Urban’s Defying Gravity Rises to the Top

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keithWith first week sales being projected to total somewhere in the lofty neighborhood of 150,000, Keith Urban’s Defying Gravity does indeed seem to have wings. The album appears likely to top the country charts its first week out and if predictions based upon first day sales from chart watchers at Billboard and Hits magazines pan out, Urban has a good shot at topping Billboard’s Top 200 chart in the coming week as well. Challenging Urban will be Prince who is also projected to have a strong chance at the No. 1 spot.

While Urban hit No. 3 with both 2004’s Be Here and with Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing in 2006, this would be his first time atop the Top 200. Artists whose new releases are being projected to join Urban and Prince in the upper reaches of the charts include UGK, Flo Rida and Diana Krall. Hovering just below these likely Top 10s is Curb’s Rodney Atkins, whose new album, It’s America, is projected to total a respectable 35-40,000 in first week sales.

The momentum promises to continue with next week’s (4/7) offerings from Emerson Drive, Jason Aldean and Rascal Flatts.

Duane Jarvis Passes

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duane1Singer/songwriter/guitarist Duane Jarvis, known to music fans as a sideman for artists like Lucinda Williams and John Prine, as well as for his own critically acclaimed album releases, died of colon cancer this morning in his Los Angeles apartment. He was 51. Jarvis, who was a well-known and much-loved figure on the Nashville music scene for many years, recorded five solo albums, and lived in Nashville until recently. During the ‘80s, he was a key player in the vibrant LA country scene that also included artists like Dwight Yoakam, Williams, Buddy Miller, Rosie Flores, The Blasters and Jim Lauderdale. He released his first solo album, Front Porch, in 1994, the same year he moved to Nashville. Jarvis played guitar on recordings by Flores, Williams, Prine, Yoakam, Frank Black, Amy Rigby, Giant Sand, Peter Case and many others. He toured with artists including Prine, Black and The Divinyls, and his songs were featured in movies including The Horse Whisperer and The Rookie. In 2007, Jarvis, a native Oregonian,  was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame.

Aaron Tippin Keeps On Truckin’ With CB Contest

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trucker_logos_316_252Blue collar country singer Aaron Tippin has announced an innovative contest that promotes and expands on the trucking theme of his latest release, In Overdrive. In conjunction with mobile communications equipment merchandiser Barjan, CB Radio manufacturer Cobra, and Petro Truck Stops, Tippin has created a contest that recalls the days when CB radio was king. On Friday, April 17 at 7:30 PM/CT at the Petro truck stop in Kingston Springs, Tenn., Tippin will launch the Cobra Coast to Coast Contest with Aaron Tippin. He’ll send out a secret code to truckers to see how long it takes to send the message from coast to coast via CB radio. The first trucker to arrive and announce the secret pass code will receive the prize package which will include a Cobra CB Radio, a Cobra bluetooth wireless headset, and a special Aaron Tippin gift bag that includes CD, concert backstage passes, tee shirts, ball caps and more.

Music City Tennis Invitational Set to Serve

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mainThe Music City Tennis Invitational committee announced today (4/1), that the annual charity tennis tournament will be held on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26 at Vanderbilt University’s Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Tennis Center. Arista artist Brad Paisley will serve as this year’s celebrity spokesperson for the tournament, with Fox 17 Tennessee Mornings co-host Kelly Sutton serving as celebrity host. The Music City Tennis Invitational is the only fundraiser that directly benefits the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Over the past 35 years, the fundraiser has raised over $1 million in charitable contributions. The Music City Tennis Invitational is the longest-running music-related charity tennis tournament in the country and was named the 2008 USTA Tennessee Charity Event of the Year.

Shawna Russell

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“Fire In The Desert”

Way Out West Records

srussell-playlist40609“A scorcher”
—Chris Neal, Country Weekly

Shawna Russell has released her new Way Out West Records single “Fire In The Desert” to country radio. The follow-up release to her hit single and video, “Should’ve Been Born With Wheels,” “Fire In The Desert” is a hot summertime rocker delivered with power and passion by Russell, who wrote the song with her father/guitarist, Keith, and uncle/producer, Tim.

The track features an all-star line up of musicians including famed L.A. session drummer Russ Kunkel (Lyle Lovett/James Taylor/Stevie Nicks) and bassist David Santos (John Fogerty/Elton John). Russell’s vocals were engineered by Grammy award-winning Julian King (Tim McGraw/Faith Hill), and the track was mixed by Emmy and Grammy recipient Nathaniel Kunkel (The Police/Diana Ross).

“Fire In The Desert” is from Russell’s critically-acclaimed debut CD Goddess which has received rave reviews from the CMA Close Up, Country Weekly, The Oklahoman, and was singled out for a DISCovery Award by esteemed Music Row critic, Robert K. Oermann.

Russell currently maintains a busy live performance schedule, and she and her band are gearing up for a full slate of summer concerts – including appearances at the Country Fever festival in Pryor, Oklahoma and the Expert Mobile Extreme Country Fever in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada.

www.ShawnaRussell.com
www.MySpace.com/shawnarussell878

Steve Martin to Make Opry Debut

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stevemartinEmmy-winning actor/comedian/writer Steve Martin will make his Grand Ole Opry debut May 30 with a performance from his first music album, The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo. Martin’s longtime friend John McEuen, who produced the album, will appear on the show along with Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Stuart Duncan, Tim OBrien, and more. The artists will be performing select songs from The Crow, and Martin will sing his song “Late for School.” The Crow is currently available exclusively through Amazon.com and will be available at all music retailers later this year. “When Steve picks, fans will see how much it means to him to bring his music to the heart of country music,” McEuen said. “The audience will find out he’s a musician disguised as an actor.”

NY Times Profiles John Rich

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jrTuesday’s New York Times (3/31), includes a feature on Warner Bros. artist John Rich. In an article titled “Protest From the Right Side of Country,” Times writer Jon Caramanica interviews the singer about his latest single, “Shuttin’ Detroit Down,” describing the song as “shockingly topical” and indicative of Rich’s “acumen in gauging and channeling the mood of the country, aggressively striking a note of conservative populism rarely seen in any genre of pop since country music’s response to Sept. 11.” “It’s a particularly good time to be a conservative agitator,” Caramanica wrote, “and Mr. Rich is seizing the moment.” You can read the entire article here.

Hall of Fame Spotlights Kitty Wells

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kitty-wells-logo-horizontalThe Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will present a panel discussion featuring country music’s first female superstar, Hall of Fame member Kitty Wells. The program, scheduled for Saturday, April 25 at 1:30 PM, is titled Finding Her Voice: Kitty Wells and Her Country Sisters. Taking part in the panel will be singer/songwriters Carlene Carter, Karen Staley and Chely Wright, along with moderators Mary Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann, authors of Finding Her Voice:  Women in Country Music, 1800-2000. The program will be illustrated with photos and audio selections from the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive. When the program concludes, Bufwack and Oermann will sign copies of their book in the Museum Store. Finding Her Voice is being presented in conjunction with the Museum’s exhibition Kitty Wells:  Queen of Country Music, Presented by Great American Country Television Network, which runs through June 14.

ACM Names Video and Vocal Event Winners

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81043f86-3048-8909-cce4c7b001ed8f4c_200With the awards show still a few days away, RCA’s Brad Paisley is already a double-ACM Award winner—Video of the Year and Vocal Event of the Year.

His “Waitin’ On A Woman” clip, which co-starred TV icon Andy Griffith, is the 2009 winner of Video of the Year, and “Start A Band,” his guitar-slinging duet with Capitol’s Keith Urban takes home the ACM Award for Vocal Event of the Year. The ACM Awards will be broadcast live from MGM Grand in Las Vegas this Sunday (4/5) at 8:00 PM/CT on CBS.

Ringbacks Up, Downloads Down Among Consumers

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npdTwo research studies released today (3/31), reveal some interesting trends in how consumers are interacting with music. A study conducted by Port Washington, New York-based market researchers the NPD Group finds that U.S. teens are listening to more music in more formats, but buying and sharing significantly less music. According to NPD, teens acquired 19 percent less music in 2008 than in 2007. CD purchasing fell 26 percent among teens, while paid digital downloads fell 13 percent. 32 percent of teens expressed discontent with the music that was available, while 24 percent of teens cited cutbacks in entertainment spending as another reason for the downturn in downloads. The number of tracks downloaded from peer-to-peer networks fell six percent, while the number of teens “borrowing” music, either to rip to a computer or burn to a CD, fell by 28 percent. NPD’s surveys also noted big jumps in teens’ usage of online listening sources and satellite radio in 2008.

“With popular music sites like Pandora, imeem, and MySpaceMusic complementing offerings by terrestrial and satellite radio, more teens may be feeling less compelled to buy music or share it with others,” said Russ Crupnick, Entertainment Industry Analyst NPD. “These declines could be happening due to a lack of excitement among teens about the music available, but it could also reflect a larger shift in the ways teens interact with music.”

bmiBut hold the phone. According to annual mobile music projections for the coming year from BMI, teens and other consumers do like to interact with music through ringback tones. BMI is predicting that ringback tones (those customized songs you hear when you call your mobile subscriber friend) will surpass $235 million in U.S. retail sales during 2009. That’s a 15 percent increase over BMI’s 2008 estimate and a 68 percent increase over 2007. BMI estimates that more than 10 million U.S. subscribers are signed up for ringback-tone services with their wireless carriers. Ringback tones are sold by all major carriers, with the vast majority of tones selling at $1.99. The fee allows the subscriber to use the tone for anywhere from 90 days to 12 months.

“We predict that ringback tones will hit a new high in 2009,” said Richard Conlon, Vice President, New Media & Strategic Development for BMI. “Mobile phones are a multi-format device and have become a distribution outlet for entertainment content for the consumer. It is a music use area that we see a continuing growth rate for.”