Lady Antebellum joined Australia native Keith Urban on tour Down Under in 2011.
During 2011 a swarm of country stars ventured out on Australian tours for the first time. Numerous factors are driving the trend explains Jeff Walker, President of The AristoMedia Group, who spearheads many international country music initiatives.
Australia’s rural landscape is home to a significant country fan base who relate to the genre’s subject matter—the same reason tour buses have been crossing the northern border to Canada for years. Yesterday Dierks Bentley announced runs through both countries in early 2012.
Similarly, both countries also have country music television networks helping fuel the frenzy. “The concert promoters can build up a pent-up demand in those territories by use of music videos,” explains Walker. “Plus, the growing impact of social networking and its ability to engage fans worldwide helps the artists feel more confident about going over there.”
Talk about pent up demand, earlier this year Alan Jackson’s first tour Down Under sold out six dates within minutes, turning into the biggest country outing to visit Australia in 20 years.
In 2012 Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are hitting the road together for the first time in five years, in a run that will be the couple’s first Australian tour. The March tour includes a two-night residency in Brisbane and headlining the CMC Rocks the Hunter festival.
Walker notes that two-night stands are commonplace in Australia because many of the venues are smaller than their American counterparts. Festivals are also attractive to artists who want to journey to Oz. “They can go down for the festival and also play another four or five venues,” he explains. “They have a good infrastructure there. A lot of artists have to scale down their shows from what we’d see here in America, but they still have great venues, and festivals.”
Joe Nichols headlined CMC Rocks the Hunter in March 2011, and returned in May for a multi-city tour.
A favorable exchange rate is also enticing artists. “Nowadays it is a lot easier for Australian promoters to come over here and make offers to artists, because the artists can earn as much as they do in the States,” says Walker. “Plus, sometimes they’ve saturated the markets here by touring the same cities over and over. In Australia, they can take three weeks, have a mini-vacation and work at the same time.” Sounds like a win-win.
Major merch sales are another big plus, thanks to the untapped market. Carrie Underwood made her first tour of Australia when she was promoting the international release of Play On: Deluxe Edition.
Among others who performed in Australia in 2011 are native Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, and Montgomery Gentry. Taylor Swift’s world tour stops there in March.
“You can build a career by going back and back and back,” sums Walker. “Because artists like Don Williams, Charley Pride, Tom T. Hall, Dolly Parton, and Kenny Rogers have fostered that fan base, they are able to book successful international tours every two or three years.”
Alan Jackson's first Australian run. (L-R): Storme Warren, GAC TV and Sirius/XM Radio Show Host; Rob Potts, CEO, Rob Potts Entertainment Edge; Jackson; Michael Chugg, Exec. Chairman, Chugg Entertainment; Matthew Lazarus-Hall, CEO, Chugg Entertainment. Photo: John Huber
Tuesday Tips: Hunter Hayes, Jimmy Wayne and Thompson Entertainment
/by admin>>Nashville based Thompson Entertainment Group has moved to new offices located at 924 Deervale Drive Nashville, TN 37217. All email addresses and telephone numbers remain the same. Publicity Assistant Megan Burns can be reached at media@thompsonentertainmentgroup.com. President Chuck Thompson can be contacted at cthompson@thompsonentertainmentgroup.com
ACM Announces New Officers and Board
/by Freeman2011-2012 Academy of Country Music Board of Directors:
Chairman of the Board: Sarah Trahern, Great American Country
President: Butch Waugh
Vice-President: Ken Robold, Universal Music Group
Treasurer: Duane Clark, FBMM
Parliamentarian: Paul Moore, WME
Secretary: Tiffany Moon, Academy of Country Music
Six qualifying professional categories (listed below) are elected to the Board by the Academy’s membership. In addition to the elected, director-at-large positions have been selected by Trahern, Waugh, and Robold. Directors elected from each category are based on that category’s membership numbers. Each director serves staggered two-year terms, with half the board membership changing each year.
“The officers and the Board look forward to continued day-to-day involvement in the operations of the Academy,” said Trahern. “We’re delighted to have the commitment from so many industry leaders to help achieve the ongoing goals of the Academy and to sustain our ability to stay ahead of trends in country music.”
Elected Board Members
Affiliated
Tony Brown, TBE
Gary Haber, Haber Corporation
Artist/Entertainer/MBI
Craig Morgan
John Rich
Blake Shelton
Club/Casino/Venue Operator
Roger Gearhart, Graham Bros Entertainment
Manager
Robert Allen, 13 Management
Ken Levitan, Vector Management
Music Publisher
Pat Higdon, Universal Music Publishing
Record Company
Tom Baldrica, Average Joe’s Entertainment
Paul Barnabee, Sony Music Nashville
John Esposito, Warner Music Nashville
Jon Loba, BBR & Stoney Creek Records
Directors At Large
Scott Borchetta, Big Machine Records/The Valory Music Co.
Benson Curb, Curb Records
John Dennis, Dennis Entertainment
Marc Driskill, ASCAP
Pete Fisher, Grand Ole Opry
Jeff Garrison, CBS Radio
Brandon Gill, Morris Artists Management
T.K. Kimbrell, T.K.O. Artist Management
Jay Liepis, iTunes
Greg McCarn, Black River Entertainment
Doc McGhee, McGhee Entertainment
Kimberly Perry
Fran Romeo, Romeo Entertainment Group
Ray Sliva, Best Buy
Ben Vaughn, EMI Music Publishing
Ed Warm, Joe’s Bar
Australia Attracts Growing Number of Country Tours
/by Sarah SkatesLady Antebellum joined Australia native Keith Urban on tour Down Under in 2011.
During 2011 a swarm of country stars ventured out on Australian tours for the first time. Numerous factors are driving the trend explains Jeff Walker, President of The AristoMedia Group, who spearheads many international country music initiatives.
Australia’s rural landscape is home to a significant country fan base who relate to the genre’s subject matter—the same reason tour buses have been crossing the northern border to Canada for years. Yesterday Dierks Bentley announced runs through both countries in early 2012.
Similarly, both countries also have country music television networks helping fuel the frenzy. “The concert promoters can build up a pent-up demand in those territories by use of music videos,” explains Walker. “Plus, the growing impact of social networking and its ability to engage fans worldwide helps the artists feel more confident about going over there.”
Talk about pent up demand, earlier this year Alan Jackson’s first tour Down Under sold out six dates within minutes, turning into the biggest country outing to visit Australia in 20 years.
In 2012 Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are hitting the road together for the first time in five years, in a run that will be the couple’s first Australian tour. The March tour includes a two-night residency in Brisbane and headlining the CMC Rocks the Hunter festival.
Walker notes that two-night stands are commonplace in Australia because many of the venues are smaller than their American counterparts. Festivals are also attractive to artists who want to journey to Oz. “They can go down for the festival and also play another four or five venues,” he explains. “They have a good infrastructure there. A lot of artists have to scale down their shows from what we’d see here in America, but they still have great venues, and festivals.”
Joe Nichols headlined CMC Rocks the Hunter in March 2011, and returned in May for a multi-city tour.
A favorable exchange rate is also enticing artists. “Nowadays it is a lot easier for Australian promoters to come over here and make offers to artists, because the artists can earn as much as they do in the States,” says Walker. “Plus, sometimes they’ve saturated the markets here by touring the same cities over and over. In Australia, they can take three weeks, have a mini-vacation and work at the same time.” Sounds like a win-win.
Major merch sales are another big plus, thanks to the untapped market. Carrie Underwood made her first tour of Australia when she was promoting the international release of Play On: Deluxe Edition.
Among others who performed in Australia in 2011 are native Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, and Montgomery Gentry. Taylor Swift’s world tour stops there in March.
“You can build a career by going back and back and back,” sums Walker. “Because artists like Don Williams, Charley Pride, Tom T. Hall, Dolly Parton, and Kenny Rogers have fostered that fan base, they are able to book successful international tours every two or three years.”
Alan Jackson's first Australian run. (L-R): Storme Warren, GAC TV and Sirius/XM Radio Show Host; Rob Potts, CEO, Rob Potts Entertainment Edge; Jackson; Michael Chugg, Exec. Chairman, Chugg Entertainment; Matthew Lazarus-Hall, CEO, Chugg Entertainment. Photo: John Huber
Google Reader Update Dumps BossRoss WebRead In Pumpkin Patch
/by adminFor the uninitiated, an RSS feed is a stream of content generated from blog entries and/or news headlines and stories. Google describes its Reader app saying, “Google Reader lets you subscribe to your favorite websites so new content comes to you when it’s posted. Google Reader collects information from news sites, blogs, and other sources on the topics of your choice, and lets you read it all in one place.” To find these RSS feeds look for the orange icon with radio waves.
In the case of the BossRoss WebRead, this writer acted as curator, sifting carefully each day through dozens of sources to find and share articles of interest. Those articles would immediately post to a widget found on MusicRow.com, and other places. Unfortunately it appears that functionality has now been replaced with the ability to share articles with Google+, a welcome addition to be sure, but hardly a replacement.
“We hope you’ll like the new Reader (and Google+) as much as we do,” says the official Google Reader Blog. “But we understand that some of you may not. Retiring Reader’s sharing features wasn’t a decision that we made lightly, but in the end, it helps us focus on fewer areas, and build an even better experience across all of Google.” (Yeah, Happy Halloween and welcome to my nightmare!)
Apparently, I’m not the only user feeling unfairly violated.
According to Mashable, a group of 10,000 like-minded individuals, known as the “Sharebros” have signed a petition. “Many of us have been faithful users of your Reader for years,” the petition reads. “It’s central to our daily information consumption. …Reader builds tremendous goodwill from a core group of heavy Internet users, leading us to recommend this and your other services to our friends.”
Sharebros in Iran (who knew?) are especially upset, since Reader’s sharing function provided a “useful way to distribute news and comments under the radar,” and away from Government view.
Angry Twitter users have starting using the hashtag #OccupyGoogleReader.
According to theAtlanticWire.com, Sharebro fanatic Francis Cleary has declared he will build a replacement for the new Reader app, to be named HiveMined. “Google+ is a cool idea, but it’s not about content first,” Cleary told The Atlantic Wire. “It’s about page views–that’s not what people want. It’s about the content you like. It’s not about you pushing the link and being like, Everybody look at the link and look what I shared. The way to think about it is that the people on the Hive are going to mine out the best content on the internet,” said the 26-year-old Pennsylvania native, who settled on the name with the help of 40 other Sharebros.
Can a signed mighty petition of 10,000 be enough to influence the Google monolith? Can Francis Cleary and his HiveMind project restore peace of mind to the Sharebro community? Stay tuned, but don’t expect to read the results right away in the BossRoss WebRead, unless Google relents of course!!
Pickler Enjoys Making “100 Proof”
/by Sherod RobertsonKellie Pickler will release her third album, 100 Proof, on Jan. 24, 2012. Pickler set out to get back to her southern roots on this project and make a traditional, fresh sounding country album. To achieve this, she enlisted accomplished producers Frank Liddell (Miranda Lambert and Lee Ann Womack) and Luke Wooten.
The album opener “Where’s Tammy Wynette,” written by Jimmy Ritchey, Don Poythress and Leslie Satcher, sets the tone. Pickler co-wrote six of the 11 songs including “Long As I Never See You Again” which she wrote with songwriters Dean Dillon and Dale Dodson.
Pickler’s upcoming album is available for pre-order on Amazon.
Lineup For Tootsie’s Birthday Bash
/by MichelleThe McClymonts
Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge will celebrate its 51st Birthday in downtown Nashville on Nov. 23. Rocking country group The Kentucky HeadHunters, bluegrass duo The Roys, Australia group The McClymonts and others will be gracing the outdoor stage on Broadway starting at 12 noon prior to the Kid Rock concert at the Ryman Auditorium.
“Last year having Kris Kristofferson, Terri Clark, Randy Houser and Mel Tillis was the beginning of what has become an annual event – The Tootsie’s Birthday Bash!,” says Tootsie’s owner Steve Smith. “Knowing how Kid Rock has agreed to partner with Tootsie’s and co-brand his Ryman show as part of our Birthday Bash is just proof of what we are creating here.”
The Kentucky HeadHunters will celebrate its new album Dixie Lullabies with a Nov. 19 concert at Third & Lindsley in Nashville.
The Kentucky HeadHunters (L) and The Roys (R)
Industry Ink: BMG Chrysalis Moves Into New Offices
/by Sarah SkatesRonnie Dunn performed at the 2011 Talk Media Conference & Talk Show Boot Camp in Dallas over the weekend. Pictured (L-R): Skip Bishop (Sony Music Nashville SVP Promotion), Lew Dickey (Cumulus CEO), Dunn, Dan Bennett (Cumulus Dallas VP Market Manager), and Mike McVay (Cumulus SVP of Programming).
• BMG Chrysalis moved into new digs last week. The publisher is now operating at 29 Music Sq. E., Nashville, TN 37203. Phone number remains (615) 329-3999.
• Rodeo Entertainment, the company started by New York based industry vets Jeff Rabhan and David Schulhof, is working in partnership with Clear Channel Radio to assemble a country boy band. The nationwide search visits Nashville on Nov. 18. There will be an open call, 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. at the Nashville Ballroom (817 2nd Ave. S.). Details at countryboybandsearch.com.
The Academy of Country Music welcomed Quarterback Records’ Matt Gary to the office while he was in Los Angeles recently. He performed new single “Beautiful Life," along with cuts from his EP, "I’m Just Sayin’” and signed up for professional ACM membership. (L-R): Academy of Country Music CEO Bob Romeo & Matt Gary. Photo: Michel Bourquard
• Chris Carson has exited Debut Broadcasting to form Yellow Drum Media. He spent almost nine years at Debut as script writer, show producer and voice talent. Yellow Drum Media offers media services, including script writing, production, VO Talent, one-off radio specials, and ISDN radio tours. Yellow Drum Media is producing syndicated radio programs: “The Texas 10” and “The Red Dirt Countdown.” Carson also serves as the executive producer for Jim Brickman’s long running show, “Your Weekend,” distributed to AC/Hot AC formats by Cumulus Media. Contact him at Chris@YellowDrumMedia.com, (615) 294-3781, or www.yellowdrummedia.com.
• Singer and songwriter Liz Anderson is resting in a local hospital following complications of heart and lung disease. She had several hits and has penned songs for Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, Del Reeves, her daughter Lynn Anderson, and many others. Anderson co-founded the Nashville Songwriters Association International along with husband Casey.
• Doug Fraser’s Nashville-based event marketing and brand development company The Art of the Game is producing and directing the Opening Ceremonies of the 2011 Breeders’ Cup World Championships, to be held Nov. 4-5 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Set to perform are Marlee Scott, Brittini Black, Andrea Young and Mark Boylan. The races will air on ESPN networks. The Art of the Game has also handled events for Coca-Cola, The Home Depot, CMA, NARAS, Delta, and more.
• XCEL Talent Agency dancers will be performing at the CMA Awards, and also appear in the new films Footloose, and Joyful Noise, as well as Sonia Leigh’s debut music video.
EYB’s “Crazy Girl” Certified Platinum
/by FreemanThe video for “Crazy Girl” has amassed an impressive 6 million views so far on YouTube, and the band is scheduled to perform the song Thursday, Nov. 3 on Late Show With David Letterman. Following their television appearance, EYB will rejoin their opening slot on Dierks Bentley’s fall tour. They are also currently nominated for an American Country Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year.
“The saying be careful what you wish for because you just might get it, is really coming true this year for us,” said James Young. “Having a platinum single is one of the things we’ve always dreamed about. Thank you to the fans and country radio for allowing us to do what we love night after night, and for truly making our dreams come true.”
Nashville’s Thomas Nelson To Be Acquired
/by Sarah SkatesThomas Nelson is one of the country’s leading inspirational publishers. Among its offerings is the current No. 1 bestseller Heaven Is For Real, and the books of many popular authors, such as Billy Graham, Max Lucado, and Dave Ramsey.
“We are excited to be joining HarperCollins Publishers,” said Mark Schoenwald, President and CEO of Thomas Nelson. “We believe this transaction represents an attractive strategic fit for our company. With HarperCollins’ resources and capabilities to draw on, we will capitalize on the many opportunities in this rapidly changing world of publishing.”
ACAs Announce Show Performers
/by Sherod RobertsonThe two-hour event will also feature appearances by Lauren Alaina, Rachel Bilson, Miranda Lambert, Scotty McCreery and the men of “Pawn Stars” (Richard Harrison, Rick Harrison, Corey Harrison and Austin Russell.)
Voting for all categories remains open for fans until Friday, Nov. 11 at www.theacas.com. Voting for Artist of the Year continues until Friday, Dec. 2.
American Country Awards is executive-produced by Bob Bain (Teen Choice 2011, Kids’ Choice Awards). Fletcher Foster, Paul Flattery and Tisha Fein serve as producers; and Greg Sills is supervising producer. Michael Dempsey will direct the special.