Musgraves accepts the Grammy for Country Album of the Year.
was the Country darling during Sunday evening’s (Jan. 26) Grammy awards. The singer-songwriter earned honors for Country Album of the Year, along with co-producers
Luke Laird and
Shane McAnally. Musgraves, McAnally and fellow songwriter
Josh Osborne also picked up a Grammy trophy for her breakout single “Merry Go ‘Round” during the pre-telecast awards.
Darius Rucker earned Best Country Solo Performance honors for “Wagon Wheel” during the pre-telecast ceremony, while
The Civil Wars were feted for “From This Valley” as Best Country Duo/Group Performance.
The televised portion of the program featured several Country performances.
Hunter Hayes debuted the new ballad “Invisible,” a song of encouragement to those who dare to follow their dreams.
Keith Urban was joined by
Gary Clark, Jr. for a rendition of Urban’s new single, “Cop Car.”
Taylor Swift‘s stripped down offering of “All Too Well” featured the singer-songwriter belting a passionate performance from behind a grand piano.
Rucker backstage at the Grammys.
Some of the most well-received audience responses during the telecast came from the evening’s numerous musical collaborations. One such collaboration featured
Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and
Blake Shelton. Nelson and Kristofferson performed “The Highwayman,” while
Haggard and Shelton performed “Okie From Muskogee,” followed by an all-star rendition of “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys.” Later in the evening,
Miranda Lambert and Green Day’s
Billie Joe Armstrong offered strong harmonies in tribute to the late Phil Everly on The Everly Brothers’ “When Will I Be Loved.”
Taylor Swift performs “All Too Well.”
The evening’s biggest winners were
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, who earned honors for Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance for “Thrift Shop,” Best Rap Song for “Thrift Shop” and Best Rap Album for
The Heist. Singer
Lorde earned honors for Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year, both for “Royals.”
Awards given during the Grammy telecast include:
BEST COUNTRY ALBUM
Same Trailer, Different Park, Kacey Musgraves. Co-producers: Luke Laird and Shane McAnally. Label: Mercury Records
BEST POP VOCAL ALBUM
Unorthodox Jukebox, Bruno Mars. Label: Atlantic
BEST POP DUO OR GROUP PERFORMANCE
“Get Lucky,” Daft Punk Featuring Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers
BEST RAP ALBUM
The Heist, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Hunter Hayes and John Esposito celebrate at The Warner Music Group post party at Sunset Towers.
, Daft Punk. Label: Columbia Records
BEST POP SOLO PERFORMANCE
“Royals,” Lorde
SONG OF THE YEAR
“Royals,” Lorde
BEST NEW ARTIST
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
RECORD OF THE YEAR
“Get Lucky,” Daft Punk. Label: Columbia Records
BEST RAP/SUNG COLLABORATION
“Holy Grail” Jay Z and Justin Timberlake
For a full list of winners, visit
grammy.com.
Miranda Lambert and Billie Joe Armstrong salute The Everly Brothers.
Martina McBride and Zac Brown present.
Americana Music, Bluegrass Underground Earn Regional Emmy Honors
/by Jessica NicholsonAmong the trophies awarded during the evening include:
SPECIAL EVENT COVERAGE—2012 Americana Music Honors & Awards, Martin Fischer, Jed Hilly, Edie Lynn Hoback, High Five Entertainment
ENTERTAINMENT—Bluegrass Underground, James Yockey, Todd Jarrell, Todd Mayo, Jamie Campbell, Becky Magura, Todd Squared Productions
AUDIO—Bluegrass Underground, Hugh Johnson, Danny Poland, Todd Squared Productions
DIRECTOR/PROGRAM—Bluegrass Underground, James Yockey, Cindy Brewer, Todd Squared Productions
LIGHTING—Bluegrass Underground, Allen Branton, Han Henze, Todd Latia, Todd Squared Productions
For a full list of winners, visit: emmynashville.org.
Grammy Ratings On Par With Last Year
/by Sarah SkatesTaylor Swift performs “All Too Well” on the Grammys.
Ratings for last night’s (Jan. 26) Grammy Awards are on par with last year. The extravaganza on CBS was No. 1, drawing 28.5 million viewers. In the coveted adults 18-49 category, the show averaged a 9.9 rating. The 2014 trophy fest is the second most-watched Grammys in 22 years. These ratings are according to Zap2It.com.
In 2013 the Grammys averaged a 10.1 rating among 18-49 year olds and attracted 28.4 million viewers.
CBS will be home to the show through 2021.
The giant music celebration is the top rated music awards and second only to the Academy Awards among the major televised ceremonies.
Sony Music Nashville Adds To Artist Roster
/by Jessica NicholsonPictured (L-R): Hill Entertainment Group’s Greg Hill; Go Down Moses members Philip Haas, Robert Price, and Brandon Dockery; Sony Music Nashville Chairman & CEO Gary Overton; and the band’s Casey Driscoll, Reid Huffman, and Barrett Jacques. Photo credit: Ivor Karabatkovic
After headlining a recent sold-out show at Nashville club High Watt, the six-man band Go Down Moses put pen to paper, signing a recording contract with Sony Music Nashville. The band is comprised of Barrett Jacques, Robert Price, Reid Huffman, Philip Haas, Casey Driscoll and Brandon Dockery.
Formerly known as the Birchtree Band, the group has been performing throughout the Southeast since 2010. Touring has included stops in Nashville, Atlanta, Birmingham, and Memphis. A name change and additional members came in August 2013.
HitShop Records Adds Cutbirth, Wayne To National Promotions Team
/by Jessica NicholsonPictured (L-R): Caroline Cutbirth and Jennifer Wayne. Photo: Russ Harrington
HitShop Records President Skip Bishop has appointed Caroline Cutbirth and Jennifer Wayne to the label’s promotion department with the unique title, National Promotion, Special Operations. Together as a team, they will concentrate on radio promotions and marketing with a laser focus on impacting major markets.
Cutbirth and Wayne spent four years together as two-thirds of the band Stealing Angels. During that time they forged great relationships with Country radio and honed their people skills opening for artists such as Tim McGraw, Lady Antebellum, and more. Cutbirth and Wayne have also appeared on two seasons of The Amazing Race. Viewers will once again get to watch the duo race around the world on CBS, with season two starting in February.
“Jen and Caroline are a remarkable force! With their combined experience and relationships, they will be unstoppable at furthering the careers of HitShop’s ever-growing roster of artists,” exclaims Bishop. “Separately and together, they are brilliant and highly competitive. We are so happy to have them join us in the innovative configuration of modern promotion!”
“We’re so excited to get the chance to rekindle our radio relationships,” says Cutbirth, who will continue her duties at Young Guns Music Publishing, HitShop’s sister company in Nashville.
“To be able to go to radio with great music from artists like Natalie Stovall and The Drive, Kira Isabella, and Weston Burt makes it a dream job,” adds Wayne, whose iconic roots exude success as the granddaughter of John Wayne. “This is our most exciting challenge yet!”
Cutbirth may be reached at caroline@hitshoprecords.com, while Wayne may be reached at jen@hitshoprecords.com.
Bobby Karl Works The Room: The 2014 Grammy Viewing Party
/by Bobby KarlSwift plays “All Too Well” on last night’s Grammy Awards.
Not all of the fun on Grammy Night happens in Los Angeles.
The Nashville Chapter’s annual viewing party is a terrific occasion as a cocktail supper and a gathering of fabulons. This year’s event (Jan. 26) took place at Anthem, the dance club where the Pub of Love used to be on 12th Avenue North.
Kacey Musgraves performs “Follow Your Arrow” on the Grammys.
Moving and grooving were the members of the Nashville Chapter of the Recording Academy (NARAS). Nashville boasts the largest number of student members of any chapter in America, and they showed up en masse. That made it a good-lookin’ party full of cute young things in party couture.
Among the “senior citizens” also in attendance were Pat Embry, Pat McMakin, Scott Warner, Scott Hallgren, Joy Styles, John Briggs, Jonathan Martin (who has moved from being a Channel 5 anchor/reporter to being primary correspondent for Al-Jazeera’s Nashville bureau), Rob Simbeck, Karen Clark, Eric Holt, Raeanne Rubenstein, pop recording artist Gareth, Paul Nielsen, Charles Dorris, David & Carolyn Corlew, Bil VornDick, Doak Turner and Justin Levinson.
We snacked on hot-spicy chicken drumsticks, smoked salmon lox, cheese cubes, veggies with blue-cheese dip, tortilla chips with hummus and pepperoni discs at the food bars. The wait staff circulated with mini deli sandwiches, bags of freshly popped popcorn, petite pizza slices and the like.
Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert in the audience.
Anthem had a number of party spaces for the event. There was an upstairs lounge, a long balcony overlook, a terrace bar/food area and a main floor featuring two lounge areas and a dance floor surrounded by a series of round banquettes. Sleek black leather chairs and couches and gleaming ebony wood tables and cabaret stands were scattered throughout. The venue boasted brick and dry-stacked stone walls, plus black-draped partitions.
Truth to tell, the layout for this party wasn’t the best. The entryway led to a narrow hall that became a bottleneck because the lone stairway, a bathroom and a food buffet were all at its egress. Once you got past that, a few steps down led to a too-small barroom. Then you finally descended again onto the main floor, which was pleasantly large enough. The upstairs lounge and the balcony were mellow. As we viewed the telecast, our Nashville-oriented artists did us proud as show performers. Hunter Hayes, Kacey Musgraves and Taylor Swift knocked it out of the park. Blake Shelton shored up a legends segment featuring Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Lifetime Achievement Award winner Kris Kristofferson. Newly short-coiffed Keith Urban was a journeyman guitar soloist with Gary Clark Jr. Harmonizing Miranda Lambert and Billie Joe Armstrong saluted the late Nashville legend Phil Everly with “When Will I Be Loved.” Musgraves also appeared on the show as the surprised Country Album of the Year winner. Divine Martina McBride and charmingly furry Zac Brown were among the Grammy presenters. Grammy winners this year included Guy Clark, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, The Civil Wars, Darius Rucker, Mandisa and The Del McCoury Band.
Our party hosts-with-the-most were The Recording Academy’s Ashley Ernst, Laura Crawford (did you know that her dad is TV maven Greg Travis?) and current Leadership Music class member Alicia Warwick. Thanks to them, a lovely time was had by us all.
Keith Urban and Gary Clark Jr. perform “Cop Car.”
Industry Ink (1/27/14)
/by Jessica NicholsonAs previously announced, Vince Gill will be honored at the ceremony with the 2014 Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc. Career Achievement Award. Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell will perform a tribute to Gill as well as presenting him with the prestigious award during the event. In addition, Ed Hardy, CMA Board Chairman, will be honored with the 2014 President’s Award at the ceremony.
Honorary radio inductees are Larry Wilson, Alpha and L&L Broadcasting, and Mike Brophy, WKLB in Boston, Mass. The inductees in the On-Air category are Paul Schadt, WKKT in Charlotte, N.C. and Jim Denny, WFMS in Indianapolis, Ind.
Tickets are available for $110 each and can be purchased by contacting Chasity Crouch at chasity@crb.org or 615-329-2191. Similar to previous years, the event is expected to sell-out.
• • •
A companion website aims to keep fans updated on the latest artist news, videos, songs and touring information. Writers for the site include veteran journalists Phyllis Stark and Stephen L. Betts.
To hear Nashville Edge Radio, visit their official website or search for Nashville Edge Radio on the TuneIn Radio app via a mobile device.
• • •
Centricity’s Record roster includes Aaron Shust, Andrew Peterson, Carrollton, Jason Gray Jonny Diaz and Canadian country group, High Valley.
Music Services currently serves the needs of 25 record labels and 200 music publishers representing the rights to some 3,400 owned or administered catalogs.
America's Got Talent Auditions Coming To Nashville
/by Jessica NicholsonAuditions will be held at Soundcheck Nashville (located at 750 Cowan Ct., Nashville) from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. Artists auditioning should bring ID and the required paperwork to the audition.
Instruments can be brought to the audition, but artists are not allowed to plug in, so instruments must be acoustic or have a self-contained amplifier. A keyboard will be provided in the audition room.
Artists of all ages are allowed to audition.
To register for an audition and for more information, visit agtauditions.com.
Catch This Music Expands With CTM Records
/by Jessica Nicholson“CTM is founded on the premise of artist-friendly relationships,” said Eddie Robba, owner and CEO. “In today’s industry the pendulum has swung too far from the artist and songwriter. We believe in the philosophy that all should succeed: artist, songwriter, publisher and record label. Today we are advancing that by creating our label and launching our very first artist, Jared Mitchell.”
A free concert and signing party is planned for Wednesday, Jan. 29, 8-10 p.m. at Tin Roof Nashville, and will feature songs from Mitchell’s current CD The Maiden Voyage and new tunes from upcoming releases. Mitchell is a pop-Americana, singer-songwriter, who has also signed his publishing to CTM Writers Ink.
“I have amazing friends and supporters in this town, and I can’t wait to get them all together on Wednesday,” Mitchell said. “I’m going to rock the Tin Roof as a way of saying thank you to everyone who has believed in me.”
“Jared is a gifted singer, songwriter and musician,” said Robba. “The first time I met him, I knew I wanted to sign him. We will focus on his artist career, which places him a little left of center, but I know as a writer he will have hits on mainstream country radio.”
Mitchell moved here from Sparks, Nev., to attend Belmont University and is one of the first graduates of the university’s songwriting curriculum.
Mitchell is signed for management and booking to Bigfoot Music and Outdoors. Among the upcoming dates booked for the artist is a 13-city tour of the Tin Roof restaurant chain. Tin Roof Nashville is located at 1516 Demonbreun St.
Hayes Premieres Song, Plots Tour
/by Sarah SkatesHayes debuted his latest single “Invisible,” on last night’s (Jan. 26) Grammy Awards where he was nominated for Best Country Solo Performance for his multi-week No. 1 single, “I Want Crazy.” “Invisible,” written by Hayes, Bonnie Baker and Katrina Elam, is the lead track from his album due this May.
For every download of “Invisible” on iTunes, Child Hunger Ends Here will donate the monetary equivalent of one meal to Feeding America, up to 1 million meals.
We’re Not Invisible Tour Dates–Ticket pre-sales begin Jan. 29 and first round of on-sales begin Feb. 1
March 20 Pikeville, KY
March 21 Huntington, WV
March 22 Youngstown, OH
March 27 Peoria, IL
March 28 Toledo, OH
April 10 Memphis, TN
April 11 Cape Girardeau, MO
April 12 Springfield, MO
April 17 Huntsville, AL
April 18 Roanoke, VA
April 19 Asheville, NC
April 23 Colorado Springs, CO
April 24 Salt Lake City, UT
May 1 Bangor, ME
May 2 Boston, MA
May 3 Uncasville, CT
May 29 Augusta, GA
May 30 Pensacola, FL
May 31 Estero, FL
2014 Grammys: Musgraves, Rucker Take Country Honors
/by Jessica NicholsonMusgraves accepts the Grammy for Country Album of the Year.
Kacey Musgraves was the Country darling during Sunday evening’s (Jan. 26) Grammy awards. The singer-songwriter earned honors for Country Album of the Year, along with co-producers Luke Laird and Shane McAnally. Musgraves, McAnally and fellow songwriter Josh Osborne also picked up a Grammy trophy for her breakout single “Merry Go ‘Round” during the pre-telecast awards.
Darius Rucker earned Best Country Solo Performance honors for “Wagon Wheel” during the pre-telecast ceremony, while The Civil Wars were feted for “From This Valley” as Best Country Duo/Group Performance.
The televised portion of the program featured several Country performances. Hunter Hayes debuted the new ballad “Invisible,” a song of encouragement to those who dare to follow their dreams. Keith Urban was joined by Gary Clark, Jr. for a rendition of Urban’s new single, “Cop Car.” Taylor Swift‘s stripped down offering of “All Too Well” featured the singer-songwriter belting a passionate performance from behind a grand piano.
Rucker backstage at the Grammys.
Some of the most well-received audience responses during the telecast came from the evening’s numerous musical collaborations. One such collaboration featured Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and Blake Shelton. Nelson and Kristofferson performed “The Highwayman,” while Haggard and Shelton performed “Okie From Muskogee,” followed by an all-star rendition of “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys.” Later in the evening, Miranda Lambert and Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong offered strong harmonies in tribute to the late Phil Everly on The Everly Brothers’ “When Will I Be Loved.”
Taylor Swift performs “All Too Well.”
The evening’s biggest winners were Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, who earned honors for Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance for “Thrift Shop,” Best Rap Song for “Thrift Shop” and Best Rap Album for The Heist. Singer Lorde earned honors for Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year, both for “Royals.”
Awards given during the Grammy telecast include:
BEST COUNTRY ALBUM
Same Trailer, Different Park, Kacey Musgraves. Co-producers: Luke Laird and Shane McAnally. Label: Mercury Records
BEST POP VOCAL ALBUM
Unorthodox Jukebox, Bruno Mars. Label: Atlantic
BEST POP DUO OR GROUP PERFORMANCE
“Get Lucky,” Daft Punk Featuring Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers
BEST RAP ALBUM
The Heist, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Hunter Hayes and John Esposito celebrate at The Warner Music Group post party at Sunset Towers.
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Random Access Memories, Daft Punk. Label: Columbia Records
BEST POP SOLO PERFORMANCE
“Royals,” Lorde
SONG OF THE YEAR
“Royals,” Lorde
BEST NEW ARTIST
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
RECORD OF THE YEAR
“Get Lucky,” Daft Punk. Label: Columbia Records
BEST RAP/SUNG COLLABORATION
“Holy Grail” Jay Z and Justin Timberlake
For a full list of winners, visit grammy.com.
Miranda Lambert and Billie Joe Armstrong salute The Everly Brothers.
Martina McBride and Zac Brown present.