Photo Spread: EMI Signs Channing Wilson

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Songwriter Channing Wilson inked with EMI Music Publishing recently. The LaFayette, Georgia native has been writing songs and performing for over ten years, and is the former frontman of popular southeast touring band The Rounders.

Back row (L-R): EMI's creative team Tom Luteran, Laura Wright, Ben Vaughn, Missy Wilson, Josh Van Valkenburg, Front seated: Channing Wilson

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The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum recently (4/26) hosted its annual Words & Music Night with special guest singer-songwriter Laura Bell Bundy. The evening was a culmination of the year-long Words & Music program, a school initiative that teaches students the art of songwriting. Students write or co-write lyrics which are given to professional songwriters to refine and add melodies. Finally, students visit the Museum for a tour and a performance of their songs by their participating songwriter.

(L-R): Words & Music Outreach Coordinator David Bogart, VP of Museum Programs Jay Orr, host Laura Bell Bundy and School Programs Coordinator Nathalie Lavine. Photo: Donn Jones

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The ASCAP Music Lounge at The Nashville Film Festival featured performances by Katie Herzig, Jeremy Lister, Mikky Ekko and Alyssa Bonagura.

(L-R): Kyle Ryan, Jesse Willoughby (ASCAP), Jeremy Lister, Alyssa Bonagura, Katie Herzig, Mikky Ekko, Dan Burns and Jordan Hamlin.

• • • • • •

BMI concluded the 2011 Road to Bonnaroo contest at Mercy Lounge on Monday, April 18, with eight bands in a dead heat for the final Bonnaroo spot. Uncle Skeleton emerged victorious, winning over the crowd and judges. Other competitors included PUJOL, The Clutters, ACTION!, Tallest Trees, The Kingston Springs, Sarah Silva, and Cherub.

(L-R): Uncle Skeleton’s Cody Uhler, Road to Bonnaroo alum Jedd Hughes, Uncle Skeleton’s Ross Wariner, Road to Bonnaroo alum Jon Burr of How I Became the Bomb, BMI’s Clay Bradley, and Mercy Lounge’s Drew Mischke.

"The Voice" Sings Its Way To Strong Ratings

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(L-R): Jeff Jenkins, Elenowen, and Patrick Thomas


Last night’s (4/26) premiere of The Voice scored strong television ratings for NBC. The singing competition featuring celeb coaches Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Adam Levine helped the network win the night in the coveted 18-49 demographic, according to Zap2It.com.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the strong showing of 11.8 million viewers improved NBC’s season average in the time period by 89 percent. For the whole night, NBC drew 10.3 million viewers and came in behind ABC’s 14.3 million average (Zap2It).
Several Nashvillians are among the contestants on The Voice. Patrick Thomas sang “Live Like You Were Dying” and was recruited for Shelton’s team, which also snagged local husband-and-wife team Elenowen (Josh and Nicole Johnson). Belmont student Jeff Jenkins performed “Bless The Broken Road” and ended up on Levine’s team.
 

Sugarland Stuck on Platinum

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(L-R): Luke Lewis, Chairman & CEO, Universal Music Group Nashville; Kristian Bush; Jennifer Nettles; Gail Gellman, Gellman Management


Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush celebrate Platinum certification for their latest effort, The Incredible Machine, at their recent sold-out concert in Nashville.  This marks the duo’s fourth consecutive release that has reached platinum or multi-platinum status with over 9 million records sold.
As previously reported by MusicRow, this album has also garnered two nominations for this year’s 2011 CMT Music Awards.

Music City Pickers Launches In Nashville

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Brady Seals and Gabriel Hernandez. Photo: Anna Henderson Photography


Got an old axe you don’t want and need some cash? Consider this option.
Hit songwriter, musician and artist Brady Seals (Little Texas, Hot Apple Pie) has teamed with former Gibson Guitars web editor Gabriel Hernandez to launch Music City Pickers, which will specialize in purchasing and selling vintage musical instruments.
The two initially met while researching one of Seals’ guitars and bonded over their shared appreciation of classic gear. What was a hobby for both men soon turned into a full-blown business venture. The company aims to be a top destination for the buying and selling of guitars, basses, banjos, mandolins, violins, amps, keyboards and more. Sellers will deal directly with Hernandez and Seals in all transactions.
“We’re the middlemen,” says Seals. “We’ll shoot straight with you, tell you the market value for your instrument and then make a fair offer where both Music City Pickers and the seller feel good about the purchase. This is a tough economy and if you need some money in your pocket and have an instrument you want to part with, come on out and show us what you’ve got. We’ll do the leg work to put that instrument in the hands of someone who will appreciate it. No hassle, no bull.”
The company will make its first stop May 20-22 at the Comfort Suites in Mason, Ohio. Operating hours will be between 9 am and 6 pm.

Best Cellars Dinner Has Raised Over $2 Million To Date

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Front row (L-R): Dierks Bentley, John Esposito, Jennifer Pientenpol, Tom Black, Jonathan Cain, Joe Galante, Kellie Pickler, Bill Hearn; Back row (L-R): Charles Kelley, Blake Shelton, Dr. Hal Moses, Laura Heatherly, Chef Ken Frank


Martina McBride, Jonathan Cain, Kellie Pickler, Charles Kelly, Amy Grant, Dierks Bentley, Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook, Phillip Sweet, Blake Shelton, Laura Bell Bundy, Kix Brooks, Joe Don Rooney, Lisa Hartman Black, Clint Black and Big Kenny enjoyed gourmet food and world class wines at the Twelfth Annual Eco-Energy Best Cellars Dinner Monday night (4/25). The event raised more than $170,000 for the T.J. Martell Foundation’s cancer research efforts, bringing the grand total to more than $2 million since the event’s inception in 1999.
Guest Chef Ken Frank, Executive Chef and Owner of La Toque in Napa, California, created a four-course meal that was paired with wine from the personal cellars of top wine collectors from around the United States.
The evening included a live auction with auctioneer Big Kenny and his side kick, Nashville wine collector and business entrepreneur, Tom Black. Among the items up for bid were a celebrity dinner at the home of Big Kenny and his wife Christiev; a trip to Southern California for a food and wine experience; a David Yurman necklace and more.
“The Best Cellars Dinner continues to be a special evening that brings together music, food, wine and great people to raise important research dollars,” said event Co-Chairman Bill Hearn. Proceeds from the evening will go to the T.J. Martell Foundation’s mission of funding cancer research at the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. 

AristoMedia Celebrates 31 Years with Promotion Fest

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(L-R) Jon Walker, Matt Watkins and Christy Watkins.


The AristoMedia Group, now celebrating its 31st year in operation has announced seven departmental promotions. “I am thrilled that this company is able to stand here and reflect on more than three decades serving the entertainment community in Nashville and beyond,” says AristoMedia President and CEO, Jeff Walker. “I’m extremely proud of this staff and the reputation and relationships AristoMedia has built in this industry.”
The company began as a PR firm but today also includes departments for video promotion and marketing, new media, secondary radio promotion and dance venue marketing. In addition they operate an online digital distribution service, GMV Nashville. For more info visit www.AristoMedia.com
(Click on their names to email congratulations)

  1. Christy Watkins upped to Sr. Director/Publicity
  2. Ryan Moore becomes Publicist/Media Relations Manager
  3. Jon Walker upped to Sr. Director/Digital Initiatives and New Media
  4. Jaime Marconette becomes Video Promotion Manager
  5. Bobbe Morhiser is Manager Dance Club Marketing
  6. Sarah Matlock upped to Radio Promotion Coordinator
  7. Matt Watkins is named AristoMedia Director of Operations

(L-R) Jaime Marconette, Bobbe Morhiser, Ryan Moore and Sarah Matlock


 

Benefit News: Dawn Gates' Woman of the Year Campaign

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Tanner Page (L) and Dawn Gates (R)


• Through April 29—Capitol Records Nashville Sr. Director of New Media Dawn Gates is helping raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through her Nashville Woman of the Year campaign. Gates is working to raise $50,000 by the end of May in honor of young cancer patient Tanner Page. Her eBay Celebrity Auction runs through Friday, April 29 and includes artist experience packages from Katy Perry, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, KISS, Peter Frampton, Blake Shelton, Darius Rucker, Jennette McCurdy, and many others. Make a direct donation here.
• May 1—The Nashville Choir will salute the Songs of Bill & Gloria Gaither with a concert at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. On the line-up are Amy Grant, Vince Gill, Michael W. Smith, Sandi Patty, the Gaither Vocal Band and more. Proceeds benefit The Gospel Music Trust Fund and The Nashville Choir’s work with the homeless, Hope For Nashville. Tickets at 615-687-6400 or here.
• May 3—Keith Anderson and Chad Warrix (formerly of Halfway to Hazard) will perform at ReTune Nashville’s Anniversary Celebration at Soundcheck. The concert is part of the nonprofit’s music and art fundraiser for Nashville musicians recovering from the 2010 flood. ReTune creates works of art from instruments that were damaged in the flood. Tickets and details here.
• May 5—Loeb & Loeb LLP will host a Stem Cell Registry Drive from 2-6 PM at their offices at 1906 Acklen Ave. Longtime Loeb & Loeb partner entertainment lawyer Bob Sullivan needs a stem cell transplant. Taking a stem cell sample is simple and requires just a cheek swab. Contact Jamie Hawkins at jhawkins@loeb.com for more information.
• May 6—David Nail, Lance Miller, Mark Wills, Carter Twins, The Warren Brothers and a surprise guest will perform at the Something to Smile About benefit concert for the Interfaith Dental Clinic at the Ryman.
• May 10—Friends of Keith Burns of Burns & Poe are uniting for a benefit concert for his daughter at the Listening Room. Set to perform are his former Trick Pony bandmates Heidi Newfield and Ira Dean, as well as Josh Thompson, Darryl Worley, Tiffany, Chalee Tennison, and Bridgette Tatum. Burns’ 18-year-old daughter Savannah is battling leukemia.
• May 10—Jars of Clay are celebrating the success of their non-profit organization Blood: Water Mission with a benefit concert at the Ryman. Established to address the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa and its link to the lack of clean water sources, the charity has brought clean water to more than 600,000 people. Also on the concert schedule are HANSON, Sandra McCracken, Eric Wainaina, Derek Webb and the evening’s host Charlie Peacock.

Easter Puts Hippity Hop In Country Sales

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Luke Bryan's "Country Girl" topped the Country Tracks chart this week.


According to Nielsen SoundScan, Easter sales added a 7% hip hop to Nashville’s weekly country album sales compared with the previous week, whereas all genre sales only boosted 2%. However, a lack of high profile releases has kept YTD country album sales quite a bit below the all genre benchmark. All genre album sales (YTD thru 4/24/11) are off a respectfully low 1.8%, but country album sales for the same period are down 9%. Total all genre digital track sales are also up 9% YTD. (Unfortunately country digital tracks were not broken out last year, so we don’t have comparisons yet.) Country tracks this week however, compared to the previous one jumped a healthy 12%.
So let’s take a look at the labels and artists which led the “up” week.
Albums
Alison Krauss continues to glide at the top of the country sales list for a second week (after last week’s debut) despite falling off about 49% to 42k units. Most everyone else saw strong unit gains. Filling out the Top 5 were Jason Aldean (No. 2, +31%), Taylor Swift (No. 3, +80%), Country Strong Soundtrack (No. 4, +13%) and ZBB (No. 5, +5%).
Putting country into perspective on the Top 200 all genre album chart finds Krauss at No. 6, Aldean at No. 13 and ZBB at No. 25. Topping the all genre list is Adele who has shifted 1.275 million units in a short 9 weeks. Her new album project 21 sold about 153k units this week.
Tracks
For country it’s all about the men who totally dominate the Digital Genre Country tracks top 5. Luke Bryan’s new “Country Girl” track debuts with over 105k units followed by Blake Shelton’s “Honey Bee” which adds almost 58k to its 245k total units-sold-in-three-weeks. ZBB, Aldean and Thompson Square nab spots 3-5.
Lady A’s “Need You Now” has passed the five million download mark after 68 weeks. Taylor Swift’s “Love Story,” also on the chart for 68 weeks is close behind at about 4.98 million downloads.
Meanwhile, looking at the all genre digital track chart, Adele and Katy Perry can teach the country acts about selling singles. Adele’s “Rolling In the Deep” logged 297k units this week and Perry added 270k downloads of her current single, “E.T.”

Katy Perry and Adele topped the all genre digital tracks chart.

Musical Chairs

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Stefanie Porolniczak


Outback Concerts of Tennessee has promoted Stefanie Porolniczak to Vice President of New Media, where she will oversee the company’s new division focused on social media networks and other forms of non-traditional marketing. Porolniczak, who spent the last three years as a Marketing Rep at Outback, will report directly to President Mike Smardak.
She is a recent nominee for “Generation Next Awards” from Venues Today for leadership in the Nashville community. Prior to joining Outback, Porolniczak worked as Marketing Director at WTTS-FM in Indianapolis, IN.
Porolniczak can be reached at (615) 242-3323 or  stefanie@outbackconcerts.com.

Mark Montgomery


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Tech entrepreneur Mark Montgomery has joined the Topspin Media Board of Advisers, helping the direct-to-fan technology platform define business strategy, advise on product enhancements and help facilitate the creation of new business opportunities. Among the artists who have used Topspin recently are Paul McCartney, Linkin Park, Arcade Fire, Eminem, and Cee Lo Green.
Montgomery was co-founder of the digital marketing powerhouse echomusic. He has over 20 years of expertise in the direct-to-consumer marketing space working with some of the biggest brands in music.
Topspin, led by CEO Ian Rogers, recently established a Nashville Artist Services division. Wayne Leeloy heads the local team and is responsible for business development, account management and marketing. He can be reached at wleeloy@topspinmedia.com or (615) 787-7166.

Darcy Ferris


•••••
Darcy Ferris is exiting her role as receptionist at Universal Music Publishing Group after almost five years. Her last day will be on Friday, April 29.
Ferris graduated from Belmont University in 2009 with a Music Business degree. She can be contacted at darcyferris@me.com.

DISClaimer Single Reviews (4/27/11)

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This is not rocket science, people.
Listen up, you indies. In an industry publication, we are interested in who wrote the song, who produced the record, what PRO is representing and who the publisher is. This basic information should be on the disc (not on some accompanying piece of paper that could be separated from it), alongside the title and artist information. More than half the records in this reviewing session lacked at least one of the four key facts. In two cases, all of them were missing.
But just to show how magnanimous I can be, one of those two platters wins a DisCovery Award. Despite keeping me in the dark about its participants, “Twenty Years Late” by David St. Romain gets the nod.
It will come as no surprise to most of you that Kenny Chesney has hit another home run. “You and Tequila” is a minor masterpiece of songwriting, vocal performance and production. And it wins Disc of the Day.
KELLY PARKES/Girl with a Fishing Rod
Writer: Adrienne Follese/Keith Follese/Victoria Shaw/Hillary Scott; Producer: Darran Smith & Mike Borchetta; Publisher: Animal Planet/Midas Magic/Jamanayre/Victoria Shaw/Do Write/Shaw Enuff, SESAC; Lofton Creek (615-288-4234 x101)
—The bouncy, Cajun-accented track is cute. Her voice doesn’t exactly burn down the barn, but is adequate in delivering the clever, nicely crafted lyric.
BRYAN FONTENOT/Too Drunk to Be Drinking
Writer: Carson Chamberlain/Mark Sanders; Producer: Bryan Fontenot; Publisher: Laravista/Songs of Sanderosa/Universal Songs of Polygram/Bug, ASCAP/BMI; Yes (927-254-6955)
—With a title like this, I HAD to listen. As I expected it’s a rowdy, humorous honky tonker. Also predictably, he sounds like the ultimate slob. Worth a smile or two.
DAVID ST. ROMAIN/Twenty Years Late
Writer: none listed; Producer: none listed; Publisher: none listed; Aria
—Perfect for Mother’s Day. In a heartfelt, soulful voice, he wakes his mom to thank her for everything she did for him and to apologize for his shortcomings. It’s a real shame that it lacks credits, because both the driving production and the songwriting are first rate. [Ed. note: “Twenty Years Late” was written by Aaron Lines, Monty Powell and Troy Verges, with Shawn Pennington producing.]
WHISKEY MYERS/Bar, Guitar and a Honky Tonk Crowd
Writer: none listed; Producer: none listed; Publisher: none listed; WM (track) (www.whiskeymyers.com)
—It’s a Southern rawk thang with plenty of punch in the percussion. Most promising.
MARK COOKE/I Love It
Writer: Philip Douglas/Ron Harbin/Jimmy Yeary; Producer: J. Gary Smith & John Smith; Publisher: Curb/Gremlin Corner/Charlie Monk/Pitcher’s Mound/Hookline East, ASCAP; Cotton Valley (www.cvrmusic.com)
—Jittery guitar, stuttering banjo and way-high scampering fiddle set the pace of this sunny ode to his hottie. Just so you know: she has two tattoos, cut-off jeans and an unpredictable personality.
JUSTIN GRANT/Till It Don’t Burn Going Down
Writer: Justin Lantz/Richie Brown; Producer: none listed; Publisher: none listed, ASCAP; BCR Entertainment
—He has approximately a two-note vocal range. Fortunately, the darkly brooding song doesn’t demand any more.
CHRIS FILER/When it Don’t Come Easy
Writer: Tony Wood/Danny Myrick; Producer: Dennis Dearing; Publisher: BMG Songs/Careers-BMG, ASCAP/BMI; Kidney (track) (www.chrisfilermusic.com)
—The sound is a simple and maybe a little thin, but his singing of this country-rocker is strong and true, and the instrumental support is note perfect, especially that insistent little mandolin. As a song, it is a well constructed homily: “Give it all you got, because it means so much more/When it don’t come easy.”
BRYAN COLE/Talkin’ Dirty
Writer: Tom Paden/Don Ellis/Eddie Kilgallon; Producer: Chuck Ainlay; Publisher: none listed; Perfect Vision  (www.bryancolemusic.com)
—He and his honey like getting outdoors in the mud and muck. He wails with finesse, while electric guitars scream. I’d like to hear what he can do with something a little less frenzied.
LUCY ANGEL/Serious
Writer: Anthony Smith/David Lee Murphy/Chris Wallin; Producer: Anthony Smith; Publisher: Inventor of the Wheel/Old Desperados/Ole, no performance rights listed; GForce (CDX) (www.lucyangel.com)
—Here’s a new theme: We’re gonna party!
KENNY CHESNEY/You and Tequila
Writer: Matraca Berg/Deana Carter; Producer: Buddy Cannon & Kenny Chesney; Publisher: none listed, BMI/ASCAP; BNA (track)
—New England’s Grace Potter provides the harmony vocal on this evocative, sighing ballad. In fact, when she played the Ryman opening for The Avett Brothers last fall, Kenny made a surprise appearance to sing this with her. Simply put, it is a gorgeous piece of work, produced with acoustic perfection and sung with thoughtful resignation. This man just gets better and better.