Jon Borris

Jon Borris has been named Sr. VP, Promotion for Big Machine Label Group and Republic Records. Borris, who will be based in Republic’s New York headquarters, was previously at Sony Music Entertainment’s Columbia Records as Sr. VP, Pop Promotion.

He spent the past 19 years promoting top acts on Columbia Records and Epic Records such as Adele, Beyoncé, John Mayer, Calvin Harris, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, One Direction, The Chainsmokers, and several other GRAMMY Award-winning acts.  In 2015, Borris was named one of Billboard’s 40 Under 40: Music’s Top Young Power Players. Big Machine Label Group and Republic Records first joined forces in 2007. The two powerhouse labels’ collective crossover efforts have propelled the careers of Swift, Florida Georgia Line, and many others.

“Monte [Lipman], Gary [Spangler], and I have been searching for just the right person to propel our Big Machine releases to the next level, and Jon is that person,” Big Machine Pres./CEO Scott Borchetta said. “Along with added focus on Taylor [Swift’s]’s extraordinary pop success, Jon will continue to build the crossover platform for Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett, and more talent coming out of our Nashville-based global headquarters. We have several pop artists coming off of our Toronto-based hit TV music show, The Launch, and one of Jon’s first projects will be by Launch stars Elijah Wood x Jamie Fine.”

Borris says, “Scott Borchetta’s entrepreneurial spirit is infectious. I knew immediately that I wanted to work with him and the BMLG team to spread his unique vision for some of the industry’s top talent across multiple genres. In addition, I’ve watched from afar as Monte and Avery Lipman, Gary Spangler, and the Republic Records team have done nothing short of extraordinary work on behalf of their artists, and it is truly a thrill to now join the No. 1 promotion team in the music industry!”

Music City is home to a myriad of musical genres, from country to soul to reggae and everything in between, and perhaps no one is more aware of this than superstar and longtime resident Keith Urban.

As his Graffiti U World Tour roared through Nashville on Aug. 24, Urban used the concert to incorporate elements of funk, alternative, rock, soul, that have pulsated increasingly throughout each of his albums, offering plenty of swagger as he offered a solid mix of songs from his latest album (of the same title), as well as hits from his nearly 20-year career.

Urban upped the production ante with rotating and angled screens of varying sizes offered a dazzling array of effects, images, and video. He offered a rendition of his hit “Comin’ Home,” which featured video of Julia Michaels emblazoned on the screens above center stage.

“And we are home, finally,” Urban told the crowd.

It’s no easy feat to take an arena filled with thousands of fans and make a performance feel intimate, and yes, homey. Yet, Urban’s easygoing personality and musical prowess made that goal seem effortless, as the concert was equal parts electrifying music and a lovefest between artist and devoted audience.

Early in the show, he brought up the house lights, so he could read some of the numerous signs fans brought to the concert. One set of fans traveled more than 700 miles to the concert. Another was celebrating a birthday. Two signs in particular, which declared love for both Urban and his wife, actress Nicole Kidman, caught Urban’s attention.

In a quintessentially Nashville moment, he brought the fans onstage, and introduced them to Kidman, along with her fellow Big Little Lies costar (and Nashville resident) Reese Witherspoon.

More hits followed such as “Parallel Line,” “Put You In A Song,” and “You Gonna Fly.” He switched to acoustic guitar for a moment of intimate angst, and ultimate freedom, on the Sarah Buxton-penned hit “Stupid Boy.”

Afterward, he introduced a new track from Graffiti U, the reggae-tinged title “My Wave,” featuring multi-talented musician Shy Carter.

“This is not a beach song,” Urban explained, “but this is how I’ve learned, and am learning, to live my life.”

Keith Urban backstage with Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon. Photo: Keith Urban/Twitter

Show opener Kelsea Ballerini made an appearance during Urban’s set, admirably performing Miranda Lambert’s lines on “We Were Us.” But the talented Ballerini was far from the only female musical talent Urban showcased during the evening. He generously shared his stage and influence with the thousands of music lovers that attended to highlight several female artists, from newcomers to superstars.

He welcomed local Belmont University college student named Ashley to perform “Without You.”

Urban’s UMG labelmate Kassi Ashton, fresh from her arresting performance at the ACM Honors earlier this week, turned in star performance on “Drop Top,” from Graffiti U, as she more than held her own center stage, dancing and letting her confident vocals wash over the radio-ready track.

“I love finding new talent,” Urban said, “or talent that not enough people have heard about yet,” before he introduced sibling duo Larkin Poe. Sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell offered a grinding, howling take on the spiritual classic “Wade In The Water.” The soulful rendering transitioned into a full-on guitar duel between Urban and Megan, offering a more complete showing of her musical expertise. The guitar duel was just one of the several lengthy guitar solos Urban used to showcase his ace musicianship.

Urban was just as reverent in the show’s quieter moments, such as the dramatic “Cop Car,” “Blue Ain’t Your Color” or when he ended “Somebody Like You” in a transcendent moment, no lights, just the crowd repeating the chorus over and over again, as if finding a spiritual emboldening from the words.

He teased the audience that he had another surprise left and he didn’t disappoint, as labelmate Carrie Underwood surprised the audience for “The Fighter.”

As Underwood danced on the main stage, Urban made his way through the crowd to a satellite stage in the back of the arena. Urban and Underwood used the song’s call-and-response chorus to make the most of the dramatic distance between the two stages.

From there, Urban offered more hits, such as “Kiss A Girl” and “You Look Good In My Shirt,” before teasing the crowd once again.

“You give me so much, I want to give you something tangible,” he said, before drawing an audience member from the crowd and gifting her with the guitar he had been playing.

“We are putting it into sixth gear now,” he said as he returned to the main stage. He wasn’t kidding. “Gone Tomorrow (Here Today),” received a progressive rock treatment, as lights, lasers and video were used to create a cage around the band.

Following a crowd-pleasing rendition of “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16,” Urban welcomed the Tennessee State University marching band, as confetti fell from the ceiling. As the band left the main stage, Urban ushered in a final quiet moment with only an acoustic guitar.

“This guitar might look familiar,” he said. “It belonged to Waylon Jennings. I’ve had some incredible moments on this stage, like seeing the [Nashville Predators] play and doing All For The Hall, but one of the most standout moments is when I got asked to join the Opry family.”

He then closed the show with his very first No. 1 hit from 2000, “But For The Grace of God,” and another Graffiti U track, the anthemic “Horses.”

As the crowd began to disperse, Urban lingered onstage, signing posters, taking photos with fans in the front rows, and waving to the crowd, a suitable ending for a concert that felt much more akin to a family homecoming.

Chris Kappy

River House/Columbia Nashville artist Luke Combs celebrated with a No. 1 party for his third consecutive chart-topping single earlier this week in Music City. That milestone is the latest in a steadily-growing number of accolades, including a platinum album (This One’s For You), three platinum singles including “Hurricane,” “One Number Away,” and “When It Rains It Pours,” as well as the album track “Beautiful Crazy,” which has earned Gold certification.

For Combs’ manager, Chris Kappy at Make Wake Artists, the sales numbers and sold-out shows at venues including the historic Ryman Auditorium are a sweet payoff. Kappy worked at music cruise company, Sixthman before he took a chance on Combs, a newcomer with songwriting talent and a booming, burly voice.

MusicRow spoke with Kappy about what it takes to succeed in artist management and about guiding the career of rising superstar Combs.

For more on artist management and the teams behind some of Nashville’s biggest artists, pick up a copy of MusicRow’s current Artist Roster print issue.

MusicRow: You started in the music industry at Sixthman. What lessons did you learn that you brought into management?

My years at Sixthman afforded me the opportunity to be in situations where everything that can go wrong is going wrong, and you still have to put on a show. And, you are in the middle of the ocean. So it’s about having those problem-solving skills and determination to keep the show going. The great thing was the owner was my fraternity brother, and I was the company’s first employee. Andy [Levine] hired me away from the tech sector in Atlanta where I was making six figures while in my 20s. He called me up and asked me if I wanted to work with him and make a third of what I was making. I said, “Absolutely.” So I have him to thank for this life.

MR: Then, you saw Luke play a show in Georgia and decided to work with him. What were those first months like working with Luke?

I was driving the van, doing whatever I needed to do. I told Luke, “I’m not going to take a commission until the band is paid, the bills are paid, there is money left over and you are in a comfortable place in your life; then, I’ll take my first commission.” That took nine months.

We went into this with the road map of playing shows. I looked at bands like Jason Isbell, Blackberry Smoke and Sister Hazel. I said, “Luke, if we do this the right way, even if we don’t get radio [airplay] or get discovered, you can play music for the rest of your life with your band and play 2,500-seaters all over the country. You can make a living doing that.” That was originally our goal.

MR: Even as Luke’s star keeps rising, you have been committed to keeping his concert ticket prices reasonable. Talk about the strategy behind that.

I looked at some concert stats about four months ago, and there was another artist who has six more Number Ones than he does. That was out charging him per head by about $30, and Luke sold three times the amount of people in the same size room. I thought, ‘This is the perfect example of why we sell a $45 ticket,’ because selling to 6,500 people at $45 is a lot better than selling $75 to 1,500 or 1,800 people. You have to make sure you don’t get greedy and you are looking out for the fans. We want to give them the experience. The main reason we didn’t do a ticket over $45 was because he said, “I don’t need the money from fans as much as I need the passion.” I think that’s the beauty of who he is.

When we were doing the Jason Aldean tour, we didn’t do a VIP program. The main reason why was because we had so much to do with radio before the show, and then he’s direct support for Jason. We would have been doing a disservice to a fan who paid for that VIP experience, because he can’t do it after the show, because he’s just spent. And before the show, we would have had to rush through it. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars to have that moment with fans all over the country, but we knew it would be a bad experience, so what we do now is choose fans from the fan club and meet with them.

MR: How was his early streaming success an asset once the label came into play?

He had streamed “Hurricane” a million times before industry members began getting involved. He was really discovered through a digital medium; first through Vine and then to YouTube. Before we had a record deal, we never had a physical product. At every show, we would push people to buy on a digital forum, like iTunes or to stream it. We trained our fanbase from the beginning to do it that way. His fanbase is 50/50 male/female, and 18-44. We have the younger generation but also the older generation. Then Sony came along, and we sold a lot of physical product, which was great.

MR: What is a typical day like for you as a manager?

The biggest thing is passion and always watching out for the artist and the fan. A manager to me is the hardest job in the industry because you have to manage every single silo. There’s the label and PR and agents and lawyers and so many things, and you have to quarterback all of that. Every one of those things are very important.

You have to know what’s going on with all of it, especially at this time. Other managers tell me it will eventually plateau and you’ll have more time to focus on strategy but right now you are in the eye of the hurricane. My day starts at 5 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m. at night. I’m always looking at charts and who’s adding it, and then I’ll go to Twitter and I’ll read every Twitter post. I need to see where the pulse of the fan is. Do they like a song, how do they find it? By the time I’m at the office at 7:30 that morning or a breakfast meeting, I’ve gotten the pulse of the fans and looked at the charts. But it’s a good thing because it means my guy is hot and people want to be in his world.

MR: Part of his career success can be attributed to his connection with his fanbase. How do you keep that consistent?

Before we had the label deal, we were doing Facebook Lives. I would go to a show, I would stand there at front of house and I would just go live on Facebook. There were other platforms out there like StageIt, but I wanted it to be free because I wanted fans to be a part of it.

We still answer every single message that comes through social media platforms. I have two people that do that full time. You have to be able to talk to the fans and leave that portal open. Do I get crazy messages? Sure. But a lot of things are like, ‘I went throughout a really hard time, and your music helped me cope with it’ or ‘I met my now wife at your show, thank you so much.’ But we want fans to make sure we hear them.

MR: How does what he needs from you as a manager change at this point in his career?

I think as it gets crazier; there is more of a comfort level there. We passed on our biggest paying show to date, because it wasn’t the right move for him. When he comes offstage he is spent because he sings with his whole body. We had breakfast three weeks ago in East Nashville, and I had told him six months ago, ‘I’m slowing your schedule down for you. I’m going to say no to a lot of stuff.’ We were sitting there eating eggs and having coffee and he was like, ‘Thank you. I’m feeling the schedule slow down a bit and I appreciate it.’ He’s not the lovey-dovey type; he’s not that kind of guy. But it’s those moments when you know you’re doing the right thing and watching out for your guy. As this gets crazier, the biggest part of it is that I’m vetting the right people, also keeping the wrong people away and being more of a gatekeeper. He looks at me like a managing partner in his career, and the managing partner needs to be able to communicate with the principal owner, being Luke, and he has to be able to have that trust that I am doing what is best for him. If he doesn’t like it, we change direction.

MR: What advice do you have for new managers?

There is a documentary on Netflix about a legendary manager named Shep Gordon [Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon]. I watch it probably every 10 days and it’s the most amazing story of a guy who does it the right way. I have him as my spiritual mentor—I’ve never met the guy. You need to work as hard or harder than the act. When I was on the road with him, Monday-Wednesday, I was Manager. On Thursday-Saturday, I was Tour Manager. On Sunday, I was Business Manager. If you are coming out of school and want to do this, go all in. But, do it because you believe in the person you are working with.

MR: What has been one of your proudest moments so far working with Luke?

We were standing side stage in Asheville, North Carolina, in 2017, where Luke played his first arena show in his hometown. I look over and see Luke’s Mom and Dad, and I just broke down. I was sobbing. I was watching them be so proud of their son, and the love they have for him. I have that same pride! When I think of all the days where I was like, ‘We have to drive 10 hours in the van to go play when it’s not even light yet and you’re going to hate me and this drive.’ But, he trusted me, and when you see him playing an arena show in his hometown, it’s an amazing feeling and all those miles and early mornings were worth it.

Brad Belanger

Artist manager Brad Belanger parlayed experience in concert booking and doing photography/video work into managing star acts such as Sam Hunt and Dustin Lynch.

Growing up in Virginia in the early ‘90s, Belanger was immersed in the DIY music culture embraced by teen punk rock bands in the area. In addition to handling lead vocals and guitar for a local band, Belanger started his own indie label at age 15.

“I liked booking the shows, making the fliers, designing the T-shirts and how the invites looked,” Belanger tells MusicRow. “I was way more into that than writing great songs or practicing. It was very much a mentality of having your own label, booking your own shows, and tapes and mailing lists,” he recalls. “I was very lucky to grow up with that mentality in Virginia because it’s kind of the template that I’m doing now, almost 30 years later, just with the internet now.”

After attending Middle Tennessee State University, he began working with APA’s Steve Lassiter, before transitioning into doing photography and video work. That strategic move would bring a host of career opportunities, including his management role with Sam Hunt, the artist behind the 5x Platinum-selling single “Body Like A Back Road” and 3x Platinum-selling album Montevallo.

For more on artist management and the teams behind some of Nashville’s biggest artists, pick up a copy of MusicRow’s current Artist Roster print issue.

MusicRow: How did you transition from concert booking into doing photography and video work?

Belanger: I wanted to be a little more hands on with music. Right around that time the internet was popping up with YouTube and MySpace and everything. Marketing music digitally was just starting to form and I thought, “That encompasses everything I love.” I quit the booking agent job and picked up a video camera and some video editing and graphic design software. I taught myself in my late 20s how to do that. I knew that would be a major part of marketing music.

MR: What was your first job doing video?

Belanger: The very first person who ever hired me was a 17-year-old Taylor Swift. They hired me to make a behind-the-scenes video clip for “Teardrops On My Guitar,” and soon after that Keith Urban and his team hired me. They were one of the first to hire a full-time photographer and videographer on staff, and I did that for Keith for about five years.

MR: Is that how you were introduced to Sam Hunt?

Belanger: Yeah, that introduced me to Sam, through [the Hunt-penned hit for Urban] “Cop Car.” I loved his music and this was back before he had a record deal, and he’d never played a live show. He had no photos taken, and he was just coming up on the idea of being an artist when he and I met. He said, “I need some headshots and I want to do some video stuff.” He sent me some demos of “House Party” and “Take Your Time” and everything, and I loved it so much I said I would do it. We hung out and talked about things we loved and after about a month, he was like, “Man, you’d be a great manager. I’m looking for a manager.” So I quit working with Keith and began working with Sam.

Sam Hunt and Brad Belanger. Photo: Courtesy Brad Belanger

MR: You first began managing Sam when he had no label, no previous manager. How does what he needed from you then as a manager differ from what he needs from you now as a manager?

Belanger: When we first started, I took every photo and directed probably the first five music videos—shot and directed and edited. Designed the cover for Montevallo. The first few years I as very hands-on with building the brand. As his career grew, people I was inspired by visually, we were able to call on those people and bring in big directors from England. They came to Nashville for the first time and began shooting the videos. We transitioned from doing the creative to now overseeing and becoming more of a traditional manager.

In the beginning there was just five of us and a van. We did everything on the cheap because we didn’t have any money. Now there are 50 employees and it’s a huge company and I’ve transferred into managing that whole company. It’s a lot more 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and a lot less 7 p.m. – 2 a.m.

MR: Sam Hunt is a songwriter at heart. As a manager, how do you balance his need for time and space to be creative, with a music cycle that now constantly demands new music?

Belanger: I don’t balance that. I look at it the same way [Red Light Management’s] Coran Capshaw looks at it. We go play the poker game and Sam gives us the cards to play. The cards are the songs. For me, I absolutely respect his process and how he wants to do it and how long he wants to take.

From day one when we were living on credit cards and driving in a van and dead broke, we always said, “We will leave money on the table. We will not think about money first or chase it, and we will not feel bad for taking time off for being with our families.” This year he’s playing 25 shows. Last year he played 45 shows. With [Belanger’s management client] Dustin Lynch, he plays 100 shows. But the number of shows doesn’t matter to us.

MR: How does it differ working with Dustin, who had an image and career already built before you started working with him, versus working with Sam, whose career you helped build from the ground up?

Belanger: I’m just such a fan of Dustin as a person. He’s one of those people you love to be around. He has a great work ethic. Everybody wants to see him succeed. He just needs a few more pieces put together to really step to that next level. That’s what really attracted me to work with him. I am just interested to come in at this point in his career—six or seven years in—and see how I can help and refine a few things.

MR: Can you elaborate on what things you want to refine?

Belanger: My team is able to help define his brand a little more. He had started doing that already right before I came along, with his daily video blogs. Everybody knows he has five No. 1s and he has hits, but when you ask someone, “Who is he?” they have a little more of an ambiguous answer. My goal is to really define who Dustin Lynch is as an individual. Then as a fan, you are not only a fan of the songs, but you are a fan of him as a person. Luke Bryan fans are fans of Luke Bryan. Same thing with Sam Hunt or Carrie Underwood. They love Carrie, not just a group of songs. They love her. So I’m just trying to shine more light on who he is.

MR: Is the album format dead?

Belanger: No, I think it is still alive and well. When it is needed, it’s needed. It’s not needed all the time. Some people I look at and go, “Dude, no one was waiting on another album. Don’t put one out. Just put four good songs out.” There is a time and a place. Obviously, Sam Hunt last year, where he was at in his life and career, just putting one enormous song out did just fine. We sold every concert ticket and every piece of merch. But it was coming off Montevallo.

MR: Will The Nashional Music Festival still happen?

Belanger: Absolutely. We just ran into some hiccups as far as licensing. We’ve still got it on the dashboard and ready to pull at any time, but we all decided the next most important thing is a record. Let’s focus on finishing the record and then jumping off of that might be the best time to do this festival.

The best thing we can do right now is follow up Montevallo with a great 10-song record with a bunch of hits on it.

MR: When will the album come out?

Belanger: Probably not this year. Next year would be the goal.

MR: Who have been your biggest mentors, and what has been the best advice they haven given you?

Belanger: Coran Capshaw and [CAA’s] Darin Murphy as well. He was the first person I called when I thought about quitting work with Keith to go work for Sam. They give big-picture, long-term advice. In the first few years coming up, everything was a desperate struggle to keep our vision true and to make people in love with it. This is a long-term business and you don’t have to fight every day. Not every battle needs to be a blood-and-guts battle.