Jason Aldean and his team gathered last week to celebrate his latest chart-topper, “Try That In A Small Town.” The song became Aldean’s 28th No. 1 hit on the country charts, and his first chart-topper on the Billboard Hot 100 all-genre chart last summer.

Held at the Eighth Room in the old Douglas Corner spot, the party was emceed by BMI’s Clay Bradley. Bradley welcomed the crowd by sharing words about the controversial song and its impact.

“In essence, small towns mirror the camaraderie of Music Row, where familiarity breeds a sense of unity amidst the spectrum of human experiences. This song encapsulates the essence of small town life where everyone knows each other,” he said.

Bradley called Aldean and producer Michael Knox to the stage as well as the writers of “Try That In A Small Town,” Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, Kelley Lovelace and Neil Thrasher.

ASCAP’s Kele Currier was on hand to speak about affiliates Allison, Lovelace and Thrasher. Other industry members present to speak about the song and its writers were Knox, BMG’s Amy Hendon Scott, Red Street Publishing’s Jay DeMarcus, Spirit Music Group’s Frank Rogers, BBR Music Group’s Lee Adams and Studio Bank’s Ron Cox.

The common sentiment between speakers was respect for Aldean, the songwriters and his camp for their steadfast commitment to the song and its message, despite the backlash it received. When it came time for the songwriters to speak, they echoed that sentiment, and thanked their teams for their support.

“I’m incredibly thankful to you, Jason, for recording this song,” Lovelace shared. “This is the biggest song I’ve ever been a part of in my entire life. I’m thankful.”

Thrasher said, “I want to thank [my co-writers] because 99.9 percent of the writers in this town never would have even attempted to write that title or take it where we took it.” He added, “I’m supposed to be retired right now. We had to write this song and now I’m working harder than I ever have.”

“I do want to say how important it is to have an artist like Jason in this format,” Kennedy said. “He will go up there and stand by his beliefs. If you’re afraid to do that, then we’ve lost the art part. Thank you so much, Jason, for giving this song a voice when it wasn’t easy and not everybody was believing… It means a lot that Jason would put it out and stand by what he says. We should all be very thankful about that.”

Allison agreed. “Tully brought this up in an interview earlier. We kind of felt like Jason wrote the song with us because he owned it like it was his. When all this heat was happening, he didn’t deflect [onto us songwriters],” he said. “We should be thankful that we have an artist like that who believes.”

When Aldean spoke, he thanked his entire team and spoke about his intentions with “Try That In A Small Town.”

“I love every time we get to celebrate a No. 1, but this one is especially special to all of us,” he said. “[I’m thankful to] radio for playing this thing when everybody was trying to turn it into this crazy story. We stand by the song and what we were trying to say in the song and the video. Those things are subjective. You’re always going to have people who see different things in the song and the video than what was meant by us.

“We took a lot of heat for this song but I would do it 100 times over again because I think this song said something that needed to be said,” he summed.

Aldean thanked BBR, Knox, the songwriters and his entire team for their work in making “Try That In A Small Town” a hit.

Hill Entertainment Group has added Machaela Nesler-Scibilia as Analytics & Digital Coordinator and Gipson Clark as Touring & Operations Coordinator to its growing team. Both will report to President & CEO Greg Hill.

Prior to joining the management firm, Nesler-Scibilia graduated from Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in 2020 with a concentration in commercial songwriting while touring full-time as a singer, fiddler and guitarist in a Nashville-based bluegrass/Americana band. Upon receiving her degree, she served as as Inventory Manager at Carter Vintage Guitars. In her newly created role, Nesler-Scibilia will help navigate all social media and streaming platforms for Hill Entertainment Group clients such as Rodney Atkins, Mark Wills and Tiera Kennedy.

Clark previously worked in Washington D.C. as a Director of Operations for the United States Senate. Since entering the music industry, he has utilized the tools he gained supporting high-profile individuals in the U.S. government to help run touring operations for Atkins. In his newly created position, Clark will continue to oversee day-to-day operations for Atkins while helping to direct the touring logistics of other clients including Wills, Kennedy, Emily Earle and Kyle Daniel.

“We are focused on building an extraordinary team to best serve our clients,” says Hill. “We are hiring passionate people with a love for music and a great knowledge of management. Machaela and Gipson come from diverse professional backgrounds and their varied experience is important in our evolving business.”

Exile will be featured in in two new productions—Exile: 60 Years of Music and Exile: Live in Concert by KET (The Kentucky Network)—in March. The projects commemorate the award-winning band’s 60th anniversary as performers and songwriters.

Premiering March 2 at 5:30 p.m. CT on KET, Exile: 60 Years of Music chronicles the band’s rock ‘n’ roll roots in Richmond, Kentucky to their 1978 pop hit “Kiss You All Over” that topped the Billboard charts, to their reinvention as a hit-making country band. Through rare photos and home movies filmed over 50 years ago, and rarely seen archival musical footage, this documentary chronicles 60 years on the road with a true Kentucky original.

Exile: Live in Concert, scheduled for March 5 at 7 p.m. CT, was recorded at the historic Renfro Valley Entertainment Center in Mt. Vernon, Kentucky, and celebrates the band’s 60th anniversary. The one-hour film captures the band in classic form, sporting all five of its central members, including J.P. Pennington, Les Taylor, Sonny Lemaire, Marlon Hargis and Steve Goetzman. The performance, recorded Nov. 4, 2023, features many of their biggest hits, including “Kiss You All Over,” “Keep It in the Middle of the Road,” “She’s a Miracle,” “It’ll Be Me,” “Give Me One More Chance” and more.

“We’re excited to have our journey documented by KET,” says Exile. “We’re in hopes that our fans, old and and new, enjoy seeing it as much as we did making it.”

“I wanted viewers of this film to know the full story, which traces the band’s history back to 1963,” says KET Producer Thomas Thurman. “I feature some of their earliest recordings, like ‘It’s Alligator Time’ and ‘A Game Called Hurt,’ from 1966. The timing of making this documentary was perfect for me as the director. It coincided with the release of their new album A Million Miles Later, so it allowed me to portray just how relevant and powerful this band remains. So many people know the song ‘Kiss You All Over’ and the band’s massive success in country music. But the band is so much more than that. That’s what I try to present to viewers. A documentary about Exile wouldn’t be fair or accurate without emphasizing the importance of their original lead singer Jimmy Stokley, who died in 1985. In many ways, he’s at the heart of this story I tell,”

Earlier this year, Exile announced the release of A Million Miles Later, the group’s first album of original music in over 30 years.