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After getting to know each other this weekend at the 2023 CMT Music Awards, country music legend Shania Twain said she’s totally down for a possible collaboration with rapper Megan Thee Stallion. The two got acquainted when Meg presented the Equal Play Honor to Twain at the show and Twain told ET Online that it got her thinking about how they might sound together.
“I love her… what a sweetheart!,” Twain said of the “Body” MC, who was seated near the country queen in the audience during the broadcast. She added that they got along “very well… I love her as a person.”
There is one question, however, Twain is very glad Megan didn’t ask her. “She is a great talent, I was just glad she didn’t ask me to twerk out there. I would had to have said no,” Twain said. “She was amazing and said so many sweet things and I was really flattered she was there for me.”
The bond was so immediate, Twain added, that she revealed she “was thinking” they might vibe in the studio as well. “I think that that would really work… I love her whole mind,” the singer said.
If it happens, it would mark a hip-hop crossover first for Twain, who has typically leaned into the country/pop vein in the past when it comes to sharing the mic, including songs with Orville Peck (“Legends Never Die”), Alison Krauss & Union Station (“I’m Gonna Get You Good”), Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath (“Party For Two), her musical hero Anne Murray (“You Needed Me”), and, at this year’s Coachella, Harry Styles for a live run through her “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”
It would also be a first for San Antonio-bred Megan, who has also mostly stayed in her lane, teaming up with Beyoncé for the “Savage” remix, Key Glock on “Ungrateful,” Juicy J for “Simon Says,” Dua Lipa for “Sweetest Pie” and, of course, Cardi B on their Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash “WAP.”
A conversation between six-time Grammy winner Kacey Musgraves and Academy Award-winning actress/entrepreneur Reese Witherspoon led to the globally focused country music competition series My Kind of Country, which premieres Friday (March 24) via Apple TV+, in partnership with the Witherspoon-founded media company Hello Sunshine.
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“We were talking about, ‘Why is country music so closed off? Why are there not more global influences and people who have a different perspective?’” Nashville native Witherspoon told Billboard via phone. “Kacey really illuminated it for me — it’s been a closed-door business for a long time. So this idea [is] to start a country music competition series and make it very international, because the reach of Apple is global. An important piece of this is highlighting voices that have not been heard. At Hello Sunshine, we have a spotlight that we would like to shine on people who have not had the opportunity to have their work highlighted.”
Witherspoon and Musgraves serve as executive producers on the eight-part series, which airs a new episode each Friday. Also serving as executive producers are Hello Sunshine’s Sara Rea and Lauren Newstadter, and Sandbox Entertainment’s Jason Owen (Musgraves is a Sandbox client), Izzie Pick Ibarra and Done+Dusted’s Katy Mullan.
The series’ dozen contestants hail from across the globe, including five artists from South Africa, two from India, one from Mexico and four from the United States.
“It’s been really cool for me to be part of this because since day one it’s been really important for me to keep reaching out globally, to try to find the people that connect with my music across the world,” said Musgraves, who is one of the few country artists to have toured Japan. “The easier thing to do would be to stay in America and play shows, but I want to build audiences around the world. I have been so moved and floored by being able to tour in places so far away from my home and see that my stories have connected with people there. Being part of this show is another angle of that for me. It just shows that no matter where you come from, when it’s brought back to the heart of the matter in the songs, we have the same emotions and the same human connection.”
Indeed, the show is intent on highlighting diversity and inclusion — not just with the contestants, but through the three artists who serve as scouts, mentors and judges: Jimmie Allen is a Grammy nominee and a 2021 CMA new artist of the year winner with three No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay chart hits; Mickey Guyton, who broke through with songs “Black Like Me” and “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” and was the first Black female solo artist to earn a Grammy nomination in a country category; and Orville Peck is a gay country artist who has collaborated with Shania Twain and is known for his fringed masks and retro-tinged brand of country music. Each handpicked four contestants to become part of their teams.
“It was cool to hear country music during different parts of the world, sometimes in different languages,” Allen told Billboard via Zoom, “and being part of choosing artists. I remember being on Zoom with show producers and going through and listening to so many artists that were really good.”
The dozen selected contestants traveled to Nashville, and throughout the eight episodes, viewers watch as they hone their skills and confidence, as the scouts narrow down the competition via weekly eliminations, culminating in a finale performance in front of Musgraves, Witherspoon and the mentors/scouts, with one ultimate winner.
Allen’s artists are Ale Aguirre, who hails from Chihuahua, Mexico, and blends bilingual lyrics with elements of Norteño and banda. Dhruv Visvanath, from New Delhi, wrote the score to two independent films. North Carolina’s Camille Parker launched her career in R&B and pop music before pursuing a career in country music. Johannesburg’s Justin Serrao blends elements of alternative rock and country.
Guyton’s artists are two singer/songwriters from Nashville: Ashlie Amber and Chuck Adams, as well as South African sibling duo The Betsies (Zel and Landi Degenaar) and South African singer/songwriter Wandile.
Peck’s artists are Cape Town’s The Congo Cowboys (Julie Sigauque, Simon Attwell and Chris Bakalanga), who perform in both English and Lingala, the official language of the Democratic Republic of Congo; nonbinary bluegrass-influenced singer/songwriter Ismay Hellman of Petaluma, Calif.; Alisha Pais of Goa, India, and former South Africa Idols contestant Micaela Kleinsmith of Cape Town.
For all three scouts, their contestants have already moved them musically and emotionally.
“I feel like we’re all very nurturing people and to be around these amazing, incredible artists, it’s such a fulfilling thing to get to do,” Guyton told Billboard via Zoom. “The coolest part is you’re seeing how many people love country music globally.”
“Camille’s first performance, she sang ‘Space Cowboy’ by Kacey Musgraves, but the way she performed it, her vocal tone and delivery, it just hit me and she made the song her own,” Allen said.
Peck, who also hails from South Africa, noted watching fellow South Africa artist Kleinsmith progress in confidence was heartening.
“Coming into the competition, she was insecure about many things and had imposter syndrome,” Peck told Billboard via Zoom. “She is so incredibly talented and just getting to watch someone find themselves and their confidence in such a short amount of time that we did this show was really special for me to watch.”
Guyton recalled witnessing Adams’ vulnerability on the show.
“You never get to hear artists go through mental health struggles, but Chuck was very vocal about those things and it was beautifully honest,” she said. “Then he performed and you hear the pain and angst and this beautiful person. You just don’t often get to see that vulnerable side of people, especially on a show like this.”
“We cried a lot,” Allen added, sharing how he related to Adams’s story. “With Chuck, you know, I got diagnosed with bipolar [disorder] when I was 13, and I’ve had my moments where for two or three months I wanted to die, but I fought and stayed alive. So when you have those moments of him being open and then hearing his song, I knew if it was hitting me and inspiring me, all the people that see it are going to be inspired.”
Musgraves sees My Kind of Country as another essential step in the evolving progress of opening country music’s doors to a more diverse range of life stories and perspectives.
“Progress is progress, but there’s a long way to go,” Musgraves says. “Country music is woven with so many different stories and styles. And it’s not just about inclusivity in terms of color or gender. I want to see inclusivity when it comes to song matter and production style—that the songs that are able to be popular on country radio aren’t sung by the same kind of person about the same kind of thing. There are a lot of factors that could still be improved on.”
Witherspoon anticipates additional seasons of My Kind of Country, saying, “I sure hope so, because I do think country music is due for a disruption. We need to talk about why it’s been a closed-door business for so long. I think it’s the voice of the working people, whether that means you live in India, Africa, China, Japan…I think storytelling is storytelling, and we are here to promote great storytellers.”
The last thing the world needs is a new artist.
An influential executive said that around eight years ago, and she had a point — there’s already so much music in circulation that most acts are swimming against the current in their attempts to achieve widespread recognition.
But the industry doesn’t always know what it needs until it shows up, either. And all of country’s star acts — people such as Luke Combs, Carrie Underwood or Chris Stapleton — were unknown new artists before the genre eventually discovered they were essential for its vitality.
Over a dozen newbies are hoping events in the next six months will help them become the exception, eventually emerging as household names after releasing their first country album or EP during the period. The contenders include two acts (Tyler Hubbard and Mike Gossin) issuing their first solo projects, after previously earning hits as members of Florida Georgia Line and Gloriana, respectively.
The list also features three duos: recent 8 Track Entertainment signees BoomTown Saints, longtime Warner Music Nashville project Walker County and Americana husband-and-wife team The War and Treaty, who are optimistic that their sound can translate to country.
Following is an overview of 14 acts whose first album or EP, either in the genre or at a label of consequence, are due during the first six months of 2023:
The Country Music Association will soon launch its inaugural Diversity & Inclusion Fellowship, which will provide a select group of BIPOC students with an immersive educational experience leading up to the 2023 CMA Fest in June.
The CMA has partnered with the University of Alabama, Nashville’s Belmont University and Knoxville’s University of Tennessee. Six students (two from each university) will be selected to take part in the fellowship, launching this spring. Students must be an incoming junior or senior majoring in public relations, advertising, journalism, business or a related field. Each student will also receive compensation for their work, as well as a stipend to cover living expenses while in Nashville.
“As we look at our industry and how we can drive country music into the future, it’s being thoughtful about who is part of it and who feels like they can be part of it,” Mia McNeal, CMA senior director, industry relations and inclusion, tells Billboard. “Working with all three of these universities has been incredible, thinking strategically and intentionally about how we can engage the student body in a way that is very direct and making a pipeline of talent.”
McNeal adds, “There has been a push for more artists of color within the country music industry, but they also need the opportunity to team with people behind the scenes who look like them.”
In April, the students will begin working remotely with the CMA’s communications team, participating in planning meetings with cross-departmental teams and various industry partners. They will then join CMA team members in Nashville in the weeks leading up to and through CMA Fest, June 9-12. Following the event, the students will take part in a six-week assignment with a country music publicity partner, offering the students additional real-world PR experience.
“They get the 360-degree view of exactly how public relations and communications is central not only to the CMA, but to the industry at large,” says Tiffany Kerns, CMA vice president, industry relations and philanthropy.
“The idea for this fellowship came out of having significant conversations with several artists and a wide variety of industry professionals who really felt that publicists are part of the storytellers of our business,” Kerns adds.
The University of Alabama’s Dr. Kenon Brown, who was previously the faculty advisor for the UofA’s CMA EDU chapter for about three years, serves as the fellowship’s managing faculty member. Brown along with faculty representatives from the university partners and CMA staff will review applications.
“We felt the one thing that would help students be exposed to the industry would be to give them first-hand experience,” Brown tells Billboard. “We wanted to also give them mentors to give them a more realistic viewpoint of how the music industry works. Hopefully this helps make them more excited about not just working in music but working in country music.”
In describing the types of students they are looking for, Brown says, “We want students who recognize the opportunity they have here to become a leader in this industry and a voice for promoting diversity and inclusion in the country music industry. We want students who can look at the country music industry and see the strides that they have made and see the advantage that they have to really add a unique voice to the genre.”
The CMA is also working with the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations on the fellowship, as well as with Trell Thomas, a public relations executive and co-founder of My Publicist is Black, to match each student participant with an industry expert to serve as a mentor throughout the fellowship.
“At CMA Fest last year, we had diversity on all of our stages,” McNeal says. “Our fans are diverse and that representation matters so much. It’s hard to be something you cannot see.”
The application to apply for the fellowship is open today (Jan. 9) through Feb. 24 at cmaworld.com/fellowship.
The fellowship is one of multiple recent initiatives the CMA has launched to support leadership, education, and diversity. The CMA previously teamed with Discovery Education for a series highlighting STEAM careers within the country music industry. In 2022, the trade organization also launched a 16-week training program to support women in leadership throughout the country music industry.
Earlier this month, breakthrough country superstar Kane Brown became the first touring artist to play all 29 National Basketball Association (NBA) arenas during a single tour, fulfilling a lifelong dream around his passion for pro hoops.
“Kane’s a huge basketball fan,” says his manager Martha Earls with Neon Coast. “He’s athletic, loves sports and first got the idea back in 2019 when he was invited to headline a 20th-anniversary show for what was then the Staples Center in LA (and now is known as Crypto.com Arena).”
The January 2020 show — postponed from October 18, 2019, due to the tragic death of Kane’s longtime friend and drummer Kenny Dixon days earlier — and a Lakers game attended the night before by Kane, Earls and promoter Rich Schaefer with AEG Global Touring became the genesis for Brown’s first arena tour.
Originally scheduled to be announced in March 2020, publicity for Brown’s tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a plan to “be ready the minute we can get back on the road,” Schaefer recalls. “That opening came in April of 2021 and we ended up being one of the first sales in the year following COVID-19.”
Schaefer said he wanted Brown to get back on the road after releasing his EP Mixtape, Vol 1 in Aug. 2020 on RCA Records Nashville, which hit No. 2 on Billboard‘s Country Albums chart and No. 15 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Mixtape, Vol. 1 included the crossover track “Be Like That” featuring Swae Lee and Khalid, as well as “Cool Again” featuring Nelly and “Last Time I Say Sorry” featuring John Legend.
“Sales for the tour were massive and the tour kicked off six months later,” Schaefer said of the Blessed & Free Tour, which officially launched on Oct. 1, 2021, at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento and hit 28 of 29 NBA arenas and college facilities in Nampa, Idaho and College Station, Pennsylvania. The tour also made three stops at hockey arenas in Pittsburgh, Seattle and Las Vegas, wrapping its first leg at Sin City’s T-Mobile Arena on Feb. 4.
The final show took place 10 months later on Dec. 4 at the final NBA arena on the tour, ScotiaBank Arena in Toronto — marking the 29th of 29 NBA arena concerts. “We couldn’t get into Canada during the initial run of the tour because of the restrictions and the lockdown in the country,” Schaefer says.
In Jan. 2022, the Blessed & Free Tour was the most well-attended concert tour of the month, averaging 11,000 fans per show. “When we did announce the tour in April, I got some calls from people thinking we were maybe being a little bit bullish,” Earls recalls, “but we just felt there was such a desire from the fan base and an excitement from fans for live music coming back that we knew we were ready.”
Helping boost sales was the chart success of Chris Young’s track “Famous Friends” featuring Brown, which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay in July, two months after the Blessed & Free Tour went on sale.
“At almost every show, we had NBA players come out on stage for ‘Famous Friends,’ often with the mascots from each team,” Schaefer said. In Milwaukee, player Khris Middleton appeared on stage for the song months after leading the Bucks to their first NBA Finals victory.
During the downtime between the February date in Vegas and the Canada show, Brown performed the first concert ever held at Finley Stadium in his hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee, on May 7.
“It was a heavy lift and we all learned a lot together including the stadium staff,” Schaefer recalls. “We don’t really say no to a lot of things. If it’s Kane’s dream to do it, we’re gonna help make that happen. That’s what we do for a living here.”
A month later, Brown reached another milestone, headlining a stadium show at Fenway Park in Boston on June 23. The venue became available to Brown thanks to a quick sellout at the city’s TD Garden arena five months earlier on the Blessed & Free Tour.
“That was the great thing about this tour — each success lead to a new opportunity and a chance for Kane to hit a bunch of venues he has always wanted to play,” Earls said. “We learned more than we ever thought possible and watched Kane continue to grow and strengthen his relationship with fans who have grown with him. We are all so proud of what he has achieved.”
Universal Music Group Nashville has signed actor-musician Luke Grimes, in association with Range Music. Grimes is known for his role portraying Kayce Dutton on the hit Paramount Network series Yellowstone.
Grimes previously released a snippet of his new song “No Horse to Ride,” which will release Friday (Dec. 16). He wrote the song with Tony Lane and Jonathan Singleton and is currently working on his debut major-label album with producer Dave Cobb (Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton).
“As an actor, Luke Grimes has effortlessly brought the cowboy lifestyle to the forefront of American culture,” said UMGN president Cindy Mabe via a statement. “As a country music artist, Luke has tapped into that same honesty and authenticity to capture a raw grit and pure depth of artistry that will expand the sound and reach of country music. We are so excited and proud to welcome Luke Grimes to Universal Music Group Nashville.”
“Luke is a special spirit who puts honesty above all else in his art,” added Range Music managing partner Matt Graham. “We at Range are excited to partner with Brian, Cindy and the rest of the UMG team to help him fulfill his dreams of sharing his songs with country music fans.”
Prior to his role on Yellowstone, Grimes appeared in movies including American Sniper and The Magnificent Seven. The Ohio native also grew up playing music in church, picking up drums, guitar and piano. Prior to becoming an actor, Grimes was a drummer and songwriter for a country band in Los Angeles.
Universal Music Group Nashville’s roster includes Eric Church, Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, Alan Jackson, The War and Treaty, Chris Stapleton and Darius Rucker, among others.
Just as the 29-year-old singer-songwriter did in 2021, Sneedville, Tenn. native Morgan Wallen reigns as Billboard’s Top Country Artist of 2022. Concurrently, he finishes first as top country male artist.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
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Wallen’s Dangerous set is the No. 1 Top Country Albums title of 2022. The 30-track LP has led the weekly albums list for well over 80 frames. On April 2, when it rolled into its record-breaking 51st week, it made history as it surpassed the 50-week commands logged by Luke Combs’ This One’s For You and Shania Twain’s Come on Over.
Notably, the methodology for Top Country Albums changed as of the survey dated Feb. 11, 2017, when the chart switched from using a strictly album sales-based formula to one calculating multiple metrics, incorporating album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Thus, the steady streaming activity of Dangerous’ 30 songs has contributed to the set’s chart rank each week during its run.
Dangerous blasted in at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart dated Jan. 23, 2021, with 265,000 equivalent album units earned. That marked the biggest week for a country album since Carrie Underwood’s Cry Pretty launched with 266,000 in September 2018. Wallen achieved the largest week for a solo male since Luke Bryan’s Kill the Lights began with 345,000 (August 2015).
Wallen also possesses the No. 1 and 2 hits of 2022 on Billboard’s streaming-, airplay and sales based Hot Country Songs. “Wasted on You,” which is from Dangerous, is the leading song of the year, while stand-alone single “You Proof” is No. 2.
“Wasted” rocketed atop the weekly Hot Country Songs survey in January 2021 and topped the tally for 11 weeks. “You Proof” debuted in the penthouse in May of 2022, giving the artist his sixth leader and his fifth No. 1 start, the most of any artist. “You Proof” also dominated the weekly Country Airplay chart for five frames — his longest running No. 1 among his seven chart-toppers.
Underwood Shines: Billboard’s Top Female Country Artist of 2022 is Carrie Underwood. She ranks 10th overall.
Underwood’s Denim & Rhinestones LP entered Top Country Albums at No. 2 on the chart dated June 25, marking her 10th top 10 in as many visits. Released June 10, the set earned 31,000 equivalent album units in its first week, with 22,000 of that sum in album sales, according to Luminate.
Underwood is the second-highest ranking woman on the Top Country Albums Artists recap (Taylor Swift is first) and Underwood is seventh among all artists.
On the list for top Country Airplay Artists of 2022 Underwood is the top female (12th overall). The artist’s hit “Ghost Story,” which reached No. 6 in October 2021 awarded Underwood with her landmark 30th song to reach the chart’s weekly top 10.
Since Country Airplay was launched in January 1990, Underwood is second among women with the most top 10s; Reba McEntire leads with 30.
Billboard’s Top Country Duo/Group of 2022 is Zac Brown Band. The act ranks first among duos and groups on the year-end Top Country Albums Artists recap, and 15th overall.
At the end of October 2021, ZBB released its seventh studio LP The Comeback which arrived at No. 3 on the weekly Top Country Albums chart with 19,000 units in its first week. It was the band’s 10th top 10.
Over on Country Airplay, ZBB achieved its first No. 1 in over five years when “Same Boat” (from The Comeback set), floated from 4-1 on the tally dated Dec. 4, 2021. It awarded the act with its 14th No. 1.
Billboard’s Top New Country Artist of 2022 is Zach Bryan who finished fifth on the overall Top Country Artists recap.
Bryan is also fifth on the Top Country Albums Artists roundup this year. Bryan’s American Heartbreak album ranks eighth on the year-end Top Country Albums titles list. The 26-year-old singer-songwriter from Oologah, Okla. released the hefty 34-track effort on May 20 and it entered atop the June 4 dated chart with 71,000 equivalent album units. Concurrently it bowed at No. 5 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
Also noteworthy for 2022, the group Parmalee’s “Take My Name” is No. 1 on the year-end Country Airplay Songs tally. The song led the survey for two weeks starting June 18. It gave the group its third No. 1, plus it remained in the top 10 for 21 weeks; the fourth longest run in the list’s upper tier in the almost 23-year history of the chart.
Eric Church and his longtime manager John Peets have teamed to launch a new all-inclusive endeavor, Solid Entertainment.
The new company centralizes Church’s various ventures, while also doubling down on the infrastructure behind his span of business endeavors, including his new SiriusXM Channel Outsiders Radio, his upcoming Nashville venue/bar/restaurant Chief’s and his in-house merchandise operation as well as his fan club, the Church Choir.
Marshall Alexander takes on the role of president for Solid Entertainment, and will serve as Church’s representative for Chief’s. Meanwhile, Brandon Schneeberger will oversee day-to-day management for Church. Shane Allen and Kimsey Kerr have been added to launch and run Outsiders Radio, which officially launched on Nov. 4. Bryan Chisholm will lead digital marketing and Hayley Harris has been appointed to manage Church’s fan club. Matt Wheeler continues to oversee Chief merchandise.
“I’m incredibly proud of the path we’ve taken to get to this point in all our careers and to have experienced so much of it together,” Church said via a statement. “As our business continues to expand in different areas, it was important to me to establish a team of people that is focused on this growth. None of us got into music for the business of it, yet it’s part of how we are our most creative selves: through finding those other avenues for connection. It’s humbling to be in a position where such incredibly talented people want to focus on the future together.” Peets added, “I am very proud to take our professional relationship to the next level. We have been working creatively together since 2004, and Solid Entertainment represents a fresh look and a continued commitment to all that we have built. I look forward to adding to this foundation with an eye towards all that is to come with the ongoing expansion of Eric’s empire.”
They’re the keys to a solid business plan: a sound product, an understanding of the target customer, focused marketing and country music.
That’s right — country music. Nashville songwriters have over the last decade amplified a secondary source of revenue by giving more in-the-round performances beyond Music City’s club circuit, particularly for America’s corporate movers and shakers. Sometimes it’s a hometown gig at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe or The Listening Room for 50-75 staffers with a company enjoying an entertainment break during a conference. In other instances, the composers may travel out of town to perform for a dozen senior members of different companies that are engaged in a leadership exercise.
Regardless of a company’s purpose, it gives songwriters — who create their material in small rooms — a chance to see their songs at work in front of an audience and to get paid for the privilege.
“A lot of songwriters are doing it because they’re not making money on getting cuts anymore,” says songwriter Hillary Lindsey (“Blue Ain’t Your Color,” “Jesus, Take the Wheel”). “Even if you get the album cut, if you don’t have a single, you’re not making money. So a lot of people are hustling and getting a lot of these gigs. If you do enough, I think you can make some money.”
The development was not born in a songwriting room. Instead, it came indirectly from the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp., which is tasked with marketing Music City as a destination for both vacation and business travel. Songwriters are “a secret weapon of Nashville,” says NCVC CEO Butch Spyridon. Roughly 20 years ago, he rounded up three writers — Brett James (“I Hold On,” “Blessed”), Rivers Rutherford (“Ain’t Nothing ’Bout You,” “Real Good Man”) and Tim Nichols(“Live Like You Were Dying,” “Heads Carolina, Tails California”) — and hit a handful of other markets, attempting to entice convention bookers to plot their events in Middle Tennessee.
“The irony was it was so good, so cool and so special,” Spyridon says. “The client base responded better than if they were seeing the artists. It resonated out of the gate, and so then we just never stopped.”
Around 10 years ago, some of the executives who experienced those songwriter-in-the-round performances started booking them for their own corporate events. The price was much less than booking, say, Tim McGraw, and the event proved more personal and intimate, as attendees heard familiar songs in the vocal-and-guitar format in which they were originally conceived. While prices vary, the typical writer might get $5,000, so a company could conceivably book a four-person event for $20,000 and minimal production costs, far cheaper than a corporate McGraw gig.
“Not only that, you can get the writers that wrote most of the Tim McGraw hits,” says songwriter Rob Hatch (“I Don’t Dance,” “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away”), who co-founded a songwriter booking agency, Entersong, with Jerrod Niemann and Indiana-based entrepreneur Steve Stewart this year. The company has over 50 writers on its roster, and bookings can range from appearances at established venues to informal dates at backyard barbecues or house parties.
“COVID-19 created a situation where people couldn’t go out and go to concerts,” Hatch says. “A lot of the private concerts popped up more because they couldn’t go anywhere else.”
Like any other performer, songwriters determine the workload that suits them. Ashley Gorley (“You Proof,” “You Should Probably Leave”) takes out-of-town dates only if they’re with fellow writers who are already friends and/or it’s in a location where he and his wife would like to vacation. Chris DeStefano (“At the End of a Bar,” “Something in the Water”) is more aggressive.
“I try to do as much of it as possible,” he says. “It’s a great way of reaching fans and [a chance to] do some traveling, too, which I go do a lot of times. I get to bring my wife, and that’s always great. It’s working vacations, but also, it’s a way of really communicating directly with fans. And any opportunity I get to do that is some of the best parts of what I do.”
But a number of writers have also found that the shows can become too much of a good thing, as they start eating into their family time or damaging their creativity in the writing room.
“They are good for a songwriter to get some hard cash because our money is so delayed, the way we get paid,” says Jessi Alexander (“Never Say Never,” “I Drive Your Truck”). “If you’re going to pay me to come sing five songs with my friends, I’m going to do it, but I found that it was really starting to disrupt my writing — go play a gig, get home late at night, start all over again.”
Some of the gigs are ideal — Corey Crowder (“Famous Friends,” “Minimum Wage”) did one for Waldorf Astoria Hotels in Hawaii — and others have ranged from a trucking tire company that employed Track45 to a winery that booked Hunter Phelps (“wait in the truck,” “Thinking ’Bout You”). Another songwriter booking agency, Mike Severson’s Songwriter City, lists a bundle of clients — including Morgan Stanley, AT&T and Amazon — on its website.
In the end, the trend is one that takes advantage of the most unique feature of Music City’s creative class, providing an extra income stream to songwriters and setting the community apart in the business world.
“This kind of shows who we are,” Spyridon says. “You clear away all the clutter, and there’s a heart and soul, and it comes from the songwriter.”
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Stagecoach’s iconic Palomino Stage is getting the star treatment in 2023 with scheduled performances from Tyler Childers, Bryan Adams, Melissa Etheridge and more. The Palomino Stage, which offers an alternative sound to the main stage acts, will also feature sets from ZZ Top, Marty Stuart, Turnpike Troubadours and Nikki Lane, among others.
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Stagecoach festival will take place from April 28-30 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif., following two weekends of Coachella on the same grounds. Ian Munsick, Keb’ Mo’, Valerie June, Sierra Ferrell, Jaime Wyatt, Sammy Kershaw and more will also take the Palomino Stage in 2023.
The country festival celebrates its 15th anniversary with a Palomino Stage that rivals previous years. The Palomino Stage has welcomed Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, George Jones, John Prine, Jerry Lee Lewis, Smokey Robinson, Emmylou Harris, Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers, Charley Pride, Tom Jones and Dwight Yoakam as well as today’s hottest, award-winning talent including Sturgill Simpson, Cody Jinks, Zach Bryan, Cody Johnson, Colter Wall, Charley Crockett, Margo Price and more over the years.
The 2023 edition of Stagecoach will also see headlining performances from superstars Luke Bryan, Kane Brown and Chris Stapleton. Additional artists on the Mane Stage include Brooks & Dunn, Jon Pardi, Old Dominion, Riley Green, Lainey Wilson, Gabby Barrett, Parker McCollum, BRELAND, Elle King, Morgan Wade, Niko Moon and Kameron Marlowe.
Three-day passes for the country festival begin at $389 with VIP, camping and parking passes also available. New to this year’s festival is the Saloon pass, which offers fans access to standing room only areas on both sides of the Corral and access to the Rhinestone & Cowboy Saloons featuring specialty food and drink vendors, air-conditioned restrooms, shaded seating areas, and full bars. For more information on tickets and lineup, head here.