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Weekly Chart Report (5/17/19)

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LEADERSHIP: A Conversation 30 Years In The Making With Jim Ed Norman, Tony Brown, And Joe Galante

Pictured (L-R): Jim Ed Norman, Tony Brown, Joe Galante. Photo: Haley Crow / MusicRow

Founded 30 years ago, Leadership Music has become a mark of excellence in the Nashville music industry. When respected label head and producer Jim Ed Norman found himself inspired by Leadership Nashville, a broad spectrum program for leaders started by Nelson C. Andrews and C. Brent Poulton in 1976, he brought the concept to the figureheads of the Nashville music business community. At a small luncheon in the old Warner Bros. building, Norman proposed a similar program focused on communication and education within the Nashville music industry. The group agreed, resulting in the birth of Leadership Music in 1989.

The founding council for Leadership Music was made up of 12 power players from Nashville’s music industry, including Norman, Rick Blackburn, Tony Brown, Tom Collins, Bill Denny, Joe Galante, Bruce Hinton, Dale Franklin, Bill Ivey, Joe Moscheo, Tandy Rice and Roger Sovine.

Norman, Galante and Brown recently visited the MusicRow offices to discuss the establishment of Leadership Music 30 years ago, as well as its importance to the Nashville music industry with MusicRow‘s Owner/Publisher Sherod Robertson. The article appeared in MusicRow‘s 2019 InCharge, a directory of 388 key decision-making professionals within the Nashville entertainment community.

Leadership Music’s Founding Council with Leadership Nashville founder, Nelson Andrews. Pictured (L-R): Bruce Hinton, Joe Moscheo, Rick Blackburn, Tony Brown, Bill Ivey, Dale Franklin, Jim Ed Norman, Joe Galante, Nelson Andrews, Bill Denny, Roger Sovine, and Tom Collins. Not pictured is Founding Council member Tandy Rice.

“We had a framework because of Leadership Nashville,” said founding council member and renowned music industry executive Joe Galante. “That was such a great program for us to follow. What Leadership Nashville does is cover the city–an even more daunting challenge than what we were about to do. This is probably the only town you could pull this off in. This is not, in my mind, an exportable model, not only because of the dedication of the founding council, but of everybody that came after.”

The goal was clear from the start: inspire camaraderie amongst the companies within the Nashville entertainment industry, provide an education of various roles, and improve communication up and down Music Row. The council went to work on creating program days and activities that would benefit the first class of attendees. “We had many new people moving to town. Some people had been friends for a long time, but there were a lot of new people coming in. Leadership Nashville had been such a great catalyst for bringing people together of diverse opinions and points of view,” said Norman.

Galante added, “You would think after all these years, we would know more about each other’s jobs, and that’s what Leadership Music does. Not only does it give you the ‘Rolodex’ and the introductions to people, but it gives you the knowledge that you didn’t have before. That was Nelson’s vision for Leadership Nashville. Jim Ed took up the challenge and then we all rallied around him. I actually think it’s helped strengthen the town.”

Pictured (L-R): Owen Bradley, Chet Atkins, and Scott Hendricks.

Creating significant change was crucial to the mission of Leadership Nashville, as well as Leadership Music. Norman recalled, “At the end of each year at the Leadership Nashville graduation, Nelson Andrews would say, ‘Okay. You’ve had this amazing experience. You’ve gotten a chance to meet people from different facets of the community. You see how it operates and works, and you’ve been inspired, hopefully, by all of that. What are you going to do with it?’”

When Leadership Music started, the music industry as a whole looked very different. Vinyl was on its way out, country music was fighting for its own charts and although artists and songwriters were making money, the genre had not gained universal acceptance or recognition outside of Nashville. This was about to change. The offices up and down Music Row, that were reporting to their parent companies in New York or L.A., were about to be heard.

“We were an island to ourselves to a large degree,” Galante said. “The reality was that it was a real investment in education for the executives in this town, which I think only strengthened us. We did have people here that were tied in, but this really strengthened that process to bring speakers in from a broad standpoint. We still were considered backwoods by most people. Maybe once or twice a year, you got a New York executive here but they didn’t come on a regular basis, and they couldn’t wait to get the hell out of dodge. When Country Soundscan happens, all of a sudden everybody goes, ‘Hell, you guys are actually selling music down there. When did that start happening!?’ But prior to that we were fighting on a continual basis to get the support, to get the charts to recognize us. All that stuff didn’t happen by itself. I think people forget, to a large degree, when we all started working together, this was largely a regional format.”

Leadership Music not only seeks to identify problems in the music industry, it addresses them and looks for solutions. “It was a male-dominated industry,” Norman said of the time Leadership Nashville was started. “All the stuff that you go through to make sure the class, in any given year, represents not only the particular disciplines, but all the other things that we’re trying to work on in our society and our culture, give the class the chance of becoming a microcosm of America.”

Leadership Music is celebrating its historic 30th year, with alumni totaling more than 1,200, including nearly four dozen current and former heads of record labels; executive directors of the CMA, GMA, CRB, CMF, Folk Alliance, Americana Music Association, International Bluegrass Music Association, International Entertainment Buyers Association and NSAI; executives from The Recording Academy, the National Endowment for the Arts, RIAA, the First Amendment Center, Nashville Symphony, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, MusicRow, SoundExchange, CMT, GAC; the Country Music Hall of Fame; Microsoft; Samsung, Twitter, Amazon, YouTube, Pandora, two Nashville Mayors, a U.S. Congressman, a past editor of USA Today; deans of three universities, attorneys, accountants, publishers, publicists, journalists, booking agents, artist managers, artists, songwriters, radio executives, entrepreneurs, record producers and engineers, video producers, musicians and bankers.

Getting into Leadership Music was no easy task. Candidates were already established leaders in their varied professions in the music industry, and getting selected was sought after, as Leadership Music quickly became a symbol of status and accomplishment.

“This was music’s version of the Masons, nobody knew what they did,” legendary producer and A&R man Tony Brown joked. “I think this was a great way of networking. If you could get into Leadership Music, you could network with the people you couldn’t get in to see. I loved the fact that it covered everybody from the soldiers up to the executives, and everybody in between. It became a real status symbol– if you could be in the program.”

Thirty years later, Leadership Music remains a symbol of status, and a sought-after opportunity. “There’s been so many organizations that people will poke at and say, ‘It’s been the same group of people for 25 years’,” Galante said. “This group continues to morph, and it reflects the general music business. It doesn’t get stuck, and that is the strength of Leadership Music. It just naturally evolves and adapts to its environment. And that’s the best thing that we could hope for.”

“I think the thing that Leadership Music does do though, is that passion statement,” Galante continued. “All during the program days, as you’re all aware, it’s not just business. It’s the creative and what it means for these artists, and I think people walk away with a newfound respect, because it’s hard. No matter what part of the process it is, everybody in this room signed somebody, believes in it, and you get the shit knocked out of you several times along the way.”

Inspiring leaders have been strengthened from Leadership Music, including the likes of Mike Dungan, Leslie Fram, Bart Herbison, Robert Oermann, Scott Borchetta, Jackie Patillo, Kyle Young, Sally Williams, Terry Wakefield, John Esposito, Dave Cobb, Barry Dean, Liz Rose, Mary Gauthier and many more. Participants make an extensive time commitment when they are selected to Leadership Music. The program lasts eight months, with the first and last meetings being weekend retreats. Within six monthly meetings, which average 12 hours each, the participants make on-site visits around the community, focusing on such subjects as Songwriting/Publishing, the Artist, Studio/Audio, Record Company, Live Music and Media.

Pictured: The first class of Leadership Music displays their certificates in 1989. Members of the first class included: Janice Azrak, Eddie Bayers, Jeffrey Beals, Ed Benson, Connie Bradley, Jerry Bradley, Donald Butler, Vincent Candilora, David Conrad, Tony Conway, Paul Corbin, Tim DuBois, Jim Foglesong, Joanne Gardner, Lon Helton, Scott Hendricks, Stanley Hitchcock, W. Michael Milom, Robert K. Oermann, Kerry O’Neil, Chip Peay, Joyce Rice, Pat Rogers, Thom Schuyler, Nancy Shapiro, Harold Shedd, Connie Westfall, Jack Weston, and Roy Wunsch.

“One of the things I had tried to point out over the course of time is following the money,” Galante said. “I really think part of our responsibility was to show people things like ‘What is a mechanical?’ Most people go ‘Mechanical? What is that?’ Still to this day, I’m always amazed at how often people say, ‘How does that work again?’”

“We have so many people that are coming in from other disciplines around the country, and it helps us stay abreast of the issues,” Galante continued. “I think bringing people in from YouTube and SoundExchange is all good news for us, as opposed to getting the news secondhand.”

Brown suggests that Leadership Music is crucial to the Nashville music business now more than ever. “I think Leadership Music keeps people in line with the fact that the business is so fractured,” he said. “I don’t know everybody at every label like I did back in the day, and I don’t think that’s because I’m not at a record label now. I read every magazine in the music industry, and I stay up on who’s going where. I think that Leadership Music now is probably more important than it was when we started it.”

Galante agreed. “Music still is under-appreciated,” he said. “We’re still going through the same conversation about being compensated and protecting the copyright. How many decades, and we’re still arguing about this stuff. We just include the term ‘metadata’ now, that we never used to talk about, which is an important issue.”

“I remember getting a call at the end of the year from someone who’d been in the business, who was well known, and said, ‘I’ve been in the business for 20 years. What are you going to teach me?’ to start, and at the end it was, ‘I’ve been in the business for 20 years, and I can’t believe what I learned,’” said Norman.

Pictured (L-R): Robert K. Oermann, Brenda Lee, Sally Williams, and Jeff Gregg.

Norman, Galante and Brown are unquestionably in the class of excellence personifying Leadership Music. When it comes to leadership, the three have valuable insights on developing such an important trait.

Norman touts respected United States Army General Norman Schwarzkopf’s notion of leadership, saying, “Schwarzkopf had that wonderful quote on leadership about it being this potent combination of strategy and character and if you must be ‘all in’ on one, make sure it’s character. We would go into these [programs] and be strategizing about business and how to get better. People came to appreciate that we’re in this together and what it meant to maintain high character and integrity as you walk through this process.”

“And it’s a lonely job,” Galante added. “I think that character is essential because if your team doesn’t trust you, you have the basis removed. [This includes] being able to listen, seek as much council as you possibly can before you make a decision, and let people feel like they have been heard. You may not agree with them, but that’s your responsibility. And there’s the accountability–you have to be able to stand up and say, ‘I made that decision. Yes, I’m responsible for that. I’ll take the hit.’”

Brown referred back to his star-making days at RCA, saying, “I think the employees have to know you have a passion, and that you have knowledge about what’s happening and what’s going to happen, and standing up for the history of the music that you’re working in. They have to think that you know what you’re doing. You’ve got to have taste. You can have good taste, and good taste could mean commercial music that sells, but then you’ve got to have taste that is a little eclectic, to where they think you’ve got a set of balls and you have blind faith.”

“It’s really your ability to provide insight, inspire, to be there, available for counsel,” Jim Ed Norman summarized. “ I think it might have been Colin Powell that said, ‘When a soldier stops bringing you their problems, is when you stop being a leader.’ You have to build an environment that encourages people to feel comfortable and safe, to tell you the truth, and you have to be prepared to listen to the truth and respond to it as productively as you can. I think the number one trait is character and integrity.”

Pictured: Tim DuBois

The three music industry giants also keep close to heart that even though the music business is a business, the music and artists must remain the prime focus.

“We can get consumed with the business,” said Norman. “It’s vital to remember that the business is built on the shoulders of artists, and they hold us up.”

“We are in the artist business,” Galante agreed. “I used to tell people all the time they are the ones in front of the microphone. Our job is to support them.”

Breaking: Nominees Revealed For 31st Annual MusicRow Awards

MusicRow is pleased to announce the nominees for the 31st Annual MusicRow Awards, Nashville’s longest-running and now newly expanded industry trade publication honors.

Download the PDF and see the complete list of nominees.

Subscribed members of MusicRow will receive ballots by email on Tuesday, May 14, 2019. Voting closes on Tuesday, May 21 at 5 p.m. CT. The 2019 MusicRow Awards will be presented during an invitation-only event on Wednesday, June 26. To receive a ballot and invitation for balcony seating at the MusicRow Awards, become a MusicRow subscriber here.

Supporting Sponsors of the event are Vaden Group | Elliott Davis, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and Keller Turner Andrews & Ghanem, PLLC. Partner level sponsors include Ram Trucks and City National Bank.

Nominees in all eleven categories are determined by the MusicRow selection committee. Winners are selected based on votes from the publication’s subscribed members. Outside submissions were accepted for the Breakthrough Songwriter and Breakthrough Artist-Writer categories, which honor writers and co-writers who scored their first Top 10 single during the eligibility period (May 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019).

MusicRow will also honor the Top 10 Album All-Star Musicians Awards at the event, recognizing the studio players who played on the most albums reaching the Top 10 of Billboard‘s Country Album Chart during the eligibility period.

Winners will be announced at the 2019 MusicRow Awards. MusicRow‘s June/July print magazine will also debut at the awards ceremony.

If you do not have a MusicRow print news subscription, you may subscribe to receive your ballot and invitation.

Weekly Chart Report (5/10/19)

Click here or above to access MusicRow’s weekly CountryBreakout Report.

Official: Deborah Dugan Named Recording Academy President/CEO

Deborah Dugan. Photo: Courtesy The Recording Academy

The Recording Academy Board of Trustees has appointed Deborah Dugan as the next President/CEO of the Recording Academy, the leading society of performers, musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, and all music professionals, and the organization behind the annual GRAMMY Awards®. The appointment was announced today by John Poppo, Chair of the Board. Dugan is the first woman appointed as President/CEO of the Recording Academy and will assume the role on Aug. 1, 2019.

“I’m honored, humbled, and ready,” said incoming Recording Academy President/CEO Dugan. “The goal of the Recording Academy is to support, encourage, and advocate for those within the music community. I will listen to and champion all of those individuals, and lead this iconic organization into the future. I’m excited to get started.”

“Deborah is a highly accomplished business executive and a visionary leader who also brings to this role a great passion for the mission of the Academy,” said Poppo. “The Board of Trustees is very eager to work with her as we embark on this next chapter in the Recording Academy’s story.”

Dugan brings three decades of high-level private sector and nonprofit executive experience to the role. Dugan most recently served as CEO of (RED), the AIDS nonprofit co-founded in 2006 by U2 singer Bono and activist Bobby Shriver. During her tenure, she worked with the creative community on many groundbreaking campaigns, tripling (RED)’s contributions to the Global Fund and positively impacting millions of lives.

A former Wall Street mergers and acquisitions attorney, Dugan was also president of Disney Publishing Worldwide, and executive vice president of EMI Records Group/Angel Records. She currently serves as co-chair of the award-winning storytelling nonprofit The Moth.

In her role, Dugan will oversee all Recording Academy affairs, working closely with the Academy’s Board of Trustees and senior management team to advance the Academy’s goals and mission. She will drive the creative and strategic vision of the organization and lead the operations of the Academy. Dugan will also serve as President/CEO of MusiCares® and on the boards of the GRAMMY Museum Foundation® and The Latin Recording Academy®.

MusicRow Awards Voting Begins Tuesday, May 14

Voting for the 31st annual MusicRow Awards begins Tuesday, May 14 and ends on Tuesday, May 21 at 5:00 p.m.

The invitation-only MusicRow Awards will be held Wednesday, June 26 at the War Memorial Auditorium.

Readers must have a valid and current subscription to vote. Click here to purchase or renew subscription.

This year will also feature new categories including Artist of the Year, Label of the Year, Discovery Artist of the year, Male Songwriter of the Year, Female Songwriter of the Year, and Agency of the Year.

Totaling 11 categories in all, other awards include Producer of the Year, Song of the Year, Breakthrough Artist of the Year, Breakthrough Songwriter and Breakthrough Artist-Writer.

MusicRow will also honor the Top 10 Album All-Star Musicians Awards at the event, recognizing the studio players who played on the most albums reaching the Top 10 of Billboard’s Country Album Chart during the eligibility period. Honors will be presented for guitar, bass, drums, fiddle, keyboards, steel, vocals and engineer categories.

Supporting Sponsors of the event are Vaden Group | Elliott Davis, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and Keller Turner Andrews & Ghanem, PLLC. Partner level sponsors are Ram Trucks and City National Bank.

The historic War Memorial Auditorium, one of the early homes of the Grand Ole Opry and where U.S. Presidents such as John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon have delivered speeches, was built in 1925 and remains one of Nashville’s most elegant and revered buildings.

MusicRow Subscribed Members will receive invites for complimentary balcony seating. Purchased tables include premium floor seating. For tickets and seating, click here.

 

Weekly Chart Report (5/3/19)

Click here or above to access MusicRow’s weekly CountryBreakout Report.

Spirit Music Group Appoints Frank Rogers As CEO, Spirit Music Nashville

Frank Rogers

Spirit Music Group has appointed Frank Rogers to Chief Executive Officer, Spirit Music Nashville. Rogers will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of Spirit Music Nashville’s creative and operational activities. Daniel Hill will exit the company.

“Frank Rogers is a rare talent—from his ability to produce and write No. 1 hits, to his amazing business acumen,” said Jon Singer, Chairman, Spirit Music Group. “Frank has a vision for Spirit Music Nashville and I have no doubt he will execute on that vision and exceed expectations. We are fortunate to have Frank lead our talented writers and staff in this next chapter. I also want to thank Daniel Hill for all of his years of service and have the utmost respect for him.”

“I am excited to have the opportunity to lead the talented staff and roster at Spirit Music Nashville,” said Rogers. “The entire Spirit Music Group team has been wonderful partners for myself and Fluid Music Revolution. I look forward to continuing to build something special with both the Spirit and Fluid teams.”

“Songwriters and songs are my passion and I am honored and grateful to have worked alongside some of the best at Spirit,” said Hill. “I am proud of the Spirit team and our many accomplishments, and I look forward to even more successes for us all.”

Frank Rogers is a multi-platinum producer and songwriter who has won MusicRow’s Producer of the Year award four times and Billboard’s No. 1 Hot Country Producer Award from 2006 – 2010. His work to date has resulted in thirteen Country Music Association award nominations, including a win for Album of the Year for Time Well Wasted with Brad Paisley. Rogers also has credits with Trace Adkins, Josh Turner, Darius Rucker, Phil Vassar, Darryl Worley, and Scotty McCreery, and has received five Academy of Country Music awards.

Rogers has also co-written several No. 1 songs, including: “I’m Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin’ Song)” by Brad Paisley, “Alright” and “This” by Darius Rucker, “Five More Minutes” and “This Is It” by Scotty McCreery, and “Backroad Song” by Granger Smith.

Rogers moved to Nashville in 1990 and got his Music Business degree from Belmont University, where he met friend and future collaborator Brad Paisley. Rogers then worked for EMI Nashville Production and opened Nashville independent publisher Sea Gayle Music with Paisley and Chris DuBois.

In 2016, Spirit Music Group formed a multi-faceted deal with Rogers and together established Fluid Music Revolution. Through the agreement, Spirit acquired Rogers’ one third interest in certain copyrights of the respected Sea Gayle Music. The deal also leveraged Rogers’ executive abilities and creative talent. Spirit’s venture with Rogers empowered him to bring new artists, producers, and writers to the company. He also joined Spirit’s roster as a songwriter, and the company exclusively administers all of his new compositions worldwide.

In addition to its deal with Rogers, Spirit’s deals in the country music landscape have included a deal with Zach Crowell that included the acquisition of his I Love Pizza Music catalog, which features many No. 1 hits. Spirit also formed a co-publishing venture with Crowell along with Ashley Gorley’s Tape Room Music, that encompasses Crowell’s future compositions. Spirit also made a deal with Grammy-winning Nashville songwriter Josh Osborne to acquire his co-published catalog, which features 500 songs. Spirit Music Nashville and Fluid Music Revolution also completed deals with Justin Adams, Derek George, Jason Lehning, Monty Criswell, Kyle Rife, Erik Belz, Marcus Hummon, Palmer Lee, Mike Fiorentino, Phillip White, and SESAC Songwriter of the Year Cary Barlowe. The company acquired the successful Nashville-based independent music publisher, production, and artist management company, Cal IV Entertainment, which brought top country writers, artists, and staff into the fold along with 25 No. 1 country copyrights and top ten singles. Spirit also acquired the StyleSonic catalog, bringing another four No. 1 country songs to its portfolio as well as over fifteen Top 20 country songs spanning the last decade.

Recent successes by Spirit Music Nashville and Fluid Music Revolution include a publishing interest in ASCAP’s Song of the Year (“Body Like a Back Road” by Sam Hunt, Zach Crowell and Josh Osborne); SESAC’s Song of the Year (“It Don’t Hurt Like It Used To” by Billy Currington); CMA Song of the Year (“Blue Ain’t Your Color” by Keith Urban) and CMA Album of the Year From a Room: Volume 1 by Chris Stapleton); and a publishing interest in ACM nominations for Song of the Year (“Whiskey & You” by Chris Stapleton); Single of the Year (“Broken Halos” by Chris Stapleton and “Drinkin’ Problem” by Midland) and Songwriter of the Year (Josh Osborne).

 In January, Spirit Music Group executives Jon Singer and Ross Cameron formed Lyric Capital Group to take ownership of Spirit Music Group and secure a recapitalization of over $350 million. Now wholly-owned by the newly formed Lyric Capital Group, Spirit Music Group remains a strong, independent publisher.

Weekly Chart Report (2/22/19)

Click here or above to access MusicRow’s weekly CountryBreakout Report.

[Updated]: Visitation, Celebration Of Life Services Set For Fred Foster

[Updated, March 14, 10:28 a.m. CT] 

Visitation and celebration of life services have been set for the late Fred Foster. A visitation will be held on Friday, March 22, 2019 from 4 – 8 p.m. at Phillips Robinson Funeral Home (2707 Gallatin Road, Nashville, TN). A celebration of life service is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 23, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church of Nashville (4815 Franklin Pike, Nashville). In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to St. Jude’s Hospital for Children or Alive Hospice of Nashville.

[Previous story, Feb. 21, 2019]

By Robert K. Oermann

Record producer, label owner and Nashville pop-music pioneer Fred Foster has passed away at age 87.

A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Foster was involved in the careers of such greats as Kris Kristofferson, Dolly Parton, Tony Joe White, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Jeannie Seely, Ray Stevens, Connie Smith, Larry Gatlin, Boots Randolph, Grandpa Jones and Charlie McCoy.

He was a North Carolina native born in 1931 who began his career as a songwriter in Washington, D.C. During his early years in the music business, he went to work for Mercury Records and ABC-Paramount Records, as well as for a record-distribution firm in Baltimore.

In 1958, he founded Monument Records. The company had its first hit with the Nashville-recorded “Gotta Travel On” by Billy Grammer the following year. The single was a smash on both the country and pop charts, foretelling the label’s future fortunes.

With the help of songwriter Boudleaux Bryant, Foster moved to Music City in 1960. Bryant recorded for Monument, but Foster’s more lucrative signing was Roy Orbison.
Orbison wrote and recorded his first Monument hit in 1960, “Only the Lonely.” He subsequently became a huge international pop star with “Running Scared” (1961), “Crying” (1961), “Dream Baby” (1962), “In Dreams” (1963), “Blue Bayou” (1963), “Pretty Paper” (1963), “It’s Over” (1964), “Oh Pretty Woman” (1964) and other hits with Foster in the producer’s chair.

 

Fred Foster’s 50th Birthday Roast. Fred Foster and Dolly Parton, 1981.

Bob Moore and His Orchestra had a pop instrumental hit on Monument with “Mexico” in 1961, and Boots Randolph scored with the 1963 pop instrumental “Yakety Sax.”
In 1962, Monument made minor music history by releasing “Jealous Heart” by Leona Douglas, believed to be the first country recording by an African-American female.
In 1963, Foster founded Sound Stage 7 Records, one of Nashville’s most important r&b labels. It was home to Joe Simon, Arthur Alexander, The Dixie Belles and Ivory Joe Hunter. Foster also released records by Lloyd Price, Gene Allison, Percy Sledge and Robert Knight (“Everlasting Love”).

On the country charts, Jeannie Seely hit paydirt on Monument with the Grammy-winning “Don’t Touch Me” in 1966. She followed it with “It’s Only Love,” “A Wanderin’ Man,” “I’ll Love You More” and other country successes.

Her fellow Opry star Billy Walker also had a string of country hits on Monument in 1966-68. Movie star Robert Mitchum had a Monument country hit with “Little Ole Wine Drinker Me” in 1967. Grandpa Jones had the biggest chart hit of his career with 1963’s “T for Texas” on the label.

Henson Cargill had a No. 1 country smash with the socially conscious “Skip a Rope” in 1968. Charlie McCoy spent more than a decade on the label charting such instrumental hits as “I Started Loving You Again” ‘Orange Blossom Special” and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” in 1972-83..

Dolly Parton began her hit-making career with the Foster-produced “Dumb Blonde” and “Something Fishy” on Monument in 1967. Foster also recorded her singing pop tunes.
In addition to Boudeaux Bryant, Foster also recorded such top country tunesmiths as Harlan Howard, Cindy Walker, Willie Nelson, Norro Wilson, Bobby Russell, Don Robertson, Wayne Carson, Billy Joe Shaver, Bob Morrison and Hank Cochran.

Back on the pop hit parade, Ray Stevens had hits with such Monument singles as “Mr. Businessman” (1968) and “Gitarzan” (1969). Tony Joe White was introduced with the 1969 international smash “Polk Salad Annie” in 1969.

Fred Foster also founded the song-publishing firm Combine Music, which was run by the late Bob Beckham. It was through this connection that he began to produce White, as well as Kris Kristofferson.

2016 Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Fred Foster, Charlie Daniels and Randy Travis.

The latter’s big country hit was 1973’s “Why Me.” Foster also suggested the title for Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee.”

Larry Gatlin was signed to Monument in 1973. Between 1976 and 1978, he had seven top-10 hits on the label, including the No. 1 hit “I Just Wish You Were Someone I Loved” (1977) and the Grammy winning “Broken Lady” (1976).

One of the label’s last pop successes was Billy Swan’s “I Can Help” in 1974. It also tried with the Southern-rock band Barefoot Jerry. Connie Smith’s string of Monument singles in 1977-78 were among the company’s last on the country charts.

Due to poor investments, Fred Foster filed for bankruptcy in 1983. He attempted to save his company with an album titled The Winning Hand, starring Nelson, Parton, Kristofferson and Brenda Lee.

Foster sold Combine in 1986 and Monument the following year. In succeeding years, he worked as an independent record producer.

He produced the Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Ray Price album Last of the Breed (2007). This featured Price and Nelson’s Grammy-winning duet “Lost Highway.” Foster was behind the board for Nelson’s You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker album of 2006, and he produced Price’s final recordings to create the 2014 collection Beauty Is.

He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2016. His Monument imprint has been revived twice more, but without his involvement.

Fred Foster had been in ill health for a number of months. He passed away on Wednesday, Feb. 20.

He is survived by his son Vance Foster, and daughters Micki Foster (Greg) Koenig, Leah Foster (Dillon) Alderman, Brit Foster (Judd) Rothstein, and Kristen Foster and grandchildren Rachel DiGregorio, Rhys and Tess Rothstein, and Penelope Kirschner. He is also survived by many beloved nieces and nephews.