Stars Autograph For Charity At ACAs

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Stars came out to the Backstage Creations Celebrity Retreat held in the MGM Grand following the American Country Awards last night (12/5), where they signed items for charity and checked out some of the hottest holiday gift items.

Pistol Annies, The Band Perry, Kristin Chenoweth, Blake Shelton, Lauren Alaina, and Scotty McCreery all autographed custom designed belt buckles which will be hand cast in bronze and given to Childhelp, a leading non-profit dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect, for auction. Visit www.childhelp.org/metalcast for more info. Gift items backstage included BiGR Audio headphones, Croton Timepieces, Gypsy Soule shoes, and Dooney & Bourke bags.

Left: Blake Shelton signs the Metalcast Kit belt buckle for Childhelp. Photo: Angela Weiss/WireImage. Right: Kristin Chenoweth checks out Gypsy Soule flip flops backstage. Photo: David Becker/Wire Image

Country Christmas With The Skaggs, Joey+Rory, Little Big Town & Charlie Monk

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Ricky Skaggs, wife Sharon White, and their children Luke and Molly appear in A Skaggs Family Christmas Live, airing on RFD-TV Dec. 8-9.

The TV special includes Buck and Cheryl White and Cheryl’s daughter Rachel Leftwich, Jim Gray and the Nashville Session Players with Ricky’s band, Kentucky Thunder. The program was taped at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. For broadcast details click here.

The 2011 Skaggs Family Christmas tour stops at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony on Thursday, Dec. 22.

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Little Big Town has released their version of the Christmas classic “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” for digital purchase.

“This is one of my favorite things we’ve ever done as a band,” says Karen Fairchild. “It’s a great challenge to interpret a classic and make it your own. I’m really proud of the way this turned out and am hoping we make a bunch of folks’ Christmas playlists for years to come.”

Little Big Town performed “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” and “Santa Clause Is Back In Town” on the televised CMA Country Christmas earlier this month.

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Joey+Rory are promoting their A Farmhouse Christmas CD and tour with a new television special.

Country’s Family Reunion Presents Joey+Rory’s A Farmhouse Christmas will air on RFD-TV 12/23, and 12/24.

“We’re thrilled at how it turned out. Funny thing is, we don’t even have a tv, so we’ll have to go visit someone and catch it one these nights!” said Rory.

Joey+Rory mixed songs with their band from A Farmhouse Christmas with conversation as they performed on a set they built in their 1870’s farm house and barn in Pottsville, TN.

“It was decked out like a winter wonderland,” said Joey. “You won’t even be able to tell Rory usually has his old cars and boat parked where we were singing!”

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Nashville’s ‘Mayor of Music Row,’ Charlie Monk, releases spoken-word song, “Andy and Opie Christmas” to radio stations across the US. See the video below:

Nashville Unlimited Benefit Show Tunes Up For 12th Year

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Many of Nashville’s best singers and players will convene for the 12th Annual “Nashville Unlimited” Christmas Concert next Wednesday, Dec. 14, 7 PM at Christ Church Cathedral (900 Broadway). The annual holiday concert benefits Nashville’s Room In The Inn homeless outreach.

Performers already confirmed include The Time Jumpers, Danny Flowers, The McCrary Sisters, Music City Baroque, Duffy Jackson Big Band, Pat Bergeson & Annie Selleck, Nashville Mandolin Ensemble (playing for the 12th year in a row), The Boxwoods, and more, plus special mystery guests yet-t0-be named.

The free concert is organized and hosted by bassist and Musicians Union President Dave Pomeroy. Proceeds from donations will go to benefit Room In The Inn. Seating is first come, first serve with a suggested minimum donation of $20. Last year’s event raised over $8,000 and featured the talents of Emmylou Harris, Music City Baroque, Vinnie Vidivici, and Buddy Miller. Since 1992, the concerts have raised over $100,000 for Room In The Inn.

Grammy Awards Voting Timeline

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The Civil Wars celebrate their nominations backstage at the recent GRAMMY Nomination Concert Live!

Final Grammy nominees were revealed last week, so here’s a recap of important dates and the voting timeline.

Dec. 14—Final ballot mailed to voting members

Jan. 11—Final ballot due

Jan. 17—Nashville Grammy Nominee Party, invitation-only, Loews Hotel

Feb. 11—Special Merit Awards Ceremony & Grammy Nominee Party, Los Angeles Wilshire Ebell Theater

Feb 12—54th Annual Grammy Awards, Los Angeles Staples Center, CBS, 7:00 PM/CT

Dec. 11/Jan. 12—On the Cover: The Peach Pickers

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Click To Get Your Copy

Country music songwriting trio The Peach Pickers, comprised of Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson and Ben Hayslip, have penned a long list of hits including Frankie Ballard’s “A Buncha Girls,” Blake Shelton’s “All About Tonight,” Josh Turner’s “All Over Me,” Joe Nichols’ “Gimmie that Girl” and “The Shape I’m In,” Luke Bryan’s “I Don’t Want This Night To End,” Craig Morgan’s “This Ole Boy,” Jack Ingram’s “Barefoot and Crazy” and more. The three members have also been honored with awards such as 2011 ASCAP & BMI Songwriters of The Year and Billboard Top 5 Country Songwriters.

 

Rhett Akins

Publisher: EMI Music/Rhettneck
Recent Singles: Rodney Atkins’ “Take A Back Road,” Justin Moore’s “Bait A Hook,” Blake Shelton’s “Honey Bee” (along with Hayslip) and Rodney Atkins’ “Farmer’s Daughter” (along with Hayslip)
Hometown: Valdosta, GA
Birthday: Oct. 13
Outside Interests: Hunting of all kinds but mainly deer and turkey. I also like history, classic literature and biographies such as Civil War, world history and classics from Homer to Charles Dickens.
Musical Influences: Hank Williams, Hank, Jr., George Strait, The Rolling Stones, The Allman Brothers, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Bill Monroe, KISS, ‘80s hair bands, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, George Jones, Conway Twitty, Lynyrd Skynyrd, John Cougar Mellencamp, Tom Petty, Run DMC
Favorite Records: Hank Jr.’s Greatest Hits, George Strait Greatest Hits, KISS Alive 1 and 2, Van Halen 1, Rolling Stones (every one), Led Zep 1 thru 4, Allman Bros. Eat A Peach and Live at Fillmore East, Woodstock Soundtrack

Dallas Davidson

Publisher: EMI Music/String Stretcher
Recent Singles: Luke Bryan’s “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)” and “Rain Is A Good Thing,” Justin Moore’s “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away,” Lady Antebellum’s “Just A Kiss” and “We Owned the Night,” Joe Nichols’ “Take It Off,” and Billy Currington’s “That’s How Country Boys Roll”
Hometown: Albany, GA
Birthday: March 14
Interesting Facts: I sold farmland after college. Picked up the guitar at age 24 and never thought about moving to Nashville until then.
Outside Interests: Fishing, hunting, golf and Georgia football.
Musical Influences: Otis Redding, Hank Williams Jr, Waylon Jennings, George Strait, Allman Brothers Band
Favorite Records: Clint Black’s Killing Time and Otis Redding’s The Essentials

Ben Hayslip

Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music and THIS Music
Recent Hits: Martina McBride’s “I’m Gonna Love You Through It,” Blake Shelton’s “I’ll Just Hold On,” Blake Shelton’s “Honey Bee” (along with Akins) and Rodney Atkins’ “Farmer’s Daughter” (along with Akins)
Hometown: Evans, GA
Birthday: March 11
Interesting Fact: I wrote my first song with childhood best friend and fellow Peach Picker Rhett Akins at age 14. Growing up I dreamed of being an NFL quarterback, a Major League baseball player or a professional songwriter. One out of three ain’t bad.
Outside Interests: My main interest is spending time with my family. I coach all three of my boys in baseball, football and basketball. We also spend as much time as possible on our small farm in Wilson County, Tennessee riding four wheelers, sitting around bon fires and deer hunting.
Musical Influences: Elvis Presley, Percy Sledge and Otis Redding to  Hank Williams Jr., Garth, Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, and Run DMC
Favorite Records: Randy Travis’ Storms of Life and You and You Alone, Hank Williams Jr.’s Habits Old & New and Greatest Hits, Alan Jackson’s Here In The Real World

(L-R): Ben Hayslip, Dallas Davidson and Rhett Akins

New Title For Sony VP Heather McBee

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Heather McBee

Heather McBee has been named Vice President, Artist Development/Marketing & Web Initiatives for Sony Music Nashville. Reporting to Paul Barnabee, Senior Vice President, Marketing, McBee is officially in her new role.

In the new post McBee will provide leadership in the development and execution of marketing campaigns for her assigned artists in collaboration with promotion, media, creative and sales staff. Additionally, she will oversee Sony Music Nashville’s corporate and artist websites and direct-to-consumer initiatives.

Most recently Vice President, Digital Business for Sony Music Nashville, McBee is a true up-through-the-ranks success story who interned with the company while attending Nashville’s Belmont University. After graduation, the West Virgina native joined BNA Records in June 1993 and by 1997 was overseeing the label group’s growing research and digital initiatives.

On today’s (12/6) announcement, Barnabee said, “With 18 years of experience with our label group, Heather has been an important member of our Sony Music Nashville team. Among her many diverse accomplishments, she helped guide us through the digital music space. Her passion for our artists and their music continues to drive her quest to find innovative ways to market each of them.”

The Band Perry To Spend Holidays Working On New Album

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The Band Perry at the Nov. 8 BMI Awards. Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images for BMI

The Band Perry will have a few weeks off the road during the holiday season, and the siblings plan to spend that time working on the follow up to their breakthrough album.

The self-titled debut was recently certified Platinum and has yielded multiple No. 1 hits. The group scored a recent all-genre Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, and  earlier this year took home the new artist trophies at the ACM Awards and CMA Awards.

Neil Perry says, “The album is starting to take shape and we’ve been taking writers out on the road all the time…It’s growing up just a little bit, not too much. But it’s gonna be really fun.”

“It’ll be the first time that we’ve had to be still,” adds Kimberly. “As creators we kind of have to decompress so that our imaginations can run wild a little bit. And we’re so excited about the songs in the store house so far and like Neil said, you know, everything feels a couple of years older. We’ve gotten to go through a mixed bag of experiences over the last twelve months. Most sweet, and then even a few bittersweet because, obviously, with our lives changing, some of the relationships and friendships in our life has changed as well. And so I feel like we’ll be responding to all of those things and way different emotions in the project.”

American Country Awards Score Solid Ratings

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Last night’s (12/5) American Country Awards drew 7.4 million viewers according to Zap2it.com, securing second place for Fox in the ratings race among the major networks.

New episodes of How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, and other hit shows led CBS to first place with 12.3 million total viewers.

For comparison, here’s how some other music awards shows fared in ratings this year. It is important to note that this is only the second year the ACAs have been presented, and therefore the show doesn’t have as much name recognition as some of the more established ceremonies.

• CMA Awards—Nov. 9, ABC, 16.3 million viewers

• ACM Awards—April 3, CBS, 12.2 million viewers

• American Music Awards—Nov. 20, ABC, 12 million viewers

• Grammy Awards—Feb. 13, CBS, 26.6 million viewers

American Country Awards: Good Music, Bad Gags

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Jason Aldean was the big winner at last night's show.

It’s certainly not uncommon for music awards shows to focus more on musical performances, which makes sense considering what they’re honoring. But the American Country Awards takes the lack of attention on the awards to a whole new level.

For its second installment on the Fox network last night (12/5), ACA producers retained the previous year’s unfortunate format of announcing a winner’s name, then quickly mentioning any other awards the artist was winning during the audience reaction.

So as best I can tell (and because the press release sez so), Jason Aldean was the evening’s big winner with six honors including Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Touring Artist. But I still had to rewind my Tivo several times to figure out which additional awards he’d won as four of them were hurriedly announced after he was named Artist of the Year. Other big winners included Carrie Underwood and Thompson Square with three apiece.

Following the show, there was some discussion/confusion about who won Artist of the Year: Duo or Group. When the press release arrived after 10 PM, Lady Antebellum was revealed as the winner. I scanned my recording again to see if I’d missed it but there was no mention of the award anywhere, presumably because Lady A wasn’t present.

There was similar confusion in last year’s inaugural show when Brad Paisley’s Male Artist of the Year honor was omitted because he wasn’t in the audience. Paisley nabbed the same award again this year, though if you blinked you probably missed the announcement buried in show co-host Trace Adkins’ setup of Paisley’s video intro for Alabama.

Co-hosts Trace Adkins and Kristin Chenoweth

Adkins shared hosting duties with pint-size Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth and their banter elicited some groans from the digital sphere, where consumers shared their honest opinions with MusicRow via Twitter. Gags included Adkins carrying Chenoweth on his chest in a baby pouch (“I knew I’d end up carrying you on this show,” quipped Trace), wrestler Big Show choke slamming Adkins through a table, and a Rocky-style boxing spoof in the show’s opening.

“I wasn’t a big fan of Trace or Kristin,” said one MusicRow Twitter follower. “I felt they were trying too hard.”

Chenoweth’s performance of “I Didn’t,” from her country album Some Lessons Learned, got “major thumbs down” from a follower, a sentiment echoed by several others.

But there were also undoubtedly some good moments where the performers were concerned. Alabama’s medley of classic hits brought audience members to their feet, and sent the Twitterverse buzzing. When asked about favorite moments a Tweeter responded, “the unforgettable harmony of Alabama.”

Miranda Lambert’s girl group the Pistol Annies also fared well, turning in a bluesy acoustic version of “Hell On Heels” dressed in flapper dresses and fascinators. The Band Perry proved ever consistent on “All Your Life,” and made a compelling argument for Kimberly Perry’s place as one of the format’s best young vocal stylists.

As a musical showcase for our format’s artists, the American Country Awards has a big platform and that’s fantastic. As an Awards ceremony, it still has some maturing to do. As one follower put it, “The ACA awards feel like the weird cousin jumping around demanding attention.”

Maybe so, but you know what? Sometimes without warning, the weird cousin ends up being the pride and joy of the family.

Lauren Alaina Joins Aldean’s “Party”

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Lauren Alaina

Mercury Nashville/19 Recordings/Interscope artist Lauren Alaina will join Jason Aldean’s 2012 My Kinda Party Arena Tour with fellow Georgia natives Aldean and Luke Bryan. The 17-year-old singer/songwriter is supporting her critically acclaimed debut album Wildflower and current single “Georgia Peaches.”

The My Kinda Party Arena Tour kicks off Jan. 20 in Greenville, SC and continues through March 24 where it wraps in East Rutherford, NJ.

“I am so excited to be a part of the Jason Aldean tour with Luke Bryan!” beamed Lauren Alaina. “I am a huge fan of both of them. If I wasn’t a part of the line up, I would want to be in the front row! I am honored that my first major country tour will allow me to share the stage with two fellow Georgia artists. That is definitely my kind of party!”