had saved a treasure trove of memorabilia. Lisa made that contact in 2012.
“It has just been in the past year that it has really been a crunch,” the book’s mastermind commented. “We saved the last few pages, because we knew we wanted to include the 2014 awards show.”
She is especially proud that all of the living Artist of the Decade awardees participated. Garth Brooks and Randy Owen of Alabama wrote their own essays. Lisa interviewed George Strait and Loretta Lynn for theirs. Marty Stuart wrote eloquently about Marty Robbins. Other essay contributors include stars Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton and Reba McEntire.
Essays or not, it is a coffee-table collectible. “This is for the fans,” said Lisa. “It is 50 years of country-music history and 50 years of this organization’s history, [but] it is for the consumers.”
It is certainly for the readers who attended. More literate than the rest of you were Wes Vause, Regina Stuve, Sherod Robertson, Suzanne Gordon, Jay Frank, Rod Essig, Chuck Aly, Ken Tucker, Teresa George, Paul Moore, Paul Barnabee, Mike Kraski and Ron Cox.
Attending ACM staffers Tiffany Moon and Taylor Payne presented Lisa with a framed first-proof of the book jacket, plus its Library of Congress registration certification.
The Hall of Fame’s catering, as usual, was tops. During the cocktail reception, we snacked on mushroom caps stuffed with sausage, chicken-salad wontons, hummus, tabbouleh, tzatziki, lavosh (it’s a flat bread), pita points, crostini and marinated grilled vegetables.
“I can’t thank you enough for coming,” said Bob Romeo. On behalf of book lovers everywhere, the pleasure was all mine.