Benken Joins Quarterback Records

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Quarterback Records has hired Tony Benken as Vice President, Promotion. Effective immediately, Benken will oversee label contact with medium and major market radio.
“This is another strong step for the growth and capability of Quarterback,” says label co-principal John Ettinger. “Tony brings a terrific skill set in promotion, and carries a wonderful reputation.  He is smart, caring, and has the kind of radio-relation integrity we want at the label.”
“I couldn’t be more excited to get going with this Quarterback team,” adds Benken. “They do everything with energy and integrity, and I can’t wait to bring the same spirit out to my friends in country radio.”
Benken was most recently VP Promotion at Treehouse Records and his 18 years of experience have included stops at BNA, RCA, Virgin, Universal South and Broken Bow. Reach him at 615-478-9056 or tonybenken@quarterbackrecords.com
Along with Benken’s hiring, Quarterback has promoted J.R. Hughes to National Director/Midwest Regional.

DISClaimer Single Reviews (1/12/11)

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I am loving this format today.
I love its diversity. I love the quality of its song craftsmanship. I love its mix of youth and maturity. Country music rules.
In celebration, I am crowning three Disc of the Day winners. The Group prize goes to Rascal Flatts for its chesty vow of steadfastness. The Male winner is Randy Montana, who has a sonic masterpiece to offer. The Female prize, and the surprise of the day, is Ashton Shepherd. Every other gal in town is going to kick herself for not finding “Look It Up” first.
That’s not all. Be sure and lend your ears, also, to Reba McEntire, Joanna Smith, The Dirt Drifters and the new duo Curtis & Luckey. They add to this week’s tasty country goulash of musical diversity.
JEFF TALMADGE/Sometimes You Choose Love
Writer: Talmadge; Producer: Thomm Jutz; Publisher: Tot Ziens, BMI; Berkalin (track) (www.jefftalmadge.com)
—Recorded in Nashville, this folk-country stylist from Texas has a gentle, acoustic sound that goes down easy in this swaying, mid-tempo meditation. The album, titled Kind of Everything, is his seventh.
REBA/If I Were A Boy
Writer: Brittany Jean Carlson/Toby Gad; Producer: Dann Huff; Publisher: Songs of Universal/BC Jean/Cherry Lane/Liedela/Gad, BMI/ASCAP; Valory Music/Starstruck(track)
—This country take on the Beyonce hit is a pulsing power ballad with exactly the right dynamics in the production to put the spotlight on Reba’s delivery of the extraordinary lyric. Her best single in ages.
CURTIS & LUCKEY/Eye Candy
Writer: Brian Curtis/Luckey Moore/Shawn Rhem; Producer: none listed; Publisher: none listed; KMG Music Group (515-269-0474)
—Sprightly and good humored, with creamy harmonies and shiny-bright production.
RASCAL FLATTS/I Won’t Let Go
Writer: Steve Robson/Jason Sellers; Producer: Dann Huff & Rascal Flatts; Publisher: Stage Three/Sony-ATV Cross Keys/Becky’s Boy, ASCAP; Big Machine
—Stately and inspirational. A ballad where you relish every step along the way. An exemplary piece of work. My only quibble is that the Joe Don and Jay harmony vocals are too far down in the mix.
CAMILLE ALVEY & DICKEY LEE/She Thinks I Still Care
Writer: Dickey Lee; Producer: Don Sullivan; Publisher: Universal, BMI; Calisse (track) (www.camillealvey.com)
—Camille takes this classic at a confident, crisp pace. Dickey takes over in the second verse, sounding remarkably youthful, I might add. She harmonizes to his lead in the bridge and in the final verse. It’s all quite listenable.
RANDY MONTANA/1,000 Faces
Writer: Randy Montana/Tom Douglas; Producer: Jay Joyce; Publisher: Sony-ATV/tomdouglasmusic, BMI; Mercury Nashville (CDX)
—I am a big fan of this guy, and this ultra-melodic outing is the kind of single that makes a star. It starts off quietly, but when the second verse kicks in, the production and his funky-raspy vocal take off like a stallion bolting from the barn. Hang on for the finale where his various vocal phrases are layered dazzlingly on top of one another. Go, boy, go.
JOANNA SMITH/Georgia Mud
Writer: Joanna Smith/Jim McCormick/Aaron Scherz; Producer: Philip White; Publisher: none listed, BMI; Columbia (CDX)
—Like Randy, Joanna is an artist who ably showcased her material in our office. So I can tell you for a fact that these kids are both real singers. She was so charming on her rollicking debut single, “Gettin’ Married.” This one is more sweetly romantic, with a cool, crunchy backbeat and a vocal performance with a built-in smile.
ASHTON SHEPHERD/Look It Up
Writer: Angaleena Presley/Robert Ellis Orrall; Producer: Buddy Cannon; Publisher: Ten Ten/Orrall Fixation, ASCAP; MCA Nashville (CDX)
—Ashton struts with plenty of moxie on this attitude number. “The word is ‘faithful.’ Look it up,” she snaps. Plenty of other bon mots ensue, until you get to, “The word is ‘over.’ Look it up.” The rumbling “outlaw” thump in the rhythm section matches her vocal flair lick for lick. I would LOVE to hear this on the radio.
AARON LEWIS/Country Boy
Writer: Aaron Lewis; Producer: James Stroud & Aaron Lewis; Publisher: Greenfund, ASCAP; Stroudavarious (www.stroudavarious.com)
—How many times are we going to write various versions of this same song. Dirt road? Check. Blue jeans and t-shirt wardrobe? Check. Guns? Check. Tractor, diesel truck? Check and check. American flag? You bet. Also: It is four, dirge-like, minutes long. The version with cameos by George Jones and Charlie Daniels drags it out, endlessly, to 4:49.
THE DIRT DRIFTERS/Something Better
Writer: Jeff Middleton/Matt Fleener/Nick Diamond; Producer: Justin Niebank; Publisher: Music of Stage Three/Jersey South/Stage Three/EMI Blackwood/Steeltoe Dreamer/Sony-ATV Tree/Buddy Lloyd/nickfakenamemusic, BMI/ASCAP; Warner Bros.
—It’s a blue-collar rocker about a worker waiting for some improvement in his dead-end life. Heck, he even thinks his girlfriend is waiting for something better than him to come along.

Around The Web: Bellamys Say Britney Singing Familiar Tune

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Bellamys vs. Britney • Jewel baby news • Country Strong box office • Idol update • Cheri Oteri on dad Tom Oteri • Toby’s I Love This Bar & Grill • Road Hammers split • Shooter Jennings’ new deal

The web is buzzing with speculation that the lyrics to Britney's new song came from a Bellamy Brothers hit.


>>The Bellamy Brothers say that Britney Spears’ new single “Hold It Against Me” seems a little too familiar. Many country fans remember the Bellamy’s major 1979 hit “If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body, Would You Hold It Against Me.” Howard Bellamy comments, “Hey Brit… If I said you ripped off our song, would you hold it against me? Thanks.” See what you think. Here’s Brit’s new song, and the Bellamys’ classic.
>>Jewel and hubby Ty Murray are expecting their first baby. More on People.com.
>>Country Strong brought in over $7 million and a sixth place finish during the film’s first weekend of wide-release. Variety charts.
>>American Idol, sans Simon Cowell, returns with a two-night premiere on Wed., Jan. 19 and Thurs., Jan. 20 on Fox. For the 10th season, there will be new judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler joining Randy Jackson, and record exec./producer Jimmy Iovine on board to mentor contestants.
>>Comedienne Cheri Oteri tells the Biography channel about talking to her father, the late music publisher Tom Oteri through a psychic medium on an episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories.
>>Toby Keith is adding a Cincinnati location to his I Love This Bar and Grill chain.
>>Canadian country group The Road Hammers have disbanded according to various online reports.
>>Shooter Jennings has signed with 429 Records which will re-release the original 20-track version of his latest album Black Ribbons, plus a new 10-track “bullet” version on Feb. 8.

Who Wins the 2010 Current Country Album Sales Sweepstakes?

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Swift or Lady A? Capitol Nashville or Big Machine?

There are so many ways to dissect the year’s sales events. But one important measurement of popularity is tied to current album sales. This is not to say that catalog sales are not an important revenue stream, but, according to Nielsen SoundScan, 58% of all album purchases in 2010 were current product.
The current country album sales top 200 included sales of 24.8 million units or 56% of all country sales, a reliable sample that matches well with the overall all-genre current percentage. (Source: Nielsen SoundScan YTD Current Country Albums; Wk. ending 1/02/2011)
Artist Sweepstakes
1. Taylor Swift 15.52%
2. Lady A 15.51%
3. Zac Brown Band 7.36%
The Top 200 data shows a virtual draw between Taylor Swift and Lady A, with respect to total current sales during 2010— with each artist selling a total of about 3.84 million album units. (Swift actually beat Lady A by about 1,000 units or a tiny .01%)
Lady A’s Top 200 titles included an iTunes Session and a Christmas special plus the trio’s two albums. Swift logged her units solely from Speak Now and Fearless. Lady A however, had the highest selling album—Need You Now—which passed the 3 million mark. Swift, whose CD debuted much later in the year almost caught the Trio, but was No. 2 in this metric with 2.96 million. (Recent sales levels assure it won’t be long before sales of Speak Now pass Need You Now.)
The third largest selling act was Zac Brown Band with 1.82 million units, earned from five different projects.
Lonely At The Top
The sales gap between country’s have and have-nots continues to widen. Swift, Lady A and ZBB for example account for almost 38.5% of the Top 200 current total units. A phenomenally high weighting.
How many individual current albums sold Gold (over 500,000 units) or higher? Eleven. Taylor and ZBB each got two of the eleven spots. The remaining 7 were earned by Lady A, Sugarland, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney and Rascal Flatts.
By Label
1. Capitol Nashville 22.66%
2. Big Machine 17.78%
3. Atlantic 7.77%
4. Arista Nashville 6.97%
When tallying the current country album share by label, Capitol Nashville zooms to the top of the list by a comfortable margin with 22.66% of the total 24.8 million current units or 5.62 million. Capitol Nashville’s strong roster this past year included Lady A, Keith Urban, Darius Rucker, Luke Bryan and more. Big Machine followed with 17.78% share or 4.41 million with Ms. Swift and Rascal Flatts doing the heavy lifting in the checkout lines. Big Machine’s mid-year Flatts signing proved quite strategic since the album shifted over 545k units.
Atlantic cultivated its ZBB franchise to get third place with 7.77% or 1.93 million units. Arista Nashville took fourth with 6.97% or 1.73 million units, courtesy of efforts from Carrie Underwood, Alan Jackson, newcomer Jerrod Niemann and stalwart Brad Paisley.
Summary
Who were 2010s hottest selling acts in country music? Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum and Zac Brown Band.
Note: Albums on the chart for up to 18 months are deemed current by SoundScan. They can remain current after 18 weeks for two reasons: having a current radio single or selling in the upper half of the chart.

Exiting Red Light Staffers

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Several staffers have exited Greg Hill’s Red Light management office following his move to McGhee Entertainment.
Jeri Cooper can be reached at 615-496-6354 and jeri_cooper@bellsouth.net. She had joined the Red Light team in 2009 after 11 years handling radio promotion at Arista Nashville.
Other exiting employees include Jennifer Poppe (jennifer.a.poppe@gmail.com), Callie Cunningham and Leighanna Smith.

Gamblin Named Exec. Dir. Of MS Arts Organization

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Music business veteran Marty Gamblin has become the Executive Director of the Southern Arts and Entertainment Center, which was established in 2001 by the Mississippi legislature. Currently doing business as the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Center (MEAC), the group is dedicated to honoring the lives and work of the state’s diverse artistic talent such as William Faulkner, Robert Johnson, Tammy Wynette, Elvis Presley, Morgan Freeman and many more.
Before he moved to Mississippi, Gamblin was a longtime executive in the Nashville office of Glen Campbell’s publishing business and gave a young Alan Jackson his first publishing deal with the company. Gamblin was also briefly Jackson’s manager early in the singer’s career.
Gamblin has served on the MEAC Board for eight years, with over five serving as the Board’s Assistant VP. The new Southern Arts and Entertainment Center is slated to be built in Meridian, MS, and purports to be a major cultural attraction for visitors. Reach Gamblin at marty@msarts.org or 601-581-1550.

Paisley and Underwood Spotlight Exhibit

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Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood will be featured at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in a spotlight exhibit set to open January 18. The exhibit, Hosts with the Most: Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood, will include stage costumes worn by the artists when they hosted the 2010 CMA Awards last November. The exhibit is scheduled to stay open through June 30.
On display will be a black ensemble worn by Paisley, including a John Richmond jacket with gold-beaded lapels; and a pleated tulle ballerina dress, embellished with 15,000 rhinestones, worn by Underwood. The gown was designed by Georges Chakra, who used a traditional Turkish embroidery technique called sarma that was highly prized in the court of the Ottoman Empire.
The November 10, 2010 telecast marked the third consecutive year that Paisley and Underwood co-hosted the CMA Awards. Paisley was named CMA’s Entertainer of the Year that night.

Chris Young's Radio Redux

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Are you having deja vu of hearing “voices”? Chris Young’s current single “Voices” is making its way up the radio charts for a second time. The same recording of the same song is resting at No. 12 on MusicRow’s Country Breakout chart after 22 weeks on the list—this go ‘round.
The track was first released by RCA Nashville in 2008 as the lead single from The Man I Want to Be. Co-written by Young, Chris Tompkins, and Craig Wiseman, the song originally made it to No. 65 on the Country Breakout chart.
“Voices” is No. 5 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and if it makes it to the top, it will be the first time since Randy Travis’ 1986 chestnut “On the Other Hand,” that a re-released single hit the pinnacle.
Young has had back-to-back No. 1’s with “Gettin’ You Home” and “The Man I Want to Be.” He is nominated for his first GRAMMY Award next month for Best Male Country Vocal Performance (“Gettin’ You Home”). He joins Luke Bryan on the second leg of Rascal Flatts’ Nothing Like Tour, kicking off January 14.

Sugarland Tops Country Dance Club Song List

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Marco Club Connection, a Nashville-based Country music dance venue marketing company, has released its seventh annual list of the year’s most requested Country dance club songs, with Sugarland’s “Stuck Like Glue” taking the top spot.
“As Country music continues to incorporate more and more of a Pop element, the dance clubs can be a very important tool in breaking an artist,” says Club Connection Venue Marketing Specialist Bobbe Morhiser. “Look no further than Laura Bell Bundy for proof of that. ‘Giddy On Up’ was huge in the dance clubs, and for a brand new artist to place in Club Connection’s top five at the end of the year is very impressive.”
2010 Top Ten Country Dance Club Hits:
1. “Stuck Like Glue” – Sugarland
2. “All About Tonight” – Blake Shelton
3. “Hillbilly Bone” – Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins
4. “Need You Now” – Lady Antebellum
5. “Giddy On Up” – Laura Bell Bundy
6. “Country Done Come To Town” – John Rich
7. “Roll With It” – Easton Corbin
8. “Why Don’t We Just Dance” – Josh Turner
9. “Turn On The Radio” – Reba
10. “Pretty Good At Drinkin’ Beer” – Billy Currington
Club Connection surveyed more than 240 club owners, DJs and dance instructors from across the country to compile its Top Ten rankings. A complete archive can be viewed at www.MarcoClubConnection.com.
A division of secondary radio promotion company, Marco Promotions, Club Connection specializes in marketing dance club singles to nightclubs and dance venues. Club Connection maintains a national database of more than 240 venues and world-renowned dance instructor contacts, reaching more than 200,000 club patrons each weekend.

Parton To Be Honored During Grammy Week

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>>Reminder: Voting closes tomorrow (1/12) for the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, which will be held at the L.A. Staples Center on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011, and broadcast live at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
>>A flurry of Grammy related events will surround the awards show. On Sat., Feb. 12, the Recording Academy will honor Dolly Parton with a Lifetime Achievement Award. She joins fellow honorees Julie Andrews, Roy Haynes, Juilliard String Quartet, The Kingston Trio, Ramones, and George Beverly Shea. Also being honored at the invitation-only event in Los Angeles will be Trustees Award winners Al Bell, Wilma Cozart Fine and Bruce Lundvall; and Technical Grammy winners Roger Linn and Waves Audio.
>>On Feb. 11, Barbra Streisand will be saluted as the 2011 MusiCares Person of the Year at a special event celebrating her exceptional artistic achievements as well as her philanthropic work. LeAnn Rimes is among the top-notch performers, a list which also include Bebe Winans, Tony Bennett, Seal, Donna Summer, Stevie Wonder, Jeff Beck, Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, Barry Manilow and Kristin Chenoweth. Proceeds from the event at the Los Angeles Convention Center will support MusiCares, which ensures that music people have a place to turn in times of need.
>>The invitation-only Nashville Grammy Nominee Party is next Tuesday, January 18, at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel.