Shelton Stages Arena Tour

Blake Shelton’s career is taking a step forward as the celebrity plans to fill arenas nationwide with the “Well Lit & Amplified Tour 2012.” Shelton’s 27-city arena tour will launch in Toledo, OH this January, ending in March at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas. Assisting the reigning CMA Male Vocalist and five-time CMA […]

Mark Cooke Releases Debut EP

Monday (9/26), country artist Mark Cooke released his limited edition, debut EP Living For The Weekend. Produced by J.Gary Smith and John Smith, the six track collection includes the upcoming single, “Anyway The Wind Blows.”

Men On The Move: Bryan, Bentley, Adkins, and Keith

Artist updates for Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, Trace Adkins and Toby Keith.

McCreery Reveals Release Week Plans For Debut

Scotty McCreery is slated to release his debut album, Clear As Day, on Oct. 4. His release week will include several national television appearances and a hometown event, celebrating his album release along with his 18th birthday.

Darren Elrod Promoted At Provident

Provident Music Group Pres./CEO Terry Hemmings has announced the promotion of Darren Elrod to Sr. VP of Finance and Operations for Provident.

Jaron Lowenstein Joins Cordovas, Releases New Album

Jaron Lowenstein of Jaron and the Long Road to Love has recorded a genre-bending album with Joe Firstman and their new band Cordovas. Produced by Rick Parker and Firstman, the new album blends Southern Rock, Alt/Country, Gospel and Bluegrass. The band has made the album available for sale at live shows, digitally worldwide on iTunes and for free download at their […]

Karen Kane Joins Sony Music Nashville

Karen Kane has joined Sony Music Nashville’s marketing team.

Australian Artists Return For Americana Music Festival

Oct. 12 – 15 Nashville welcomes back a lineup of Australian roots artists for the city’s annual Americana Music Festival and Conference.

Burns & Poe Support Postal Workers; Launch Internship Contest

In learning about the plight of the United States Postal Service workers and their plan to rally nationwide with the hope to save their jobs, Blue Steel Records duo Burns & Poe was moved to lend its voice in support.

Hayes Prepares For Album Release; Headlines Tour

Fresh off touring with Taylor Swift on her Speak Now Tour, Hunter Hayes returned to his hometown of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana last week (9/22) to film the GAC special, Introducing: Hunter Hayes. Hunter visited family and friends and stopped by local radio station KMDL 97.3 The Dawg. His Atlantic Records self-titled debut album, which he co-produced […]

2011 International Bluegrass Awards Winners

See who won bluegrass music’s top honors at the 2011 International Bluegrass Awards

Weekly Chart Report (9/30/11)

Movement is the name of the game on the CountryBreakout Chart, and there’s no shortage of it this week.

Bobby Karl Works the IBMA Awards

For the past five years, no one has helped to raise the profile of bluegrass music more than Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers. The International Bluegrass Music Association voters at last recognized that fact by naming the act its Entertainer of the Year. […]

CountryBreakout No. 1 Song

Have you ever been listening to music in the car and heard a song so powerful that you had to pull over to give it your full attention?

Charlie Cook On Air

Arbitron says that there are almost 16 million people in the New York Metro area. I counted 97 stations getting some mention in a recent ratings month. Some were out of market but still collected listening in the NY metro.

Warner Music Adds Sr. Publicist

A former WMG staffer returns to the mix on Oct. 3.

Thursday News Parade

Brett Eldredge visits Hall of Fame; Ogden Joins PLA Media and Welch Becomes MOC Co-Chair

IEBA Conference Opens Sunday

Highlights include an address from Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard, and the WME showcase.

Pickler Acting Debut On 90210

Kellie Pickler’s personality is as big as the North Carolina mountains where she grew up, in Albermarle. In fact, her infectious sense of humor may be too huge to allow her to be branded as just a music artist. So it should be no surprise that she has become almost a regular on the Ellen […]

Playing The Opry Is A Dream Gig

Survey of thousands of musicians ranks playing the Opry one of the Most Desired gigs. See who recently made that dream a reality.

Americana Music Festival Takes Fun Off-Site

The Americana Music Association Festival and Conference runs Oct. 12-15 with events centered at the Downtown Sheraton, but that’s not stopping organizers from expanding the reach to other venues around town. Many of the events listed below are also free and open to the public. Check americanamusic.org for admission details and times. For those interested […]

Slideshow: Brent Anderson, Josh Turner, Will Hoge, Glen Campbell

Sea Gayle Records/Arista Nashville newcomer Brent Anderson debuted music from his upcoming album at an industry lunch and showcase at 3rd & Lindsley.

She’s Country Tour To Feature Newfield and Tatum

Heidi Newfield Paradigm Talent Agency and 343 Agency are partnering on an all-girl country genre club tour aptly titled, She’s Country. Presented by Pendleton Whisky, the first 13 dates will feature Heidi Newfield and Bridgette Tatum plus special guests. “Heidi and Bridgette both bring high-energy performances and a ‘let’s party’ attitude that are perfectly suited […]

Industry Ink Thursday (9/29)

The Farm at Pickin’ On The Patio • Way Out West taps Mike Severson • Buddy Cannon contact update and more

Familar Faces Grace “Most Beautiful” List

Nashville Lifestyles’ “25 Most Beautiful People” list includes several familiar faces from Music Row.

McBride Orchestrates ELEVEN; Songwriter Agency Signings; and Marlee Scott Visits CMA

Tune in to watch Martina McBride sing the National Anthem at the Oct. 2 NFL Football game between the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Jets, broadcast on NBC at 8:30 PM EST. The contest also kicks off NFL Breast Cancer Awareness which will continue throughout October and be highlighted with pink ribbon decals on the […]

New UMG Artist Builds Team

This rising artist/writer has signed with ASCAP, Vector Management and EMI Music Publishing.

NBN SoundLand: A Whirlwind Experience

It was a whirlwind of sights, sounds, lessons, and people. From the Opening Reception at TPAC until My So-Called Band’s closing set, Next BIG Nashville’s SoundLand Music Festival carried over a hundred local and national acts through a very strong schedule of invaluable experiences.

The Civil Wars Case Study

The industry took note when the first album from indie act The Civil Wars debuted with sales of 25K units. In the almost eight months since, Barton Hollow has passed the 180K mark. How’d they do it?

Paisley Wraps “H2O II Tour”

Next up, co-hosting CMA Awards with Carrie Underwood.

Country’s Album TEA Party

The largest and final sales quarter of 2011 is almost upon us and the list of planned album releases is mostly revealed (except for a few possible last minute surprises). The above graph is intended to help readers quickly grasp how album sales are trending. Last week for example (week ended 9-18-11), country hit its […]

Top Songwriters To Perform Benefits

Wake Up Nashville with Gibson, Wood • Delbert McClinton At Franklin Theatre • Barefoot In The Round with Beathard, Laird, O’Donnell • Shantell Ogden For Book ‘Em

David Nail Sets Sophomore Release Date

Plans MCA follow-up to I’m About To Come Alive.

Warner/Chappell Signing News

Who’s the newest writer on the Warner/Chappell roster?

Country Johnny Mathis Passes

‘Country’ Johnny Mathis, not to be confused with the pop singer, passed away at his home September 27 at the age of 80.

Rascal Flatts To Join The Grand Ole Opry

Tuesday night (9/27), Opry member Vince Gill invited Rascal Flatts to join the Grand Ole Opry. Gill surprised to group on stage with the invitation, after they’d finished performing “Bless The Broken Road.” Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney, members of Rascal Flatts, will be inducted Saturday, Oct. 8. The induction will take […]

DISClaimer Single Reviews (9/28/11)

This week at the Convention Center, it’s round-the-clock picking and singing at the IBMA World of Bluegrass confab. Among the week’s highlights are the presentation of the IBMA Awards at the Ryman Auditorium on Thursday evening. The discs in this week’s column all belong to nominees. […]

Bobby Karl Works IBMA Week

Chapter 375—Boy, I sure hope what I witnessed on Tuesday afternoon (9/27) is the beginning of a new IBMA tradition.

iTunes Crowd Continues To Swell

NPD’s latest research reports one in four U.S. Internet users now use iTunes—almost 51 million people—and an increase of 3% since last year. Music remains the primary activity of iTunes users, although app downloads is also seeing growth. 54% of iTunes users downloaded or listened to music this year and 28% downloaded a free app […]

Walk The West, Cactus Brothers Leader Dies At Age 48

Paul Kirby, who co-founded the Nashville rock band Walk the West and also led the country-rocking Cactus Brothers, has died of cardiac arrest at age 48.

Make It 10 For Chesney

Kenny Chesney has reached another significant milestone with his latest album, Hemingway’s Whiskey (BNA), which has […]

Industry Toasts Moore’s No. 1 “If Heaven…”

BMI and ASCAP teamed up at CMA headquarters to honor the songwriting team behind Justin Moore’s No. 1 “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away.”

Bluegrass Blooms In Downtown Nashville

The IBMA World of Bluegrass is this week and MusicRow critic Robert K. Oermann picks the best showcases and events.

Armiger Launches Deluxe Package With Opry Performance

Katie Armiger finally got to stand in country music’s inner circle […]

Promoting #Hashtag Happiness

Twitter is becoming a favored source for entertainment industry news and promotion, however the volume of tweets is reaching tsunami proportions. One way to fine tune the tweet-flow, is by using hashtags, a word preceded by the poundsign, i.e. #mynews. Hypebot.com recently wrote about some of the favorite tags its readers are using to parse […]

Honky Tonk TV Acquired

Weekly country music news and entertainment television show Honky Tonk TV has been acquired by Phoenix-based Morgans Media Group…

Johnnie Wright Passes

[Updated with arrangements] Country singer Johnnie Wright died this morning (9/27) at age 97 following a lengthy illness. He is known as a solo artist, as husband of female pioneer Kitty Wells, and as part of the duo Johnnie & Jack.

peermusic Adds Creative Manager

The music publisher has added a key new member to its team.

NBN SoundLand: Day 4

After late nights with Next Big Nashville’s SoundLand on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I spent the rest of the weekend dragging. I guess there’s always a price for pursuing good times.

Industry Ink: Republic Nashville Hiring

Plus Capitol Street Party attendance, news from IEBA/Paradigm, CRS, and more.