The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)’s Music Row office will be featured on the hit ABC television drama Nashville on Wednesday, Jan. 22 at 9 p.m. CT. The series stars Connie Britton as fading country music superstar Rayna Jaymes, Hayden Panettiere as young rising country star Juliette Barnes, longtime ASCAP members Charles Esten (Deacon Claybourne) and Jonathan Jackson (Avery Barkley), and more.
The episode will also feature a commercial in the New York City and Nashville viewing areas for the ASCAP short film, Why We Create Music, and its accompanying song, “More Than The Stars.” The commercial debuted during the 2014 Grammy nominations television special in December, and will also air during the Grammy Awards telecast on Sunday, Jan. 26. For more information, visit ascap100.com.

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Universal Music Publishing Group’s Kent Earls and wife Martha Earls, an artist manager, welcomed their second daughter on Monday, Jan. 20 at 1:35 p.m. CT. Sydney Anne Earls weighed 6 lbs, 4 oz. and was 19 inches long. She joins big sister Avery Earls.
“Martha and Sydney are doing great!! We feel very, very blessed,” said Kent.

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The Academy of Country Music has partnered with Beats Music as a curator partner for the new music streaming subscription service, which officially launches Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2014. As one of only three designated Country music curator partners, the Academy of Country Music is one of 30 brands to create playlists of editorialized music.
As part of the partnership, the Academy of Country Music will curate and maintain playlists for every occasion and feature playlists introducing consumers to some of today’s top country artists, as well favorite Country classics. Fans are encouraged to follow the Academy of Country Music using the Beats Music app for weekly updated playlists.

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Chris Keaton has signed an agreement with singer/songwriter Jim Reilley for song plugging and management. Reilley and band, The New Dylans, are in pre-production for a new recording due later this year.

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Bob DiPiero will be honored at the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum on Saturday, Feb. 15, as the latest subject of the quarterly program series Poets and Prophets: Legendary Country Songwriters. The 1:30 p.m. in-depth interview and performance, held in the museum’s Ford Theater, is included with museum admission and free to museum members. The program will be streamed live at countrymusichalloffame.org/streaming.
The 90-minute program, hosted by Museum Editor Michael Gray, will include recordings, photos and film clips from the museum’s Frist Library and Archive. Seating for the program is limited, and program passes are required for admittance. Immediately following, DiPiero will sign limited edition, commemorative Hatch Show Print® posters.
DiPiero has penned Country hits for more than three decades, providing the life-long soundtrack for a generation of Country listeners. In that time, he has written hits for John Anderson, Easton Corbin, Neal McCoy, Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw, the Oak Ridge Boys, Shenandoah, George Strait, Pam Tillis and others.
Robert John DiPiero was born in Youngstown, Ohio, on March 3, 1951. He learned to play guitar and joined his first band at age 14. Later, he put himself through college playing in a rock & roll band and graduated with a music degree from Youngstown State University’s Dana School of Music. He moved to Nashville in the 1970s, and later signed a publishing contract with Combine Music. His first Country cut came in the 1980s courtesy of McEntire, who recorded “I Can See Forever In Your Eyes.” Three years later, DiPiero’s “American Made,” recorded by the Oak Ridge Boys, ascended to the pinnacle of the Country charts, and was featured in a major ad campaign for Miller Beer.
More hit songs followed, including McEntire’s “Little Rock,” Restless Heart’s “That Rock Won’t Roll,” Shenandoah’s “The Church on Cumberland Road” and John Anderson’s “Money in the Bank.” In 1995, DiPiero earned the Country Music Association’s Triple Play Award for writing three No. 1 hits in a 12-month period: “Wink” (Neal McCoy), “Take Me As I Am” (Faith Hill) and “Till You Love Me” (McEntire). He repeated the feat the next year with “Blue Clear Sky” (George Strait), “Daddy’s Money” (Ricochet) and “Worlds Apart” (Vince Gill).
DiPiero teamed with Woody Bomar and Kerry O’Neil to establish independent publisher Little Big Town Music in 1987. When Sony/ATV Tree bought the company in 1998, DiPiero formed Love Monkey Music as a co-venture with Sony.
Over the last decade, DiPiero has continued penning hits. Among them are “Cowboys Like Us” (Strait), “If You Ever Stop Loving Me” (Montgomery Gentry, #1), “You Can’t Take the Honky Tonk Out of the Girl” (Brooks & Dunn) and “Southern Voice” (Tim McGraw, No. 1).
In 2007, DiPiero, with fellow songwriters Tony Mullins, Jeffrey Steele and Craig Wiseman, gave viewers an inside look at the music business on the reality series The Hitmen of Music Row on Great American Country. In 2010, “Coming Home,” co-written by DiPiero and performed by Gwyneth Paltrow for the movie Country Strong, earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song.
DiPiero has written hundreds of songs, earned dozens of awards and served in various leadership positions in the industry. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007.
The Poets and Prophets series honors songwriters who have made significant contributions to Country music history. Previous subjects include Bill Anderson, Matraca Berg, Bobby Braddock, Wayne Carson, Jerry Chesnut, Hank Cochran, Roger Cook, Sonny Curtis, Dean Dillon, Tom Douglas, Kye Fleming, Jerry Foster, Dallas Frazier, Red Lane, John D. Loudermilk, Bob McDill, Roger Murrah, Dan Penn, Curly Putman, Allen Reynolds, Mark D. Sanders, Don Schlitz, Whitey Shafer, Red Simpson, Jeffrey Steele, Sonny Throckmorton, Norro Wilson and Craig Wiseman.
The Poets and Prophets series is made possible, in part, by grants from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and by an agreement between the Tennessee Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts.

Jamie O’Neal, whose hits include “There Is No Arizona,” “When I Think About Angels,” Somebody’s Hero,” and “Trying To Find Atlantis,” will release her first new collection of material in five years, titled Eternal. The 11-track project, co-produced by O’Neal and Rodney Good, will be released March 18 on Shanachie Entertainment, in partnership with O’Neal’s Momentum Label group.
Eternal features O’Neal’s unique rendition of classics from Patsy Cline, Bruce Cockburn, Deborah Allen, Larry Gatlin, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Loretta Lynn, Juice Newton, Connie Smith, and others. O’Neal’s version of the George Jones/Tammy Wynette hit “Golden Ring” features Andy Griggs. Also included on Eternal is the original song “Wide Awake,” co-written by O’Neal and her father/manager, Jimmy Murphy.
“Eternal is a little different for me,” O’Neal says. “I grew up listening to these songs and was shaped by the artists who originally made them famous. It was an honor and a challenge to record such wonderful songs. There’s also a bonus track that fans have been asking me to record. It’s a funny song I wrote with my dad as an ode to everyone who gets to sleep with a ‘snoring moose’ every night. I had so much fun recording this whole album and was a little sad when it was finished, but now I get to finally release it, and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it!”
O’Neal will tour nationwide in 2014 to promote the new album. On Jan. 19-26, she sets sail aboard one of the biggest Country cruises in 2014 with Vince Gill, Kenny Rogers and many others.
Track Listing
1. Rock Me
2. Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)
3. Leavin’ On Your Mind
4. Golden Ring (featuring Andy Griggs)
5. Help Me Make It Through The Night
6. One Day I Walk
7. Just One Time
8. The Sweetest Thing
9. I’ve Done Enough Dyin’ Today
10. Born To Run
11. Wide Awake (Bonus Track)

Industry executive John Alexander of Alexander Music Marketing & Management will represent 19-year-old rising artist Ashliegh Lisset. Alexander also represents Sarah Darling and Tyler Flowers.
“Ashliegh is an extraordinary young lady who has all the tools necessary to be a star,” said Alexander. “Her songwriting skills blow me away, and the first time I heard her voice I was immediately drawn in. Not only does she have such a heartwarming story, she is a very grounded individual. I am so very excited to begin traveling down this road with her.”
Lisset’s debut single “Kill The Headlights,” written by Luke Laird, Hillary Lindsey and Carrie Underwood, will premiere on Sirius XM‘s “The Highway” on Wednesday, Jan. 22.
“Everyone in town who has done business with me knows how passionate I am when I believe in an artist,” continued Alexander. “They’ve seen it in my representation of Sarah Darling, and will see it when I introduce Ashliegh Lisset to the Nashville music community.”
For more information, visit ashlieghlisset.com.