20th Annual Tin Pan South Dates Revealed

Nashville is a songwriter’s town, and Nashville Songwriters Association International’s annual Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival is one of the art form’s finest celebrations. With over 75 shows in a variety of locations, it truly has something for the song-lover in everyone.

The 20th Annual installation of Tin Pan South, produced by NSAI and presented by Regions Bank, will be held March 27 –  31, 2012 in some of Nashville’s best listening rooms. Featuring numerous songwriting talents from pro hitmakers to new faces, TPS is the world’s largest all-songwriter festival. Performers for the 19th annual gathering earlier in 2011 included Craig Wiseman, Steve Cropper, Rivers Rutherford, and many more.

Passes go on sale Wednesday, March 7, at the Tin Pan South website while supplies last. To gain priority access to all shows and hop from venue to venue, the festival offers a Tin Pan South Fast Access Pass. Proceeds from the festival support the Nashville Songwriters Association International.

Daily Flashes From The Past

MusicRow covers through the years.

For the last two weeks in preparation for the December 2011/January 2012 retrospective print magazine hitting shelves, MusicRow staffers resurrected daily quotes from back issues and posted them on our Twitter and Facebook pages. The excerpts linked to this article to offer a selection of historical highlights. A complete list is below.

Get ready for a flashback from the archives. We can’t wait for you to see what we’ve compiled in the print edition! Be sure to grab you’re own copy today.

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Click to learn more about the cover

Quote from 12/16—MusicRow AUG ’93—”We don’t have a new Billy Ray Cyrus coming on this year. We definitely don’t. If we did, we’d know it.” Bruce Hinton

Quote from 12/15—MusicRow MAR ’94—”We’d love to be able to land a helicopter on the roof [of the Starstruck offices].” Narvel Blackstock

Quote from 12/14—MusicRow JAN ‘03—“Just because you have a computer with ProTools doesn’t mean its going to sound like a record.” Frank Rogers

Quote from 12/13—MusicRow NOV ’09—“Ten years ago, most every artist put outside songs on their records. Now maybe there is one or two slots on an album that aren’t politically taken already. So we are all vying for a smaller share of the pie.” Pat Finch

Quote from 12/12—MusicRow JUL ’98— “..what you do when you lose is the real test of character.” Mike Curb on LeAnn Rimes’ “How Do I Live”

Quote from 12/9—MusicRow AUG ’05—“I don’t want my music to be taken as something you just hum with.” Miranda Lambert

Quote From 12/8—MusicRow AUG ‘97—Technical problems and the lack of a uniform standard plagued the first generation of enhanced CD’s.

Quote from 12/7—MusicRow JUL ’98—From 1994-1997 female country presence on SoundScan increased from 19.6% to 42.7%

Quote from 12/6—MusicRow SEP ’99—Before MP3’s, downloading a 3 minute song with a 56K modem took over 6 hours. MP3’s took just 20mins.

Quote for 12/5—MusicRow FEB ’99: “Pitching your songs by CD lets a publisher know you’re serious about your music and have gone the extra distance to ensure a quality demo.”

TV Editor Terry Climer Passes

Television/video editor Terry Climer died at home on Sun., Dec. 18. He was 60. A memorial service was held last night (12/20) at Sellars Funeral Home in Lebanon, Tenn.

The Lebanon native began his career at the town’s local radio station WCOR and eventually made his way to the television industry, working in Los Angeles and Nashville. He was nominated for two primetime Emmys.

Climer enjoyed spending time with family and friends, and following the sports teams of his alma mater Western Kentucky University. He was also a dog lover.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Humane Society of Wilson County or Western Kentucky University.

Arrangements by Sellars Funeral Home, 313 W. Baddour Pkwy, Lebanon TN (615) 444-9393.

Indiana Settles With Stage Collapse Victims

The victims of the Indiana State Fair tragedy are being compensated. All but one of 65 claimants accepted the state’s settlement offer, according to WTHR in Indianapolis. This includes the estates of seven people who died at the Aug. 13 Sugarland concert when high winds caused the stage to collapse.

The state is paying out $5 million total to the victims, the maximum under Indiana law. The estates of the deceased will receive more than $300,000 each, and the remainder will be divided among the other victims.

Fair officials raised and distributed an additional $800,000 in donations for the victims.

Sugarland returned to Indianapolis Oct. 28 for a free concert at Conseco Fieldhouse to raise money for victims.

Other lawsuits stemming from the tragedy are ongoing.

Snapshots (12/20/11)

The boys of Montgomery Gentry wrapped up a successful year last Thursday (Dec. 15) with a concert in conjunction with WPOC/Baltimore, MD. The event raised over $13,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

(L-R): Eddie Montgomery, WPOC Program Director Justin Cole and Troy Gentry.

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The first ladies pitch group gathered at Black River Music Group for a pitching session on December 14. The young professional song pluggers had a chance to bring songs to the label’s Doug Johnson and artist Sarah Darling.

(L-R) Back: Janine Appelton, Kimberly June, Cynthia Anderson, Meghan Galbraith, Casey Le’Vasseur, Emily Schiraldi, Carrie Gallo, Missy Wilson; Front: Celia Froehlig, Brooke Arrington, Penny Lou Everhard, Lisa Johnson, Laura Wright, Natalie Harker, Sarah Darling, Doug Johnson

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Chris Cagle recently released the video for his current single “Got My Country On,” which was directed by Marcel. The clip explores both the “rocker” and “rancher” aspects of Cagle’s personality, and was filmed both at the Cagle ranch in Marietta, OK as well as Billy Bob’s Forth Worth.

Chris Cagle (R) performs at Billy Bob's Fort Worth for the "Got My Country On" video.

RIAA Issues Country Certifications

Released Sept. 13, Lady A's latest album has been certified Platinum.

The RIAA recently issued certifications for Lady Antebellum, Eric Church, Brad Paisley/Carrie Underwood, and Taylor Swift.

Lady A’s Capitol Nashville album Own the Night was certified Platinum for shipments of one million units.

Labelmate Church secured Gold certification for his album Chief.

On the digital singles front, the Paisley/Underwood duet “Remind Me” earned Platinum sales, and Swift’s “Jump Then Fall” was certified Gold.

Sony Adds Assoc. Dir., Artist Development/Marketing

Sony Music Nashville VP Artist Development/Marketing & Web Initiatives Heather McBee announced that Rachel Fontenot has joined Sony Music Nashville as Associate Director, Artist Development/Marketing. She’s already working in her new role, where she reports to McBee.

“Rachel brings a great deal of artist development experience and knowledge about the artists she’s now working,” says McBee. “We are very excited she’s a part of the team and have immediately felt her contribution to our company’s artist marketing activities.”

In this role, Fontenot will provide support in the development and execution of strategic and tactical marketing campaigns for her assigned artists in collaboration with promotion, media, creative, and sales departments. She will also facilitate international marketing efforts for the entire Sony Music Nashville roster.

A native of New Orleans, LA, Fontenot graduated with a Music Business degree from Middle Tennessee State University, where she minored in Marketing and Mass Communications. Congratulate her here.

Digitally Thinking: Albums Sales, Ringtones and stretchy silicon

>>> Sometimes a great tech idea is so easy to understand that everyone wants to join the party. TouchFire, a stretchy silicon keyboard that sits atop the iPad’s horizontal on-screen keyboard is such a concept. Seattle-based software designer Steve Isaac put the idea on Kickstarter and raised over $200k, more than 20 times what he had hoped. The first run of the product will go to Kickstarter backers. “It sure makes us feel very good about the potential for this project and the demand for this project,” Isaac told AP.

>>> Digital Music News writes that reports of the death of ringtones have been greatly exaggerated. In fact the online industry news outlet quotes Gartner Research who says that ringtone revenues are still four times larger than the combined revenues from all the subscription services such as Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio, MOG and all others. The worldwide online music revenue numbers play out with subscription services getting 8.4% of the pie; download services earning 57.3% and ringtones grabbing 34.3%. Total worldwide online music revenue for 2011 equals about $6.34 billion.

>>The Nielsen SoundScan music sales reports come out on Wed. mornings and measure the week which ends the previous Sunday. If you are simply unable to wait, you can click over to HitsDailyDouble.com and view its Album Sales Chart which is usually ‘final’ early Tuesday. Although the numbers may not be precisely the same as SS, they are usually close. With that in mind, it appears that tomorrow’s SS report will show the largest single week country album sales of the year. According to HDD, Lady A’s Own The Night is the highest selling country album with over 80k units. Scotty McCreery follows with about 67,000 units. Jason Aldean‘s My Kinda Party and Taylor Swift’s World Tour Live offering are in the next two positions with around 48,000 each. Stay tuned… we’ll have a complete report tomorrow, including how close we are to reaching last year’s sales totals.

Hays Joins Franklin Theatre

New Franklin Theater Director Dan Hays.

The Board of Directors of the Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County today announced that Dan Hays will become the new Director for the Franklin Theatre. Hays previously headed the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) since 1990 and is expected to initially split his time between the two entities until early 2012 when a new IBMA leader is in place.

The Franklin Theatre recently enjoyed an $8 million renovation. Since its re-opening, the 300 seat venue has hosted a diverse musical lineup including Sheryl Crow, Michael McDonald, The Judds, Keb’ Mo’ and Sam Bush, plus sold out every show in its Franklin Theatre Live concert series.

Heritage Foundation President Cyril Stewart said the four-month executive search process was purposely intensive. “We owed it to our community to be very deliberate about finding the right person to lead the Franklin Theatre,” Stewart said. “We feel strongly that Dan Hays is the ideal choice and the theatre will build on its already phenomenal trajectory under his leadership.”

Heritage Foundation Executive Director Mary Pearce said, “Dan has tremendous nonprofit management experience and a wealth of contacts in the music industry. He has proven his dedication to music and truly understands and appreciates the fabric of this community and all the Franklin Theatre is and can be.”

During Hay’s IBMA tenure, the organization developed from an association in its infancy to an influential music industry player. IBMA Board Chair Stan Zdonik said, “IBMA will sorely miss Dan. In his 21 years, IBMA has grown into a multifaceted resource for the bluegrass community. He approached the work of the organization with vigor and integrity and we were all the better for it. Speaking for the IBMA Board, we wish Dan all the best in his new position.”

“I am honored and look forward to joining the extraordinary staff at the Franklin Theatre,” Hays said. “This intimate historic Theatre is bursting with promise and is a vibrant cultural asset for our community and the talents we present.”

For more information on the Franklin Theater originally built in 1937 visit www.franklintheatre.com.

Herring Exits Skyville

Skyville Records President Kevin Herring has exited his position with the label, which he joined in January 2011.

His career includes over 20 years experience in radio and promotion, with tenures at Mercury Records and over a decade with the Walt Disney Company’s Lyric Street Records. His work has been integral in the breakout success of some of country’s biggest names, including Rascal Flatts, Shania Twain, and Toby Keith.