Union Station Bassist Bows Instructional Video

/by

Barry Bales, longtime bass player for Grammy award winners Alison Krauss & Union Station, is releasing first-ever bass instructional video through AcuTab Productions. To celebrate the release, Bales and AcuTab have teamed up for a contest involving bass players and Bales fans.

The contest allows fans to get involved in a fun and entertaining way by viewing a special video made by Bales about how he gets his unwieldy bass from here to there. You can check out that video here.

Viewers are then invited to create their own video about how they get around with their bass. Image quality isn’t important – creativity and humor will be especially noted. The video can be shot with a phone, a video recorder, or any other choice that produces a video piece to share.

Contestants entering can post their video responses or upload them to YouTube and email the link to AcuTab Productions/Barry Bales “Have Bass Will Travel” Video Entry.

The contest will run for 30 days starting this week, and Acutab Productions will choose six finalists, with the winner being chosen by Bales himself.

The Grand Prize winner will receive a custom Colorado Case soft bass bag ($450 value) and the registration and accommodations for the Bass Strummit Bass Workshop in Roanoke, Virginia. Each of the six finalists will receive a set of D’Addario HH610 Helicore strings ($250 value) and an autographed copy of Bales’ AcuTab DVD ($35 value.) Full contest details and rules can be viewed here.

Gill Featured in Clapton’s “Crossroads” Film

/by

On July 27, in 475 select theaters, the film version of Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010 will debut. Country Music Hall of Fame member Vince Gill will be one of the artists featured. Also included in the film are performances from Clapton, Jeff Beck, Z.Z. Top, John Mayer, B.B. King, Sheryl Crow, Bill Murray and many others.

The special 2-hour event will be shown in HD beginning at 7:30pm local time across all time zones and will feature historic musical performances from the day-long Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010 which took place in Chicago’s Toyota Park on June 26.  All 27,000 tickets to this year’s Chicago Festival sold out in minutes.

Theater audiences will gain exclusive backstage VIP access to behind-the-scenes footage and candid interviews with the performers, including an introduction by Clapton himself. 

Tickets for Eric Clapton Crossroads 2010 in-theater event are available at participating theater box offices and online at www.FathomEvents.com. For a complete list of theater locations and ticket prices, please visit the Fathom website (theaters and participants are subject to change).

Franklin-Based Naxos Adds Positions

/by

Franklin, Tennessee-based Naxos, the No. 1 independent classical music distributor in the U.S, is getting ready to move some its IT operations from overseas in Manila back to the company’s Franklin headquarters. The company cites the need to move these positions closer to the its North American markets.

Currently, Naxos global has around 80 employees in Manila doing various administrative, accounting and IT tasks for all of the different territories of the company around the world. 27 of those 80 specifically work in IT, and those jobs will be moved to the Naxos’ offices in Franklin.

Initially, this will mean a creation of 6-8 jobs, with four more positions being added by year’s end. Naxos can be reached at 615-771-9393.

Weekly Chart Report (7/23/10)

/by

SPIN ZONE

New Arista Nashville artist Adam Brand was in Alabama recently as part of his first radio tour in the U.S. after making a name for himself as a recording artist in Australia. Brand played his upcoming single, “Ready For Love,” for The Big 95/WHMA Anniston’s Stuff a Bus Fundraiser. (L-R): WHMA OM Tex Carter, a Chick-fil-A cow and Brand.

It’s a tennis match at the top of the CountryBreakout Chart and the latest volley comes from Keith Urban, whose “I’m In” recovers its No. 1 positioning after being displaced last week. Blake Shelton’s “All About It” slips back to No. 2, only nine spins behind Urban. Both records are young, and anything could happen at this point. Strong records from Zac Brown Band (“Free”) and Lady Antebellum (“Our Kind Of Love”) are a few steps back at No. 5 and 7, respectively, but it shouldn’t be too long before they’re vying for the top spot.

Don’t count out a run at the top by Kenny Chesney in the near future, either. His latest, “The Boys of Fall” is white hot. After nailing the biggest debut at No. 49 last week with no prior reports, the song received an additional 812 spins in this chart cycle to move on to No. 26. Reba’s “Turn On The Radio” has accomplished a similar feat—it debuted at No. 50 in the previous chart, and has now rocketed up to No. 35.

The biggest debut of this week goes to Southern country rockers Blackberry Smoke, whose “Good One Comin’ On” showed up at No. 64. Others making debuts include Sherry Lynn’s “What A Day To Shake A Heartache” at No. 70, Martin Ramey’s “Twisted” at No. 71, Amber Hayes’s “C’Mon” at No. 72, Chuck Wicks’s “Hold That Thought” at No. 77, David Bradley’s “Soak It Up” at No. 79 and Flynnville Train’s “Preachin’ To The Choir” at No. 80

Frozen Playlists: KKOW, KNCQ, KYYK, WATZ, WBKR, WDHR

RADIO NEWS
WTRS/Ocala morning personality Beth Brightwell recently announced her departure from the station after 10 years where she was a fixture on the popular “Dave, Beth, and Bo Morning Show.” She will be moving to Nashville to join WSM morning host Rick Marino on the “Wake Up With The Wolf Show.”

“I told her it was kind of like if my wife left me for Keith Urban—I’d have to look at her and say ‘Well, I can’t blame ya for going,’” jokes WTRS PD/morning co-host Dave Tyler. “Beth is super talented and we knew that one day she would leave for bigger pastures. I think the broadcast industry is only now getting a small taste of her abilities and she will blossom at a great station like WSM! We will miss her and hope she returns our calls once the limos start picking her up in the morning!”

Brightwell’s first day on the job is Thursday, July 29. Starting Monday, July 26, the WTRS morning show will be known as the Dave & Bo Show.

Upcoming Singles
July 26
Miranda Lambert/Only Prettier/Columbia
Sugarland/Stuck Like Glue/Mercury
Matt Kennon/You Can Still Wear White/BamaJam
Craig Campbell/Family Man/Bigger Picture
Jeff Golden/Judgement Day/Country Trax

August 2
Josh Gracin/Cover Girl/Average Joes
Clay Walker/Where Do I Go From You/Curb
Luke Bryan/Someone Else Calling You Baby/Capitol

• • • • •

New On The Chart—Debuting This Week
Artist/song/label — chart pos.
Blackberry Smoke/Good One Comin’ On/BamaJam — 64
Sherry Lynn/What A Day to Shake A Heartache/Steal Heart — 70
Martin Ramey/Twisted/Curb — 71
Amber Hayes/C’Mon/Funl Music — 72
Chuck Wicks/Hold That Thought/RCA — 77
David Bradley/Soak It Up/Gecko — 79
Flynnville Train/Preachin’ to the Choir/Next Evolution Records — 80

Greatest Spin Increase
Artist/song/label — spin+
Kenny Chesney/The Boys Of Fall/BNA — 812
Reba/Turn On The Radio/Starstruck/Valory — 532
George Strait/The Breath You Take/MCA — 359
Darius Rucker/Come Back Song/Capitol — 346
Miranda Lambert/Only Prettier/Columbia — 236

On Deck—Soon To Be Charting
Artist/song/label — spins
Bo Bice/You Take Yourself With You/Saguaro Road Records — 201
Jimmy White and Jonell Mosser/Just What I Need/Tone Box Records — 197
Diamond Rio/This Is My Life/Word Records — 196
Chris Young/Voices/RCA — 184
Melanie Denard/All I Ever Did Was Love You/StarPath — 179

Two Week Most Added*
Artist/song/label — New adds
Kenny Chesney/The Boys Of Fall/BNA — 35
Reba/Turn On The Radio/Starstruck/Valory — 25
David Adam Byrnes/Sweet Distraction/Better Angels — 20
George Strait/The Breath You Take/MCA — 15
Joe Nichols/The Shape I’m In/Show Dog – Universal — 12
Luke Bryan/Someone Else Calling You Baby/Capitol — 12
*Total Adds rec’d over two weeks

•  •  •  •  •

EMI Records Nashville’s Eric Church recently made a tour stop in Memphis, TN. His current single “Smoke A Little Smoke” is currently climbing the charts and he will join Miranda Lambert for CMT’s On Tour this fall. (L-R): Steve Hodges, Sr. VP Promotion Capitol/EMI; Angela Lange, VP Promotion EMI; Trudie Daniell, Regional Dir. Promotion EMI; Church; and WGKX/Memphis APD/MD Kay Manley.

The JaneDear girls recently gave a concert for WUBL/Atlanta staff. (L-R) Susan Brown, WUBL morning personality Jason Pullman, Danelle Leverett, and WUBL PD Scott Lindy.

Westwood One Offers Urban’s Backstage Experience

/by

Westwood One is taking country radio listeners backstage for a personal experience with Keith Urban in a unique 1-hour radio show from August 7-15.

Recorded on location at several shows around the country, Urban answers fan questions and talks about his 2010 Summer Lovin’ tour. The fans themselves will be a part of the show, and give their favorites moments from the tour. In addition, the show spotlights Urban’s biggest hits from the past few years.

Urban’s tour sponsors, Kingsford Charcoal and KC Masterpiece Barbecue Sauce, present this show free to all radio stations so fans will be able to share in the excitement. For more information, contact Donny Walker at 917-957-5028 or donny_walker@westwoodone.com

Friday Photos – Artists on the Road

/by

Republic Nashville’s Sunny Sweeney was in Sacramento recently where she paid a visit to one of the city’s top rated TV morning shows, Good Day Sacramento. Sweeney performed two songs from her upcoming album, including her current single “From A Table Away.”

(l-r) Good Day Sacramento anchor Cody Stark, Sunny Sweeney and anchor Tina Macuha.

Warner Music’s James Otto recently visited with WGH staff before his performance in Virginia Beach.

(L-R): Chris Stacey, Sr. VP Promotion Warner Music Nashville; WGH PD John Shomby; and Otto.

Pandora Reaches Major Listener Milestone


/by

Personalized online radio service Pandora announced at this week’s New Music Seminar that 60 million people have registered as listeners. Pandora CEO and President Joe Kennedy spoke at the Seminar’s New Media Movement where he shared the milestone news with influential players of the music industry.

“Pandora plays the music of tens of thousands of artists every day,” Kennedy said. “It’s a very promising sign for the industry that music fans are so quickly embracing this new form of radio.”

“The New Music Seminar convenes the architects of the next music business and Pandora is certainly one of them,” said New Music Seminar Director Tom Silverman. “This milestone is a major building block in the foundation of the next music business. We congratulate Pandora on its achievement.”

Pandora’s collection consists of hundreds of thousands of songs from 90,000 separate artists, 80 percent of which are played each month. In the curated Pandora collection, each piece of music is carefully analyzed by musicians to create a unique musical DNA that makes up the Music Genome Project and enables Pandora’s unique form of personalized radio. www.pandora.com

Bentley Brings Bluegrass to Late Night TV

/by

With every track on his new, bluegrass-infused album Up On The Ridge being praised by the nation’s music critics, country music maverick Dierks Bentley will treat television audiences to the debut of two new tracks on late night TV next week.

The award-winning singer/songwriter will perform the aching ballad “Fallin’ For You” on the Late Show with David Letterman on Tuesday, July 27 and the poignant and romantic “Draw Me A Map” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday, July 28.

“A lot of times when you get invited to do these shows, you end up doing the same song over and over…usually whatever your current radio single is at the time,” Bentley says. “It’s really flattering that folks were listening and asking for deeper album cuts. I love being able to highlight as many of these songs as possible because I think they are all special.”

Critical acclaim continues to roll in for Up On The Ridge with Entertainment Weekly most recently highlighting “Bad Angel” as the sole country track on their 10-song Perfect Summer Playlist. Other artists making the short list include Maroon 5, Gaslight Anthem and The Roots.

For a full list of upcoming appearances and tour dates, visit www.dierks.com.

Jamie O’Neal Partners With Cripple Creek

/by

Nashville based Brand N Music Partnerships has announced that Cripple Creek, a division of Sidran, and country recording artist Jamie O’Neal have entered into a long-term brand partnership and endorsement agreement. This strategic integrated marketing campaign includes product endorsements, retail appearances and digital components.

“Jamie O’Neal does a tremendous job representing the face of country music and women’s outerwear, something that is really important to the Cripple Creek brand,” says Sidran, Inc. President, Roland Mizrahi. “We hope that this is just the beginning of a long and lasting relationship between Jamie O’Neal and Cripple Creek.”

“I am thrilled to announce this new relationship with Cripple Creek” O’Neal says. “Whether it’s a hooded fleece for a fall day at the park or studded leather jacket for backstage, Cripple Creek has something for every occasion.”

Toby Keith Readies “Bullets In The Gun”

/by

Show Dog-Universal’s Toby Keith will release Bullets In The Gun, his 15th full-length studio album, on October 5. The collection has been preceded at radio by lead single “Trailerhood,” which is currently one of the fastest-rising singles on the charts, jumping five spaces this week to No.31 just three weeks after its official release.

From his first single and No. 1 smash “Should’ve Been A Cowboy” back in 1993 to his recent single “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song),” Keith has written the majority of his biggest hits.

Keith’s American Ride Tour opened last month at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. Sponsored by Ford Trucks, the tour will hit dozens of cities through its Sept. 25 conclusion in Boston.

Remaining July dates:

July 22             Boise
July 23             Portland, OR
July 24             Seattle
July 25             Vancouver
July 27             Paso Robles, CA
July 29             Sacramento
July 30             Los Angeles
July 31             Las Vegas