2012 Americana Honors & Awards Winners

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Lifetime Achievement honorees Bonnie Raitt and Richard Thompson. Photo: Stacie Huckeba

The best and brightest in roots music gathered at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium last night (9/13) for the Americana Music Association’s 11th annual Americana Honors & Awards, presented by Nissan. Gillian Welch and her musical partner Dave Rawlings, who were unable to attend, picked up two of the evening’s biggest honors. Relative newcomers The Civil Wars (who won New/Emerging Artist in 2011) and the Alabama Shakes each went home with new awards, and the Guy Clark tribute album This One’s For Him (produced by Tamara Saviano and Shawn Camp) took Album of the Year. A full list of winners and honorees appears below.

Performers included Lifetime Achievement honorees Richard Thompson, Bonnie Raitt, and Booker T. Jones, as well as Jason Isbell, Alabama Shakes, Deep Dark Woods, The Punch Brothers and more. Don’t forget to check out Bobby Karl’s coverage of the event on musicrow.com.

The Americana Honors & Awards also aired live on AXS TV, NPR.org, Sirius XM and WSM. On November 10, Austin City Limits on PBS will broadcast an edited version of the program.

Americana Music Awards and Honors 2012 Award Winners:
Instrumentalist of the Year: Dave Rawlings

Album of the Year: This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark; produced by Tamara Saviano and Shawn Camp

Song Of The Year:  “Alabama Pines;” Written by Jason Isbell and performed by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Emerging Artist of the Year:  Alabama Shakes

Artist of the Year: Gillian Welch

Duo/group of the Year: The Civil Wars

Lifetime Achievement for Performance: Bonnie Raitt

Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist: Booker T. Jones

Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting:  Richard Thompson

Lifetime Achievement Award for Executive: Dennis Lord

(L-R): Mike Mills, The Civil Wars (Joy Williams, John Paul White), Jody Stephens. Photo: Stacie Huckeba

The Alabama Shakes. Photo: Stacie Huckeba

MusicRowPics: High Valley Arist Visit

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High Valley took some time off the road yesterday (9/11) to stop by MusicRow headquarters. The trio, made up of Canadian brothers Brad Rempel, Bryan Rempel and Curtis Rempel, grew up in northern Alberta where they got their start as a band.

The trio, having already released two albums in Canada, played their first US single “Love You For a Long Time,” which went to country radio earlier this week (9/10).

The group said they’ve learned a lot from country radio. So much so, they’ve even got a song about it titled “Call Me Old Fashioned,” which they played right after one of their newer songs, “Let It Be Me.”

Already a hit in Canada, High Valley was a 2012 CCMA nominee for Group or Duo of the Year. They also performed at the awards show this past Sunday (9/9) and have another performance today (9/12) in London, ON. For more information, visit highvalleymusic.com.

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Rackspace Co-Founder Joins Splother

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Rackspace co-founder Dirk Elmendorf has joined Nashville-based Splother as a strategic adviser and investor. Elmendorf joins an existing board that includes recording artist Robert Earl Keen and legal counsel Kent Marcus.

The website, named to Nashville Post’s “Tech 25 list of Middle Tennessee’s Brightest IT Ventures” and Nashville Scene’s “10 Forward Thinking Ideas Pushing Nashville, and the World, into the Future,” offers an online solution for securing sync licenses for the web, film, TV, and more. Users have access to a growing catalog of pre-cleared music across all genres, selected by A&R professionals.

“Splother is well positioned to disrupt the way music is licensed today,” says Splother CEO Dave Durocher. “Dirk’s involvement helps validate our strategy.”

More info here.

rpmentertainment, Sony Music Nashville Enter Exclusive Agreement

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Scott Siman, President of rpmentertainment, and Gary Overton,  Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Nashville, today (9/12) announced an exclusive worldwide distribution and licensing agreement between the two companies.

Under this new relationship, Sony Music Nashville will exclusively distribute RPMe singles and albums to digital and physical outlets. Together with RPMe SVP April Rider, Siman will continue to oversee artist development, management, marketing and radio promotion for its roster, as well as business development. Maggie Rose’s “I Ain’t Your Mama” will be the first single under the arrangement, with a debut album to follow in February 2013.

“Sony gives us access to the world’s best record distribution system and we are honored that they believed in our new business model and musical vision,” said Siman. “We are on track and poised for an exciting future starting with Maggie Rose, and continuing with all of our future projects at rpme.”

RPMe is comprised of rpme records, rpme publishing and rpme management, with a roster including Rose, Yarn and Humming House, The Command Sisters, and Matt Ramsey.

Weblinks: Sirius XM, Ben Folds Five, Hall of Fame Elections

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• • • Sirius XM Chief Executive Mel Karmazin will likely exit the company after Liberty Media takes control of it, according to the LA Times. Karmazin, whose contract is up at the end of the year, shared the news with attendees at the Merrill Lynch Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference in Beverly Hills today (9/12). Liberty is seeking FCC approval to increase its holdings in Sirius XM and become the outright owner.

• • • Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival will be held June 13-16, 2013 in Manchester, Tenn. For the first time, the dates don’t overlap with CMA Music Festival, which is scheduled for June 6-9. This is good news for Nashville businesses, which will be able to accomodate Bonnaroo-goers because they won’t already be occupied with CMA Fest attendees.

• • • CMT/CMT.com Editorial Director Chet Flippo weighed in on the election process for induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in a recent edition of his Nashville Skyline column. He writes, “Everyone agrees there are a number of extremely worthy country artists who aren’t members of the Hall and who should be. And I can’t argue with that. But there are limits that should be imposed, and there are checks and balances that should be respected.”

• • • Ben Folds Five is about to release its first album of new material in 13 years. The Sound of the Life of the Mind will be available Sept. 18. Folds reunited with band members Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee for the record. Rolling Stone interviewed the Nashvillian about the project and reports it “reflects Folds’ evolution as an introspective songwriter, while still retaining his typically humorous spin on life.”

 

NMPA Hosts Songwriters Showcase

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The National Music Publishers’ Association gathered in Nashville Monday (9/10) to host its annual Songwriters Showcase at Bluebird Café. The annual event is a chance for the songwriting and publishing communities to showcase talent and discuss present issues of concern with royalty rates and licensing.

(L-R) Songwriters Mark Selby, Tia Sillers and Brett James; NMPA President and CEO David Israelite, Songwriters Luke Laird and Natalie Hemby; chairman of the NMPA board Irwin Robinson

Universal Music Publishing Group Chairman & CEO Zach Horowitz (L) and Executive Vice President Kent Earls (R) present chart-topping songwriter Luke Laird (center) with Gold and Platinum Note Awards during the National Music Publishers' Association Songwriters Showcase at Bluebird Café in Nashville.

ACM Announces 2012 Contribution to ACM Lifting Lives

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(L-R) ACM Parliamentarian Paul Moore, ACM Treasurer Duane Clark, ACM Lifting Lives Chairman Mark Hartley, ACM Chairman Sarah Trahern, ACM President Butch Waugh and ACM Vice President Ken Robold

The Academy of Country Music is making a $750,000 contribution to ACM Lifting Lives on behalf of the artists who participated in the “ACM Presents: Lionel Richie and Friends – In Concert” special in April. Ticket proceeds from the event held in Las Vegas went to ACM Lifting Lives.

Singer/songwriter Richie, along with guests Jason Aldean, Marc Anthony, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw, Jennifer Nettles, Kenny Rogers, Darius Rucker, Blake Shelton, The Band Perry, Big & Rich, Lady Antebellum and Rascal Flatts all took part in the event. The special drew over 8 million viewers when it aired on CBS in April.

“We thank these incredible artists for donating their time and talents to make it possible for ACM Lifting Lives to continue the good work of improving lives through the power of music,” said Mark Hartley, Chairman of ACM Lifting Lives.

More info on ACM Lifting Lives here.

Yamaha Launches Entertainment Division With Tennessee Ties

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Yamaha Corporation of America has launched Yamaha Entertainment Group of America, a new record label services division for rising and established artists. To support this new venture, the company has built a full-service recording and video production studio in Franklin, Tenn. to help artists record, produce, and market their original content. Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA) will carry the company’s releases.

“For nearly five decades, Yamaha has been the world leader in artist endorsements. It was a natural progression to take the next step and provide what our artists needed at a critical time in music history,” said Chris Gero, Founder of Yamaha Entertainment Group of America. “Our goal is to significantly enhance the services we provide, while maintaining the level of quality our artists have come to know us by.”

Currently recording in the new facility is London-based rock band, Leogun, which is affiliated with Elton John’s Rocket Entertainment Group. The band’s debut single “Let’s Be Friends” was released yesterday (9/11) and they will perform at the Yamaha Entertainment Group launch party tomorrow (9/13) at the Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles.

The new division will oversee Yamaha’s artist relations departments in New York, Nashville, Indianapolis and Los Angeles. More info here.

Weekly Register: Country Fans Further Embrace The Digital Shift

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The 2011 full year TEA Index was 25% country and 27.7% all-genre.

(TEA) Taylor Equivalent Albums
With all the Taylor Swift tracks that fans are downloading we might consider renaming the Index to the above headline. Swift’s “…Never Ever…” single has scanned 1.46 million in 4 weeks and “Ronan” debuted this week with over 211k sales. Sales numbers are strongly influenced by release schedules, and Taylor’s track offerings are affecting the TEA balance. In fact, compared to last year the country index is up 5.56% while all-genre is only up 4.05%.

The numbers show that the shift to tracks is more pronounced this year among country consumers than overall fans, who likely shifted earlier as evidenced by country track sales being up 11.5% compared to all genre increase of only 6%. Further supporting this idea, digital country album sales are growing, but still only 27% of total albums, while all genre album sales are almost 39% digital. And finally, tracks and TEA are playing a larger role in Music City sales because country album sales have fallen from a high of 8.4% (5/13/12) to this week’s rather flat tally of .2% giving track sales more weight.

TEA methodology: Once again, let’s briefly review MusicRow’s TEA Index criteria. The Index measures physical, digital and TEA albums (track equivalent albums; 10 tracks=1 album) then calculates the percentage of total album sales that come from the TEA category. The idea is to measure TEA sales against the combination of physical and digital album sales. (Our numbers are gathered by industry sources from Nielsen SoundScan.)

Weekly Register
As we slide into mid-September, we are experiencing the calm before the storm. This week Top 75 Current Country plummeted to slightly below 234k, one of the lowest weeks of 2012. Carrie Underwood (No. 1; 29k) and Luke Bryan (No. 2; 15k) led the charge with slight increases, but most every other album fell off. A rash of album product will be hitting physical and digital shelves soon from Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Toby Keith and others plus holiday sets from Lady Antebellum and Blake Shelton. How strong will the cash register winds blow? Well, Little Big Town released a Tornado this week…

The tracks department featured Ms. Swift in positions No. 1 and 2 as mentioned above followed by Carrie Underwood (No. 3; 74k), Little Big Town (No. 4; 71k) and Hunter Hayes (No. 5; 69k). Newcomers Florida Georgia Line are making inroads with their track “Cruise” (No. 7; 46k).

Stay tuned…

Jim Lauderdale To Release Bluegrass Album

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Jim Lauderdale will release his 21st recording, Carolina Moonrise, September 25 through Sky Crunch Records. All 13 tracks on the bluegrass album were co-authored by Lauderdale and writer, Robert Hunter, marking the pair’s fifth effort together.

Recorded at Nashville’s Slack Key Studios with producer and dobro player Randy Kohrs, the album features Tim Crouch (fiddle), Jay Weaver (bass), Josh Williams (guitar), Aaron Ramsey (mandolin), and Scott Vestal (banjo) on every track.

“Iodine,” the album’s first track, has been released as a single to bluegrass radio.

“I got to write the whole record with one of my all-time heroes, Robert Hunter,” Lauderdale said. “Randy Kohrs really outdid himself as a producer and it was incredible to work with these fine players.”

Lauderdale will return to host the Americana Awards & Honors at the Ryman Auditorium this evening (9/12). Additionally, the singer has joined Buddy Miller, for The Buddy & Jim Show, airing in bi-weekly Saturday and Sunday segments on Sirius XM Outlaw Country. Lauderdale also hosts a radio program on Nashville’s WSM-AM as well as Music City Roots, Live From The Loveless Café.

He has earned a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album in 2002 and 2007 for Lost In The Lonesome Pines, a Ralph Stanley collaboration and The Bluegrass Diaries, respectively.

For more information, click here.