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Brad Paisley has shifted labels, from his longtime home at Sony’s Arista Nashville, to EMI Records Nashville, under the Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN) umbrella.
The move reunites Paisley with UMGN chairman/CEO Mike Dungan and president Cindy Mabe. Dungan was instrumental in signing Paisley to his first deal at Arista Nashville, while Mabe served as Paisley’s marketing point person through many of his early album cycles including Mud on the Tires and Time Well Wasted. He also joins a label group roster that includes several of his collaborators, including Carrie Underwood, with whom Paisley co-hosted the CMA Awards for more than a decade and together earned a No. 1 Country Airplay hit with “Remind Me” in 2011. He is also now labelmates with his “Start a Band” collaborator Keith Urban.
“There were two people that should get the credit that you even know my name – Mike Dungan and Cindy Mabe. I ran into Mike at the fishing department at Walmart after having met with several labels and he talked me into signing my first deal with Arista. They assigned this woman named Cindy Mabe to me – we graduated the same day at Belmont. I got to work with her on my first few albums and now I get to work with her at UMG,” Paisley said via a statement. “Cindy’s a genius and terrific human being. She heard what I was up to with the new music, and she pointed me further into the direction I was headed. I’ve never had this kind of enthusiasm and empowerment. She said, ‘Make music that matters.’ It’s an amazing thing to work with Mike and Cindy again. It’s great to know they believe in this music as much as I do.”
For more than two decades, Paisley’s razor-sharp songwriting, keen wit and dedication to country music have garnered him three Grammy Awards, 14 CMA Awards, 15 ACM Awards and more accolades. He was inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2001. During his career, he’s posted nine albums at the pinnacle of Billboard’s top country albums chart, and earned nearly two dozen hits on the Country Airplay chart.
Paisley’s first UMG Nashville album is slated for later this year, while he will release a new song from the upcoming project on Feb. 24. Titled “Same Here,” Paisley wrote the song with Lee Thomas Miller and Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith, with production by Luke Wooten.
“Brad is a true creative. He has no boundaries to what he uses as his canvas. He has used his voice and his words as a gift to heal the world through his philanthropy, his song writing, his guitar playing, his entertaining, his music videos, his sense of humor and his heart,” Mabe said via a statement. “He has been a part of the country music duo with Carrie Underwood that helped define country music to the world. And getting to reunite with my friend and collaborator in his next creative adventure is something I’ve wanted for a long time. I cannot wait for him to share the music he has created with the world.”
Singer-songwriter Marcus King wed Briley Hussey on Sunday, Feb. 19, at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center. People was first to report the news.
“I fell in love, hard!” King, 26, told the magazine of first meeting Hussey. “She waltzed up on my bus like she owned it, and I was taken with her sweet southern drawl. She asked to connect to the Bluetooth, blared Linda Ronstadt and Aretha Franklin and we sang and danced till it was time for the bus to leave. I told her the next morning to quit her job and marry me instead.”
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Fellow country singer-songwriter Jamey Johnson officiated the wedding.
South Carolina native King told People of the wedding ceremony and reception, “We wanted the ceremony to be simple and elegant and our reception to be the complete opposite. A lot of color, candles, fun linens and china, lights, trees and foliage — definitely a glam garden vibe.”
In 2022, King released his second album, Young Blood, which included the songs “Hard Workin’ Man” and “Blood on the Tracks.” The album debuted at the pinnacle of Billboard‘s top blues albums chart.
King also joined his soulful brand of music with Zac Brown Band on the song “Stubborn Pride,” from the latter’s 2021 album The Comeback, and opened shows for the group last year on their From the Fire Tour, which also featured openers King Calaway and Tenille Townes. King also showed off his blazing guitar riffs when he performed alongside Zac Brown Band during the group’s performance of “Out in the Middle” at the 2022 CMA Awards.
Defining love is one of the unspoken duties of songwriters across generations.
Depending on the source, love is a wonderful thing, love is a rose, love is thicker than water, or love is a many-splendored thing. Of course, thousands of songs about heartache suggest that even if love really is like oxygen — as was suggested by Sweet — we may not all be breathing the same air.
“Love looks like a cheesy, happy Disney World to some people,” Ingrid Andress reasons, “and love looks like a slow build to other people.”
Sometimes love looks different to the same person after they’ve gone through a breakup. Andress earned her first hit, the Grammy-nominated “More Hearts Than Mine,” with a storyline that imagined bringing a beau home to meet the parents. That song was about a real boyfriend, and he had not met her folks at the time she released it. The relationship eventually bit the dust.
“It was one of those random things where I was just like, ‘I don’t think this is working’ — which at the time seemed crazy, because we had been together for a minute,” she says. “Everybody was like, ‘Oh, you’ll get back together.’ Like, ‘No, I don’t think so.’ And then I met somebody new, and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is like night-and-day difference. I think this was the thing that I was missing from this first one.’ ”
Andress and pop singer-songwriter Julia Michaels had been threatening to write together for a while, and when their schedules finally matched up, with an appointment at the home of Nashville songwriter-producer Sam Ellis (“Lady Like,” “What If I Never Get Over You”), the two women discovered they were at the same place in their dating cycles.
“Her and I had recently gotten out of bad relationships, and then we had both randomly just started falling in love with new people, so it was very organic,” Andress recalls. “We were telling our story and our journey to how we got there, because we both at the time we were just in such a happy place romantically.”
But not in a Disney-level happy place. The opening verses reflect on the bad relationship experiences — manipulation, gaslighting and jealousy — as if they had recorded parts of a visit with an analyst.“The verses are like a full therapy session, for sure,” says Andress.
Conversations with a therapist are often unpredictable, and the “Feel Like This” writers were similarly unsure where the song was going. Ellis had developed a careful, vulnerable piano foundation, and it provided an appropriate framework to explore the unknown.
“It was just sort of a big pile of lyrics,” he says. “We had to find what the song wanted to be out of that.”The verses got the most attention early, and a four-line pre-chorus, which occurs twice, makes a nifty transition from the verses’ contemplative look backward into the present-day enfoldment of this new, seemingly unprecedented relationship. But instead of an anthemic, I-see-stars celebration, the chorus offers restrained, sensible contentment.
“It’s kind of a low chorus,” says Ellis. “It lifts, but it doesn’t hit you huge, melodically. It’s just — the pocket is cool, and that’s what those two do so well.”
They struggled temporarily to find an appropriate tone for that section that would balance optimism with cautious realism. Ellis broke away for a bit to the kitchen, and when he returned, Andress and Michaels had eased into “homemade cookin’ ” and “backyard kissin’,” portraying love at a comfort-food level while working up to the vulnerability that it supports.
“I thought I knew what/ I knew what love was,” Andress sings at the chorus’ peak before a desperate admission: “Guess I didn’t know at all.” They still didn’t have a title, but as they tried to define this reassuring emotion, Michaels blurted the chorus’ defining line: “I think love’s supposed to feel like this.”“Feel Like This” wasn’t the kind of bumper-sticker phrase that typically works for a country song title — “My songwriter brain would never allow that,” says Andress. “Sounds boring” — but it worked for this particular piece, hinting at its positivity without going over the top.
“We’re both emo songwriters,” Andress says, comparing her work to Michaels. “I thought we were going to write a sad song that day, and we did not.”
Rather than write a bridge, they left a section for some vocal inspiration after the second chorus. Ellis oversaw a demo built around piano and kick drum, and got Andress to lay down a lead vocal, which would ultimately become the performance that appears on the master recording, her voice cracking appropriately near the end of the chorus. She also ad-libbed atmospheric lines to create a bridge, essentially establishing a short space without lyrics that gives the listener time to absorb the psychological lessons that had already transpired.
“With Ingrid, it’s always awesome when we write,” says Ellis. “Sometimes we’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t have a bridge yet,’ so I’ll just kind of play through the song just to get a vocal down, and I’ll leave a big section where something could come up. Nine times out of ten, Ingrid will sing something that ends up being this whole new hook or this whole new melody.”
Ellis did more production work on it in the short run, finishing an estimated 70% of the production. But Andress was hardly ready to assemble her next project.
“It kind of got left in demo world for a couple of years while she was figuring out the next record,” he says. “Once we decided that this was going to go on the record, we kind of cracked open the session again and took inventory of where we wanted to go.”
Multi-instrumentalist Devin Malone and Ellis developed all the parts, with Malone adding both the suspenseful steel guitar and the weighty, melancholy cello. Ellis plucked single ganjo notes to provide subtle, spacious rhythmic enhancements in the second verse and to offset the mood a bit.
“The plucking was intentional,” Andress says. “It brings a lightness to the section. It keeps it elevated. It keeps it moving.”
Atlantic/Warner Music Nashville elevated “Feel Like This” to single status, releasing it to country radio via PlayMPE on Jan. 31. It’s accompanied by a motorcycle-themed video that matches the subtleties of the song’s emotional journey. Instead of a happily-ever-after fairytale, “Feel Like This” is an adult approach to the mysteries of relationships.
“Dark comes with light,” says Andress. “You can’t have one without the other, so this song feels true to me in balance. I relate to it because I want to know the gritty stuff before we get to the good stuff.”
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit are set to release a new 13-track project, Weathervanes, on June 9, marking the followup to 2020’s Reunions and 2021’s Georgia Blue. The group just released the first taste of music from the upcoming album with “Death Wish.”
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“There is something about boundaries on this record,” Isbell said via a statement. “As you mature, you still attempt to keep the ability to love somebody fully and completely while you’re growing into an adult and learning how to love yourself.”
On Feb. 20, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit also released a video on YouTube that served as a teaser for the upcoming album, which will release via Isbell’s own Southeastern Records, in conjunction with Thirty Tigers.
“Isbell is a storyteller at the peak of his craft,” says ESPN’s Wright Thompson, who narrates the video clip. “Observing his fellow wanderers, looking inside himself and trying to understand, reducing a universe to four minutes. He shrinks life small enough to name the fear and strip it away, helping his listeners make sense of how two plus two stops equalling four, once you reach a certain age, and carry a certain amount of scars.”
Thompson goes on to describe the album as a collection of “grown-up songs … songs about adult love, about change, about the danger of nostalgia and the interrogation of myths, about cruelty and regret and redemption … life and death songs, played for and by grown-ass people.”
See the full tracklist for Weathervanes below, as well as the trailer video:
“Death Wish”
“King of Oklahoma”
“Strawberry Woman”
“Middle Of The Morning”
“Save The World”
“If You Insist”
“Cast Iron Skillet”
“When We Were Close”
“Volunteer”
“Vestavia Hills”
“White Beretta”
“This Ain’t It”
“Miles”
As the country music community continues to grapple with ways to increase diversity and inclusion, the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) and Academy of Country Music have come together to launch OnRamp, a program set to empower the next generation of Black leaders.
The OnRamp partnership will take 20 young, Black artists and music industry professionals in Nashville through a year-long program that includes access to top leaders, community mentorship and professional development. Vitally, the program comes with a guaranteed $1,000 monthly stipend for the 12 months.
Applications will be available starting in late Spring with the program kicking off in June during Black Music Month. Candidates can sign up for email notifications now at acmcountry.com/onramp to learn more.
This inaugural program will be funded by BMAC, the Academy and industry partners, and aided by social impact agency BreatheWithMe. The hope is that Nashville companies will make financial contributions to fund future years.
“The Academy has a rich history of fostering diversity and inclusion in the country music industry both on stage and behind-the-scenes, and we see this partnership as a particularly impactful way to continue our committed work to making the statement ‘Country Music is for Everyone’ a true reality,” said ACM CEO Damon Whiteside in a statement. “We’re excited to work with BMAC on this pivotal and transformative work for our Nashville community by increasing opportunities for young professionals from diverse backgrounds in our industry.”
The Academy relocated from its longtime home in Southern California to Nashville last year.
The guaranteed income component was critical, BMAC co-founder/co-chair Willie “Prophet” Stiggers tells Billboard. He studied such initiatives including a program started by former Stockton, Calif., mayor Michael Tubbs a few years ago that guaranteed $500 a month to 125 residents for 18 months and has now spread to more than 50 cities.
“All the data showed how people were lifting themselves out of poverty and realizing their dreams, not just from the cash relief, but the mentorship and wrap-around programs,” Stiggers says. “I said to myself and the BMAC team, with the billions of dollars the entertainment industry generates, we can, without government support, have these programs happen across the country and really begin to close the wealth gap that is targeting Black and Brown people.”
OnRamp comes several months after BMAC released its Three Chords and the Actual Truth report last June. The report called for the country music community and the city of Nashville to commit to change and equity through partnering with BMAC. The Academy was among the first companies to come aboard.
“They were really the first to raise their hand and says, ‘we’re prepared to stand with you and launch this program in Nashville and then call on the other companies up and down Music Row to partner with us.’ So this initiative can grow and become a sustainable part of the Nashville community,” Stiggers says.
The Academy’s LEVel Up: Lift Every Voice program will help facilitate OnRamp. LEVel Up is a two-year professional development program, originally launched last year and fully funded by the Academy, for rising leaders in country music. The members of the current LEVel Up cohort will play a hands-on role in the application review process and drive the candidate selection work, proposing a recommended slate of candidates to the Academy and BMAC teams.
Each of the 20 members of the inaugural OnRamp cohort will have a program designed specifically for them with their own facilitating team with the help of LEVel Up members and the Academy’s DEI task force. “For instance, if you’re a young person trying to become a manager, we’ll pair you with a manager who is killing it in that space and allow you to shadow them,” Stiggers says.
“It’s my pleasure to stand alongside other industry leaders to support this important program,” said ACM DEI Task Force chair/ACM board member and BMI executive Shannon Sanders, in a statement. “The Academy continues to play a pivotal role in ushering in a new era in country music by truly supporting and lifting up those underrepresented in the industry.”
Additionally, there will be money management and mental health components activated on a weekly or monthly basis. “The idea is to build the communities around each of these individuals that they need to help them realize their dreams,” Stiggers says.
Ultimately, the idea is to transform the country music industry across the board. “Five years from now when you’re able to have a few hundred young people who have been provided access in the training, resources and connections they need in the country music space I think we see a more diverse pool of artists and executives,” Stiggers says. “I think we see more Black women faces showing up on the executive side and I think we’ve opened this up to allow the charts to be reflective of the community that enjoys the genre, which isn’t the cast today.”
Earlier this year, the Country Music Association launched a diversity and inclusion fellowship program to provide an immersive experience in the country music industry initially through the CMA’s communications team in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of CMA Fest this June. Fellows will then work for six weeks with a country music publicity firm. Set to launch this Spring, the program is open to all students from underrepresented communities through Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations and the University of Alabama, with additional collegiate partners including the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Nashville’s Belmont University.
Such programs, as well as The Hubb, a professional development summit started by CAA in 2018, have Stiggers feeling optimistic. “I am encouraged to see people actually moving past the hashtags and trying to implement sustainable programs that are really going to create a more level playing field.”
“Well, s—!”
It was a refrain that reverberated often throughout the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville on Sunday evening (Feb. 19), as a cavalcade of musicians, actors and comedians gathered “reported for duty” to celebrate the life and career of the late Leslie Jordan, who died Oct. 24, 2022, at age 67.
Jordan was known for his acting roles including his Emmy Award-winning portrayal of Beverly Leslie on Will & Grace, as well as work in the American Horror Story series and most recently on the series Call Me Kat.
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But it was the COVID-19 pandemic that brought Jordan greater acclaim, as his hilarious, witty Instagram videos went viral — filled with signature sayings like “Hello, fellow hunker downers!” and “Well, s—!” — providing both comedic relief and an emotional balm to during the uncertain, anxiety-ridden early days of the pandemic. In 2020, Jordan amassed nearly six million social media followers (though Jordan would adamantly call them friends, not “followers”), and the following year, he released his debut gospel album, Company’s Comin’, which saw him team with country artists including Dolly Parton, Katie Pruitt, Tanya Tucker, T.J. Osborne, Ashley McBryde and Charlie Worsham, as well as rock music icon, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder.
Many of the artists featured on Company’s Comin’ were on hand to perform and share memories of Jordan during the event, dubbed “Reportin’ For Duty: A Tribute to Leslie Jordan,” which packed the 4,000-seat Opry House Sunday evening.
The love in the room for Jordan was palpable, whether performers and speakers had known Jordan for years or only hours.
Comedian Leanne Morgan hosted the evening, telling the audience that Jordan’s biggest accomplishment was “being unapologetically himself.”
“I’m sure he is all smiles knowing he brought together the most eclectic group of people to ever grace the Opry stage,” Morgan added. The evening was filmed for an upcoming special on Opry Entertainment Group’s Circle Network.
Tanya Tucker launched the show with renditions of “Amazing Grace” and her 1972 signature hit “Delta Dawn.”
“He was a light in my life,” Tucker told the audience. “I’ll always remember his laughter.”
Performances followed from Travis Howard (a medley of “I’ll Fly Away,” “I Saw the Light” and “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder”), McBryde (“Girl Goin’ Nowhere”), Maren Morris with Ryan Hurd (“What Would This World Do”), Fancy Haygood with John Osborne (“Go Rest High on That Mountain”), HARDY (“Give Heaven Some Hell”), ERNEST (“Songs We Used to Sing”), Brittney Spencer (“Sober and Skinny”), Ruby Amanfu (“How Beautiful You Are”), Katie Pruitt (“This Little Light of Mine”) and Jake Wesley Rogers, who turned in one of the evening’s strongest performances with a rendering of his song “Jacob From the Bible.”
Jelly Roll performed his No. 1 Country Airplay hit “Son of a Sinner,” and told the crowd, “[Jordan] gave love and he looked for love.”
Many of Jordan’s friends and television co-workers were also on hand, including Mayim Bialik, Margaret Cho, Max Greenfield, Cheyenne Jackson, Anthony Mason, Jim Parsons and Robyn Schall.
Following her solo performance, Pruitt teamed with Jackson for a song they created to pay tribute to Jordan’s well-known, “Well s—” saying. Lainey Wilson teamed with Lukas Nelson for a stirring rendition of the Parton/Kenny Rogers classic “You Can’t Make Old Friends,” with Wilson following with a rendition of her current top 10 Billboard Country Airplay hit “Heart Like a Truck.”
“I feel so honored to be here tonight,” Wilson said. “I never got to meet him, but he felt like one of those guys you just knew.”
Parton sent in a video tribute, in which she told Jordan, “Everybody loves you, but I doubt that many of them loved you more than I did.”
Worsham performed “Believe in Love,” and said of Jordan, “He only performed at the Opry a couple of times. But in that short time, he did what country music does at its best, which is to expand this circle to include everyone.”
The evening’s most powerful moments came as the evening celebrated not only Jordan’s light and laughter, but his journey as a gay man who was raised in the conservative South and went on to become a beloved celebrity, known not only for his humor, but for his love for everyone around him.
Brothers Osborne took the stage to perform “I’m Not For Everyone” (Jordan had appeared in the official video for the song), and followed with “Younger Me,” a song T.J. Osborne wrote after coming out as gay in 2021. He dedicated the evening’s performance to a gay couple in the audience who were celebrating 20 years together.
It was noted that as serious as Jordan was about his acting and comedy, he was dedicated to serving others — particularly those battling AIDS, as he took part in Project Angel Food in the 1990s, giving meals to those impacted by AIDS. It was also noted that Jordan also sat with those who were dying of AIDS, when their own families would not be present. The proceeds from the event also went to another cause close to Jordan’s heart, the EB Research Partnership, the largest global organization dedicated to funding research to treat and cure Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB).
Vedder closed the evening, teaming with Lukas Nelson for “Maybe It’s Time,” followed by the Pearl Jam classic “Just Breathe” and “The One Who Hideth Me,” Vedder’s collaboration with Jordan on the Company’s Comin’ album. For the final song, the evening’s entertainers gathered onstage for a rendition of “I Shall Be Released.”
It was comedian Schall who summed up the evening’s essence best, relaying to the crowd Jordan’s relentless support and encouragement, even when it came to making Instagram videos.
“We’d make a video, and he would call me and say, ‘Hey, Robyn, we’re gonna post this. What’s the best time to do it, so you shine the best?’ I think it’s so fitting [how] a tribute night to Leslie Jordan is just all of his friends, shining so bright.”
Kyle Jacobs, songwriter/producer and husband to country entertainer Kellie Pickler, has died at age 49, Billboard has confirmed. TMZ first reported the story.
Jacobs was found dead in an apparent suicide in the couple’s Nashville home on Friday afternoon (Feb. 17). According to a statement from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department obtained by Billboard, “Nashville’s Department of Emergency Communications received a 911 call at 1:21 p.m. Friday from a home on Sneed Road in the police department’s West Precinct. Officers and Nashville Fire Department personnel responded and located resident Kyle Jacobs, 49, deceased from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in an upstairs bedroom/office. His death is being investigated as an apparent suicide.
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“Mr. Jacobs’ wife, Kellie Pickler, reported that she awoke a short time earlier, did not see her husband, and began looking for him. After she and her personal assistant were unable to open the door to the upstairs bedroom/office, the assistant telephoned 911.”
Jacobs’ songwriting credits included Garth Brooks’ Hot Country Songs chart-topper “More Than a Memory,” as well as songs recorded by Trace Adkins, Clay Walker and more. Jacobs also produced several Lee Brice hits, including “I Drive Your Truck,” “Hard to Love,” “Rumor” and “Drinking Class.”
On Thursday (Feb. 16), Jacobs had posted on his Instagram page in celebration of Brice’s album My World being certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Jacobs posted, “Platinum?! SWEEEET!!! An amazing crew of incredibly talented peeps put this one together…Deeply honored to be a creative part of it…Thank you Jesus!!! @leebrice @curbwordmusicpub @curbrecords #countrymusic”
Jacobs and Pickler wed on Jan. 1, 2011, and previously starred together in the reality show I Love Kellie Pickler.
Pickler competed on American Idol and finished in sixth place. She later earned a top 10 hit on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart with “Best Days of Your Life.”
If you’re thinking about suicide, or are worried about a friend or loved one, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, available 24 hours, at 1-800-273-8255.
First Country is a compilation of the best new country songs, videos & albums that dropped this week.
Kelsea Ballerini, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat
Ballerini continues in the recent lineage of divorce albums from artists including Adele and Carly Pearce with her most intimate work to date, a six-song set (accompanied by a short film) that unflinchingly details the phases of the dissolution of her marriage to fellow artist Morgan Evans. This raw project chronicles a relationship that slowly dims from its brightly-wedded origins into cloudy voids wrought by physical and emotional distance. “Mountain With a View” feels like a straight-forward response to Evans’ own post-divorce song “Over For You,” while some of the project’s strongest tracks come with no-holds-barred, lyrical gut-punches of “Interlude” and “Blindsided”–songs that shake loose the last visages of keeping up appearances, in favor of wading into the messiness, anger and pain of loss. The project concludes with “Leave Me Again,” with a message of self-worth not so unlike her early hit “Miss Me More.” This time, Ballerini’s music is stripped back to just a vulnerable guitar-vocal, her voice peaceful and hopeful, like the first glimpses of a sunrise after a long, dark night.
Lainey Wilson, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
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CMA Award-winner Wilson makes this contribution to the Rolling Stones tribute album Stoned Cold Country, turning this Stones classic (which peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973) into a track that transforms from barroom weeper into funky, piano-inflected track, spearheaded by Wilson’s own unique vocal flair. Wilson has earned country chart hits with the emotive “Heart Like a Truck” and wisdom-imbuing “Things a Man Oughta Know,” but here, she reminds listeners that she can rock out just as well.
The Pretty Wild, “Bettin’ On Us”
This newcomer sister duo is ready to go all-in on this anthemic, alternative pop-country hybrid about boldly risking everything when you know the reward is worth it. Sisters Jill and Julia wrote the song with Ben Williams and Colin Healey. The sisters’ harmonies are understated, while production from JoJo Centineo injects the song with a rock-tinged energy.
Tenille Arts with Maddie & Tae, “Last Time Last”
Arts teams with duo Maddie & Tae for this song that is steeped in the culture of bittersweet nostalgia, musing that if the last moment of a good thing made itself evident–whether last kickball game as a child, or the last kiss with a lover–one would do all they could to cause those final moments to linger. Maddie & Tae’s vocal pairings with Arts sound fresh and wistful. Arts wrote the song with Alex Kline, Trannie Anderson and Alison Veltz Cruz.
Joy Oladokun, “Changes”
An early release from Oladokun’s upcoming album April 28 album Proof of Life, “Changes” features the singer-songwriter’s vulnerable voice floating above tender acoustics as she reflects on kinetic shifts, both global and personal. “Life’s always been a little dangerous, but I don’t wanna stay the same so/ I’m trying to keep up with the changes,” Oladokun sings, her voice a relaxed balm on a steady beat. The song follows her previous collaboration with Chris Stapleton on the lush ballad “Sweet Symphony.”
Jay Allen, “No Prayer Like Mama’s”
Written by Jay Allen and Justin Morgan, with production from Morgan and Micah Wilshire, this intensely personal song pays tribute to Allen’s late mother, who passed away in 2019 after a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s. Here, Allen excels at constructing sleek pop-country with an impactful message, serving as a worthy platform for his potent vocal.
In the decade that has passed since Music Health Alliance launched in 2013, the non-profit organization has become a critical healthcare resource, providing free healthcare advocacy and resources to artists, music industry professionals and their families.
The MHA’s 15-person staff has saved clients more than an estimated $100 million in healthcare costs and provided free advocacy and support to more than 20,000 music industry clients in 50 states. Along the way, the organization has saved nearly 2,500 families from bankruptcy due to medical bills, aided 31 people in getting life-saving transplants, and provided urgent diagnostic care to 57 clients via the Ben Eyestone Fund.
But behind those massive stats are incredibly personal stories of musicians, artists, songwriters and industry members who lives have been impacted for good.
“Getting access to healthcare is the biggest thing,” Dierks Bentley tells Billboard. The country singer-songwriter is a longtime MHA supporter/client and now celebrity ambassador. “I’ve had some of my own crew that was sick in Canada with a life-threatening illness. It would have cost him like $550,000 out of pocket. He ended up paying $5,000. It saved his life, and it’s amazing what MHA does. It’s God’s work.”
MHA’s services are free to any person who has worked in the music industry for two or more years, or who has credited contributions to four commercially released recordings or videos. Spouses, partners and children of qualifying individuals may also receive access to the nonprofit’s services from birth to end of life.
“About 12 years ago, when I was chewing on the idea of Music Health Alliance, I looked at all the economic impact studies of cities where they had big entertainment economic bases,” says Tatum Allsep, Music Health Alliance founder and CEO. “At that point it was around 76% of all entertainment industry employed were small businesses and self-employment.”
Allsep is empathetic to the plight of primarily self-employed and small-business music creatives and professionals navigating the complex healthcare process. The organization’s typical “busy season” arrives Nov. 1 through Dec. 15, the window for open enrollment for individuals and families to get health insurance. “We see about 6,000 clients in total, and about 3,200 appointments to get people insured across the nation. Probably 68% of our clients are in Middle Tennessee but we also have a footprint now in all 50 states.”
Dierks Bentley with MHA Team
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Sony Music Publishing Nashville CEO Rusty Gaston tells Billboard of the importance of MHA’s efforts in offering peace of mind to songwriters.
“Songwriters are independent contractors, so they don’t have access to group insurance plans,” Gaston says. “When Music Health Alliance came along, they were the gateway to providing help to get songwriters into affordable insurance plans. Our health system is so complicated, and MHA is a safe place for songwriters and anyone who works on [Music Row] to call and it’s completely confidential and free. It is such a unique and remarkable service for our community.”
Allsep notes that MHA was created to be nimble, given the ever-shifting needs of the music industry. But in March 2020, at the genesis of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization was put to the test, right along with the rest of the industry.
“Literally, overnight, the calls we were getting usually saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got a huge medical bill,’ or ‘I just got this diagnosis,’ went from not being about medicine and doctors, but people saying, ‘I need food, I need diapers and formula for my kids,’” Allsep says. “There is no more basic form of healthcare than food — and we just said, ‘We gotta get food into our industry, because that’s what they need.’”
The Music Health Alliance board and staff turned to a fund named after MHA’s first public client, producer Cowboy Jack Clement, the famed writer-producer known for working with such artists as Charley Pride, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, as well as for his work as a music publisher and label operator.
“We had this fund, which had no revenue strings to it and it had about $60,000 in it,” Allsep says. “We went to City National Bank and said, ‘We need to withdraw this cash because we tried to order gift cards online and we could only order one or two at a time.’ So we literally went to Walmart, Kroger, Trader Joe’s, and other places and bought $20,000 in gift cards. We thought we would end up doing this for like three months; we did this for a year and a half, to the point where anytime we would walk into Trader Joe’s, people would cheer.”
The team also curated lists of additional resources for places to get diapers, formula, mortgage and rental assistance, utilities assistance and more. The organization provided access to more than 1 million meals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Music Health Alliance also began offering resources for mental health counseling, with Allsep noting that between 2019 and 2020, MHA saw a 300% increase in requests for counseling.
“That was another pivot for us: finding a way to administer getting counselors paid, because most counselors don’t accept health insurance,” Allsep says. “So we created the MHA’s mental health fund that the Music Biz Association, Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music and so many individuals and organizations pitched in to help find a way to get counseling to the masses. Every Tuesday we have our finance meeting, and we write, on average, 150 checks that go out to counselors across the nation. To date, we’ve provided more than 3,500 counseling sessions. I am so proud of that, because people are talking about mental health and our industry is a right-brain, creative industry. They are more predisposed to facing things like depression and self-medicating. If we can get ahead of that and dispel the negative stereotypes around counseling and mental health, that’s good for the industry.”
Gaston adds, “A big secret to the creative is simply being in a good mental place to be able to create. At Sony, we were able during the pandemic to start a songwriters’ assistance program to offer free mental health counseling to all of our songwriters. But the MHA, for songwriters outside of Sony, have been able to help them find counseling [and] get paired with the right people to address mental health needs — especially when it was at an all-time high during the pandemic.”
In 2021, the CMA honored the MHA’s work by naming Allsep and MHA’s CFO and certified senior advisor Shelia Shipley Biddy as CMA Foundation Humanitarian Award recipients, alongside singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. Last year, Big Machine Label Group founder/president/CEO Scott Borchetta and his wife Sandi Borchetta made a $150,000 grant to MHA through their Music Has Value fund.
“It has been remarkable to witness Music Health Alliance in action over the past decade,” Borchetta tells Billboard via statement. “Their efforts to provide accessible healthcare to countless members of our beloved music community, especially throughout the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, are undeniably heroic. Their contribution and dedication to the wellbeing of our industry is truly awe-inspiring and we are honored to continue supporting their mission.”
Launching its 10th year, MHA has added a fund dedicated to dental health. The new resources are in conjunction with the Richard M. Bates SMILE fund, in memory of the music enthusiast and Walt Disney Company longtime senior vp of government relations.
Allsep says the next stage for Music Health Alliance will focus on the senior population, with Shipley Biddy leading that division.
“The senior population is the legacy of our industry, and there is such as deficit when it comes to things like home health, or being sent home from the hospital and not being able to take care of yourself,” Allsep says. “Home health is not covered by health insurance and it’s so expensive, but it enables someone to live with dignity and that’s important to us. We are focused on how we can do better for the legacy of our industry.”
Goldenvoice’s alt-country, roots and Americana-centric Palomino Festival, which had its inaugural year in 2022, will not be returning this year.
“Palomino Festival will not be taking place in 2023,” a spokesperson for the festival tells Billboard, but declined to give further reasons for the event not returning. The spokesperson also declined to offer attendance figures for Palomino Festival’s 2022 event.
The one-day festival was held on July 9, 2022, at the Rose Bowl’s Brookside grounds in Pasadena, Calif., with Kacey Musgraves headlining.
The festival’s inaugural performer lineup also included Willie Nelson & Family, as well as Zach Bryan, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Turnpike Troubadours, Old Crow Medicine Show, Charley Crockett, Orville Peck, Valerie June and Nikki Lane.
Goldenvoice also produces the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, as well as the largest country music festival, Stagecoach, both held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif. While Stagecoach has increasingly incorporated a more inclusive lineup of performances from alt-country and/or Americana artists into its three-day lineup (Sierra Ferrell, Valerie June, Turnpike Troubadours and Tyler Childers will appear at this year’s iteration), the Palomino Festival was created to shine a brighter light on an eclectic style of music that incorporates everything from country, western, folk, indie rock, alternative and more.
“I’ve always wanted to do this type of festival, focused on music that lives on the edge of what is and isn’t country,” Goldenvoice talent buyer Stacy Vee previously told Billboard prior to the Palomino Festival’s inaugural event, noting that the name Palomino is in part a tribute to the former North Hollywood Palomino country music club. “It’s very important to me that these artists that I cultivated amazing relationships with get their own look and moment.”
This year’s Stagecoach festival is slated to return April 28-30, with both Kane Brown and Chris Stapleton making their first headlining runs, while fellow headliner Luke Bryan makes his fourth headlining appearance. The multi-week Coachella festival is set for April 14-16 and 21-23, with headliners including Bad Bunny, BLACKPINK and Frank Ocean.