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On Tuesday evening (Nov. 11), Save the Music’s sixth annual “Hometown to Hometown” event put a spotlight on the power of music education to inspire creativity and launch careers, while also raising money to aid the current and future generations of students to have access to quality music technology. The event was held at Nashville’s City Winery, raising over $250,000 to support music education in under-resourced public high schools.
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Singer-songwriter Dasha opened the evening with a performance of “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’),” and also co-hosted the evening alongside FEMco founder Leslie Fram. They led the way in celebrating the night’s 2025 champions of the year, artists Lee Ann Womack and Old Dominion, as well as music industry leader Cameo Carlson.
Lee Ann Womack performs onstage for Save The Music’s 6th Annual Hometown to Hometown Event at City Winery Nashville on November 11, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Catherine Powell/Getty Images
Carlson is the CEO of mtheory, and manages Grammy-nominated artist Mickey Guyton. Carlson is also an instrumental part of organizations and programs including Nashville Music Equality and the Equal Access program. Carlson began her career in terrestrial radio before transitioning into the digital music arena as head of label and artist relations at Apple, helping to spearhead the early iTunes juggernaut. Carlson’s career has also included executive roles at Universal Motown Republic. Prior to her work at mtheory, she led digital strategy at Borman Entertainment.
Guyton honored Carlson with a performance of “Better Than You Left Me,” while music industry exec Rachel Whitney presented Carlson as a champion of the year honoree. Carlson also joined Fram onstage as the two shared a conversation about Carlson’s career.
“The real thing for me is staying open-minded,” Carlson said of her early career roles. “Being that first-gen [college] student who didn’t have a network of any kind to walk into, I didn’t know what possibilities there were and weren’t, so I kept an open mind. I was taking opportunities that presented itself in front of me that sounded cool and sounded different, and I wound up in this space of kind of being an interpreter between what the tech needed and what the music industry did and I liked that niche…there’s no way you could have charted out the path that I wound up on.”
In her role at mTheory, she and her team provide services to aid artist managers in their complex myriad of roles.
“The managers, in the ecosystem of an artist, they are the one person who has to know everything, they have to do every single line of business. It is an impossible job. There’s never been a manager that goes to bed at night and says, ‘I did everything I could for my artist today,’ literally doesn’t exist. So the job starts at impossible, and our mission statement is that we support the impossible. We put services in place to help managers.”
Mickey Guyton performs onstage for Save The Music’s 6th Annual Hometown to Hometown Event at City Winery Nashville on November 11, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Catherine Powell/Getty Images
Womack performed “A Little Past Little Rock” and “I Hope You Dance,” the latter being a five-week Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper in 2000. Songwriter Bernie Taupin presented Womack with her accolade, telling Womack, “Honoring this woman is such a pleasure for me, I cannot even begin to tell you. I’m preaching to the choir here and you all know, it’s been happening for years, art and music is getting siphoned out of the educational system.” He added, “Music is a life force and the life blood of my industry… It was my education, and we should not let it be drained out of the educational system.”
“Thank you to Save the Music so much for keeping music in schools… we all know, helps them with their test scores in math and science and tech-related things, and not only that, but emotionally, giving them an emotional outlet to express themselves,” Womack told the crowd. “I want every child to have the opportunity to hold a musical instrument in their hands. It’s so important. I can tell you from personal experience, music is so important in these schools. It can be the reason a kid gets up in the morning. It can be the reason they want to go to school, it can be the reason they want to have a better score on that math test or that science test. I thank Save the Music so much for keeping music in schools.”
Old Dominion performed “One Man Band” and a song the band has referred to as a “love letter to Nashville,” this year’s “Good Night Music City.” The band was presented with its accolade by Sony Music Nashville Chairman/CEO Taylor Lindsey. Earlier in 2025, Old Dominion spearheaded raising almost $300,000 for music programs through several initiatives, among them by donating a portion of proceeds from their seven-night run of shows at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.
“My hometown was about the size of this room,” recalled Old Dominion lead singer Matthew Ramsey. “I know what it’s like to grow up in an area where resources are not readily available. I was definitely that kid that felt like music was sometimes the only reason to get up. I know what everyone is talking about here… and I appreciate Save the Music and what they’re doing. We are so honored to be part of it in a small way.”
Later in the evening, Nashville-based Johnson Alternative Learning Center’s principal Franklin and music teacher Mr. Hanna spoke of how music technology and music education have impacted their students. Additionally, one of the school’s senior students Janie, who is learning podcasting through a Save the Music J Dilla Music Technology grant, offered a powerful testimony of how music technology has been beneficial.
Dasha, Fram and singer-songwriter Pynk Beard delivered encouragement for the crowd to raise money for the cause. The event raised $250,000 to support new music technology programs in Nashville as well as the honorees’ hometowns of Washington, D.C. (Old Dominion) and Dallas, Texas (Womack).
Since its launch in 2019, Hometown to Hometown has raised $1.2 million, aiding 18 high schools with resources and state-of-the-art music technology equipment. The sixth annual Save The Music’s “Hometown to Hometown” event was sponsored by Gibson Gives, Love Tito’s, Messina Touring Group, Morris Higham Management, mtheory and SiriusXM.
Dasha performs onstage for Save The Music’s 6th Annual Hometown to Hometown Event at City Winery Nashville on November 11, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Catherine Powell/Getty Images
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To misquote James Brown, it’s a man’s, man’s, man’s world in country music.
In addition to the typical onslaught of individual singles and tracks, at least 11 new country albums and EPs were released on Nov. 7 that have something very basic in common: They were recorded by solo male artists. If there’s ever been a release pattern that provides a glimpse into one of the genre’s biggest challenges, this may be it.
The schedule’s most prominent entry comes from Country Music Hall of Fame member Willie Nelson, whose Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle draws on a bevy of classic songs by fellow Hall of Famer and former duet partner Merle Haggard. At the other end of the scale, Spencer Hatcher releases his first major-label EP, Honky Tonk Hideaway.
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In between are two acts doing career resets, Jake Owen and Ryan Kinder; a pair of Christmas releases by Brad Paisley and Hunter Hayes; a personal comeback by Colt Ford; and debut albums by independent artist Cooper Alan and Music Soup/Interscope/MCA Nashville act Vincent Mason.
That conglomeration reflects one of the ongoing issues for country marketers. Thirty-nine of the 60 titles on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart dated Nov. 15 are solo guys. Much has been made over the dearth of female voices in the genre, as well as the paucity of minority voices and the relatively small number of groups and duos. But that forces all those male performers to compete with little space to create a unique lane for their brand. Developing that singular identity is key for artists who hope to build a career for the long haul, and they’re required to walk a tightrope in the process, mining the influences that led them to this career path while breaking away from them at the same time.
“I could try to write what’s on the radio,” Alan says. “But that stuff’s already on the radio, and those people are already doing it really, really well. So why is that a good strategy for me?”
Cooper Alan
Matthew Berinato
Nelson is the best example among the Nov. 7 releases —perhaps the best example in all of country music — of a male artist who established his own turf in a crowded field. His musical phrasing, the grainy tone of his voice, the buzzy sound of his guitar and his propensity for braids and/or bandanas are a few of the elements that set him apart. Even in Willie Sings Merle — which features covers of such iconic titles as “Silver Wings,” “Mama Tried” and “Okie From Muskogee” — Nelson’s performances are distinctly recognizable.
Ford, with the release of Little Out There, likewise occupies a position that’s specific to him. He was the first successful proponent of country-rap, and he brings his familiar flow — along with more traditional singing — to a series of songs that benefit from a personal story that makes him even more unique. It marks his first release since a near-fatal heart attack in April 2024.
“You need to know who you are and not care about everybody else,” Kinder notes.
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It’s a lesson Kinder learned firsthand. His unique vocal tone serves in subdued settings as reassuring cotton, but becomes a searing blade when he lets it go. In some moments during his career, he has admittedly attempted to adapt to others’ expectations. With new release The Beginning of Things, he strips down a dozen songs he wrote with producer Luke Sheets in his earliest years in Nashville to recapture their original essence. After previous deals with Bigger Picture and Warner Music Nashville, the indie project is something of a career reset as he refines his public persona.
“The [current] music business is the Wild West, which makes it fun and scary,” he says. “I just wanted to go back to the basics for a little while, and all these songs that we recorded were the first ones me and Luke wrote when I came to town. They’re the ones that got everybody excited about what I was doing. They’re the reason I got signed to both of my record deals.”
Owen’s Dreams To Dream is likewise a revision. Nearly 20 years after his first album, he teamed with producer Shooter Jennings (Tanya Tucker, Charley Crockett), eschewing the contemporary sound that dominated his career for a raw tone that draws on the outlaw era.
The late Luke Bell, whose 2022 death drew a new level of attention, had established a creative lane that recalls an even earlier era. The King Is Back, a double album that purportedly represents all of his unreleased material, uses production techniques that recall Sun Records’ 1950s heyday, melodic touches that evince Ernest Tubb and Wynn Stewart, and a yodel that hints at Hank Williams.
Hatcher and Drake Milligan borrow from more recent voices. Milligan’s sophomore project, Tumbleweed, reaffirms his George Strait leanings — the Texan has a bit of Strait’s tone and embraces material that one can imagine Strait recording. But Milligan delivers it more dramatically than the ever-cool country icon and adds a bit of Elvis Presley hip-shaking in his live shows.
Hatcher’s resonance would fit in the center of a Venn diagram of Kenny Chesney, Aaron Tippin and Mo Pitney, wrapped in a package that fits ’90s country. That era influences much of modern country, but Hatcher is betting on his real-world connection to the music and its associated lifestyle.
“I grew up on a farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia,” Hatcher says. “I’ve lived a country life my whole life. Nothing about me is fake and I think that my music reflects that. It’s very traditional, it’s very real. And I’ve always been very authentic, not only to myself, but to what I believe true country music is and was founded on.”
His EP’s name, Honky Tonk Hideaway, is designed to assist in establishing his identity as a country centrist.
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“The title is a pretty good representation of who I am as an artist,” he says. “As far as ‘honky-tonk’ being such a country term, you know, it’s not just a bar, it’s a honky-tonk. I don’t think it would be mistaken as any other genre.”
Hatcher is specific about his presentation — jeans, boots, Western hat — adhering to the classic image of a male country singer. That look partially resembled the starched shirts and jackets that Strait employed to create his own version of that staunch-country identity.
In more recent years, the backward ballcap has become a style point for many young country guys, including Mason, who’s introduced through the album There I Go. He filters his version of country through Southern rock vibes — slide guitar and Hammond B-3 — though he altered his wardrobe recently for some strategic separation.
“This kind of sounds silly, but he’s not been wearing a baseball cap for the last couple of months,” says his manager, Champ Management founder Matt Musacchio. “All the comments on social media [have been], ‘We love you without the hat. We didn’t realize what you looked like.’ We played into that a little bit, too. There’s [a campaign] that’s ‘Who the fuck is Vincent Mason?’ on TikTok. And it’s slowly but surely kind of unraveled who he is.”
Mason, and the holidays, are part of the reason that males play an outsize role in the Nov. 7 releases. His team originally targeted Oct. 31 for his first album, but Mason insisted that his fan base would likely be partying on Halloween, convincing them to wait a week to release it. Meanwhile, two holiday records — Paisley’s Snow Globe Town and Hayes’ Evergreen Christmas Sessions — were scheduled to take best advantage of Yuletide music purchases.
Hunter Hayes
David Bradley
Both Christmas projects lean on familiar identities. Paisley’s snaggly guitar fills and whipped-up soloing are present in “Counting Down the Days,” which doubles as theme music for Hallmark’s annual slate of holiday movies. Hayes displays flashes of jazz in “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and blues in “Run Rudolph Run.” For Hayes, that exploration enhances his established musical personality.
“Country’s a lot of different things, and my thing is I make a lot of different kinds of music,” he says. “I’m very influenced by the stuff I grew up listening to that is country, and I’m really inspired by a lot of country artists right now. I don’t know that I would label myself as a strictly country artist, just because I make so many different things, and I enjoy bringing so many different things into what I do.”
A facile guitarist who played all the instruments on his first album, Hayes has never had trouble developing an identifiable niche.
“I’ve never struggled with having something unusual about what I’m doing,” he says. “Honestly, the challenge has been ‘How do I fit in?’ That’s been my challenge for my entire career.”
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With consumers focused primarily on individual tracks in the digital age, the album is arguably as much a branding opportunity as a creative endeavor, and Alan titled his Nov. 7 debut Winston-Salem, emphasizing his North Carolina roots. He took extra time this year to write and record more songs that adhere to a specific theme. The result is a hefty 20 titles that play with the city’s hyphenated name. He’s a family guy in the Winston portion of the album and a party animal in the Salem half.
While the imaging and branding surrounding the artist should emphasize their uniqueness as a product, the songs are ideally created without much consideration of the competition.
“I pay attention to how things are marketed and what’s working strategically for other artists,” manager Musacchio notes. “But when it comes to the music itself, there’s never been a conversation about what other people are doing and trying to fit in in a certain way.”
The key, it appears, is making music that represents the artist’s creative tastes, then employing authentic marketing that accentuates their best attributes. Hopefully, they’re different enough that they can find their place in a country world that’s teeming with men, all vying for the affection of a specific fan base.
“There’s a whole lot of pie,” Alan suggests. “No matter how big or small your piece of that pie is, it’s pretty good to just at least have a bite of that pie.”
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If two artists are company and three are a crowd, then some Nashville stages are threatening overpopulation.
On three successive nights, Oct. 27-29, a total of 30 artists, three speakers and a pair of comedians assembled at three multi-artist shows with three different themes. For most cities, even one of those concerts would have been a major event, but in Music City, it’s de rigueur; ho-hum; par for the course; been there, done that.
Not to say that other communities can’t produce a big, multi-act show — music capitals such as New York, Los Angeles, Austin or Atlanta certainly do it — but Nashville may have a leg up on the phenomenon, particularly for multi-artist concerts.
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“If you’re in New York, the Friars Club will give you a roast,” says Larry Gatlin, who participated in two of the three Nashville events. “In Los Angeles, they have the Academy [Awards] and stuff. But I think Nashville is unique.”
The parade of large Music City productions started Oct. 27 with The Music of My Life: An All-Star Tribute to Anne Murray, with 14 performers doing one song each at the Grand Ole Opry House while Murray applauded from a floor seat. Collin Raye led with “Daydream Believer,” Shenandoah delivered “Could I Have This Dance,” Canadian Michelle Wright chipped in “Snowbird,” and k.d. lang mirrored Murray’s phrasing while performing “A Love Song” barefoot.
The next night, the Grand Ole Opry stacked six musical acts, including Warner Music Nashville signee Braxton Keith, who was surprised with his first gold record; The Forester Sisters, whose three songs included a cover of the 1950s girl group song “Mister Sandman”; and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, who ended the show with a song that’s central to country music history, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”
On Oct. 29, the annual Concert for Cumberland Heights raised money for a Middle Tennessee rehab center, with Gatlin and Christian artist Joseph Habedank kicking things off before The Warren Brothers MC’ed an eight-person songwriter round that ricocheted between comedic songs and profound material.
The camaraderie across all three nights was notable.
“This is so vibrant — you know, the sense of community,” says Dirt Band frontman Jeff Hanna, who spent time in Colorado and L.A. prior to moving to Nashville. “If you’re in the music business, you’re always going to have a competitive edge. Everybody wants to win, but you also root for your pals, and I just love that about this town.”
Not many towns could hope to pull off three straight nights of comparable multi-artist shows. They’re larger than a traditional two- or three-act concert, but smaller than a weekend music festival.
It’s not financially feasible — for the artist or the promoter — to have that many people travel long distances to play just a handful of songs. And few communities have the volume of local musical talent.
Other towns also don’t have the Grand Ole Opry. One of the side benefits of the program, which will celebrate 100 years on WSM-AM on Nov. 28, is the infrastructure it has created. The Opry is typically booked four or more nights a week. The artists who play it know ahead of time that they’re part of a big ensemble with lots of moving pieces — very different from a concert with one headliner and an opening act. And the crew has developed a routine for the quick changes that a barn-dance format requires.
“Everything has its challenges,” Opry senior vp/executive producer Dan Rogers allows, “but over the course of all those years and this many shows in a year, you begin to figure out the things that work and don’t work.”
The staff itself has a bigger impact on running a multi-artist show. If The Dirt Band is headlining a date, the group can make adjustments deep into the set by reading the audience. But it doesn’t necessarily know what the crowd is like when it pops out from backstage at the Opry, and since it only does two or three songs in that setting, there’s little opportunity to change the dynamic.
“You’re sitting around for a couple of hours,” Hanna says, “then they go, ‘You’re on in five minutes,’ and you’re plugging in these guitars.”
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Because the artist typically doesn’t have an opportunity to make adjustments, it’s up to the production team to read the room and keep the pace going.
“I’m a time person,” Cumberland Heights development events manager Lee Ann Eaton says. “Like, I’ve jerked Santa [Claus] off the stage because he was taking too long. You know what I mean? ‘Your time is over, Santa. Get up!’ ”
That doesn’t mean the artist is unable to influence a show with an adjustment or two. Rogers points to a recent Jamey Johnson Opry appearance, when an onstage mention of the late Vern Gosdin led him to play three Gosdin songs during his set. Gatlin notes that making the audience laugh can engage a sedate crowd.
“Self-deprecating humor is the secret sauce,” he says. “If you can go out there and, very quickly, make a little fun of yourself or pick on yourself a little bit, the audience immediately relaxes and they take you into their heart.”
Still, because the barn-dance format requires a large cast of performers, all of whom have plenty of downtime, there’s room for a lax production to go off the rails. Making it smooth for the talent and their teams while maintaining a sense of structure is what makes the show work.
“It requires a lot more organization on the back end,” Eaton says. “I’m dealing with eight artists and their dressing rooms and their backstage passes and their parking. But the Ryman makes it easy, too. I mean, they’re so good at what they do, I would say I could do my job from my car.”
It’s that institutional knowledge and experience that makes it possible for Nashville to handle three straight nights of multi-artist packages. The Opry has established an air of normalcy around lineups that would be a major undertaking in most other settings. The production teams know the drill, and the artists see it as part of the heritage in country music.
“This community, as much as any other community, loves to pay respect to the people who paved the way for them — and pay it forward,” Rogers says. “So somebody’s often going to say ‘yes’ when you ask, ‘Do you want to come tip your hat to an artist who you listened to growing up?’ Or ‘to come give a boost to [a young] artist who has said you did the same thing for them.’ ”
In just about any other locale, the production team would be in chaos trying to pull off a live music show with so many moving parts. But in Nashville, three straight nights of heavily populated stages — and backstages — is not such a big deal.
“They’re just so calm about it,” Eaton says of the Ryman team, “because it is commonplace.”
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In fall 2026, Live Nation will open the 4,400-capacity indoor music venue The Truth in Nashville.
“Live Nation wanted to be sure that we were adding something that was going to speak to the core of Nashville,” Sally Williams, president of Nashville Music & Business Strategy for Live Nation, tells Billboard.
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The Truth will be led by general manager Mickey Davis, and will join AJ Capital Partners’ 18-acre, mixed-use Wedgewood Village development in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston.
The venue will highlight talent ranging from global headliners to local Nashville favorites representing an array of musical genres. The Truth, designed by Live Nation’s in-house design and development group Blueprint Studio, will offer a flexible floor plan with three levels in close proximity to the stage, with configurations able to accommodate capacities ranging from 1,800 to 4,400, including standing-room and fully-seated shows.
“This is going to give us the flexibility to host everything from comedians who maybe don’t want a standing room audience to bigger shows where people want to stand,” Williams says. “We will shine the light on Nashville, but we’re going to bring in the biggest stars on the planet, too, from outside of Nashville.”
Williams noted that Live Nation’s Blueprint Studio team spent time in Nashville venues and spoke with Nashville artists, music industry members and historians in creating a venue design intended to honor Nashville’s community.
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Throughout, the venue will pay homage to Nashville’s music creators. The Truth takes its name from a quote from late country songwriting legend Harlan Howard, who called country music “three chords and the truth.” Howard, known as a writer on classics including Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” and the Buck Owens hit “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail,” is also honored through the venue’s whiskey bar, named Harlan’s. Howard’s signature quote is also emblazoned on the front of the venue’s building. Having Howard’s legacy represented within the venue is a full-circle moment for Williams, who recalls that when she first moved to Nashville, one of the first events she attended was the annual Harlan Howard Birthday Bash.
“It represents to me the community that I have found,” Williams says. “It was all of these songwriters singing their songs, and everyone supported. To have his quote, to have people talking about him, means they are talking about songwriters in general, which means they are talking about the foundation of our community. I am beyond proud of that, because I think those are things that we, as a city, have to hold on to.”
The Truth’s two-level, up to 300-person capacity listening lounge, Vinyl Room, will offer a space for gathering and listening to music. Williams tells Billboard that United Record Pressing will be involved in curating vinyls to be displayed in The Truth, as well as providing music for Vinyl Room and the venue’s five backstage dressing rooms. Williams says the Vinyl Room will also be a space that can hold VIP listening sessions and other similar events.
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The food and drink menus will highlight local Nashville whiskeys and spirits. Meanwhile, Live Nation teamed with Isle of Printing’s Bryce McCloud to add another visual element to the venue.
“We are going to have an old-school letterpress printing set lists each night for fans to buy and take home,” Williams says. “Set lists are going to be our sort of living art exhibit backstage, too, because every time a show plays here, we will put the set list up and as we move along, it will tell our story visually.”
The backstage will also be outfitted with a family and friends suite overlooking the stage, a large crew lounge, an artist game room/lounge, a multi-use production room and an intimate industry suite.
Live Nation also hopes to hold local music industry events at the venue, such as industry awards and other charitable gatherings.
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“People are going to begin to feel like this is their venue, which is what they’re hoping for,” Williams says. “The mission has been to create something other than the sort of box with a stage that you could put anywhere in the world. We wanted to do something completely Nashville-centric.”
The Truth will join other Live Nation venues in Nashville, including Brooklyn Bowl Nashville and Ascend Amphitheater.
Billboard‘s Live Music Summit will be held in Los Angeles on Nov. 3. For tickets and more information, visit https://www.billboardlivemusicsummit.com/2025/home-launch.
By the time Nashville-based digital marketer Jennie Smythe launched her company Girlilla Marketing in 2008, she had already gained significant experience working in marketing and promotion for companies including Hollywood Records, Yahoo Music, and Elektra. She also forged her path in digital marketing as the music industry was undergoing the profound transition to a primarily digital medium.
“A portion of it was just being in the right place at the right time,” she recalls to Billboard. “I found myself in a unique position to be able to be the bridge between the two. And it just so happened that nobody was speaking the digital language. I became the person—this was [when] Napster [was happening], when the industry was suing kids in college and doing everything in their power to squash the new business. I was one of the people who was like, ‘Wait a second, if we’re hearing that this is what they want and they’re seeking it out…’ It was very ‘flip the script,’ because up until then, it was the industry telling the people what they were going to get, the industry making those decisions. That’s completely changed.”
Today, the all-woman team at Girlilla Marketing leads social media initiatives and content creation for its clients, helping to develop online audiences, virtual events, digital monetization, analytics tracking and more. During her career, Smythe has worked with artists including Willie Nelson, Darius Rucker, Vince Gill, Blondie, and Dead & Company. She chairs the CMA board and serves on the boards of the CMA Foundation and Music Health Alliance.
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Now, Smythe is sharing the lessons she’s learned along the way in her memoir, Becoming Girlilla: My Journey to Unleashing Good — In Real Life, Online, and in Others, which releases via Resolve Editions/Simon & Shuster today (April 15). Her book also delves into Smythe’s personal journey including her 2018 breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Smythe was named a 2025 Advocacy Ambassador with the Susan G. Komen Center for Public Policy.
Jennie Smythe
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“[The book] really was a way for me to express my gratitude to the music business and the digital marketing community. It was a way to share my survivorship so that I could help other people. And my intention was to be able to be a support document for entrepreneurs and especially young women,” she says.
Billboard spoke with Smythe about writing her book, launching Girlilla Marketing, the importance of mental health advocacy and leading the next generation of women music industry execs.
Why was it important to you to share your life and career experiences in this book?
I thought I was going to write a business book about business lessons, anecdotal humor in the workplace, generational bridges, that kind of thing. But I got sick and our music community also lost several people to cancer, like [music industry executives] Jay [Frank], Lisa Lee, and Phran Galante. I had 12 rounds of chemo, six surgeries. [Part of me] was like, ‘Can I just go back to work?’ But I realized, ‘No, you can’t. This is part of your story now.’ Every single one of those three people–Jay, Phran and Lisa–called me every day when I shared my story [about her battle with breast cancer]. They all were in harder circumstances than I was. So I was like, ‘I want to do this for them.’ And the Nashville community, it is like a family. That’s one of the most special things, and no matter how big Nashville gets, we don’t lose that.
A conversation with your father led you to launch Girlilla Marketing. What do you recall about that?
I was 30, I had had a pretty successful career, and then my dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I was in the hospital room with him and he said, ‘What would you do if your life was half over?’ When he asked me that question, in that moment, it drilled down to two different things: I want to start a digital agency and I want to travel more. I realized, “There’s never going to be a perfect time, a perfect amount of money—if I don’t do it now, I will not do it.”
Girlilla Marketing is an all-woman company. What inspired you to launch a female-first company?
I feel like through my whole career of working for other people, I only had the opportunity to work for one woman, and she was amazing. But I wished I would’ve had more opportunity to do that. So, I created what I wanted, the place I wanted to work, because it didn’t exist.
One of the key early moments in the book was when, during your career at Yahoo Music, you received a performance review from your former boss, Jay Frank. You received some feedback you didn’t expect.
That’s what made him my trusted mentor because he was like, “You’re so smart and you’re doing all the right things, but you’ve got to be human, or people won’t want to work for you.” I thought if you are the champion and you are the best, then you will be rewarded for that behavior. Not at all. Everything that has come to me in a good way has come because of a team mentality. It was a lesson in leadership.
What are some things were you able to implement because of that conversation?
How do you come into the office in the morning, no matter how stressed you are—do you say good morning to everyone, or do you just ignore everyone? When you are in a meeting and somebody is not prepared, instead of drilling somebody down to where they feel like they can’t get out of that hole, what do you do? Isn’t the job of a manager to lift them up?
What are some of the biggest myths that persist around digital marketing in music?
One of the myths is that [artists] have to create all the time. That’s not true. You do have to figure out what your cadence is, but if you are creative and you’re constant, you’ll be okay. Some people are too precious with it, they feel like they can’t, and we have to get them out of that.
With things like TikTok and A.I., so many things are swiftly changing in the industry. What do you think are some of the biggest issues?
Mental health. Giving people the space to create without the pressure of the analytics, which are glaringly upfront in every conversation that we have. Once a week, somebody comes in here ready to quit because they’ve been told that if they don’t hit a certain threshold, that they don’t have a career. I’ve been around artists my whole life and that’s not conducive to a creative career. My thing is telling artists constantly that they are the CEOs of their lives, and their digital ecosystem is part of it, but it’s a wide net.
Also, the mental health thing starts from the top. I am so lucky to be in this community with people like Tatum [Allsep] from Music Health Alliance, and grateful for people like at the CMA who put together the mental health fund. People talk about artists, but it’s also the people in the business that need support, like our touring families.
For those who are just starting out in digital marketing, what essential tools do they need to know?
I think just being an avid user, and you need to know how to shoot and edit content. It’s all video. This is the biggest merge of the decade. We used to have the creative people and the analytical people. To inform the creative, sometimes you need to understand what the market is requesting—very much the same conversation we had with Napster, when it was like, “So this is the most illegally downloaded file in Green Bay, Wisconsin—maybe we should go play there.” It’s also having somebody that can purposely come up with a creative strategy that also speaks to the analytical success to something, that’s the job for the next 10 years. That’s exciting because I think when I was in college, my [current] job didn’t exist. But along the way, everything I picked up mattered.
Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater is getting a new operator.
Metro Nashville has notified Ryman Hospitality Properties (RHP) that it intends to have RHP’s Opry Entertainment Group (OEG) operate Ascend Amphitheater for the next decade. The deal is subject to successful negotiation between the two parties. Axios first reported the news.
Colin Reed, executive chairman of RHP’s board of directors, tells Billboard he expects the negotiations to conclude within the next three months and that the 10-year contract will take effect Jan. 1, 2026. It’s a realization of a dream for RHP that began even before the 6,800-capacity outdoor venue opened in 2015. “We applied for this a decade ago when the city was deciding they were going to build [Ascend],” he says. “We and Live Nation bid 10 years ago. We loved the space then and we really love the space now.”
RHP has aready committed capital to “beautify the project,” Reed says. “Upgrade it and make it more of an experience for the consumer.”
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RHP was selected over Live Nation and AEG. “We really put our front foot forward here, so we always thought we had a shot, but beating two companies that, quite candidly, we have a high degree of regard for — AEG, that handles all of our ticketing in all of our venues, as well as Live Nation, who we have a healthy relationship with — we were very pleased,” Reed adds.
Ascend has averaged 20 to 30 concerts a year, primarily during the summer season, but Reed says he expects to substantially expand activity at the venue.
A cap on 35 shows per year was put in place when the amphitheater opened because it is in a residential area, Reed says, but “the issue for us is this is one of the great pieces of real estate in the city of Nashville and how do we activate it for the other 330 days a year because it should not be kept fallow for that period of time. We can do daytime programming. We can do Opry Under the Stars. We’ve spent quite a bit of time talking with the symphony. There are multiple ways in which we can activate this space.” He is also eager to bring holiday offerings to the Ascend from Thanksgiving to the end of December.
Ascend will be an open room, meaning other promoters, including AEG and Live Nation, can promote shows there. “We want to maintain a good relationship with those businesses,” he says. “We’ll talk to anyone that wants to play this great city.”
Ryman Hospitality’s OEG also runs Nashville venues the Ryman Auditorium and the Grand Ole Opry House, in addition to having partnerships with Luke Combs‘ Category 10 venue and Blake Shelton‘s Ole Red.
Live Nation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Cowgirls” hitmaker and four-time ACM Award nominee Ernest is adding another notch to his musical resume, launching his own label, DeVille Records, in a joint venture with Big Loud Records (where Ernest himself signed as an artist in 2019).
Ernest’s DeVille Records features Chandler Walters, Rhys Rutherford and Cody Lohden as its first artists. Ernest, Walters, Rutherford and Lohden are all managed by new recently-announced management company Greenhouse Management, launched by Kiley Donohoe.
The initial project from the new label is Cadillac Sessions, a mixtape-style compilation set for release on May 9, that will feature two new original songs, and one cover from Ernest, Walters, Rutherford and Lohden, plus guest artists. The project will blend honky-tonk, ’90s country, Western swing and more.
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“We’re going to build this thing wide and on concrete,” Ernest said in a statement of DeVille Records. “Artist development. Write the songs and do it the old-school way. Make the videos, see the vision, help the vision come to life.”
“We have been in business with ERNEST for almost a decade. What started with ERN as a young prolific songwriter-artist in Big Loud’s publishing hallways, has evolved into so much more over the years,” Big Loud CEO / partner Seth England added. “Our partnerships in ERN’s Cadillac Music have gone so well, and his desire to create DeVille Records alongside of it made sense. ERNEST himself grew in an independent and cultural environment much like the one he desires to create. He and I have talked about this day for years, and all of the unique ways we could help break the next wave of prolific artists. Kudos to Rhys, Cody and Chandler for buying into this vision and supporting this unique rollout style with our upcoming DeVille project.”
With the new label, Ernest continues doubling down on giving back to his hometown of Nashville. Last year, he released a musical love letter to his hometown with the album Nashville, Tennessee, has earned multiple ACM, CMA and Grammy nominations, including his current ACM nominations for artist-songwriter of the year, as well as being a co-writer on the ACM song of the year-nominated song “I Had Some Help,” recorded by Morgan Wallen and Post Malone.
Writer, artist and steel guitar player Walters is touring with Post Malone and Ernest, and co-wrote the Post Malone/Morgan Wallen hit “I Had some Help.” Kentucky native Lohden, a former firefighter/paramedic, draws on the sounds of ’80s country singers such as Keith Whitley and Don Williams, and has toured with Ernest, Bailey Zimmerman and Walker Hayes. Rutherford has contributed to songs by (“Is This Really Over?”), Ernest feat. Morgan Wallen (“Hangin’ On”), Kashus Culpepper (“Talk With Me”) and George Pippen (“Rest of Our Life”).
Kiley Donohoe has launched Greenhouse Management, with an artist roster that includes “Cowgirls” hitmaker Ernest, as well as artists and hit songwriters Chandler Walters, Rhys Rutherford and Cody Lohden.
Donohoe previously worked at Big Loud since 2018, starting in digital marketing and working with artists over the years including Morgan Wallen, Florida Georgia Line, Ernest and Chris Lane. Four years ago, she transitioned into management, taking on the role of Ernest’s manager.
Donohoe says she plans to keep Greenhouse’s roster small, in order to focus on each artist, telling Billboard, “I want to be able to have the bandwidth for all my clients and super-serve them and work with people I believe in and trust, and who believe and trust in me. It’s not about how large [the company] can get, but working with great people.”
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Greenhouse Management’s title was inspired by the time Iowa native Donohoe spent as a child working in her grandparents’ backyard greenhouse.
“I was thinking about my roots and values of being transparent, like a greenhouse, and what shaped me,” Donohoe says. “I was talking to [hit songwriter, artist and Songs & Daughters leader] Nicolle Galyon about the company name and this new chapter and she suggested the name. It is so important to me to be transparent and to stay true to who you are. I try to stay true to that as a manager.”
“Kiley has always had the artist best interest in mind and will continue to develop into a great manager,” Ernest said in a statement. “I look forward to seeing what the future brings, and I know that her artists are in good hands.”
Chandler Walters, Rhys Rutherford, Greenhouse Management CEO / Manager Kiley Donohoe, Cody Lohden, Matt Schneider
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Walters added, “The first one to take care of you and the last one to let you down. I’ve known Kiley since I moved to town; she’s held the keys to my sanity, and it only makes sense for us to tackle my artist career!”
Ernest, who last year released a musical love letter to his hometown with the album Nashville, Tennessee, has earned multiple ACM, CMA and Grammy nominations, including his current ACM nominations for artist-songwriter of the year, as well as being a co-writer on the ACM song of the year-nominated song “I Had Some Help,” recorded by Morgan Wallen and Post Malone. Lohden has toured with artists including ERNEST, Bailey Zimmerman and Walker Hayes, while Rutherford has contributed writing to songs recorded by Zimmerman (“Is This Really Over?”), Ernest feat. Morgan Wallen (“Hangin’ On”), Kashus Culpepper (“Talk With Me”) and George Pippen (“Rest of Our Life”). Walters is also a co-writer on “I Had Some Help,” and has six cuts on Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion album, seven cuts on Ernest’s Nashville, Tennessee album (including the Jelly Roll collaboration “I Went to College, He Went to Jail,” and is part of Post Malone’s touring band, playing pedal steel. Lohden and Rutherford both have their own new music coming.
Concert promotion titan AEG Presents bolstered its presence in Music City with the late February opening of its flagship Nashville venue, The Pinnacle, located in the 19-acre, mixed-use Nashville Yards complex. Kacey Musgraves performed at the 4,500-person capacity, 88,500-square-feet concert venue’s inaugural concert on Feb. 27.
“We spent a lot of time going back and forth over who the first artist was going to be,” Mike DuCharme, regional vice president for AEG Presents, tells Billboard. “We loved the idea of having a female artist from Nashville that isn’t straight down the country lane but crosses demographics and music and has fans of all genres. She really hit the mark and did great. And the fact that her voice is so great, you really got a good feel for how the room can sound. There were times you could hear a pin drop, and it was incredible.”
AEG Presents’ new concert hall has been a decade in the works, and is owned by the Yards development, through a partnership between Southwest Value Partners and AEG Real Estate, with AEG Presents operating the venue. The Pinnacle joins a slate of other mid-sized AEG venues that have launched across the country, including Atlanta’s 2,300-capacity The Eastern, Boston’s 3,500-capacity Roadrunner, Brooklyn’s 1,800-capacity Brooklyn Steel, Denver’s 4,000-capacity Mission Ballroom and Los Angeles’ 4,000-capacity Shrine Expo Hall. AEG Presents just announced another addition to its set of venues, with an upcoming 4,000-capacity, as-yet-unnamed venue in Austin, Texas.
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“As we build these venues, they get more refined,” adds Brent Fedrizzi, president of AEG Presents’ North American regional offices. “We take 10 things from the last one we did and ask what we can do better. Every market has its own nuances and I think with Pinnacle, it’s the best thing we’ve done.”
The Pinnacle, helmed by general manager Katie Millar, also aids AEG Presents in bolstering its profile further in a town that has been largely dominated by Live Nation venues. Crucially, the venue’s 4,500-person capacity fills a void Nashville’s touring landscape for an indoor venue larger than the smaller clubs or venues such as Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl (1,200-capacity) and Marathon Music Works (1,800 standing room capacity), or the 2,362-seat historic Ryman Auditorium, though not as massive as the up-to 20,000-capacity Bridgestone Arena. Though the 4,400-seat Grand Ole Opry House’s capacity is close to that of The Pinnacle, the new venue’s various configurations feature both seated and standing options.
“The sweet spot for a lot of touring acts and artists these days is that 3,500 to around 5,500 capacity,” Fedrizzi says. “As we roll these [venues] out, we’re looking at markets that are under-served.”
With The Pinnacle, AEG Presents was equally focused on creating a venue that can serve as a home spotlighting a breadth of musical styles in the city most famously known for country music. Jason Isbell is currently doing a multi-show run of solo concerts, while other artists with upcoming shows include 311, Alice in Chains, Wilco, Warren Zeiders, Zac Brown Band, Adam Ray, Megan Moroney, Jack White, Denzel Curry, JOHNNYSWIM and Santana.
“It’s a venue for everyone, for the community. We’re going to do it all — country, EDM, rock — we’ve already checked a lot of those boxes,” Fedrizzi says. “I think the market was under-served in that capacity, in that configuration. And then obviously even the EDM shows so far, whether it’s been Illenium or deadmau5, that crowd hasn’t really had a place in Nashville to go.”
The venue already has many shows booked through November. In addition to The Pinnacle, the Nashville Yards complex also houses AEG Presents’ regional office, along with the global touring team and Messina Touring Group’s Nashville office will move into Nashville Yards in July. L-Acoustics also announced it will have office space in the complex.
The Pinnacle’s easily accessible location has led to spontaneous concert bookings. “This being an industry town, the artists can actually just come down and see it,” Fedrizzi says.
“They love the production, the sight lines,” DuCharme says. “We’ve taken artists through to tour [when they] are there for other shows and then confirmed shows at shows. The agent will be down there watching another show and be like, ‘Yes, we’re playing here.’”
The venue also boasts top-shelf production and sound, with a K2 L-Acoustics sound system from Clair Global and Solotech lighting/video systems. The multi-level venue also features an upper level balcony and risers with seating.
The venue’s decor reflects the uniqueness of its Music City locale, with Emily Cox of Formation commissioning murals, wallpaper and installations from more than two dozen local Nashville artists to display throughout the venue’s hallways, restrooms, artist rooms and concourses.
The backstage areas received just as much attention as front of house, with multiple dressing rooms, each with its own decor. Artists have protected parking for buses, and just off the main stage is an area with seating for artists’ family and friends. An open-air rooftop patio offers opportunities for industry gatherings and intimate performances.
“It’s an industry town, and we know our peers and the people we work with day-to-day will be in the space,” Fedrizzi says. “How can we make their experience great? Because they may be going to three different shows in a night — how do we make that a great experience? We don’t have that at every single venue we do, because not every venue is in an industry town. We always have a VIP space, but Nashville in particular, we know that our peers and the people that we work with day to day are going to be in the space, so we thought about how we can make their experience appealing?”
“The other thing is, we had Carly Pearce sit in on Russell Dickerson’s show [on March 14],” DuCharme says. “There are so many special guests who sit in with someone else because of friendships, or they ask to do a song. Having a place where those artists can host their guests and have them easily come out to do a song, that has been really well-received.”
Beyond solely concerts, the venue is meant as a multipurpose venue, and is wired for television and broadcast, making it a potential space for various televised and livestreamed events.
“We want to have those ACM and CMA-type events and all those things Nashville is known for,” Fedrizzi says. “When designing the space, we very much contemplated how do we activate the space to complement what is happening in spaces like CMA Fest or the Opry.”
In August 2022, Contemporary Christian Music mainstay TobyMac issued a project, Life After Death, that found the singer-songwriter wrestling with the emotional turmoil that followed the death of his 21-year-old son, Truett, in 2019.
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Nearly three years removed from Life After Death, the 14-time Billboard Christian Airplay solo chart-topper returns with his ninth solo studio album, Heaven on My Mind, on Friday (March 7) via Forefront/Capitol Christian Music Group. The new album finds him discovering a new equilibrium, while continuing to honor the sense of loss.
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“My last record was just facing things no one should have to face… the deepest, heart-crushing you could ever have in losing my first-born son, but I felt like this record was me gaining my footing a bit. Realizing, ‘Okay, I can breathe, and I can get my fist up in the air about things I believe in,’” the seven-time Grammy winner tells Billboard.
As with Life After Death, TobyMac turned to songwriting as an outlet to process this new life season, saying, “I’m a songwriter first and foremost. I’m a songwriter disguised as a pop artist.”
The album’s central theme is perhaps embodied in his uplifting, most recent Christian Airplay chart-topper “Nothin’ Sweeter.”
“I wanted to summarize a little bit that life is full of twists and turns and that I have seen a lot of it, and I’ve seen the sweetest parts of it, the best parts of it, and I’ve seen some really tough parts, and I landed on my feet was the goodness of God.”
TobyMac has weathered a few heartbreaking moments in recent years — not only the passing of his son, but the death of close friend and longtime associate Gabriel Patillo, who died in April 2024 following a battle with cancer. Patillo was a member of TobyMac’s Diverse City Band and an entertainer who had worked alongside TobyMac for 25 years, after first joining as a dancer when TobyMac was part of DC Talk.
He pays homage to Patillo on a pair of songs on the album: the folk-oriented “Campfire (That Very Love)” was written as a plea of healing, followed by the tender tribute “Goodbye (For Gabe).”
“Gabe was the heartbeat of Diverse City. We did everything together,” TobyMac recalls. “The backstage culture that we were always striving to create on our tours, Gabe and I came up with that together — how do we make backstage not competitive? How do we make it a community? How do we make it to where we’re praying for each other, hoping for each other, and cheering for each other when we’re on stage versus feeling competitive? My philosophy is that a healthy [environment] backstage leads to a healthy [environment] on stage. It made the shows stronger, more powerful. We produced every show together, wrote songs together, and he helped me think through everything. He was just my right-hand man for everything that I do.”
Determination and a refusal to lose hope pulsate through the album on songs such as the resolute anthem “Can’t Stop Me” (which feels reminiscent of TobyMac’s days as part of the 1990s CCM rock/rap group DC Talk) and the triumphant “God Did It.” Elsewhere, on “A Lil Church (Nobody’s Too Lost),” which is rising on the Hot Christian Songs chart, he seeks to redefine boxed-in assumptions of what a church can be—focusing more on community over stained-glass windows and towering buildings.
He initially had a current country music hitmaker in mind for “A Lil’ Church.” “I had Jelly Roll in my head, just because we’ve texted a bit here and there. I always wanted to hear him on it, maybe one day I will. That would be awesome,” TobyMac says.
“Rearview,” featuring Gospel artist-writer-producer Juan Winans, touches on coping with regrets.
“Juan wrote his verse, and I wrote mine,” he recalls. “We wanted to write it authentically so we each took a verse. I think regret is something that I struggle with. I look back like, ‘Should I have done this differently? Should I have done that differently?’ it can really imprison you. I tried to look into the things that trouble me, [and] into the things that empower me or make me feel like I can overcome.”
Outside of his work as an arena-headlining artist, TobyMac was part of the team that launched Gotee Records in 1994, developing it into a prominent label home, with a current roster that includes not only Terrian, but also Jon Reddick, Cochren & Co. and more. The label was recently acquired by global company Bell Partners.
“Partnering with a bigger company, we can put twice the power behind our artists,” TobyMac says. “I’m still doing A&R, still developing artists for Gotee. I made sure I could still do that. As a guy that’s had a label for 25 years, if I didn’t think this would serve our artistry in a greater way, there’s no way I would have done it. It’s nice to know that we have a partner where anything we dream of, we can go after it.”
While Contemporary Christian Music is growing domestically, the deal with Bell brings with it the benefit that it “is powerful in other parts of the world where it’s tough for us to get there and to be represented well,” he says. “I’m excited about the growth of our industry internationally. I feel like it’s absolutely moving in the right direction, and I look forward to what we can do with Bell.”
Gotee recording artist and former Diverse City bandmember Terrian, who released her own debut album in 2024, joins on “Resist (Keep the Devil Away).” Terrian is also opening shows on TobyMac’s current Hits Deep Tour.
“When we signed Terrian to a record deal, we started making songs on her right away and she started touring with Diverse City,” TobyMac says. “The plan was always for her to fly and do her own thing. This is the first tour I’ve done right now without Terrian in the band and she’s out there opening shows because I’m super proud of her and want to give her all the help I can to increase the foundation of what she’s doing as an artist. I love developing young artists, walking alongside them, and helping them gain their own vision for their artistry.”
His album finds its center in creating music of a scope both deeply personal and universal.
“I call it the good, the bad, the ugly of my life. Those just end up on the pages of my lyric notebook,” he says. “We’re all facing some relationships going great, and some relationships that are struggling and there are deep valleys. If I write from my life and I’m experiencing all those things, I find that people relate to it. It resonates with people because we’re not that different from each other.”
