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Several roots-based music luminaries will perform to help aid various communities, as part of the third annual Hello From the Hills concert, slated Sunday, Jan. 26 at Nashville’s City Winery.
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Ruby Amanfu, Cory Branan, Hayes Carll, Brad Goodall, Silas House, Amanda Shires, Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke, and Jesse Welles are all set to take the stage at the intimate Music City venue, with author and storyteller House — most recently known for his work on Tyler Childers’ music video “In Your Love” — hosting the event.
The annual Hello From the Hills concert was founded by Hope in the Hills and The Hello in There Foundation, with the past two concerts drawing performers including Jason Isbell, Tyler Childers, Shires, Sierra Ferrell, Wynonna Judd, Gabe Lee, and Amythyst Kiah. Event proceeds have made it possible for the event’s organizers to make over $100,000 in community grants over the past two years, benefiting organizations including Raphah House, Healing Institute, MusiCares and Musicians Recovery Network.
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Jody Whelan, Oh Boy Records managing partner and Hello in There Foundation board member and treasurer, tells Billboard, “I feel like at this event, it’s so much more than just a performance. You really see the heart of these performers. They are more than just artists, more than just songwriters. You get to see the love they have and the passion they have for different organizations and they see how it affects communities.”
Hope in the Hills’ Ian Thornton tells Billboard, “Music is the thing that brings people together — that’s the business Jody and I are both in. We just know so many great artists and folks have been gracious about donating their time. Nobody gets paid for this. I think the mission in and of itself pushes them to want to be part of it.”
This year, proceeds from the concert will benefit the veterans assistance programs Operation Stand Down Tennessee and Building Lives, as well as My Fathers House Nashville, which provides shelter, life skills and education to fathers who have faced homelessness, incarceration and other adversities. As well, merchandise sales will aid those impacted by the ongoing wildfires in the greater Los Angeles area.
Hello From the Hills
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Whelan says, “It’s great to be able to reach into some of these smaller community-based organizations and support them. I love the big organizations that we support, but $10,000 can go really far to a small, local organization — and that equals, ‘We can help this many people.’ We try to invite people from the organizations that are benefiting to be there, so they can see it and talk about their work.”
The Hello in There Foundation was established in 2021 by the family of the late singer-songwriter John Prine and is guided by message of Prine’s 1971 song “Hello in There.” In 2017, Hope in the Hills was launched by members of Tyler Childers’ team, as well as community members in Kentucky, with the aim of combatting the opioid crisis and supporting recovery throughout Appalachia.
“I’ve long admired the work that Ian and the folks at Hope in the Hills and Healing Appalachia have done,” Whelan says. “The Prine Family started our foundation a few years ago and we’ve been close to them for a long time. So we thought, ‘Can we do something to work together?’ The way we formatted it was we each picked one charity that we felt served our mission and then came together and support another organization.”
Whelan adds, “A lot of times, we let John’s songs kind of guide us. This year, it is focusing on veterans and those struggling with addiction, and John’s song ‘Sam Stone’ is a huge touch point. We think about the organizations and how it might tie in with the work that Hope in the Hills is doing. Once you start talking with these organizations, fighting addiction is such a big part of so many different organizations, even if it’s not their primary thing, like homelessness and addiction impacting veterans. Addiction is such a big topic and it affects lives in so many different ways.”
Looking ahead, Thornton is positive about the continued acceleration of the event’s impact: “I’d like to keep this as an annual event coming to Nashville. We’ve talked about bringing it to other cities, too, because I love the idea of being able to help local community organizations in other cities, especially in this region. I don’t know when we’ll have time to do that, but it will happen soon. I don’t see us going into the virtual space anytime soon. We want to keep getting people in rooms, together in community, and sharing their stories.”
Tickets are still available for this year’s Hello From the Hills at citywinery.com.
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The Nashville high school shooter was a Black teen revealed to have embraced neo-Nazi ideals such as being a “Groyper incel,” according to his social media.
The male student who shot two fellow students, killing one at a high school in Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday morning (January 22) was revealed to be an African-American student who left a manifesto posted to social media showing his embrace of white nationalism and self-hate. He was identified as Solomon Henderson, a 17-year-old in the Reserve Officers Training Corp at Antioch High School. Henderson would take his own life after the shooting.
The 300-page manifesto was posted to Henderson’s account on X, formerly Twitter, four hours before he walked into the cafeteria at the school at 11 A.M. Central time and fired multiple rounds with a pistol, killing 16-year-old Josselin Corea Escalante and grazing one 17-year-old unidentified male student. The document showed that Henderson’s motivation for the shooting was a hatred of Black people. “I’m ashamed to be black. I feel like s*** being a n******”, he wrote in the text.
Another message in the document posted before the incident read, “God I am ugly. 4 hours to go,” which was imposed over a photo of Henderson. The document also revealed that Henderson considered himself a “Groyper Incel,” a term used by followers of the neo-Nazi figure Nick Fuentes and members of the involuntarily celibate movement. Henderson cited Fuentes as a major influence, in addition to far-right figure Candace Owens and Kanye West aka Ye, along with other white nationalist mass murderers in inspiring his violence.
Henderson’s manifesto was also filled with notes on his plans for the shooting, stating that he initially planned to commit the act on Thursday but moved it up because he was scared of “failing to kill myself or go to jail” and that he aimed to “kill at least 10 people.” He also detailed his embrace of Neo-Nazi ideals, writing: “We must aid the Aryans regardless of our race.”
Henderson also was confirmed by police to have live-streamed the shooting on multiple platforms, including Kick which shut down his account shortly after the incident. “We extend our thoughts to everyone impacted by this event,” the company said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter. “Violence has no place on Kick. We are actively working with law enforcement and taking all appropriate steps to support their investigation.”
Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has long threaded country music into his work, both as part of the Fab Four, and his decades of solo work.
During his tenure with the Beatles, Starr sang lead on the Fab Four’s cover of the Buck Owens classic “Act Naturally.” Later, as a solo artist, Starr decamped to Nashville to record his 1970 country album Beaucoups of Blues, crafted with Nashville session musician Pete Drake.
Now, more than five decades after that project, the 84-year-old Starr continues his country inclinations, crafting his recently-released new country album Look Up with legendary producer/musician T Bone Burnett, the former Bob Dylan band member known for his production work on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Walk the Line soundtracks, as well as his work with a range of artists, including Robert Plant, Elton John and Brandi Carlile.
Starr celebrated the release of Look Up with two concerts at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium, on Tuesday (Jan. 14) and Wednesday (Jan. 15). Each show featured Starr welcoming a star-studded lineup of his fellow music luminaries, including Sheryl Crow, Jack White, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, The War and Treaty, Jamey Johnson, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Mickey Guyton, Sarah Jarosz and Larkin Poe. Burnett hosted the show, welcoming artists throughout the evening, as some performances featured artists in collaboration with Starr, while other performances featured the evening’s guest offering solo performances.
Together, they spearheaded a night of music that highlighted Starr’s long-forged country connections and the wealth of musical talent Nashville encompasses beyond the country commercial mainstream, incorporating songs from Starr’s Look Up, but also several country-tinged Beatles songs along the way.
“I feel blessed tonight, with all these great players coming out,” Starr told the audience.
Noting the work of artists including Strings, Tuttle and Jarosz, Burnett commented at one point, “Some of the most exciting stuff in music is happening in bluegrass.”
Backing the artists was an ace band of revered musicians that included Mike Rojas, Daniel Tashian, David Mansfield, Dennis Crouch, Paul Franklin and Jim Keltner. White joined Starr to open the show with a rendition of “Matchbox,” and later returned to the stage to perform an intricate, blazing version of “Don’t Pass Me By.”
Tuttle called taking part in Starr’s Look Up album “the honor of a lifetime, working with Ringo and T Bone.” The Grammy winner then played what she called “the first Beatles song I ever heard,” offering a rendition of “Octopus’s Garden,” from The Beatles’ Abbey Road album. Elsewhere in the evening, Crowell and Jarosz performed rollicking version of “Act Naturally.”
Elsewhere, Strings offered a blistering performance of “Honey Don’t,” Guyton gave a powerful, elegant vocal showcase on “You Don’t Know Me at All,” Johnson dipped into grizzled blues-rock territory on “Have You Seen My Baby,” and Larkin Poe teamed with Starr for “Thankful” and also offered a sultry version of “I Wanna Be Your Man.”
Throughout the evening, the artists feted Starr for not only his musical acumen and lasting musical influence, but also for his signature devotion to crafting music that uplifts.
“I needed this,” Crow said at one point, adding, “I can’t think of anybody who emanates love and peace like Ringo — and it’s not a brand, he really does…he believes in it.”
Starr’s two Ryman Auditorium shows were taped for the upcoming television special Ringo & Friends at the Ryman, which will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ this spring.
The show concluded, appropriately, with an all-star singalong of The Beatles’ classics “Yellow Submarine” and “With a Little Help From My Friends,” which saw additional artists join Starr onstage, including rock and country music trailblazer Brenda Lee (the Beatles once opened for Lee back in the 1960s, prior to the Fab Four’s breakthrough).
Here, Billboard highlights five top moments from Ringo Starr’s Wednesday evening show.
Jack White Brings Electrifying Performances to Ryman Stage
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The vibe for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame induction on Nov. 6 was a little odd.
Less than 24 hours after an election with results that many pundits see as a pushback against diversity, the Hall welcomed six new members whose output covered a nicely diverse stylistic landscape that touches on country, pop and R&B.
The class featured two performing artists — The Bellamy Brothers’ David Bellamy and late multigenre figure Tony Joe White — plus Liz Rose (“You Belong With Me,” “Crazy Girl”), Victoria Shaw (“I Love the Way You Love Me,” “The River”), Al Anderson (“Unbelievable,” “Love’s Gonna Make It Alright”) and Dan Penn (“Cry Like a Baby,” “Do Right Woman — Do Right Man”).
It was just the third time in the Hall’s 54-year history that two women were inducted together. Prior to Rose and Shaw simultaneously joining, Shania Twain and Hillary Lindsey (“Blessed,” “Jesus, Take the Wheel”) were installed in 2022, and Tammy Wynette and Kye Fleming (“Smoky Mountain Rain,” “Nobody”) were recognized in 2009.
“It’s extra special that there’s two women this time,” Shaw noted in her acceptance speech. “Someday we won’t have to point that out, but it’s still nice.”
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The diversity of the current class was represented by performances that ranged from swamp rock to gospel-flecked soul to pure country. Karen Fairchild applied a spiked tone to Little Big Town’s four-part harmony on Rose’s “Girl Crush,” Nikki Lane balanced a cutting vocal resonance against Kenny Vaughan’s smoky guitar on White’s bluesy “Polk Salad Annie,” and Garth Brooks milked the silence between the phrases in a folky rendition of the Shaw co-writes “A Friend to Me,” “She’s Every Woman” and “The River.” John Andersonoffered a greasy, driving interpretation of Bellamy’s “Redneck Girl”; Wendy Moten prefaced Penn’s induction with a dramatically dynamic version of the 1960s soul single “The Dark End of the Street”; and Vince Gill participated in Al Anderson’s segment by performing“Some Things Never Get Old,” a ballad Anderson recorded as a solo artist, with backing vocalist Carolyn Dawn Johnsonand bassist Glenn Worf.
Nikki Lane performs onstage during the 54th Anniversary Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame Gala at Music City Center on November 06, 2024 in Nashville.
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Acceptance in the Hall is notable. It’s an unpredictable — and thus, insecure — vocation, and sustained success is often elusive. Bellamy recalled that his father pestered him to develop a backup plan in the early part of his career, assuming that songwriting wasn’t likely to pay the bills. Jim Stafford’s recording of Bellamy’s “Spiders and Snakes” changed that, starting a hit list that includes “Old Hippie,” “Kids of the Baby Boom” and “If I Said You Have a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me.”
“My dad called me — I was on the road somewhere,” Bellamy noted during his speech. “He had been to the mailbox and got my first royalty check. He said, ‘Son, I think you’re going to be able to make a living at this.’ ”
For Al Anderson, songwriting built upon his guitar skills, burnished during a run in the eclectic band NRBQ. He became adept at creating hooky, uptempo songs.
“He knows 400,000 chords,” fellow songwriter Sharon Vaughan (“Powerful Thing”) said while inducting Anderson. “During the writing of a song, he uses about 200,000 of them before you get to the second verse.”
Anderson was enthusiastic. He enlisted fellow writer Tia Sillers (“I Hope You Dance”) to speak on his behalf, and she stood at his side on a box, placing her at his eye level. But Anderson still got in a few words before leaving the stage.
“It’s a beautiful thing, writing songs,” he quipped. “You can’t beat it. It’s just the shit.”
Penn’s induction embodied the country/R&B blend that has become increasingly prominent in country circles. He fashioned hits for the likes of Ronnie Milsap,Johnny Rodriguez and T.G. Sheppard in the 1970s, though his journey was rooted more typically in pop and soul. His career started in earnest in the Muscle Shoals region and took off after he moved to Memphis, where he scored with James & Bobby Purify’s recording of “I’m Your Puppet” and James Carr’s “The Dark End of the Street.”
“Dark End” exemplifies Penn’s ability to fuse styles. It rose to prominence in the 1960s, when he still lived in Memphis, though he authored it during a break in a Nashville poker game. Despite its soul history, “Dark End” authors David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren recognized it in the Country Music Foundation book Heartaches by the Number: Country Music’s 500 Greatest Singles. It fits both blue-collar genres in part because of its theme.
“We were always trying to come up with the best cheating song ever,” he was known to say, according to his inductor, songwriter Gretchen Peters (“Independence Day”).
White’s career path likewise wound through both Tennessee music capitals — son Jody White, in accepting his late father’s induction, recalled The Blues Brothers hanging out at the family’s house in Memphis and watching football at Waylon Jennings’Nashville home. White’s biggest copyright, “A Rainy Night in Georgia,” also transcended boundaries, providing soul singer Brook Benton with a classic recording and becoming a country hit for Hank Williams Jr.
“It just invokes a feeling of loneliness,” Jody said before ceremony, “and I think that’s what’s special about it. It’s hard to just make someone have that strong of a feeling by listening to your song.”
Rose is also a genre-hopper. While her songs have succeeded primarily in country, she’s co-written 17 Taylor Swift releases, and they include both country hits (“Tim McGraw,” “Teardrops on My Guitar”) and music from her pop era (particularly the 10-minute “All Too Well”).
Despite the ceremony’s proximity to a contentious election, the Hall of Fame demonstrated how songwriters can pull together even when they disagree. A bit surprisingly, during the course of the evening, neither presenters nor inductees mentioned the election.
“What’s great about this community, everybody’s walking in that room, [feeling] part of the music community as songwriters,” Rose said on the red carpet. “There should be no politics. We all love each other, and that’s being an American.”
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Strategy, communications, integrated marketing and social impact consulting firm The Lede Company has launched a music division in Nashville, the company tells Billboard. It also has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and Paris.
Cara Hutchison has been named head of Lede’s music division, which represents artists including Sabrina Carpenter, Post Malone, Rihanna, Pharrell Williams, Rosalía, Shakira and A$AP Rocky. Joining the division is veteran music publicist Jess Anderson, who will report to Hutchison and company co-founder/co-CEO Amanda Silverman.
Most recently, Anderson served as senior director of media at Big Loud Records, founding and building the label’s in-house publicity department and working with artists including Morgan Wallen, HARDY, ERNEST, Charles Wesley Godwin, Stephen Wilson Jr., Ashley Cooke, Dylan Gossett and Kashus Culpepper. Anderson’s prior career stops include Sweet Talk Publicity, The Press House and Big Machine Label Group. She also serves on public relations task forces for the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association.
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“With Nashville at the heart of the music industry, we are incredibly excited to be launching this division,” Hutchison said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to have Jess, a savvy music publicist with deep roots in Nashville, join us for this next chapter. We look forward to leveraging Lede’s relationships, storytelling, and communications expertise to help amplify the careers of such outstanding artists in this community.”
“Nashville has earned its place at the center of the conversation across entertainment because of the quality of talent and authentic sense of community that’s rooted here,” Anderson added. “The opportunity to help introduce a powerhouse agency like Lede to our town is a true thrill. Storytelling is the heartbeat of Nashville, and Lede crafts campaigns that elevate and highlight artistry in all of its forms. There’s no limit to what we’ll be able to accomplish with this partnership, and I’m honored to step into this role.”
Several of Nashville‘s top independent venues, along with local artists, are teaming up for a new event, 615 Indie Live, designed to celebrate and support Music City’s indie live music scene.
Thirteen independent venues and over 40 local artists and bands spanning genres including rock, hip-hop and jazz will come together for 615 Indie Live on Feb. 1, 2025. Event passes are currently discounted to $15 using all-in pricing, with the passes granting entry to all participating venues. The event will run from noon until 2 a.m., allowing attendees to visit multiple shows at various venues across the city.
Participating venues include 3rd and Lindsley, Acme Feed & Seed, Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge, DRKMTTR Collective, Eastside Bowl, Music Makers Stage at Delgado Guitars, Night We Met, Rudy’s Jazz Room, The 5 Spot, The Basement, The Blue Room Bar at Third Man Records, The East Room, and The End. Participating artists will be revealed in the coming weeks.
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615 Indie Live is presented by Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp and Music Venue Alliance Nashville.
Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit Music Venue Alliance Nashville, including the organization’s Emergency Relief Fund that aids Nashville’s independent venues to help them stay open during periods of financial crisis. Those who buy passes during the presale period — which lasts until midnight on Oct. 31, 2024 — will have a chance to win a Project 615 gift bag and a VIP Nashville attraction pass, which offers complimentary admission for two people to over 25 area attractions, including the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the National Museum of African American Music and the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum.
“Independent music venues are the heart and soul of Music City, providing a stage for new artists across diverse genres to showcase their talent and be discovered,” Deana Ivey, president/CEO at Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp, said in a statement. “We hope 615 Indie Live will inspire Nashvillians and visitors to explore new music and discover venues they may not have visited before. Locals might even find a hidden gem right in their own neighborhoods. By holding the event during the winter, we hope to help boost business at the venues during a traditionally slow season.”
The Greater Nashville Music Census, released earlier this year, highlighted the impact of independent venues and the financial struggles those venues, as well as indie artists, face.
“All of the recent data clearly shows that independent venues are a foundation of Nashville’s live music ecosystem, yet they are quickly becoming an endangered species,” Music Venue Alliance Nashville president Chris Cobb said in a statement. “615 Indie Live marks the beginning of exciting new partnerships born from this data, reinforcing our mission to celebrate and support an essential part of what makes us Music City. My sincerest thanks to the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp for partnering with us to support independent venues and local artists.”