Keith Levy
The “My Music Row Story” weekly column features notable members of the Nashville music industry selected by the MusicRow editorial team. These individuals serve in key roles that help advance and promote the success of our industry. This column spotlights the invaluable people that keep the wheels rolling and the music playing.
At Wasserman Music, Nashville-based agent Keith Levy has developed a distinguished roster that includes Tyler Childers, Caamp, Shakey Graves, Bob Weir, Blackberry Smoke, Sierra Ferrell, Nikki Lane, Natalie Hemby, Langhorne Slim, The Milk Carton Kids and Madi Diaz, among others. Levy has helped Childers and Caamp grow into festival headliners in a few short years, and has worked with Shakey Graves for more than a decade, building him into a perennial strong ticket seller who spans genres and audiences.
A Vanderbilt graduate, Levy previously worked at C3 Presents, the Nancy Fly Agency and New Frontier Touring before joining Paradigm Talent Agency in 2015; he remained with the company through Wasserman’s acquisition of Paradigm’s music division in 2021. A musician in his own right who booked his high school band into Baltimore’s Recher Theater as a teenager, Levy was named to MusicRow’s Next Big Thing Class of 2022 and Leadership Music’s Class of 2024.
MusicRow: Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland.
Were you musical?
Yep, my whole life. I’ve been playing the drums since I could walk and then guitar at 12 or 13.
I started playing in bands and writing songs and all that kind of stuff. There’s always the person in the band who seems to book the shows or do the business stuff, and that was me. At age 14, my dad would drive me to local venues around Baltimore—like The Recher Theatre in Towson—and I’d go talk to the booker and they would give me hard tickets to sell at school or wherever I could sell them. You had to come back with a certain amount of money to be able to get [a gig]. So I’ve been doing that since I was 14 years old.
Photo: Courtesy of Levy
Where did you go to college? What did you study?
I went to Vanderbilt. I had visited a few schools and was very attracted to Vandy in Nashville because of how much music there was. It was Rites of Spring weekend—I’m sure it wasn’t a coincidence that it was also visiting weekend for prospective students. I saw Derek Trucks‘ band and a band called Bang Bang Bang who became American Bang and are now The Cadillac Three.
I came down here without a plan of what to study beyond liberal arts in general. At Vanderbilt, you can design your own major if they don’t have an existing one. They didn’t have a music business major, so I designed a music management and communications curriculum with the help of the Deans. I minored in Spanish. I spent a summer living in Madrid with a Spanish family.
How did you start your career?
I started interning when I was a junior for an alumnus who had his own record label called Severe Records. I did that for a semester, and it was like a crash course in everything not to do.
It’s funny looking back, because I remember this very vividly. He would say to me, “You should work at an agency, not at a record label.” It sort of piqued my interest. I was taking this business of music class [at the time] taught by Jim Foglesong. Every week he would bring in either a manager, a publicist, a publisher, a songwriter or an agent, so we learned what these people did. It clicked for me that these people have jobs and fairly regular lives, families and stuff, and they get paid to do this.
I always thought the idea of having your own roster was really cool—and I realized an agent has his own roster. I started paying attention then. I was also playing in bands the whole time I was in college—I had a cover band called Shotgun Sally made up of mostly fraternity brothers of mine. We would play at the fraternities, but then we would go downtown and look for bars that were empty. We would go in there [and ask the manager], “Can we play two Thursdays from now? We’ll bring 300 people.” Eventually one of the bars agreed—it was called Jesse Zane’s. We would put a pledge at the door, charge five bucks a head and we’d make like $3,000 on a Thursday night. So that was when this went from hobby to [realizing] there’s a real business here.
I went to South by Southwest during spring break of my senior year. I just thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I saw a hundred bands and acts I’d never heard of. That was one of those light bulb moments where I realized, “Wow, there’s all these people doing this in all these different capacities. I need to get into this.” So I moved to Austin when I graduated. It was almost like a gravitational pull.
Photo: Emma Delevante
What did you do in Austin?
I kept playing music and I was in a band down there. That was my entry point into meeting promoters at clubs. At age 21 or 22, I was cutting deals to play these shows—$500 versus the door or a hundred percent of the door. I didn’t know there was a language for that, I just kind of did it.
I started bartending at a Mexican restaurant and was playing with the guys I had moved down there with. It took me three or four months, but I got an internship at C3 Presents. I did that for like a year and a half. That was unpaid, so I kept bartending and playing shows. They eventually would pay me as a contractor to work some of their festivals and events. I was a runner at [festivals like] ACL or Lollapalooza. I would run catering in a golf cart. That became a real entry point into making some relationships that I still have today.
I was still trying to get into the agency side of things. Huston Powell, who’s the Lollapalooza booker, I would walk into his office, sit on his couch and read him names of agents. I’d be like, “What do you think about this person? Can you make a phone call? Can you get me an interview?” He would do it. He pointed me in the direction of like 10 people in Austin who had real businesses. And one of them eventually called me back. Her name was Nancy Fly. She had a small agency that she ran out of her garage. She had about 15 artists, and she offered me a job one day.
She wanted me to come in and do marketing stuff for her acts. We went out to dinner and sat there for a couple hours. By the end of it she was like, “Why don’t you just come be an agent? Talk to these friends of yours that are in bands and see if they’ll let you be their agent and book all their shows?” So that’s what I did.
What was that chapter like?
I signed a band called Uncle Lucius. I ended up working with them for six years. I was their first agent and I was their manager for three or four of those years. I would go to the office every day and I would log into Pollstar or Celebrity Access and just try to learn as much as I could about who’s who, who books what, who the promoters are and what’s a venue in Boise, Idaho to get from Utah to Seattle. Very elementary stuff. I worked for her for a year and a half. Eventually, I went to Nancy and said, “Can you help me find a job at at a bigger agency?”
She made some phone calls and she helped me get a couple interviews, the first of which was with Paul Lohr who owns New Frontier Touring in Nashville. So I interviewed with Paul, I interviewed with Steve Levine at ICM in Los Angeles and then Huston from C3 helped me get a couple other interviews—one at WME in L.A. I got offered a job in the mail room at WME in L.A. or to come back to Nashville and book a territory for Paul Lohr at New Frontier—so that’s the job that I took.
What was coming back to Nashville like?
It was the very beginning of 2011. Paul books a band called The Avett Brothers and they were starting to go into arenas and amphitheaters, and getting very busy. He was very focused on that, so he had divided the rest of his roster into territories. He had me and three other younger guys like me that were booking the rest of the roster in territories.
So [we were booking] the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Darrell Scott and Paul Thorn. Paul let me bring Uncle Lucius and he was very supportive in us signing acts. There weren’t really a whole lot of rules as long as you showed up in the morning when he wanted you to and got your work done. I did at least one of those things.
I was 25-years-old and I was an agent with a territory. We had a lot of freedom, so it was really fun. It was a learn it by doing it atmosphere. The fifth or sixth act I signed when I was there was Shakey Graves, who I’ve booked for over 10 years now. Paul was great because he let us fail on our own, and subversively, he let us succeed on our own. That’s kind of what happened with Shakey. That’s an artist that I had seen when I was living in Austin that I kept in touch with. It took a few more years, but I was watching closely and paying attention, and eventually we decided to work together. Here we are today 10 years later, and that’s been a very fruitful, successful relationship.
By 2013, I had signed some other artists like Willie Watson and the Band of Heathens. I had an artist named Cody Chesnutt who had success in a previous life with a song called “The Seed.” I started trying to pick my head up and figure out what was happening around me. That led me to some other conversations with other agencies and agents, primarily with Jonathan Levine.
Photo: Courtesy of Levy
What happened next?
Jonathan and I had met before, but in the summer of 2014, we met up at Newport Folk Festival. We had a beer and we talked for like an hour. I knew who Jonathan was because one of my all time favorite bands is The Black Crowes, and he was the agent at the time. Beyond that, I was raised on the Grateful Dead. Jonathan was the agent for Bob Weir and Phil Lesh—he’s still their agent and I get to work on Bob with him now, which is very much a dream come true.
At that time in Nashville, there were not a lot of agents or agencies that were doing non-country stuff, so I was paying attention to what Jonathan was doing. He had signed Sturgill Simpson around that time. That led to other conversations and lunches and eventually a job offer. I went to work at Paradigm—which is now Wasserman—in 2015.
When did you pick up Tyler Childers?
February of 2017. I had been at Paradigm for a couple years at that point. I had brought Shakey with me and eventually Willie Watson. I signed a couple acts. I had been a fan of Tyler’s. I was introduced to him through some friends of mine from college, one of whom is from Kentucky and he would play him around the house all the time. I just became a fan. I brought a video of Tyler into a meeting one day Paradigm.
Everybody reacted positively, but Jonathan pulled me aside after that meeting and was like, “Hey, we need to keep our eye on this. Sturgill is a fan of his and wants to be more active in producing records. Let’s keep our eye on this.”
This went on for six or eight months. Tyler and his manager, Ian Thornton, would make quarterly Nashville trips. I would help him get shows—I got him a slot on AmericanaFest before we were working together. We just got to know each other. We met in my office, the three of us, and we talked about the future and their goals.
Eventually he made Purgatory. I heard the record and thought it was really good. Jonathan was getting all this info from the Sturgill side as it was happening. We spoke to each other at the beginning of 2017 and said, “Let’s do this.” So that’s what we did.
And boy, has it taken off.
Yeah! That was seven years ago, so it didn’t happen overnight. It did happen quickly, relatively, but we didn’t skip steps and we built a real foundation for Tyler. There was a pandemic in the middle there, which certainly delayed things, but at the same time, the way streaming consumption started happening in bigger numbers during the pandemic, it accelerated a lot of things too. We just announced an arena tour with 12 arenas that all sold out in 30 minutes or less. That’s two nights at Madison Square Garden and two nights at Bridgestone and The Forum. It’s an awesome place to be.
What is the most fulfilling part about what you get to do?
The most fulfilling part is going to the show. That doesn’t matter if it’s at the Echo or the Forum, at Mercury Lounge or Madison Square Garden. It always feels good when the artist is in a position to win. The nature of my job is asking: What’s the venue? What’s the ticket price? What city are we playing in? These are the things we can control. When we get it right and the show sells out and it’s the right venue at the right time, you put the artist in a position to win and thrive. Being there in that moment is super rewarding.
My Music Row Story: Wasserman Music’s Keith Levy
/by LB CantrellKeith Levy
At Wasserman Music, Nashville-based agent Keith Levy has developed a distinguished roster that includes Tyler Childers, Caamp, Shakey Graves, Bob Weir, Blackberry Smoke, Sierra Ferrell, Nikki Lane, Natalie Hemby, Langhorne Slim, The Milk Carton Kids and Madi Diaz, among others. Levy has helped Childers and Caamp grow into festival headliners in a few short years, and has worked with Shakey Graves for more than a decade, building him into a perennial strong ticket seller who spans genres and audiences.
A Vanderbilt graduate, Levy previously worked at C3 Presents, the Nancy Fly Agency and New Frontier Touring before joining Paradigm Talent Agency in 2015; he remained with the company through Wasserman’s acquisition of Paradigm’s music division in 2021. A musician in his own right who booked his high school band into Baltimore’s Recher Theater as a teenager, Levy was named to MusicRow’s Next Big Thing Class of 2022 and Leadership Music’s Class of 2024.
MusicRow: Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland.
Were you musical?
Yep, my whole life. I’ve been playing the drums since I could walk and then guitar at 12 or 13.
I started playing in bands and writing songs and all that kind of stuff. There’s always the person in the band who seems to book the shows or do the business stuff, and that was me. At age 14, my dad would drive me to local venues around Baltimore—like The Recher Theatre in Towson—and I’d go talk to the booker and they would give me hard tickets to sell at school or wherever I could sell them. You had to come back with a certain amount of money to be able to get [a gig]. So I’ve been doing that since I was 14 years old.
Photo: Courtesy of Levy
Where did you go to college? What did you study?
I went to Vanderbilt. I had visited a few schools and was very attracted to Vandy in Nashville because of how much music there was. It was Rites of Spring weekend—I’m sure it wasn’t a coincidence that it was also visiting weekend for prospective students. I saw Derek Trucks‘ band and a band called Bang Bang Bang who became American Bang and are now The Cadillac Three.
I came down here without a plan of what to study beyond liberal arts in general. At Vanderbilt, you can design your own major if they don’t have an existing one. They didn’t have a music business major, so I designed a music management and communications curriculum with the help of the Deans. I minored in Spanish. I spent a summer living in Madrid with a Spanish family.
How did you start your career?
I started interning when I was a junior for an alumnus who had his own record label called Severe Records. I did that for a semester, and it was like a crash course in everything not to do.
It’s funny looking back, because I remember this very vividly. He would say to me, “You should work at an agency, not at a record label.” It sort of piqued my interest. I was taking this business of music class [at the time] taught by Jim Foglesong. Every week he would bring in either a manager, a publicist, a publisher, a songwriter or an agent, so we learned what these people did. It clicked for me that these people have jobs and fairly regular lives, families and stuff, and they get paid to do this.
I always thought the idea of having your own roster was really cool—and I realized an agent has his own roster. I started paying attention then. I was also playing in bands the whole time I was in college—I had a cover band called Shotgun Sally made up of mostly fraternity brothers of mine. We would play at the fraternities, but then we would go downtown and look for bars that were empty. We would go in there [and ask the manager], “Can we play two Thursdays from now? We’ll bring 300 people.” Eventually one of the bars agreed—it was called Jesse Zane’s. We would put a pledge at the door, charge five bucks a head and we’d make like $3,000 on a Thursday night. So that was when this went from hobby to [realizing] there’s a real business here.
I went to South by Southwest during spring break of my senior year. I just thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I saw a hundred bands and acts I’d never heard of. That was one of those light bulb moments where I realized, “Wow, there’s all these people doing this in all these different capacities. I need to get into this.” So I moved to Austin when I graduated. It was almost like a gravitational pull.
Photo: Emma Delevante
What did you do in Austin?
I kept playing music and I was in a band down there. That was my entry point into meeting promoters at clubs. At age 21 or 22, I was cutting deals to play these shows—$500 versus the door or a hundred percent of the door. I didn’t know there was a language for that, I just kind of did it.
I started bartending at a Mexican restaurant and was playing with the guys I had moved down there with. It took me three or four months, but I got an internship at C3 Presents. I did that for like a year and a half. That was unpaid, so I kept bartending and playing shows. They eventually would pay me as a contractor to work some of their festivals and events. I was a runner at [festivals like] ACL or Lollapalooza. I would run catering in a golf cart. That became a real entry point into making some relationships that I still have today.
I was still trying to get into the agency side of things. Huston Powell, who’s the Lollapalooza booker, I would walk into his office, sit on his couch and read him names of agents. I’d be like, “What do you think about this person? Can you make a phone call? Can you get me an interview?” He would do it. He pointed me in the direction of like 10 people in Austin who had real businesses. And one of them eventually called me back. Her name was Nancy Fly. She had a small agency that she ran out of her garage. She had about 15 artists, and she offered me a job one day.
She wanted me to come in and do marketing stuff for her acts. We went out to dinner and sat there for a couple hours. By the end of it she was like, “Why don’t you just come be an agent? Talk to these friends of yours that are in bands and see if they’ll let you be their agent and book all their shows?” So that’s what I did.
What was that chapter like?
I signed a band called Uncle Lucius. I ended up working with them for six years. I was their first agent and I was their manager for three or four of those years. I would go to the office every day and I would log into Pollstar or Celebrity Access and just try to learn as much as I could about who’s who, who books what, who the promoters are and what’s a venue in Boise, Idaho to get from Utah to Seattle. Very elementary stuff. I worked for her for a year and a half. Eventually, I went to Nancy and said, “Can you help me find a job at at a bigger agency?”
She made some phone calls and she helped me get a couple interviews, the first of which was with Paul Lohr who owns New Frontier Touring in Nashville. So I interviewed with Paul, I interviewed with Steve Levine at ICM in Los Angeles and then Huston from C3 helped me get a couple other interviews—one at WME in L.A. I got offered a job in the mail room at WME in L.A. or to come back to Nashville and book a territory for Paul Lohr at New Frontier—so that’s the job that I took.
What was coming back to Nashville like?
It was the very beginning of 2011. Paul books a band called The Avett Brothers and they were starting to go into arenas and amphitheaters, and getting very busy. He was very focused on that, so he had divided the rest of his roster into territories. He had me and three other younger guys like me that were booking the rest of the roster in territories.
So [we were booking] the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Darrell Scott and Paul Thorn. Paul let me bring Uncle Lucius and he was very supportive in us signing acts. There weren’t really a whole lot of rules as long as you showed up in the morning when he wanted you to and got your work done. I did at least one of those things.
I was 25-years-old and I was an agent with a territory. We had a lot of freedom, so it was really fun. It was a learn it by doing it atmosphere. The fifth or sixth act I signed when I was there was Shakey Graves, who I’ve booked for over 10 years now. Paul was great because he let us fail on our own, and subversively, he let us succeed on our own. That’s kind of what happened with Shakey. That’s an artist that I had seen when I was living in Austin that I kept in touch with. It took a few more years, but I was watching closely and paying attention, and eventually we decided to work together. Here we are today 10 years later, and that’s been a very fruitful, successful relationship.
By 2013, I had signed some other artists like Willie Watson and the Band of Heathens. I had an artist named Cody Chesnutt who had success in a previous life with a song called “The Seed.” I started trying to pick my head up and figure out what was happening around me. That led me to some other conversations with other agencies and agents, primarily with Jonathan Levine.
Photo: Courtesy of Levy
What happened next?
Jonathan and I had met before, but in the summer of 2014, we met up at Newport Folk Festival. We had a beer and we talked for like an hour. I knew who Jonathan was because one of my all time favorite bands is The Black Crowes, and he was the agent at the time. Beyond that, I was raised on the Grateful Dead. Jonathan was the agent for Bob Weir and Phil Lesh—he’s still their agent and I get to work on Bob with him now, which is very much a dream come true.
At that time in Nashville, there were not a lot of agents or agencies that were doing non-country stuff, so I was paying attention to what Jonathan was doing. He had signed Sturgill Simpson around that time. That led to other conversations and lunches and eventually a job offer. I went to work at Paradigm—which is now Wasserman—in 2015.
When did you pick up Tyler Childers?
February of 2017. I had been at Paradigm for a couple years at that point. I had brought Shakey with me and eventually Willie Watson. I signed a couple acts. I had been a fan of Tyler’s. I was introduced to him through some friends of mine from college, one of whom is from Kentucky and he would play him around the house all the time. I just became a fan. I brought a video of Tyler into a meeting one day Paradigm.
Everybody reacted positively, but Jonathan pulled me aside after that meeting and was like, “Hey, we need to keep our eye on this. Sturgill is a fan of his and wants to be more active in producing records. Let’s keep our eye on this.”
This went on for six or eight months. Tyler and his manager, Ian Thornton, would make quarterly Nashville trips. I would help him get shows—I got him a slot on AmericanaFest before we were working together. We just got to know each other. We met in my office, the three of us, and we talked about the future and their goals.
Eventually he made Purgatory. I heard the record and thought it was really good. Jonathan was getting all this info from the Sturgill side as it was happening. We spoke to each other at the beginning of 2017 and said, “Let’s do this.” So that’s what we did.
And boy, has it taken off.
Yeah! That was seven years ago, so it didn’t happen overnight. It did happen quickly, relatively, but we didn’t skip steps and we built a real foundation for Tyler. There was a pandemic in the middle there, which certainly delayed things, but at the same time, the way streaming consumption started happening in bigger numbers during the pandemic, it accelerated a lot of things too. We just announced an arena tour with 12 arenas that all sold out in 30 minutes or less. That’s two nights at Madison Square Garden and two nights at Bridgestone and The Forum. It’s an awesome place to be.
What is the most fulfilling part about what you get to do?
The most fulfilling part is going to the show. That doesn’t matter if it’s at the Echo or the Forum, at Mercury Lounge or Madison Square Garden. It always feels good when the artist is in a position to win. The nature of my job is asking: What’s the venue? What’s the ticket price? What city are we playing in? These are the things we can control. When we get it right and the show sells out and it’s the right venue at the right time, you put the artist in a position to win and thrive. Being there in that moment is super rewarding.
Sara Benz Joins Big Machine Records As Project Manager
/by LB CantrellSara Benz
Big Machine Label Group has elevated Sara Benz to Project Manager for the Big Machine Records imprint, effective immediately.
Benz most recently served as Senior A&R Coordinator at Universal Music Group in Los Angeles following her time working with Andy Grammer at Small Giant Records + Management. The University of North Carolina Wilmington alum first began her career selling merch on tour with Misterwives and Smallpools.
In her new role, Benz will oversee strategy, development and execution of release campaigns to drive consumption and audience growth for the Big Machine Records’ artist roster including Tim McGraw, Carly Pearce, Brian Kelley, Jackson Dean and Midland, among others.
“Sara comes to the Big Machine team with a ton of energy and a wealth of experience. She has hit the ground running and is making a huge difference with our team and our artists. This is truly only the beginning for her,” says Big Machine Records’ GM, Clay Hunnicutt.
“A huge thank you to the amazing team at Big Machine Records for welcoming me with open arms,” shares Benz. “I can’t wait for this next chapter in Music City!”
Benz is based in Nashville can be reached at sara.benz@bmlg.net.
Sound Healthcare & Financial Now Booking Free Appointments
/by Liza AndersonSound Healthcare & Financial (SH&F) is currently booking free appointments to help individual music professionals, seniors and corporate groups navigate healthcare solutions.
SH&F has been providing services to those actively working in the music industry for over 17 years. Coverage may also include spouses and dependent family members. Additionally, proprietary True Group benefit options are available exclusively through SH&F for members of the Nashville Musicians Association, AFM 257.
The Marketplace enrollment period starts Nov. 1 and ends Jan. 15, and the Medicare enrollment window is open now through Dec. 7. For coverage starting Jan. 1, the enrollment process must be completed no later than Dec. 15.
To book an appointment, call 615-256-8667 or email info@soundhealthcare.org.
Warren Zeiders To Kick Off ‘Pretty Little Poison Tour’ In February
/by Lorie HollabaughWarren Zeiders
Warren Zeiders has announced the 2024 dates for his headlining “Pretty Little Poison Tour.”
The 24 new dates include stops across the U.S. and Canada in Fayetteville, Oxford, Tulsa, Austin, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Vancouver, Toronto and more, with Clayton Mullen and Austin Williams as support. General public on-sale begins on Friday (Oct. 27) at warrenzeiders.com/
The 2024 dates follow Zeiders’ 2023 edition of the “Pretty Little Poison Tour,” which was his biggest headlining run to date with 27 sold-out shows, while the fall tour visited major festivals like Stagecoach, Faster Horses and Watershed, in addition to 18 sold-out shows including Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.
In August, Zeiders released his debut album Pretty Little Poison. Produced by Ross Copperman, Bart Butler and Ryan Gore, the 14-song album’s title track landed Zeiders his debut on Billboard’s Hot 100. “Pretty Little Poison” is currently at No. 24 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Chart, No. 24 on Mediabase’s Country Airplay Top 40 Chart and was named by Rolling Stone as one of The Best Country Songs of 2023 So Far.
At just 24 years old, Zeiders recently surpassed one billion cumulative career streams and has earned a staggering one billion+ TikTok views and four million+ monthly Spotify listeners.
Warren Zeiders Upcoming Tour Dates:
+denotes show with Clayton Mullen as support
*denotes show with Austin Williams as support
Feb. 2 – Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center – Mankato, MN+
Feb. 8 – Greensboro Coliseum Complex Piedmont Hall – Greensboro, SC+
Feb. 9 – Charleston Municipal Auditorium – Charleston, WV+
Feb. 15 – The Lyric Oxford – Oxford, MS+
Feb. 16 – JJ’s Live – Fayetteville, AR+
Feb. 17 – Cains Ballroom – Tulsa, OK+
Feb. 22 – Emo’s – Austin, TX+
Feb. 24 – House of Blues Dallas – Dallas, TX+
March 8 – House of Blues San Diego – San Diego, CA*
March 9 – House of Blues Anaheim – Anaheim, CA*
March 10 – The Warfield – San Francisco, CA*
March 13 – The Union – Salt Lake City, UT*
March 15 – Knitting Factory – Spokane, WA*
March 16 – Showbox SoDo – Seattle, WA*
March 17 – McMenamins Crystal Ballroom – Portland, OR*
March 19 – Commodore Ballroom – Vancouver, BC*
March 21 – River Cree Resort & Casino – Enoch, AB*
March 22 – Grey Eagle Resort & Casino Event Center – Tsuut’ina, AB*
March 23 – Coors Event Centre – Saskatoon, SK*
March 25 – Burton Cummings Theatre – Winnipeg, MB*
March 28 – London Music Hall – London, ON*
March 29 – Danforth Music Hall – Toronto, ON*
March 30 – MTELUS – Montreal, QC*
June 22 – South Dakota Cattleman’s Prime Time Gala – Sioux Falls, SD
June 28 – Country Fest – Cadott, WI
July 13 – Country Concert – Fr. Loramie, OH
Aug. 1 – WE Fest – Detroit Lake, MN
Reliant Talent Adds Five New Agents
/by LB CantrellPictured (L-R, top row): Ross Brandes, Jordan Burger and Kevin Castleman; (L-R, bottom row): Brooke Ivey and Ben Mench-Thurlow
Reliant Talent Partners Steve Lassiter, Heath Baumhor and Matt McGuire have announced the addition of five agents. Recently added to the Reliant Talent team are Ross Brandes, Jordan Burger, Kevin Castleman, Brooke Ivey and Ben Mench-Thurlow.
“With our continued growth, Reliant Talent continues to embrace the future and young executives, ushering in five remarkable agents who will further shape Reliant’s legacy in live music and the entertainment industry,” shares Lassiter.
Brandes, a seasoned music industry agent with 12 years of experience, joins Reliant Talent with an impressive track record of working with renowned artists such as Ludacris, Nelly, T.I. and Flo Rida. Brandes can be reached at rbrandes@relianttalent.com.
Burger, a veteran of the music industry with over two decades of experience, will represent the Reliant roster for festivals. He brings with him a roster that includes Grammy nominees Southern Avenue, touring veterans Carbon Leaf and Red Wanting Blue and American Idol champion Kris Allen. Burger can be reached at jburger@relianttalent.com.
Castleman takes the lead in the Christian Music department at Reliant Talent Agency, leveraging his nearly 20 years of industry experience. His expertise in developing young talent in clubs and theaters has earned him a roster of impressive clients, including Chris Renzema and Jordy Searcy as well as comedians Dustin Nickerson and Jonnie W. Castleman can be reached at kcastleman@relianttalent.com.
Ivey is the newly appointed agent for corporate and special events at Reliant Talent. Boasting an impressive career spanning LeoEvents and APA in Nashville, Ivey has an extensive track record of successfully booking versatile artists, ranging from celebrity musicians and comedians to inspirational speakers. Notably, she achieved a historic milestone as the first female agent promoted from within APA’s Nashville Office. Ivey can be reached at bivey@relianttalent.com.
Mench-Thurlow, a Berklee College of Music graduate, joins Reliant Talent Agency with 15 years of industry expertise. He is armed with a diverse roster of rock and special attractions, including Hawthorne Heights, Anberlin, Emo Orchestra and Is For Lovers Festivals. Mench-Thurlow can be reached at bmenchthurlow@relianttalent.com.
Inaugural ‘CMT Smashing Glass’ To Honor Patti LaBelle & Tanya Tucker
/by Liza AndersonCMT has announced a new multi-genre musical event, CMT Smashing Glass, which recognizes women who have smashed stereotypes, broken records and defiantly blazed trails for future generations of female artists. The inaugural celebration will honor the careers of legends Patti LaBelle and Tanya Tucker, and air exclusively on CMT Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. CT.
Blending once-in-a-lifetime performances with documentary storytelling, each icon will be honored with a pair of tributes by artists they’ve inspired before taking the stage for their own performances. Additional show details, performers and special guests will be announced soon.
“We’re beyond excited to bring this electrifying and empowering new franchise to life by honoring iconic women who’ve fearlessly ‘smashed glass ceilings’ and kicked in doors, holding them wide open for past, present and future generations,” shares Margaret Comeaux, CMT’s Senior Vice President of Production, Music & Events and Executive Producer. “Both Patti and Tanya deserve to be celebrated for continuing to set the industry gold standard with boundary-breaking crossover success, bold, uncompromising lives and careers, and creating timeless music and impact that remains as powerful and relevant as ever.”
CMT Smashing Glass will also pay respect to the late women of music with memorial tribute medleys to Aretha Franklin, Sinead O’Connor and Tina Turner.
“Inspired by so many other women who have smashed glass ceilings before us, we’ll also pay homage to three other female juggernauts with in-show ‘Moments of Respect,’ nodding to Aretha Franklin, the ‘Queen of Soul’ who forever altered the path for women with her legacy of demanding ‘R.E.S.P.E.C.T,’ the ‘Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll,’ Tina Turner, who empowered the world with her resilience, and Sinead O’Connor, who broke the traditional ‘pop star’ mold and used her life and music to illuminate the world’s burning issues,” states Patrizia DiMaria, Executive Producer.
Leslie Fram, CMT’s SVP of Music & Talent and Executive in Charge of Talent, adds, “CMT Smashing Glass is a grand finale to a landmark 2023 which we dedicated as our ‘Year of the Woman.’ Kicking off in January with a milestone 10th anniversary of the Next Women of Country (NWOC) franchise, we celebrated female voices across all programming and events – from our women-led headliners at the CMT Music Awards and Equal Play honoree Shania Twain, to bi-monthly NWOC artist showcases and the greenlight of our CMT Defining series, we remain dedicated to Equal Play and advocating for the trailblazers of the past, superstars of the present and the future voices in our format.”
CMT Smashing Glass is helmed by an all-female production team. Working alongside Comeaux, DiMaria and Fram is Michelle Mahoney and Lauren Quinn, who serve as Executive Producers. Quinn also works as Director, Jackie Barba and Heather D. Graffagnino are the Executives in Charge of Production and Suzanne Bender serves as Talent Producer.
Garth Brooks To Release 14th Studio Album ‘Time Traveler’ In November
/by Lorie HollabaughGarth Brooks is gearing up for the release of his 14th studio album, Time Traveler, as part of a new seven-disc box set, The Limited Series.
Produced by Brooks himself, the 10-track album will be on sale exclusively at Bass Pro Shops on Nov. 7 and is available for pre-order now. Orders purchased online will ship in mid-November. The Limited Series will include Man Against Machine, Gunslinger, Fun and the three-disc Triple Live. This is the third and final release of The Limited Series following previous releases in 1998 and 2005.
“There are a lot of different eras on this album, thus the name,” says Brooks. “Country music’s core is sincerity, after that, you can dress it up a thousand different ways. I am so lucky to live under the flag of country music.”
The release is timed with the big opening of Brooks’ new Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk Dive Bar Concert on Black Friday. The historic event will be the first opportunity for fans to get in the bar, and the only way into the concert will be to win tickets by listening to The BIG 615 station on TuneIn.
Alandis Brassel Opens Entertainment Law Firm In Nashville
/by LB CantrellAlandis Brassel
Alandis Brassel has opened Brassel Law, a new entertainment law firm dedicated to the needs of musicians and music industry entrepreneurs in Nashville.
Brassel, a Vanderbilt University Law School grad, began his legal career as counsel to Congressman Jim Cooper, where he focused on policy and the office’s community relationships, including Nashville’s music industry. He also served as the program director at the Arts and Business Council of Greater Nashville, where he was responsible for the nonprofit’s legal and education programs.
Most recently, Brassel practiced entertainment and trademark law at Counsel at Scale LLP, and served as assistant professor at the University of Memphis Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, where he headed the music business program and ran the school’s record label, High Water Records. Prior to his legal career, Brassel was a professional audio engineer with clients such as Bloomberg Television, Warner Chappell Music, Mosley Music Group and Def Jam.
Brassel serves on the board of Nashville Music Equality, a nonprofit dedicated to creating an anti-racist environment in the Nashville music industry.
Aiming to make comprehensive legal representation accessible to clients at all levels, Brassel Law will introduce two services over the next month. The first, Office Hours, will provide a free opportunity for clients to triage legal issues they might not otherwise have the resources to address. Clients can register for these one-on-one legal advising sessions on a first-come, first-served basis. The first session will be held on Oct. 30.
Members will also have the option to access Cadence.io, a platform built by Brassel Law that will give clients the ability to generate custom, routinely used documents without the cost and traditional wait time associated with traditional legal drafting.
“A music publisher using Cadence.io will be able to generate a license in minutes with the confidence that the agreement is accurate, well-drafted and up to date,” says Brassel. “These aren’t fill-in-the-blank templates that you pull from a website. We’ll work with members to build base documents based on their needs, including terms that are specific to their business and contract clauses that might vary depending on the deal, like payment terms and contract duration. We’ll also periodically review and revise the base agreements to reflect any changes in the law.”
Program members will design their memberships using a menu of add-on services and resources, resulting in a membership package that provides the services they need at a predictable price point.
“The goal is to make sure clients get the first-class legal services they need without worrying about an unpredictable legal bill or turnaround time,” says Brassel.
For more information on Brassel Law, visit www.brassel.law or contact 615-258-8900.
Dolly To Celebrate New ‘Rockstar’ Album In Theaters
/by Lorie HollabaughDolly Parton. Photo: Vijat Mohindra.
Dolly Parton is celebrating the release of her new album Rockstar with a global first-listen fan event in cinemas worldwide on Nov. 15, with select encores on Nov. 16.
ROCKSTAR: The Global First Listen Event, a unique cinema experience presented by Trafalgar, offers fans a first-listen to selections from Dolly’s upcoming star-studded new album, along with an exclusive interview with the icon. The one-of-a-kind fan event will also feature a never-before-seen performance of a holiday song “Circle Of Love,” plus a rare performance of her classic hit “9 to 5.”
“I am excited to know that my fans around the world will be able to come together and be the first to hear a sneak peek of my Rockstar album,” Dolly says. “I am so proud of this music, and I am humbled by all the wonderful artists who joined me. I cannot wait for people to hear it!”
Tickets to ROCKSTAR: The Global First Listen Event are available beginning today at DollyRockstarEvent.com. In keeping with Dolly’s long-standing commitment to giving back, a portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will benefit Music Will and their global partner organizations. Music Will is the largest nonprofit music program in the U.S. public school system and works with sister organizations around with world to magnify the power of music education.
“Dolly Parton is such an icon in the music world and to be among the first to hear her new rock music collaborations is something we are so excited to bring to fans. From works with legendary artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, Steven Tyler and other friends, this will be a magical evening with Dolly; our beloved grammy winning musical icon,” says Kymberli Frueh, SVP of Content and Programming Acquisitions at Trafalgar Releasing. “The big screen is a wonderful way to bring people together to experience the power of music.”
The album Rockstar includes nine original tracks and 21 iconic rock anthems and will be available as a four-LP set, a two-CD set, digital download and on all streaming services Nov. 17.
Porchlight Music Adds Jenny Hall As Senior Director, Creative
/by LB CantrellJenny Hall. Photo: Austyn Jablonski
Porchlight Music has added Jenny Hall to the team as Senior Director, Creative.
Hall is an Indiana native and a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU)’s music business program. Prior to joining Porchlight, she spent time as Creative Director at Sheltered Music and Given Entertainment.
In her new role, Hall will oversee the direction and development of the current roster which includes Clint Daniels, Tim James, Chris Sligh, Dan Hutson and Terry Lee Palmer as well as new talent acquisitions. She will also oversee the day-to-day creative operations of signing and developing new talent while managing and developing the current roster.
“Jenny is hard-working, goal-oriented and is going to leave her stamp on the music industry. She is in to win it and has already made a substantial impact at Porchlight Music,” shares Tim Medlin, Partner/Co-Founder, Porchlight Music.
“I’m thrilled to be starting this next chapter of my career with Porchlight Music. After my first conversation with Tim, it was evident how truly passionate he is about the songwriters and forward-thinking goals for the company as well as the trust and runway he lends to creatives on both sides of the aisle,” says Hall. “I’m honored to represent the immensely talented roster here and look forward to being a part of the company’s continued growth and success.”
Hall can be reached at jenny@porchlightmusic.com.