Jeremy Stover
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.
As an acclaimed producer/songwriter, Jeremy Stover has celebrated multiple chart-topping hits including Tim McGraw‘s “How I’ll Always Be,” LoCash‘s “I Know Somebody” and Jack Ingram‘s “Wherever You Are.” Stover has worked alongside Justin Moore since his debut in 2009, resulting in multiple hits, including “Small Town USA,” “Bait a Hook,” “Til My Last Day,” “Lettin’ the Night Roll,” “Why We Drink,” “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home,” “We Didn’t Have Much,” and more.
In 2014, Stover founded independent music publisher Red Creative Group. Since its inception, the company has celebrated more than 300 cuts and 40 singles on the country charts, with hits including “How Not To,” recorded by Dan + Shay; “Sleep Without You,” recorded by Brett Young; and “After A Few,” recorded by Travis Denning.
In addition to publishing, Red Creative Group serves as an artist development and management company, releasing music as Red Creative Records, with a growing roster of artists, including Noah Hicks, Matt Koziol and Tylynn Allen.
Jeremy Stover
MusicRow: Where are you from?
Elijay, Georgia.
Were you musical as a kid?
I would say so. My mom sang in church. My grandmother on my mom’s side always had a guitar sitting around and she would play gospel songs periodically. She’s passed away now but she was a big influence on me.
After I moved to Nashville, I went to college at Belmont University. She never understood what I was doing, but every time I would go home she would say, “I’ve been watching the Grand Ole Opry and I still haven’t seen you on it.” (Laughs)
You wrote many songs that have been performed there! Did you want to be a songwriter growing up?
I did. Belmont was not the first school I went to. I started at Southern Tech. My dad was in the carpet industry at that time. He had started a business in the mid-eighties and the plan was that I was going to take over his business. So I was getting a degree in textile engineering, which leads into the carpet and yarn business. I had a roommate there and I was driving him nuts playing guitar and learning songs. I was trying to write songs by myself; they were not very good. I don’t know if it was out of me driving him nuts or him just being a good friend, but he said one day, “I have a friend that goes to a school in Nashville called Belmont.” The next morning I skipped class, got in my car and I drove to Nashville.
As I was driving back, I just decided I was going to go home to my parents and say, “I’m moving to Nashville.” That’s how the decision was made to move to Nashville. I went to Belmont and finished school there.
My dad is one of 15 kids. None of them graduated high school because they had to go to work to support the family. So one of the promises I made my parents was that I would finish college. Not to pat myself on the back, but I was the first one out of the family to graduate college. I owe a lot of that to my dad and his hard work to get me to that spot. Since then, there’s been a few others that have finished college, but that was a big point in our family for one of us to do that.
Rodney Clawson, Justin Moore, Jeremy Stover and children
How did you find your way while at Belmont?
It was just a process. Fortunately for me, I got in a circle of three or four friends after I got there that I really related with in a lot of ways. We all became friends and we would write songs together. It was really a good circle of people—a couple that I still work with. When I got out of Belmont, it wasn’t like I just jumped in and I had songs on the radio.
What was your first job in the industry?
I worked at a smaller publisher for probably the first six months to a year. I got an interview for what they used to call the tape copy job, which is where you would make CDs that the song-pluggers would pitch. I got that job at Muy Bueno Music, which was George Strait‘s publishing company. Through working there over a couple years I got to meet a lot of writers. At that time, I was taking the time probably three or four nights a week trying to write songs with my friends at first. Then I was able to start incorporating some of those songwriters that I’d met that were willing to sit down with me in the evenings and write some songs.
After a couple of years, I’d saved up enough money to do demo sessions of 10 songs that I thought were my best songs. Through working at Muy Bueno, I had met musicians and engineers that I liked. I had kept [my songwriting] under the radar, but I had obviously met a bunch of the other publishers, so I went to five different ones that I really believed in and played them my songs. They all offered me beginner publishing deals, so I signed my first publishing deal at Starstruck. Six months into that deal, they sold to Warner Chappell. That was the beginning.
Dean Dillon, Jeremy Stover
When did you start to have songs on the radio?
It took two to three years to get the relationships going and for people to start recording my songs. I had my first single in 2003 on Emerson Drive, which did really well. From there, it’s been a steady, slow build through my songwriting, which led to producing. Success in those couple of things led to me starting my own company.
How did you get into production?
I started with my demos. I think a part of me getting my first publishing deal was, for the time, how the demos sounded and the possibilities of me growing into a production career as well. That was part of the big picture for me.
Through the process of having my first hit on Emerson Drive, I met Scott Borchetta when he was running Dreamworks Promotions. He was really cool. When he started Big Machine Records, he gave me the opportunity to record Jack Ingram. Jack’s “Wherever You Are” was my first No. 1 as a writer and a producer. It just continued to grow from there.
You soon started writing with and producing Justin Moore, which has been a very fruitful relationship. How did you meet?
I met Justin Moore in 2003. He just came into my writer’s room and sang a couple songs. In my mind with my outlook on how I grew up, his voice was something that I really attached to. In a certain way it gave voice to what I’d always wanted to project. That was a big moment. But we met in 2003 and he didn’t have his first No. 1 until 2009, so he and I worked together for a really long time through that process.
As things started to work for him, I had experienced some production success and writing success through those first six years. With Justin is where I found some focus on being able to help grow something that I really related to.
Pictured (L-R, back row): Taylor Lamb, Brooke Antonakos; (L-R, front row): Chase McGill, Justin Moore, Jeremy Stover, Paul DiGiovanni
Why did you want to put your publisher hat back on and start Red Creative Group?
That just happened naturally. I was able to establish myself in a way where people would take my calls. I had developed those relationships through some success. I felt like I had reached a certain level of success that I wouldn’t say I was happy with, but gave some confidence in what I was doing. I wanted people that I believed in to experience what I experienced.
Some of the most fun times [of my career] were the early times when you didn’t know if something was going to happen and then it happened. Having some people around you that believe in your talent and that are preaching that you can do it is as satisfying as having the success.
Do you think you approach publishing differently because of your songwriting journey?
I think so. Especially in the last three or four years, [I’ve learned] that I need more diversity musically within the Red Creative Group. I don’t need to understand everything to trust the people that I have around me at the company who say that we need to move on something.
What I’m most proud of about the company is everything isn’t driven through me. It’s grown to have this big, diverse, wide-spanning success outside of things that I generate just through what I do. That aspect of it for me has been really exciting to watch. It feels good to know that we’re helping people have success the way that I did.
Red Creative Group’s Travis Denning, Adam Hambrick, Kelly Archer, Jeremy Stover
Who have been mentors for you?
Early on it was co-writers. Steve Bogard was super encouraging to me. He wrote with me when I didn’t have any songs on the radio. Byron Gallimore was a big encourager for me as a producer. He helped me understand some things about the way he makes records and how the song always comes first.
If you could go back and talk to your college-aged self on your way up to Nashville for the first time, what would you tell yourself?
Be who you are in your writing. People recognize people being genuine. Try not to look across the fence and compare yourself to the other person because this is not a show-up-and-it-happens-in-a-moment kind of success. It really is something that you commit to. It’s a lifestyle.
I’ll be the first one to say that there’s been people that are way more talented than me that, if it didn’t happen in two years, they moved on to something else. For me, I’ve always just wanted to be a part of the creative community and you have to have some acceptance that it just takes time.
My Music Row Story: Red Creative Group’s Jeremy Stover
/by LB CantrellJeremy Stover
As an acclaimed producer/songwriter, Jeremy Stover has celebrated multiple chart-topping hits including Tim McGraw‘s “How I’ll Always Be,” LoCash‘s “I Know Somebody” and Jack Ingram‘s “Wherever You Are.” Stover has worked alongside Justin Moore since his debut in 2009, resulting in multiple hits, including “Small Town USA,” “Bait a Hook,” “Til My Last Day,” “Lettin’ the Night Roll,” “Why We Drink,” “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home,” “We Didn’t Have Much,” and more.
In 2014, Stover founded independent music publisher Red Creative Group. Since its inception, the company has celebrated more than 300 cuts and 40 singles on the country charts, with hits including “How Not To,” recorded by Dan + Shay; “Sleep Without You,” recorded by Brett Young; and “After A Few,” recorded by Travis Denning.
In addition to publishing, Red Creative Group serves as an artist development and management company, releasing music as Red Creative Records, with a growing roster of artists, including Noah Hicks, Matt Koziol and Tylynn Allen.
Jeremy Stover
MusicRow: Where are you from?
Elijay, Georgia.
Were you musical as a kid?
I would say so. My mom sang in church. My grandmother on my mom’s side always had a guitar sitting around and she would play gospel songs periodically. She’s passed away now but she was a big influence on me.
After I moved to Nashville, I went to college at Belmont University. She never understood what I was doing, but every time I would go home she would say, “I’ve been watching the Grand Ole Opry and I still haven’t seen you on it.” (Laughs)
You wrote many songs that have been performed there! Did you want to be a songwriter growing up?
I did. Belmont was not the first school I went to. I started at Southern Tech. My dad was in the carpet industry at that time. He had started a business in the mid-eighties and the plan was that I was going to take over his business. So I was getting a degree in textile engineering, which leads into the carpet and yarn business. I had a roommate there and I was driving him nuts playing guitar and learning songs. I was trying to write songs by myself; they were not very good. I don’t know if it was out of me driving him nuts or him just being a good friend, but he said one day, “I have a friend that goes to a school in Nashville called Belmont.” The next morning I skipped class, got in my car and I drove to Nashville.
As I was driving back, I just decided I was going to go home to my parents and say, “I’m moving to Nashville.” That’s how the decision was made to move to Nashville. I went to Belmont and finished school there.
My dad is one of 15 kids. None of them graduated high school because they had to go to work to support the family. So one of the promises I made my parents was that I would finish college. Not to pat myself on the back, but I was the first one out of the family to graduate college. I owe a lot of that to my dad and his hard work to get me to that spot. Since then, there’s been a few others that have finished college, but that was a big point in our family for one of us to do that.
Rodney Clawson, Justin Moore, Jeremy Stover and children
How did you find your way while at Belmont?
It was just a process. Fortunately for me, I got in a circle of three or four friends after I got there that I really related with in a lot of ways. We all became friends and we would write songs together. It was really a good circle of people—a couple that I still work with. When I got out of Belmont, it wasn’t like I just jumped in and I had songs on the radio.
What was your first job in the industry?
I worked at a smaller publisher for probably the first six months to a year. I got an interview for what they used to call the tape copy job, which is where you would make CDs that the song-pluggers would pitch. I got that job at Muy Bueno Music, which was George Strait‘s publishing company. Through working there over a couple years I got to meet a lot of writers. At that time, I was taking the time probably three or four nights a week trying to write songs with my friends at first. Then I was able to start incorporating some of those songwriters that I’d met that were willing to sit down with me in the evenings and write some songs.
After a couple of years, I’d saved up enough money to do demo sessions of 10 songs that I thought were my best songs. Through working at Muy Bueno, I had met musicians and engineers that I liked. I had kept [my songwriting] under the radar, but I had obviously met a bunch of the other publishers, so I went to five different ones that I really believed in and played them my songs. They all offered me beginner publishing deals, so I signed my first publishing deal at Starstruck. Six months into that deal, they sold to Warner Chappell. That was the beginning.
Dean Dillon, Jeremy Stover
When did you start to have songs on the radio?
It took two to three years to get the relationships going and for people to start recording my songs. I had my first single in 2003 on Emerson Drive, which did really well. From there, it’s been a steady, slow build through my songwriting, which led to producing. Success in those couple of things led to me starting my own company.
How did you get into production?
I started with my demos. I think a part of me getting my first publishing deal was, for the time, how the demos sounded and the possibilities of me growing into a production career as well. That was part of the big picture for me.
Through the process of having my first hit on Emerson Drive, I met Scott Borchetta when he was running Dreamworks Promotions. He was really cool. When he started Big Machine Records, he gave me the opportunity to record Jack Ingram. Jack’s “Wherever You Are” was my first No. 1 as a writer and a producer. It just continued to grow from there.
You soon started writing with and producing Justin Moore, which has been a very fruitful relationship. How did you meet?
I met Justin Moore in 2003. He just came into my writer’s room and sang a couple songs. In my mind with my outlook on how I grew up, his voice was something that I really attached to. In a certain way it gave voice to what I’d always wanted to project. That was a big moment. But we met in 2003 and he didn’t have his first No. 1 until 2009, so he and I worked together for a really long time through that process.
As things started to work for him, I had experienced some production success and writing success through those first six years. With Justin is where I found some focus on being able to help grow something that I really related to.
Pictured (L-R, back row): Taylor Lamb, Brooke Antonakos; (L-R, front row): Chase McGill, Justin Moore, Jeremy Stover, Paul DiGiovanni
Why did you want to put your publisher hat back on and start Red Creative Group?
That just happened naturally. I was able to establish myself in a way where people would take my calls. I had developed those relationships through some success. I felt like I had reached a certain level of success that I wouldn’t say I was happy with, but gave some confidence in what I was doing. I wanted people that I believed in to experience what I experienced.
Some of the most fun times [of my career] were the early times when you didn’t know if something was going to happen and then it happened. Having some people around you that believe in your talent and that are preaching that you can do it is as satisfying as having the success.
Do you think you approach publishing differently because of your songwriting journey?
I think so. Especially in the last three or four years, [I’ve learned] that I need more diversity musically within the Red Creative Group. I don’t need to understand everything to trust the people that I have around me at the company who say that we need to move on something.
What I’m most proud of about the company is everything isn’t driven through me. It’s grown to have this big, diverse, wide-spanning success outside of things that I generate just through what I do. That aspect of it for me has been really exciting to watch. It feels good to know that we’re helping people have success the way that I did.
Red Creative Group’s Travis Denning, Adam Hambrick, Kelly Archer, Jeremy Stover
Who have been mentors for you?
Early on it was co-writers. Steve Bogard was super encouraging to me. He wrote with me when I didn’t have any songs on the radio. Byron Gallimore was a big encourager for me as a producer. He helped me understand some things about the way he makes records and how the song always comes first.
If you could go back and talk to your college-aged self on your way up to Nashville for the first time, what would you tell yourself?
Be who you are in your writing. People recognize people being genuine. Try not to look across the fence and compare yourself to the other person because this is not a show-up-and-it-happens-in-a-moment kind of success. It really is something that you commit to. It’s a lifestyle.
I’ll be the first one to say that there’s been people that are way more talented than me that, if it didn’t happen in two years, they moved on to something else. For me, I’ve always just wanted to be a part of the creative community and you have to have some acceptance that it just takes time.
Jackie Augustus Joins Spotify’s Artist Partnerships Team
/by Lydia FarthingJackie Augustus
Leading DSP Spotify has tapped Jackie Augustus to join its Artist Partnerships team. Working with a variety of country and folk acts, she will report to Head of Artist Partnerships Mary Catherine Kinney.
Most recently, Augustus was a strategic partner manager on the Meta Music Partnerships team. Before that, she was head of Digital Marketing at Scooter Braun’s SB Projects. She joined the company in 2012, three years after launching the viral Justin Bieber fan account, @BieberArmy, on Twitter. Throughout her career, Augustus had a hand in bringing to life the One Love Manchester concert, as well as working on Ariana Grande’s fourth album, Sweetener.
“After years of working with @spotify from the other side, excited to officially join the band to lead country & folk artist partnerships,” Augustus shared on socials.
Country-TV Singing Star Stan Hitchcock Passes
/by Robert K OermannStan Hitchcock
Country entertainer Stan Hitchcock died on Jan. 4 at age 86.
The Music Row recording artist became a mainstay of country television. He co-founded CMT, starred on his own syndicated series, launched the Americana channel and hosted the long-running cable interview program Heart to Heart among other shows.
Hitchcock was a Missouri native who grew up on a farm near Branson in the Ozark Mountains. By his teenage years, he was working as a disc jockey on the local radio stations KWTO and KTTS. After serving in the Navy, he moved to Nashville in 1962.
He signed with Columbia Records in Music City. Between 1967 and 1981, Stan Hitchcock placed 14 tunes on the country charts. He had his most prominent discs on Epic Records. “Honey I’m Home” became a top-20 success on the label in 1969. This was his biggest hit as a singer. Epic issued four LPs by him in 1965-69.
With his easy-going manner, musical talent and good looks, Hitchcock was a natural for television. Shortly after he moved to Nashville, he hosted a local Nashville morning show on WLAC-TV. His Stan Hitchcock Show aired in national syndication from Nashville between 1964 and 1970.
While excelling as a country TV personality, he floundered as an artist on a series of independent labels, including GRT, Cinnamon, MMI, Caprice and Rambin’ Records. GRT issued his Dixie Belle album in 1970.
The advent of music-video channels such as MTV in 1981 led Hitchcock to become a member of the team that founded CMT (initially called CMTV). He headed the Nashville operation of the channel.
Back in Missouri, the singer hosted Stan Hitchcock from the Ozarks on TV between 1979 and 1983. It was also during this time that he commenced his Heart To Heart show, taping most of its shows in Nashville.
CMT was sold to Gaylord Entertainment in 1991. Hitchcock again relocated to Branson, Missouri, where he became founder, president and chairman of Americana Television Network. The cable channel presented roots-music programs featuring folk, country, gospel, bluegrass and blues. It later became known as BlueHighways TV.
Perhaps his most important series was Heart to Heart. This long-running BlueHighways showcase featured him interviewing country stars and sharing informal music sessions with them as a singer and guitarist. He had intimate, back-porch-style conversations with some of the genre’s top personalities — Keith Whitley, Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton and the like. Hitchcock could get artists to open up because he could speak their language as a performer, himself. Episodes of Heart to Heart still air on Country Road TV.
In 1997, he moved Hitchcock Productions to Hendersonville and continued producing programming for cable, broadcast and home-video distributors. Stan Hitchcock authored a book in 2009 called At The Corner of Music Row and Memory Lane about his life in country music.
He is survived by his wife Denise; children Marilyn Holland, Lori Hitchcock, Stan Hitchcock, Jr., Joli Hitchcock and Scott Hitchcock; 10 grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
Visitation will be held on Saturday, Jan. 28 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM at the Gallatin First Baptist Church (205 E Main St, Gallatin, TN 37066). A memorial service will be held afterward at noon at the same location.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Good Samaritan Boys Ranch P.O. Box 617, Brighton, MO 65617.
Eric Church’s ‘Outsiders Revival Tour’ Heading To Amphitheaters This Summer
/by Lorie HollabaughEric Church. Photo: Anthony D’Angio
Eric Church is taking his live show outdoors this year as he headlines amphitheaters across the country on his new “The Outsiders Revival Tour.”
Kicking off June 22 in Milwaukee, the shows will feature a curated lineup of 18 special guests across the dates, including Whiskey Myers, Cody Jinks, Jelly Roll, Ashley McBryde, Koe Wetzel, Lainey Wilson, Midland, Parker McCollum, Travis Tritt, Elle King and Paul Cauthen, plus Jackson Dean, Morgan Wade, Muscadine Bloodline, Shane Smith & The Saints, Hailey Whitters, Ray Wylie Hubbard and The Red Clay Strays.
“When I approach touring, I’m always inspired by a new experience, a new way to gather, to express ourselves sonically and visually. Whether it’s solo, in the round, double down; being able to bring a different perspective has always brought out our best creatively,” shared Church. “Well, we have never done an outdoor summer tour. Never headlined amphitheaters. Never brought a summer experience to your town that featured artists we want to share the summer with. Until now. See you in the season of sunshine with some fellow outsiders that shine brightest when the sun goes down.”
The tour will visit 26 cities across the U.S. and Canada, including Charleston, Pittsburgh, Austin, Chicago, Phoenix, Tampa and many more. Tickets go on sale Jan. 20, with pre-sale access available to Church Choir members starting Jan. 17 at 10 a.m. local time.
Nominations Open: MusicRow’s 10th Annual Rising Women On The Row
/by LB CantrellMusicRow will honor six deserving businesswomen during Rising Women on the Row breakfast ceremony on March 23, 2023 at the Omni Nashville Hotel. The event will recognize the selected Nashville music industry professionals who have become substantial contributors and visionary leaders.
Nominations for the 2023 class of Rising Women on the Row have closed.
Submissions will be considered only through the official nomination process, which closes Friday, Jan. 20. Candidates nominated in previous years will need to be resubmitted. Multiple nominations do not increase likelihood of being selected, but you may nominate as many individuals as you like with separate forms. Self-nominations are welcome.
The 2023 class of Rising Women on the Row will be announced in the coming weeks, along with event details. Tickets will open in the coming weeks as well.
Past honorees include—2020/2022: Jen Conger, JoJamie Hahr, Mandy Morrison, Missy Roberts, Jennie Smythe, Stephanie Wright; 2019: Janine Ebach, Kelly Janson, Meredith Jones, Lenore Kinder, Sandi Spika Borchetta, Jennifer Turnbow; 2018: Faithe Dillman, Leslie DiPiero, Becky Gardenhire, Lynn Oliver-Cline, Annie Ortmeier, Janet Weir; 2017: Tatum Allsep, Virginia Bunetta, Kerri Edwards, Kella Farris, Laura Hutfless, Juli Newton-Griffith; 2016: Abbey Adams, Amanda Cates, Cris Lacy, Leslie Roberts, Risha Rodgers; 2015: Kele Currier, Tiffany Dunn, Dawn Gates, Jensen Sussman, Lou Taylor; 2014: Julie Boos, Caryl Atwood, Ebie McFarland, Alicia Pruitt, Kelly Rich; 2013: Cyndi Forman, Cindy Hunt, Beth Laird, Cindy Mabe, Brandi Simms; 2012: Shannan Hatch, Mary Hilliard Harrington, Heather McBee, Denise Stevens, Carla Wallace.
5th Annual ‘Daryle Singletary Keeping It Country Jam’ To Feature Rhett Akins, Easton Corbin, More
/by Lorie HollabaughThe 5th Annual “Daryle Singletary Keeping It Country Jam” is set to take place at The Nashville Palace on Feb. 16 during The National Wild Turkey Federation’s 50th anniversary week.
Easton Corbin, Mark Wills, Rhett Akins, Andy Griggs, Chad Brock and more are set to perform on the tribute show in Singletary’s honor. Additionally, famed outdoorsman Michael Waddell will be on hand to receive the Daryle Singletary Keeping It Country award.
“The kids and I can’t wait until this event next month. It is something we look forward to each year knowing that it keeps Daryle’s legacy alive,” says Holly Singletary, widow of Daryle Singletary. “Daryle loved traditional country music and he loved those that supported it. He would be so proud to know that his friends continue to show up each year to ‘keep it country.’”
General admission and reserved seating tickets are available now. VIP tables are only available by emailing DaryleVIP@gmail.com.
Singletary rose to fame in the 90s with a string of successful hardcore country albums. He passed away in 2018 at age 46 from a blood clot.
Leslie Jordan Tribute Featuring Ashley McBryde, Brothers Osborne, More Slated For February
/by Lorie HollabaughEddie Vedder, Maren Morris, Brothers Osborne, and more are on tap to honor the late Leslie Jordan on Feb. 19 at the Grand Ole Opry during “Reportin’ For Duty: A Tribute To Leslie Jordan.”
The evening will feature intimate performances and stories with insights into some of Jordan’s lasting life lessons. The joyful evening will celebrate Jordan’s life, with some of his talented friends set to honor his legacy, including Brittney Spencer, Billy Strings, Lukas Nelson, Jake Wesley Rogers, Ashley McBryde, Fancy Hagood, Jelly Roll, Danny Myrick and Travis Howard.
Other friends making special appearances during the evening will include Jim Parsons, Anthony Mason, Mayim Bialik, Cheyenne Jackson, Max Greenfield, Margaret Cho, Robyn Schall, Leanne Morgan and more. The evening’s house band will feature the players who performed on Jordan’s 2021 debut album Company’s Comin’, including three ACM Instrumentalist of the Year winners.
Tickets go on sale Jan. 13, with pre-sale beginning Jan. 12. All proceeds from the event will benefit the EB Research Partnership, the largest global organization dedicated to funding research to treat and cure Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) and a cause close to Jordan’s heart.
An actor, comedian, writer and singer who passed in 2022, Jordan’s notable TV roles included his Emmy Award-winning portrayal of Beverley Leslie on Will & Grace, as well as several characters in the American Horror Story franchise, and most recently in Fox’s Call Me Kat. In 2021, he also published his memoir How Y’all Doing? Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived.
Hank Williams Jr. Announces 2023 National Tour
/by Liza AndersonHank Williams Jr. Photo: Courtesy of Live Nation
Hank Williams Jr. will embark on his 2023 tour featuring Old Crow Medicine Show, starting Friday, May 12 at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Produced by Live Nation, the journey will also include stops in Tampa, Cincinnati, Irvine and more before wrapping up in Gilford at the Bank Of New Hampshire Pavilion on Saturday, Aug. 26.
As a touring artist, Williams Jr. has been a pioneer in bringing arena rock production values to country music. This past year, he continued to fuse country and rock with his most recent record Rich White Honky Blues, collaborating with Grammy-winning producer Dan Auerbach.
Tickets for the trek will go on sale Jan. 13 at 10 a.m. local time at LiveNation.com.
Cindy Mabe Appointed Chair & CEO Of UMG Nashville
/by LB CantrellCindy Mabe. Photo: Kevin Wimpy
Cindy Mabe has been appointed Chair and CEO of Universal Music Group Nashville, effective April 1, 2023. She will succeed Mike Dungan, who will retire from his position at UMG Nashville after more than a decade there and a total of four decades in the music industry.
During her tenure at UMG, Mabe has helped guide and grow the careers of some of country music’s biggest stars, including Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Jordan Davis, Mickey Guyton, Sam Hunt, Alan Jackson, Parker McCollum, Reba McEntire, Kacey Musgraves, Jon Pardi, Chris Stapleton, George Strait, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Brothers Osborne and Little Big Town, among countless others. She has earned multiple honors, including the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum Award and the SOURCE Hall of Fame Award.
Of the announcement, Mabe shares, “For the past 15 years, Mike Dungan has been my mentor and partner. He has built one of the most enduring and impactful legacies in country music history. He’s also been my friend. I’m grateful for the chance he took on me and so very proud of what we have built together over those 15 years with our staff and the most enviable roster in music.
“To now be in a position, as Mike’s successor, to advance the musical and cultural impact of Universal Music Group Nashville into the future is truly a humbling honor. Country music has been my life’s passion. It’s my childhood and my future. It’s the heartbeat that speaks truth to all walks of life in the best and worst of times. It’s truly a gift to get to honor, protect and build the next era of country music history with UMGN,” she continues. “I want to thank Sir Lucian Grainge for his belief in me, his brilliant leadership and for building this incredible culture that puts artists and music first.”
Sir Lucian Grainge, UMG’s Chairman and CEO adds, “We’re thrilled to have Cindy step into this role. She is a transformational executive, who has a distinguished track record of designing and implementing innovative strategies to help build artists’ careers and bring their music to fans around the world. Cindy’s credibility in the artist community and her deep experience will help us deliver countless additional artists’ successes going forward.”
A North Carolina native, Mabe attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated from Belmont University in Nashville with a B.S. in Business Administration. She bagan her career as promotions coordinator at RCA Nashville, before shifting to sales and then artist marketing and development. She later served as Senior Director of Marketing and Artist Development at Arista Records Nashville from 1999-2007 before joining Capitol Records.
Mabe spent five years at Capitol Records Nashville, where she held the position of SVP of Marketing and played an integral role in the long-term creative and commercial success of the label. She joined UMG Nashville in 2012 as Senior Vice President of Marketing, where she was responsible for leading marketing across UMG’s expanded suite of country labels following its acquisition of EMI.
Mabe is one of Music Row’s most esteemed executives. She became Nashville’s highest-ranking woman label executive in 2014 when she was appointed as UMG Nashville President, and she makes history again by becoming the first woman to serve as Chair and CEO of a Nashville-based major label group. 2022 also saw the appointment of another female label-head on Music Row when Cris Lacy became Co-President of Warner Music Nashville.
Sheryl Crow, Tyler Childers, Morgan Wade, More Among Bonnaroo 2023 Lineup
/by Lydia FarthingBonnaroo Music & Arts Festival has unveiled its 2023 lineup, taking place June 15-18 on the Bonnaroo Farm in Manchester, Tennessee.
The 2023 edition will once again feature a wide array of genres and top-tier talent performing across over 10 unique stages, with live music and more taking place through the night and into the early morning with special sunrise sets.
Nashville artists on the bill include Sheryl Crow, Kip Moore, Tyler Childers, Morgan Wade, Paramore, The Band Camino, Colony House, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway and more.
Kendrick Lamar, Foo Fighters, Odesza, Lil Nas X, Baby Keem, Vulfpeck, Marcus Mumford, My Morning Jacket, GRiZ, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Portugal. The Man, Korn, Louis the Child, Zeds Dead, Alesso, Subtronics, Three 6 Mafia, J.I.D., The Revivalists, Pixies, Girl In Red, Fleet Foxes and more are also slated to perform.
Bonnaroo Superjam will also take place on Saturday (June 17) with further details to come.
Early Access on-sale will begin Jan. 12 at 10 a.m. CT with sign-ups available now. Public on-sale will follow if tickets remain with options, including four-day general admission, GA+, VIP and Platinum, along with one-day tickets and more. For more information, click here.
Hulu will also return as the Official Streaming Destination of Bonnaroo for 2023. Select performances will be exclusive to Hulu subscribers at no additional cost. Additional special footage and behind-the-scenes looks will also be available with more details expected in the coming weeks.