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Weekly Radio Report (10/16/20)

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Sony/ATV Nashville Signs Restless Road

Restless Road. Photo: Matthew Berinato

Sony/ATV Music Publishing Nashville announced today (Oct. 15) that it has signed rising country music band Restless Road to a worldwide publishing agreement.

Restless Road is a country trio comprised of Zach Beeken, Colton Pack, and Garrett Nichols, who have had success as artists and as songwriters, recently landing cuts with Rascal Flatts, Granger Smith, and more.

In February, the trio unveiled their four-song, debut self-titled EP, which includes the single “Take Me Home,” featuring Kane Brown. Restless Road also earned themselves the opening slot of Kane Brown’s 2020 Worldwide Beautiful Tour and earlier this year made their national television debut of their new music on the Today Show.

Sony/ATV Nashville CEO Rusty Gaston said, “Country music has a long history of vocal bands who have deeply impacted the genre. Zach, Colton and Garrett are brilliant songwriters, and they have a powerful creative energy as a group – I’m confident they are destined for country music greatness. We’re thrilled to welcome Restless Road to the Sony/ATV family, and we look forward to supporting their rising careers.”

Restless Road said, “We are so excited to be working with Rusty, Mya [Hansen], and the entire Sony/ATV team. It feels great to be surrounded by a family of people who believe in us both as songwriters and artists. We are looking forward to seeing what we can accomplish together!”

Restless Road began their journey in 2013 when Zach and Colton joined teams as solo contestants on season three of The X Factor. During their time on the show, they placed in fourth and met future collaborator Kane Brown, who they have remained close creative partners with. Garrett came onboard in 2015.

James Stroud Helms Newly-Launched White Mustang Records

Pictured (L-R): Tammy Luker, White Mustang Records; Dewayne Brown, CMG; Pepper Meiler, 9,000 Miles; Craig Campbell, Campbell Entertainment; Michael “Benjy” Cruz, White Mustang Records; James Stroud, White Mustang Records. Photo: Andy Evinger 

Music industry veterans James Stroud and Copperline Music Group (CMG)’s Dewayne Brown have launched Nashville-based label White Mustang Records. Stroud will serve as President of the label, which will be distributed by CMG via The Orchard. The label’s first signing will be announced next week.

Pepper Meiler has joined as Head of Marketing, while Michael “Benjy” Cruz has been added to lead Digital Product. Craig Campbell (Campbell Entertainment) will serve as Head of Media for the label and its artists. Stroud’s longtime associate and administrative assistant Tammy Luker also joins the label.

“The staff and myself here at White Mustang could not be more happy with the future of our new label and the soon to be announced roster,” said Stroud. “As we were building this label we looked to partner with the brightest and most forward thinking distribution companies available before deciding that CMG (Copperline Music Group) was the perfect match for us. Dewayne Brown (CMG SVP of A&R) and his staff at CMG work in the trenches everyday and we are so blessed to have them on board as we grow this new venture. “

“I cannot thank James Stroud and his amazing team at White Mustang Records enough for their vote of confidence in our team here at CMG,” said Brown. “James brings his love of the music and the amazing sound back to the country music format that I believe we have all been missing. The team they have assembled at White Mustang speaks volumes for itself. I’m very excited about the upcoming announcement of their roster and our partnership.”

Weekly Radio Report (10/9/20)

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On The Cover: Ashley McBryde On MusicRow Magazine’s 2020 Publisher Print Issue

Ashley McBryde is featured on the cover of MusicRow Magazine’s all-new 2020 Publisher Issue.

The Warner Music Nashville artist learned how to sing sad songs in a biker bar off a rural Arkansas highway. The youngest of six, she grew up in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, a little shy yet always watching. McBryde began writing songs at age 12, however she didn’t fully embrace her voice until college. She moved to Nashville in 2007.

Her 2016 EP Jalopies & Expensive Guitars caught the attention of Eric Church, who brought McBryde onstage for a duet of her “Bible and a .44.” She soon made her Grand Ole Opry debut with the title track off her 2018 major label debut, Girl Going Nowhere, later recognized with a 2019 Grammy nomination for Best Country Album, an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program for her performance on CBS This Morning Saturday and earning her the titles of ACM New Female Artist, CMT Breakout Artist of the Year and CMA New Artist of the Year, with additional Grammy nominations in 2020 for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance. The album’s title track was named Song of the Year at the 2019 MusicRow Awards, with McBryde winning Breakthrough Artist of the Year.

Her follow-up, Never Will, was released April 3, with Gold-certified lead single “One Night Standards,” a Top 15 song at country radio and already her first No. 1 in Canada, named by NPR as one of the best songs of the year. The hit was also nominated for Song of the Year at this year’s MusicRow Awards. Never Will has already been dubbed one of the best albums of 2020 by Variety, Billboard and SPIN. McBryde was nominated for three 2020 ACM Awards and took home her second and third AIMP Awards earlier this year. This fall, McBryde serves as a CMA Foundation Artist Ambassador; a full-circle moment since moving to Music City for the girl once told she was going nowhere.

In the 2020 Publisher print issue, Round Hill Music songwriter Ashley Gorley discusses hitting the milestone of 50 No. 1 songs and his work as a leading publisher and mentor with his own Tape Room Music. Sony/ATV Music Nashville’s Rusty Gaston talks taking the reins of the music publishing powerhouse during a pandemic, while ASCAP’s Mike Sistad, BMI’s Clay Bradley, and SESAC’s ET Brown and Lydia Schultz discuss their new roles at the respective performing rights organizations. This issue also offers discussions with National Music Publishers’ Association President/CEO David Israelite as well as songwriter/producer Luke Laird, who recently released his first album, titled Music RowElsewhere the issue focuses on the careers of Jody Williams (who returns to music publishing with Jody Williams Songs), Wide Open Music and RECORDS Nashville’s Ash Bowers, and BMG’s Chris Oglesby.

This issue also highlights the work and careers of some of Nashville’s most impactful tunesmiths, including UMPG’s Sam Ellis, Spirit Music Nashville’s Jonathan Singleton, Rhythm House/Roc Nation/Warner Chappell writer Alysa Vanderheym, RED Creative/Downtown Music Group/Anthem Entertainment writer Kelly Archer, BRELAND, and Big Machine Music’s Jessie Jo Dillon.

In addition to editorial, the Publisher Issue also includes the coveted Publisher Directory, featuring contact information for Nashville’s publishing community.

Single copies of the 2020 Publisher Issue are available for purchase for $45 at musicrow.com, and are included with yearly memberships at no additional cost. Please note that issues of MusicRow Magazine’s Publisher Issue can only be purchased online, as the MusicRow building is currently closed to the public due to COVID-19.

Ashley McBryde Career Stats:
LABEL: Warner Music Nashville
CURRENT ALBUM: Never Will
CURRENT SINGLE: “One Night Standards”
CURRENT PRODUCER: Jay Joyce
CURRENT PUBLISHER: Jody Williams Songs
PRO: BMI
MANAGEMENT: QPrime South
BOOKING: Lane Wilson / WME
RECENT HITS: “One Night Standards,” “Girl Goin’ Nowhere,” “A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega”
AWARDS: CMA 2019 New Artist of the Year, ACM 2019 New Female Artist of the Year, CMT 2019 Breakout Artist of the Year, AIMP 2018 Rising Artist-Writer of the Year, AIMP 2020 Artist-Writer of the Year, AIMP 2020 Publisher’s Pick – “One Night Standards”
RIAA CERTS TO DATE: “One Night Standards” – Gold (U.S. & CAN)
SPECIAL TV APPEARANCES: Grand Ole Opry performance of “Girl Goin’ Nowhere,” CBS This Morning Saturday, NPR’s Tiny Desk at Home
HOMETOWN: Mammoth Spring, AR
INTERESTING FACTS: Ashley grew up playing bluegrass and started playing mandolin when she was 3 years old; she studied music education and if she wasn’t a touring artist, she would work in music education.
MUSICAL INFLUENCES: Lucinda Williams, Guy Clark, John Prine, Alison Krauss and Union Station, The Cox family, Janis Joplin, John Denver, Kris Kristofferson, Ronnie Bowman, Trisha Yearwood, Lorrie Morgan, Patty Loveless, Karen Carpenter, The Chicks, Bekka Bramlett
FAVORITE RECORDS: Aces (Suzy Bogguss), Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (Lucinda Williams), Mountain Soul (Patty Loveless), Sweetheart’s Dance (Pam Tillis), Fearless (Terri Clark), This Side (Nickel Creek)

Weekly Register: Carrie Underwood, Gabby Barrett Lead Country Sales Charts

Carrie Underwood, Gabby Barrett

Carrie Underwood leads this week’s country albums chart with her holiday project My Gift debuting at No. 1 with 43K in total consumption, according to Nielsen. Luke Combs‘s What You See Is What You Get remains glued to the upper echelons of the albums chart, landing at No. 2 this week with 23K. Morgan Wallen‘s If I Know Me is at No. 3 with 19K, followed by Combs’s This One’s For You at No. 4 with 19K. Kane Brown‘s Mixtape Vol. 1 rounds out the Top 5 with 14K.

Other debuts this week include Wheelhouse/BBR artist Granger Smith‘s Country Things-Vol. 1, which debuts at No. 25 on the country albums chart with 5.9K in total consumption.

Meanwhile, Gabby Barrett‘s “I Hope” leads at No. 1 on the country on-demand audio streaming chart, with 8 million streams this week. Lee Brice‘s current two-week country radio No. 1, “One Of Them Girls,” is at No. 2 with 7.2 million streams this week. Wallen takes the No. 4 and No. 5 spots, with “7 Summers” earning 6.7 million streams to land at No. 4, while “Chasin’ You” is at No. 5 with 5.8 million streams.

The top country debut this week comes from Chris Stapleton with “Cold” landing at No. 101 and streaming 1.7 million this week.

Weekly Radio Report (10/2/20)

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

Weekly Radio Report (9/25/20)


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

Newcomer Andrew Jannakos Breaks Through With Viral Country Hit “Gone Too Soon”

Andrew Jannakos. Photo: Anthony Stone

Former The Voice contestant and indie artist Andrew Jannakos has a debut song roaring up the charts. This week it sits at No. 12 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Within days of its official release, “Gone Too Soon” earned 28,000 downloads and more than 2.4 million digital streams. The song also debuted at No. 1 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart, at No. 2 on the all-genre Digital Song Sales chart, and at No. 1 on the Emerging Artists list.

“It was a really humbling experience,” Jannakos tells MusicRow. “You see songs go viral all the time, but when it happens to you, and I see people then start streaming all my other music and my platforms start going up, it feels great to see that our hard work is paying off.”

These chart successes are not too shabby for a guy whose first-ever performance in front of an audience came less than two years ago—in front of millions of people when he did the blind auditions for The Voice.

“It was pretty terrifying,” he recalls. “It’s crazy to look back and think how far I’ve come as a performer. It’s all about dedication. I’m young and I’m hungry, and I’m ready for whatever gets thrown at me.”

He joined Team Adam [Levine], and though he was ultimately eliminated during the battle rounds, the encouragement from the likes of coaches Levine and Kelly Clarkson were enough to spur Jannakos deeper into music and songwriting.

In January, Jannakos wrote “Gone Too Soon” alongside Jason Afable and Josh Bricker during a homespun writers retreat at a cabin in Chattanooga, Tennessee, just weeks before the pandemic forced co-writing sessions to shift to virtual co-writes.

“I had written with Josh a few times. I hadn’t written with Jason before but I had heard great things about him as a writer so I was excited,” Jannakos says. “ Somebody threw out the line, ‘Man, they’re gone too soon.’

“Music is so subjective to change that it could mean a lot of different things. To me, the meaning for this song is my fiancée. When we first started to date, she had a one-year-old son. She didn’t really want to introduce me to him at first, so she would always come over and then have to leave. So for me, it was about her always having to be gone too soon. When we finished the song, I remember looking around the room and just feeling like the song was special.”

Jannakos, like every artist, saw the majority of his shows canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he and his fiancée Katie turned to social media to help keep promoting his music—which turned “Gone Too Soon” into a viral sensation.

“I had 22 of my shows—which, to an independent artist like myself who nobody knew two months ago, was a good bit—I had all of them cancel. But you take the negatives and turn them into positives. So we just went on social media and were able to make something out of it.”
His fiancée encouraged him to release snippets of the song on TikTok prior to its official release, and that turned into 9 million views, helping Jannakos build a base of more than 600,000 subscribers on the platform. It was around that time he teamed Nashville-based managers Andrew Cohen and Anthony Stone to further fuel the song up the charts.
“It’s been cool to see what they bring to the table, with lots of good things to come,” Jannakos says.
Since “Gone Too Soon” has broken through on the music charts, Jannakos has been in talks with a few labels and says he had “more opportunities come up over the past couple of weeks and co-writes with people that are incredible.”

This year is doubly special for the singer-songwriter, as he revealed he and his fiancée Katie are set to wed this weekend. While he’s currently making regular trips to Music City, he says a more permanent move to Nashville is in the very near future.

Ash Bowers To Lead RECORDS Nashville Office

Ash Bowers

RECORDS, the music company launched in 2015 by Barry Weiss in a joint venture with Sony Music, is set to open an office in Nashville this month, led by manager/publisher/producer/songwriter and former recording artist Ash Bowers. Bowers has been appointed as President of RECORDS Nashville, marking his first position as a label executive.

Joining Bowers are Jamice Jennings and Andy Elliott, who have joined the RECORDS Nashville team as co-heads of promotion. Jennings started her career at Big Machine Label Group, and joins RECORDS Nashville following her role as VP of Promotion at in2une Nashville. Elliott most recently served as VP of Promotion for Garth Brooks’ Pearl Records. His career includes stops at Curb Records and Arista Nashville where he served as the National Director of Promotion.

Radio promotion veteran Keith Gale of Good Company Entertainment will serve as a consultant for the label. Gale and his team have already been part of supporting RECORDS Nashville’s flagship artist Matt Stell, as well as Chris Bandi.

“We’re already stocked with talented artists, a killer promotion team and a legendary record guy at the helm with Barry Weiss, how great is that?” Bowers says. “I’m very excited about what we can build here in Nashville and the unique, authentic talent in country music and beyond to be discovered.”

Bowers is a co-founder of Wide Open Music, an artist management company that represents Stell and Jimmie Allen. Bowers was previously a recording artist with three charting singles through Broken Bow Records imprint Stoney Creek. As a songwriter and producer, he found success with Stell, Allen, Keith Urban, Montgomery Gentry and Dustin Lynch.

Weiss says, “Ash has experienced success in all aspects of the music business as an artist, producer, manager and songwriter. And while the role of label President may seem like a new title for him, there’s no one more fit to carry forth our fierce independent spirit and build upon RECORDS success in this market.”

Stell earned a Platinum-selling No. 1 hit with “Prayed for You,” and his latest “Everywhere But On” is currently Top 10. Bandi released his EP this year, led by the single “Man Enough Now” which is currently growing at country radio.

Singer/songwriter and former Miss Arizona Jennifer Smestad enjoyed a hit this summer with “Half the Man” which climbed to No. 3 on iTunes Country chart. The RECORDS roster also includes Lathan Warlick, Chase Martin and Dylan Brady.

Weiss and Sony Music Entertainment launched RECORDS in 2015. Based in New York City, the company is home to Noah Cyrus, Lennon Stella and 24kGoldn, who earned the Platinum hits “Valentino” and “City of Angels.”