Dolly Looks Toward "Better Day"

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Dolly Parton chats with American Country Countdown host Kix Brooks to promote her new album. Photo: Thien Phan as photographer.


Dolly Parton is gearing up for Tuesday’s (6/28) release of her new album Better Day. The first single “Together You And I” is climbing MusicRow’s Country Breakout chart, and she recently shot a video for the song in Nashville with director Trey Fanjoy. The project is coming via Dolly Records, with distribution through Warner Music Nashville.
Parton will kick-off a world tour July 17 in Knoxville, TN. She is set for a July 22 performance on The Tonight Show, and a two-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles July 22 -23. After wrapping the U.S. dates August 3, the tour moves overseas for 18 shows in England, Ireland, Denmark and Sweden starting August 20. She will play a pair of shows September 7-8 at the O2 Arena in London, the venue where Parton recorded her 2009 two-disc DVD/CD set, Live From London. A tour of Australia will follow in November, and more dates in the U.S. and Canada in 2012 are in the works.

Country's Night To Rock TV

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Blake Shelton performs at the Nightly Concerts at LP Field on Sunday, June 12 . Photographer: John Russell / CMA


The ABC-TV special CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock will air Sun., Aug. 7. The concert special was taped June 9-12 at the 40th annual festival.
Among the artists who will perform on the program are Lauren Alaina, Jason Aldean, Sara Evans, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Scotty McCreery, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Reba, Darius Rucker, Blake Shelton, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, and Zac Brown Band.
The primetime television special, CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock, debuted in 2004 on CBS as a two-hour special highlighting the Festival and Music City. In 2005, the special moved to the ABC Television Network, and expanded to three hours in 2009.
In 2010, the special helped ABC hit a Wednesday summer-high in both Total Viewers (6.0 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.7/5). It also grew by 6% year to year with Women 18-34 (1.8/6 vs. 1.7/5).
CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock is executive-produced by Robert Deaton.

Memorial Scheduled For Bill Johnson

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Bill Johnson with his favorite paint brush, wearing a t-shirt with the logo he designed for his hometown of Yankton, SD.


A memorial celebration will be held for late art director Bill Johnson on Sun., June 26. The event will be 3-5:30 PM at the WO Smith Music School.
His wife Cynda Johnson requests friends bring stories to share and photographs of Bill to post on a memory board. She writes on his CaringBridge site that the party will have his “favorite ingredients: good friends, stories, food and vodka.”
See the full obituary here.

Country Music Hall of Fame Board Update

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At the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum’s quarterly board meeting today (6/23), BMI’s Nashville Vice President, Writer-Publisher Relations Jody Williams was elected to a first term as a trustee. Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz and Lee, Danner & Bass, Inc. Principal and Director Ernie Williams were re-elected to three-year terms as trustees.
New officers include NASCAR President Mike Helton and Spalding Entertainment President Clarence Spalding.
Nashville business leader and cultural arts activist Steve Turner, founder of Butler’s Run LLC, was tapped for a fourth term as chairman; and Country Music Hall of Fame member Vince Gill was re-elected to a tenth consecutive term as president.
Remaining trustees include David Conrad, J. William Denny, Rod Essig, Randy Goodman, John Grady, Keel Hunt, Ken Levitan, Mary Ann McCready and Turner.
The new officers join re-elected board members Al Giombetti (executive vice president); and Vice Presidents Earl Bentz, Mark Bloom,  Connie Bradley, Tony Brown, Mike Dungan, Francis Guess, Lon Helton, Don Light, Donna Nicely, Brian O’Connell, David Ross, John Seigenthaler,  Troy Tomlinson and Tim Wipperman.
CMA CEO Steve Moore serves as an ex-officio member. Chris Horsnell and Mike Milom of Milom Joyce Horsnell Crow PLC continue as the not-for-profit educational organization’s legal counsel.

CMA Music Fest Brings Boon To Music City

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Country music fans attending the recent CMA Music Festival had a huge economic impact on Nashville. Spending by visitors totaled $30 million, a significant increase from last year’s record-high of $24 million, according to Smith Travel Research and reported by The Tennessean.
It was the second consecutive year festival tickets sold out, drawing average daily attendance of 65,000.
Eighty percent of the four-day ticket holders were from outside of Tennessee, and they packed area hotels, booking a total of about 110,000 nights.
Drawing fans and their wallets to downtown were free events such as the opening parade, which attracted 16,000 onlookers.
Ninety-four percent of the respondents said they plan to return next year.
Read CMA Fest By The Numbers.

Industry Ink Thursday

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Chris Keaton Produces Broadway Project
Nashville producer Chris Keaton recently completed recording a new project by Tony Award-winning actress Lea Salonga. The Journey So Far is a live album set for release Aug. 9 by LML Music/Allegro Distribution. Salonga, the Filipina singer and actress who is best known for originating the lead role of “Kim” in the musical Miss Saigon, will accompany the release of the CD with a worldwide tour throughout 2011 and 2012.

Lea Salonga signs a recording contract with LML Music.(L-R): attorney Robert Perlstein, Lea Salonga, producer Chris Keaton, and LML Music President Lee Lessack.


Belmont Promotes Jamie Stamey

Jamie Stamey


Belmont University has promoted Jamie Stamey to Internship Coordinator. She joined the Curb College in 2008 and most recently served as Academic Advisor/Intern Coordinator. In her new role, Stamey will work with faculty mentors to create internship opportunities in the entertainment industry. She works under Sarah Cates who serves as Sr. Director of Curb College Initiatives.
Additionally, Stamey will work to develop unique, team-based internship experiences like the recent Belmont/BMI Catalog Cast initiative. This project had ten Belmont seniors mine the BMI catalog for potential hits, and resulted in American Idol champ Scotty McCreery recording “Out of Summertime.”
Songwriter Agency Hires Cheri Blankenship

Cheri Blankenship


Cheri Hendrix Blankenship has joined The Songwriter Agency, handling bookings in Texas and the Western U.S. Blankenship was with PACE/Live Nation for ten years, and also founded Hendrix Music Agency providing artist representation and talent buying services for live music venues in the state of Texas. Blankenship is based in Houston and can be reached at cheri@thesongwriteragency.com or (281) 995-3179.
Randy Harrell co-founded the agency which represents Don Schlitz, Steve Wariner, Richie McDonald and others. Harrell can be reached at Randy@thesongwriteragency.com, or (615) 879-1224.
Woody Bomar’s Road Crew Honored
Publishing vet Woody Bomar and his Route 66 tribute band The Road Crew were honored during the 2011 International Route 66 Association Festival Awards Banquet on June 11 in Amarillo, Texas. The group received the inaugural Bobby Troup Artistic Recognition Award, named for the composer of the iconic song “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66.”

(L-R): Jason Harmon, Don King, Michael Wallis (Author/Route 66 Historian), Woody Bomar, Joe Loesch.

Roger Murrah To Exit Bug Music

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Roger Murrah will officially leave his post as Sr. VP of Bug Music when his contract with the publishing company ends in August. The publishing vet came on board with Bug in February 2009, overseeing the Nashville office and reporting directly to Los Angeles-based CEO John Rudolph.
At that time, Bug Music acquired a portion of Murrah’s independent publishing company, Murrah Music, and its associated catalogs. Today, Roger Murrah reportedly retains ownership of the publishing house he founded in 1990. He says, “I’m putting no limitations on the possibilities ahead.”
Murrah is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and was honored as BMI’s Songwriter of the Decade for the ’90s. His credits include Alan Jackson’s “Don’t Rock The Jukebox,” Al Jarreau’s “We’re In This Love Together,” Alabama’s “I’m In A Hurry (And Don’t Know Why),” and Waylon Jennings’s album, A Man Called Hoss.
He can be contacted at 615-424-7833 and roger.murrah@nashville.net.

Glen Campbell Diagnosed With Alzheimer's

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Glen Campbell has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, People Magazine is reporting. The 75-year-old country singer revealed his condition in an interview that appears in Friday’s (6/24) issue.
Campbell and his wife Kim have come forward to talk about his disease because he is making plans for a series of farewell shows and felt his fans should be aware.

“Glen is still an awesome guitar player and singer,” Kim told People. “But if he flubs a lyric or gets confused on stage, I wouldn’t want people to think, ‘What’s the matter with him? Is he drunk?'”

According to the Los Angeles Times, Campbell is also recording an album called Ghost On The Canvas that is due out August 30. He is recording with Julian Raymond, who produced his acclaimed 2008 album Meet Glen Campbell. This collection will reportedly feature songs by Paul Westerberg (The Replacements), Jakob Dylan (The Wallflowers), Teddy Thompson and Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices), in addition to original material. Guests on the album will include Chris Isaak, Dick Dale, Billy Corgan, Brian Setzer, Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick) and the Dandy Warhols.
Campbell’s storied career has lasted over 50 years, beginning as a session player in Los Angeles on recordings by Phil Spector and the Beach Boys, to his successful solo recordings like “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” and “Rhinestone Cowboy,” and hosting The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS. He also ventured into acting, appearing with John Wayne in the 1969 version of True Grit.

Rhett Akins Re-Ups With EMI

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(L-R): EMI's Tom Luteran, BMI's Jody Williams, EMI's Laura Wright, Rhett's son Thomas Rhett Akins, Rhett Akins, BMI's Leslie Roberts, EMI's Ben Vaughn, BMI's Clay Bradley, daughter Kasey Lee Akins, EMI's Josh Van Valkenburg, BMI's Beth Laird, EMI's Missy Wilson and BMI's Mark Mason


Riding high with a string of hits and two rising singles, songwriter Rhett Akins has extended his relationship with EMI Music Publishing. Under terms of the new co-publishing deal, EMI Music will continue to represent Akins’ future work and catalogue of songs which includes the No. 1s “All About Tonight” (performed by Blake Shelton), “Gimme That Girl” (Joe Nichols) and “All Over Me” (Josh Turner).
Akins, who first joined EMI six years ago, is a co-writer on the latest singles from Shelton (“Honey Bee”) and Rodney Atkins (“Take A Back Road”). “I want to thank my EMI family, co-writers, and music partners for giving me the opportunity to create music and live my dream,” he said.
EMI Music Publishing Nashville Executive Vice President Ben Vaughn added, “Rhett Akins is a guy that you love being in business with and working with everyday. He loves what he does and it shows. Our entire EMI Nashville family are proud to share in his on going success and proud to call ourselves ‘Rhettnecks.’”
Since moving to Nashville more than 15 years ago, Akins has had hits as a recording artist with “That Ain’t My Truck” and “She Said Yes.” He was named one of Billboard‘s top five country songwriters in 2010, and his songs have collectively sold more than 2.5 million digital downloads.
His other hits as a writer include “Farmer’s Daughter” (Rodney Atkins), “Put A Girl In It” (Brooks & Dunn) and “The Shape I’m In” (Joe Nichols).
EMI Music Publishing’s current Nashville hit-making writers include Dallas Davidson, Alan Jackson, Chris Young, Kelley Lovelace, and Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott.

Memorial Service For Steve Popovich

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Steve Popovich. Photo Credit: Anastasia Pantsios


A memorial service for late record executive Steve Popovich will be held from 6 – 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 30 at United Methodist Fellowship Church (2511 Highway 99, Murfreesboro, TN). A reception will follow at the Church from 7 – 9 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Stephen C. Popovich Memorial Fund, U.S. Bank, 2504 Old Fort Parkway, Murfreesboro, TN 37128. All funds donated will benefit the various charities that Steve has contributed to throughout his life.
Popovich died at his home in Murfreesboro on June 8 at age 68. Born July 6, 1942 in Nemacolin, PA, his career included time at Columbia Records, and his own Cleveland International Records. He worked with Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Boston, Johnny Cash, David Allan Coe and polka king Frank Yankovic. He was part of the landmark success of Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell album. His big personality helped him work his way into the fabric of Music City while at the helm of PolyGram Records Nashville in the late 1980s, working with Kris Kristofferson, The Statler Brothers, Tom T. Hall, Kathy Mattea, Lynn Anderson, Tom Jones, Johnny Paycheck and others. See the complete obituary here.
He is survived by son Steve Popovich Jr., daughter Pamela Popovich, sister Barb Lemmo, and grandchildren Tanner and Stephen Popovich.
Funeral services were held June 13 at St. John of the Cross in Euclid, Ohio. Interment followed at Western Reserve Memorial Gardens in Chesterland.
Condolences may be sent to the family via email: spopovich34@earthlink.net.