MCN Presents Concert Series & Sweepstakes

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mcn-smallMusicCityNetworks (MCN) will present the 2009 MCN Fan Club Concert Series June 10-13 at Nashville’s Rocketown. The annual concert series features performances from some of country music’s biggest performers, connecting fans with their favorite artists and with their fellow fans. This year’s line-up includes Bucky Covington, Emerson Drive, Montgomery Gentry, Josh Turner, Lady Antebellum, Sara Evans, and a special 2-for-1 with Tracy Byrd and Tracy Lawrence performing at the same event. Tickets are now available on the artists’ websites and include a catered meal, a lottery ticket for exclusive memorabilia, and a photo opportunity with the artist.

Through a special sweepstakes, MCN is also offering a chance for an all-access trip to Nashville. One winner and their guest will get to experience Nashville V.I.P. style during CMA Festival week, including all seven MCN events plus the Country Weekly Fashion Show. Sponsored by MCN, YallWire and Country Weekly, the sweepstakes ends May 1. The winner and a guest will receive round-trip airfare to Nashville, accommodations for five nights, two tickets to all seven concerts in the MCN Fan Club Concert Series, a meet-and-greet with every Fan Club Concert Series artist and two tickets to the Country Weekly Fashion Show. To enter, click here.

CMA To Unveil Research

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cmaThe Country Music Association will unveil key findings from its 2008 Country Music Consumer Segmentation Study during a free Town Hall meeting Tuesday, April 28 from 2:00-4:00 PM/CT in the Boone Crockett Room at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Nashville. The meeting is free and open to CMA members and their invited guests. The research project was the largest and most comprehensive look at the country music consumer in the CMA’s 50-year history. The Town Hall meeting will also include an opportunity to discuss “next steps” and ways to incorporate the findings into constituents’ individual business plans. The study offers information on media consumption including country record sales, radio and touring, as well as media usage and consumer analysis culled from a phase one sample of 7,000 individuals; a second sample of 1,850; and 10 focus groups from three regions of the country. In addition, findings from a followup study to determine the impact of the current economic crisis on the country consumer will be presented. The meeting will also include the introduction of an algorithm that CMA members can apply to their own consumer databases. The algorithm is a set of 14 screening questions that will enable the user to replicate the segmentation study in their own research vehicles to identify core and potential country consumers with a minimum of 75 percent accuracy, enabling members to use their marketing dollars effectively and efficiently.

“Giving our members the tools necessary to analyze the enormous amount of data we collected and make it applicable to their day-to-day operation is the logical next step,” said CMA Chief Executive Officer Tammy Genovese. “From booking agents to artist managers to record labels, there is something for everyone who relies on the country music consumer in this study.”

Seats to the free Town Hall meeting are limited and are available to CMA individual and organizational members only. Attendees may also bring a limited number of guests to the event based on the level of their CMA membership. CMA members who would like to attend must register online, and they can do so here.

Songwriter Paul Williams Elected ASCAP President

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paulSongwriter Paul Williams, whose long list of hits includes classic songs like “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Just An Old Fashioned Love Song” and “Rainy Days and Mondays,” was elected President and Chairman of the Board of ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) today (4/16) by the ASCAP Board of Directors at its meeting in Nashville. Williams’ election follows songwriter Marilyn Bergman’s decision to step down from the ASCAP Presidency effective today, although she will continue as an active Board Member). Songwriter Jimmy Webb has been elected writer Vice Chairman to replace Williams, who held that post for the prior two years. On the publisher side, the re-elected officers are: Irwin Robinson of Paramount Allegra Music as Vice Chairman; Kathy Spanberger of peermusic as Secretary; and James M. Kendrick of Schott Music Corporation/European American Music Corporation as Treasurer.

“It’s a great honor and privilege to be elected President and Chairman of the Board of ASCAP,” Williams said. “On behalf of my fellow Board members, I would like to thank Marilyn for her extraordinarily productive work and the dedication she has shown over the last fifteen years.”

Mac McAnally

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“You First”

Show Dog Nashville

mac-playlist-42009Mac McAnally has worn many hats in his storied career—producer, vocalist, guitarist, chart-topping songwriter, member of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer band—and his recording artist cap recently earned a nice feather in “Down The Road,” his No. 1 duet with Kenny Chesney. Now, McAnally and his new label Show Dog Nashville look to build on that success with the release of “You First,” which impacts radio April 27.

A poignant series of vignettes about brotherly love, “You First,” is the first release from McAnally’s upcoming Show Dog debut album.

The single follows the successful of “Down The Road,” a song penned by McAnally and recorded by Kenny Chesney, who invited the Mac to sing on the track with him. It was McAnally’s sixth No. 1 as a writer and first as a recording artist, which led to an ACM Vocal Event of the Year nod.

Significant as those milestones are, however, they only tell part of McAnally’s accomplishments. From his days as a Muscle Shoals session musician, Mac has given musical support to artists including Roy Orbison, Hank Williams, Jr., Amy Grant, Jimmy Buffett, Travis Tritt, Linda Ronstadt, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dolly Parton and many more. He’s a longstanding member of Buffett’s Coral Reefer band, and his production credits include Ricky Skaggs, Sawyer Brown, Chris LeDoux and Little Feat.

Mac was named 2008 Musician of the Year by the Country Music Association, the same year he was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. He is also a 2007 inductee to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. McAnally signed his first record deal at the age of 16 and was the first artist signed to the legendary Geffen Records.

http://www.macmcanally.com/

Robert Johnson Blues Foundation Names New Generation Award Winner

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rjThe Robert Johnson Blues Foundation has announced that Zakk Knight of Indianapolis, Indiana has been named winner of the 2009 New Generation Award Contest. Knight will receive a Gibson “Robert Johnson” edition guitar, a Robert Johnson harmonica, a certificate signed by Claud Johnson (son and heir of Robert Johnson) and an invitation to perform at the Robert Johnson Birthday Blast on May 9. The Birthday Party — the only event sanctioned by and benefiting the Robert Johnson Foundation — is a spring festival held annually at Chataugua Park in Crystal Springs, MS. This year’s show will run from 2 – 7 PM and is free and open to the public. The festival will feature several nationally recognized artists including Stevie J Blues Eruption, Mo Thomas, the Straitway Ministries Choir and other special guests. Also featured will be a special legacy tribute to Robert Johnson featuring his grandson Seven, along with the 2008 New Generation winner, Gabriel Lambrith. Knight’s winning entry can be viewed here. For more information about the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation, the Spring Festival, Generation Award visit www.robertjohnsonbluesfoundation.org.

Leadership Music Names Dale Franklin Award Winners

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totally-tiny-garthThe Board of Directors of Leadership Music has announced that Garth Brooks, Jim Foglesong and Allen Reynolds have been selected as the 2009 recipients of the Leadership Music Dale Franklin Award. The three prominent country music figures, whose careers intertwined when Brooks signed to Capitol Records with Foglesong at the helm, and Reynolds produced his groundbreaking imagesalbums, will be honored at a gala tribute banquet on Sunday, August 23, at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Nashville. The Dale Franklin Leadership Award, named for the first Executive Director of Leadership Music, was created in 2004 “to recognize music industry leaders who exemplify the highest quality of leadership and leading by example.” Brooks, Foglesong and Reynolds join previous Dale reynolds1Franklin Award winners Tony Brown (2004), Gerry House (2005), Emmylou Harris (2006), Frances W. Preston (2007), and The Bradley Family; Owen (posthumously), Harold, Jerry, Connie and Patsy (2008).

CMT Nom for Newfield’s “Johnny and June”

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bio1It’s not often that a country singer manages to step up to solo stardom after becoming closely identified with a successful group. Wynonna’s post-Judds career comes to mind. And now there’s Heidi Newfield. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the former Trick Pony singer turned to producer Tony Brown, who oversaw Wynonna’s debut, when it came time to make her own solo statement. Whatever the reason, “Johnny and June,” the leadoff single from her first solo effort, What Am I Waiting For, hit the Top 10, putting the singer in some rare company.  Along with Miranda Lambert, Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, Newfield is one of only four solo women in country to have had a Top 10 single in 2008.  She’s also the first female to score a Top 10 hit with her debut single since Swift’s “Tim McGraw.” And with her sophomore single, the title song from What Am I Waiting For, picking up steam, it looks like Newfield is decidedly not just another one trick pony. She’s recently been covered in Billboard, Blender, Country Weekly, First for Women, The New York Times, People, and USA Today. In addition, the singer has been featured on CNN, CNN.com, Gannett News Wire, Associated Press, “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” CBS TV, EW.com, TV Guide.com and more. Following are some of Newfield’s upcoming tour dates:

April 17 – Port Huron, MI
April 18 – Grand Rapids, MI
April 24 – Kennesaw, GA
April 25 – Clewiston, FL
May 1 – Nashville, TV
May 22 – Miami, OK
May 24 – Roanoke, VA
May 25 – Cincinnati, OH
June 6 – Enterprise, AL
June 12 – Chicago, IL
June 13 – Winstock, MN
June 19 – Marinette, WI
June 26 – Oshkosh, WI
June 28 – Grand Junction, CO

IFCO’s Loretta Johnson Passes; Visitation Set

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Loretta Johnson died Monday, April 13, following a long battle with multiple myloma. She was 67 years old. With sisters Loudilla and Kay, Johnson was the co-founder of the International Fan Club Organization (IFCO). Begun in 1967, IFCO’s annual concert and get-together was the precursor of Fan Fair (now known as the CMA Music Festival). The IFCO show proceeds are always given to charities. The organization also gives out the annual Tex Ritter Award to deserving music-industry figures. The sisters created the original Loretta Lynn Fan Club, being attracted to the star because of the two Lorettas sharing the same first name. It became a model for country-music fan organizations, which led to the formation of IFCO. In recent years, the sisters have particularly concentrated on up-and-coming country artists.

Visitation for Loretta Johnson will take place Monday, April 20, from 9:00 a.m. to noon at the Clark Funeral Service in Beaver, Oklahoma. The funeral service will be at the town’s Baptist Church at 2:00 p.m. with burial to follow at Mountain View Cemetery in Elmwood, Oklahoma. In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions to The Loretta Johnson Medical Fund Contribution Account, Bank of America, 133 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37027 OR mailed to IFCO – Loretta Johnson Medical Fund, P.O. Box 40328, Nashville, TN 37204.

Because of Loretta’s illness, the sisters have not been able to plan an IFCO concert for this year’s CMA Music Festival. Promoter Rod Harris has announced instead a show billed as, “For the Love of IFCO, a benefit for Loretta Johnson.”  It will take place on June 9 at The Nashville Palace.

Public TV Show Spotlights Songwriters

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legendslyricsLegends & Lyrics, a new Public Television show spotlighting high-profile artist/songwriters alongside some of the not so well known songwriters behind the hits, will air weekly through the months of April and May. In each episode, artists including Kris Kristofferson, Kenny Loggins, Charlie Daniels, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, John Hiatt, 3 Doors Down, Kip Winger and others perform “in-the-round,” sharing their most memorable songs and the inspiration behind them. A “Rising Star” segment will feature artists and writers including The Laws, Stephanie Chapman, Corinne Chapman, Jonathan Singleton, Nathan Lee, Mike Musick, Will Hoge and more. Legends & Lyrics blends live performances from intimate halls, with season one shot in Shreveport, Louisiana’s Scottish Rite Theatre and in Nashville at the historic Masonic Lodge. Also woven into each episode are one-on-one conversations with legendary artists such as Garth Brooks, Loretta Lynn, Ray Stevens, Steve Cropper and others who have left an indelible mark on the music industry. Check local listings for air dates and times. For more information visit legendsandlyrics.com.

Steve Buckingham Exits Welk Music Group

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steve-buckingham-05Steve Buckingham, Senior Vice President of A & R for Vanguard Records and The Welk Music Group, is leaving the company after eleven years. With Buckingham’s departure, Vanguard Records will shift A&R responsibilities for the label to the company’s Santa Monica Headquarters. While at Vanguard and sister label Sugar Hill, Buckingham signed, and in some cases produced, artists including Levon Helm, Dolly Parton, John Hiatt, Mindy Smith, Linda Ronstadt, Joan Osborne, Shawn Mullins and George Jones’ imprint, Bandit Records. Before moving to Vanguard/Welk Music, Buckingham was VP of A & R and a producer for Columbia Records/Sony Music for ten years.

“Those of us who have been in the music business for many years know that when ‘someone is exiting a label to pursue other opportunities,’ it usually has other meanings,” Buckingham said. “The simple truth is that my position was eliminated. Despite this outcome, I am grateful to Larry and Kevin Welk for the opportunities they gave to me.”

Buckingham can be reached by email at DanEdog@AOL.com