Artists Lend Names To Charity

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Buddy Jewell

Buddy Jewell, Stella Parton and Adam Gregory will be the Ambassadors of Goodwill for World Orphans Day 2009 on Nov. 9. They will hold a candlelight vigil to raise awareness at the The People’s Church East Lawn in Franklin, TN at 4:00 p.m. CST. Gregory will also lead students and youth groups in a mile walk starting at the Franklin Family YMCA at 4:00 p.m. and concluding at The People’s Church for the festivities. The event is free and open to the public.

Jewell has also teamed up with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for The 2010 Fans of Buddy Jewell Calendar. Photos for each month of the year will be submitted by fans. The finished calendar will be sold through Café Press, and net proceeds will benefit St. Jude. Info on being included in the calendar at www.buddyjewell.com.

Bucky Covington will be the Celebrity Ambassador for the Arthritis Foundation, Tennessee Chapter’s Jingle Bell 5K Run/Walk events. He’ll appear at five different races throughout the state.

Rascal Flatts will be lending their voices and support to The Discover Tennessee Trails and Byways marketing campaign. Led by the Department of Tourist Development, the statewide initiative will include television spots and use the group’s hit “Life is a Highway.”

Currington To Macy’s Parade, Martina on Oprah

BillyCurringtonBilly Currington will perform during the 83rd annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The event in New York City will be co-hosted by Today’s Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, and Al Roker, and will air on NBC from 9:00 a.m.-noon in all time zones. Other guests include Andrea Bocelli, Boys Like Girls, Jimmy Fallon, The Roots, Gloria Gaynor, Katherine McPhee, and Carly Simon.

martinaMartina McBride made her second appearance on Oprah in two weeks yesterday (11/3). The first episode showed McBride’s performance at the State Fair of Texas and for yesterday’s installment she returned to her home state of Kansas for a show about celebrities’ first jobs. She used to serve ice cream and burgers at her hometown DQ, so Oprah’s crew took Martina back to revisit the Hutchinson, Kansas Dairy Queen which is still owned by the same couple who employed her after high school.
McBride’s Shine All Night Tour presented by SunnyD starring Trace Adkins kicks off November 20th and covers 40 cities across the U.S. through the spring of 2010.

Lifenotes: Billy Deaton [updated 11/3]

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Updated: Arrangements for Billy Deaton. Visitation will be Thursday, November 5 from 4-7 PM at Woodlawn Funeral Home. The funeral will be Friday, November 6 at 11:30 AM, also at Woodlawn Funeral Home.

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Longtime Music Row talent agent Billy Deaton died Saturday evening, Oct. 31. He was 74 and had battled a lengthy illness.

Deaton came to Nashville in 1969 to handle Faron Young’s booking and management. He established The Deaton Agency and throughout his 30 years in business, worked in various capacities with Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Mel Tillis, Bill Anderson, and Tom T. Hall.

He had a hand in writing and publishing the country hits, “Louisiana Man,” and “Wine Me Up!”

Deaton was an active member of the Nashville Association of Talent Directors. He was a former officer of the organization and received numerous awards from NATD. The Mississippi native and Air Force veteran was known around Nashville as “The Deacon.”

Visitation is planned for Thurs., Nov. 5, with funeral services to be held on Fri., Nov. 6. Details are incomplete at this time.

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Music City Walk of Fame Names New Class

dollyTootsie Bess, Charlie Daniels, Dolly Parton, Kid Rock and Ernest Tubb will join the Music City Walk of Fame. This seventh class of inductees will be recognized with the unveiling of commemorative sidewalk markers on Sun., Nov. 8, beginning at 2 p.m. in the Hall of Fame Park in downtown Nashville. The induction ceremony, which is sponsored by Great American Country (GAC), is free and open to the public.

Created in the fall of 2006, the Music City Walk of Fame, on Nashville’s Music Mile, is a landmark tribute to those from all genres who have made significant contributions to Nashville’s musical heritage as performers or members of the industry. With the induction of this new class of honorees, there will be 42 total stars along the Walk of Fame.

The Music City Walk of Fame is an official project of Music City, Inc., the charitable foundation of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau (NCVB), and is produced with the support of presenting sponsor Gibson Guitar and sponsors GAC, the City of Nashville and Metro Parks.

Bug Music Adds Emerson Hart To Roster

Emerson Hart

Emerson Hart

Bug Music has signed Emerson Hart, best known as the songwriter and frontman of multi-platinum rock group Tonic.

Under terms of the agreement, Bug Music and Hart have entered into a co-publishing deal encompassing Hart’s future recordings and his critically-acclaimed 2007 solo album Cigarettes and Gasoline.

Hart, who relocated to Nashville within the last few years, has been busy collaborating in Music City with other artists and his recently regrouped band. Tonic is recording an album to be released next spring on 429/Savoy.

Tonic has sold upwards of 4 million units, had six Top 10 singles, and several Grammy nominations. One of the band’s biggest hits was “If You Could Only See.” After a decade together, Tonic took a break and Hart released his solo album which spawned two Top 20 singles.

Bug Music’s more than 250,000 copyrights include classics such as “What a Wonderful World,” “Fever” and “Happy Together,” as well as songs from Johnny Cash, Pete Townshend, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ashley Gorley, Kings of Leon, and numerous others.

Lyric Street Shutters Carolwood Imprint

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[Press Release] Lyric Street/Carolwood Records President Randy Goodman announced today (11/3) the restructuring of that Group’s imprints, which functionally will mean the shuttering of the year-old Carolwood Records while strengthening the Lyric Street promotion staff as both John Ettinger and Chris Palmer, Carolwood Sr. Directors, will move to Lyric Street Records, augmenting that already seasoned team.

In this transition, John Ettinger has been tapped to lead the newly restructured Lyric Street Records Regional Staff as Sr. National Director, which includes long-time veterans Renee Leymon, Chris Palmer, Neda Tobin, Theresa Ford, Michelle Tyrrell, and Kris Lamb. Ettinger will report to Kevin Herring, VP of Promotion for Lyric Street Records. Carolwood Promotion Coordinator, Katie McCartney, will segue to Sales/Marketing while current Lyric Street Promotion Coordinator, Jackie Schwarz, will continue in that role for the newly structured Lyric Street regional staff.

Dale Turner, VP of Promotional Marketing, will continue in his current role, also reporting to Herring, and supported by Coordinator Landon Morgan.

Carolwood staffers, Dave Collins, Trudie Daniell, and Stephanie Keshe, will immediately leave the imprint and can be reached at the contact information below.

Current charted Carolwood artists Love and Theft, and Trent Tomlinson, will be folded into the Lyric Street stable and thus worked by the newly reorganized team but will continue to carry the Carolwood label for their current product.

Goodman concluded, “I am very optimistic that this newly organized, aggregated Team will bring new focus and energy to our entire staff and roster and thus have great expectations that they will be the catalyst for resetting us towards better serving our Artists and Radio partners while achieving our cost goals.”

The newly consolidated Lyric Street roster includes multi-platinum superstar group Rascal Flatts; Platinum selling sisters SHeDAISY; American Idol alum Bucky Covington; new group break-thru Love and Theft, Trent Tomlinson, Sarah Buxton and new and developing artists, Ruby Summer, Tyler Dickerson, Kevin Fowler and The Parks.

Contact information for former Carolwood staffers:
Dave Collins: (480) 223-8337
Trudie Daniell: (770) 843-2858
Stephanie Keshe: (615) 418-3519

Strait, Reba Set For Big Arena Tour

George Strait

George Strait

George Strait’s 2010 arena tour will feature fellow superstar Reba McEntire. The outing will kick off Jan. 22 in Baltimore, MD, and has concerts scheduled through April 10 in Des Moines, IA. Dates include nearby stops in Memphis, Knoxville, and Atlanta but not Nashville.

Strait recently released Twang, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and the Top Country Albums Chart and McEntire has recently released Keep On Loving You, her first solo studio album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart.

scaled_e1257218243The genre leaders have enormous career achievements, including McEntire’s sales of over 55 million albums worldwide, and 33 No. 1 singles. Strait boasts 57 No. 1 singles, and sales of over 67 million worldwide.

When they performed together at the Dallas Cowboy’s Stadium inaugural event in June, the show sold out in less than an hour.

Lofton Creek Debuts New Acts

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(L-R): Lofton Creek GM Mark Maynard, Adam Fisher, and Pres. Mike Borchetta

Mike Borchetta and the team at Lofton Creek Records have two new artists on the rise. The label recently signed Adam Fisher and his first single, “Cotton Town,” is impacting radio via CDX, Vol. 486. Fisher, a North Carolina native, is busy visiting radio stations. He recently signed with Pam Lewis’s publicity firm PLA Media.

gwenLofton Creek is also working new singer-songwriter Gwen Sebastian’s debut song “Hard Rain.” Written by Jason Jones and Brett Jones, the single received MusicRow’s DisCovery Award from Robert K. Oermann. Sebastian is planning to release her debut album for Lofton Creek Records in 2010.

Royalty Debate: Lock Labels And Broadcasters In A Room

CommunityRadioCartoonThe growing royalty spat between radio broadcasters and record labels continues to deepen as labels demand a performance rights royalty for themselves and artists, while radio asserts it simply is not affordable. As industry observers know, currently songwriters and publishers are the only stakeholders to get paid a performance fee by U.S. terrestrial radio.

According to arstechnica.com the latest salvo aimed at solving the dispute has come from Congress who has pushed the two parties into a “Capitol Hill conference room” where they have been instructed to hash out a solution in two weeks that will then be voted upon.

Until now, terrestrial radio has been exempted from a performance in sound copyright thanks to a long standing clause in the copyright rules. Satellite radio and webcasters, however, are mandated to pay royalties to labels and artists as are radio stations throughout most of the rest of the world.

gramophoneThe House Judiciary Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee have already approved a Performance Rights Act, which still has to be voted on in each chamber. The upcoming talks would be lead by members from the two committees who have invited representatives from the National Association of Broadcasters and the musicFIRST coalition made up of SoundExchange, RIAA and A2IM. “With your good faith participation, we are confident that an acceptable and mutually beneficial resolution to this longstanding disagreement can be found,” reads the letter aimed at bringing the sides together and sent from the leaders of both Congressional committees. The talks are scheduled to begin on Nov. 17 and reach a compromise by Dec. 1. A final solution, however, is not a foregone conclusion since the radio industry claims it has the support 252 House members and 27 Senate members who support the Local Radio Freedom Act and oppose the Performance Rights Act.

ZBB Sets Sail

The Zac Brown Band is planning their own Sailing Southern Ground Cruise for Labor Day Weekend 2010. About 2,000 fans are expected to board the Carnival Inspiration in Tampa, Fla. and cruise to Grand Cayman Sept. 2-6.

There will be almost round-the-clock music, including the main stage ticketed shows, as well as dozens of general admission shows from artists to be announced soon. Cruisers can also expect plenty of impromptu collaborations, a ZBB twist on cuisine, and plenty of partying.

The pre-sale starts Nov. 9, but fans must sign up by Nov. 4 to be eligible. All cabins left after the pre-sale will be released to the public on Nov. 17

The band even made a video to share all the details.