Pianist James D. Walbert has died at the age of 91 near Birmingham, Alabama. He began his career as the teenage accompanist for the famed Vaughan Quartet of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. The quartet was among the acts recorded at Nashville’s very first recording sessions, in 1928. He was the grandson of the group’s founder, James D. […]
Chapter 311 Both the start and the finish of Thursday’s CMA Music Festival concerts were marred by weather, but in between it was a blast. Thunder rumbled, and an ominous black cloud descended on Music City as things were about to get underway at Riverfront Park. About 10 minutes before the 10:00 AM show time, […]
String Theory Media reporter Craig Havighurst reports that Ticketmaster Entertainment’s echomusic will shut down sites of “between 100 and 200 clients” on June 15-18. Most of those artists involved are independent and/or developing artists. echo has said there will be no refunds and most upsetting to many of the clients, there is no pathway to […]
Perennial hitmaker Jeffrey Steele carved time out of his busy schedule to celebrate the success of his No. 1 single “Here” at a private dinner hosted by BMI at Fleming’s on Monday, June 8. Recorded by Rascal Flatts, “Here” marks Steele’s eighth No. 1 hit, four of which have been recorded by the band. Steele […]
John Barker resigned his position as President of Integrated Copyright Group (ICG) and Vice President of Evergreen Copyright Administration on Monday. Following that, today Evergreen co-CEOs David Schulhof and Richard Perna announced that ICG has formally changed its company name to EverGreen Copyrights. All ICG remaining staff will continue as employees of EverGreen. ICG, the […]
Chapter 310 The CMA Music Festival always starts before it’s supposed to. There has already been plenty of activity, including a superstar sighting. Alan Jackson isn’t “officially” playing the fest this year, but Wednesday night (6/10) he took over Cadillac Ranch on Lower Broadway to celebrate his 20th anniversary. It was this month in 1989 […]
Renowned producer Barry Beckett (1943-2009) passed away peacefully at his home last night, June 10, surrounded by family. His storied career ranged from Muscle Shoals musician to Nashville producer. We will post arrangements as they become available. Beckett was born February 4, 1943 in Birmingham, Alabama. He spent many years as part of the house […]
Miranda Lambert will unleash her third album, Revolution, on Sept. 29. For the project she reunited with producers Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke who are putting the final touches on the release. She wrote three songs on the album alone, and co-wrote a majority of the other tracks with writers including Blake Shelton, Ashley Monroe, […]
Minnesota lawyer Kiwi Camara and Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson have signaled their intention to file a class action lawsuit against the recording industry demanding the return over $100 million that the RIAA supposedly has collected as penalties from file-sharing cases with consumers. Camara is also in a high-profile Minnesota RIAA case later this month. […]
SoundScan’s inner numerics held few surprises this week as sales on Country’s Current Top 75 remained flat (-2% to be precise). For the week ended 6/7/09 country sales are down 3.3% Y/Y which continues to compare favorably with the industry overall now down 14%. Lost Highway’s Ryan Bingham debuts on the country list at No. […]