State Champ Radio nashville
Page: 6
Critics who complain that all country music sounds the same should check out the artist rosters at the genre’s most successful labels, teeming with what appears to be a broader range of artists than at any time in history.
Warner Music Nashville (WMN) recently signed Giovannie & The Hired Guns, a rock band with country and Tejano shadings; and Madeline Edwards, whose blend of country storytelling with pop and R&B sonics is an engaging test of stylistic boundaries. Big Machine’s 19-year-old Kidd G fuses twang and hip-hop with a rebel flare. And Universal Music Group’s Boy Named Banjo and The War and Treaty weave bluegrass/Americana and soul/gospel elements, respectively, into their own left-of-center takes on country.
The proliferation of boundary-pushing artists for the future represents a distinct philosophical change for Nashville labels who historically have played it safe, routinely stocking their rosters with acts that fit established norms. In one of the most-derided examples, country followed its golden era of the early 1990s with “hat acts,” overloading the system with male country artists whose sound and imaging were clear attempts to copy the successes of Garth Brooks, George Strait and Alan Jackson.
“We tend to chase the path of least resistance,” Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN) president Cindy Mabe says. “A lot of times there’s money that follows that, but what happens is you end up alienating audiences that don’t want to hear just that. There has to be more than one thing happening, [with] appeal for more than one audience. That’s how we grow.”
This expansive approach to rosters is part of an uphill climb for country music, which was considered a Southern-based niche genre for rural white audiences in its infancy. Over time, the size and location of that audience has changed — it remains a dominant force in farming communities across the United States, though its largest fan cluster is likely in the suburbs.
A ream of cultural, technological and organizational changes have required the business to rethink its parameters, widening the potential definition of the format as well as the makeup of its target audience.
“Things that might have been considered left of center, even just two years ago, would be considered more mainstream now,” says WMN senior director of A&R Stephanie Davenport, “because I think our fan base’s horizons have broadened quite a bit.”
Indeed, new and recently developed acts across rosters include trap-country figure Blanco Brown (Broken Bow), pop/R&B-flavored Tiera Kennedy (Valory), bilingual duo Kat & Alex (Sony Music Nashville), piano-based/pop-influenced Ingrid Andress (WMN), multigenre singer/songwriter BRELAND (Atlantic/WMN), moody and elegant music-maker Sam Williams (Mercury Nashville), rock-shaded Elvie Shane (Wheelhouse) and rock-/hip-hop-threaded Lily Rose (Big Loud).
Plenty of developments influenced that level of musical fence-busting:
• Country’s wide-ranging sound: The current chart accommodates Carrie Underwood’s arena-rockish “Hate My Heart,” Kane Brown’s slow-jammin’ “Thank God” and Parker McCollum’s solid country “Handle on You,” so there’s precedent for roster variety. “There’s been a lot of diversity of sound on country radio, and the things that you hear back-to-back-to-back are more varied than you’d hear on top 40,” says WMN senior director of A&R Rohan Kohli. “So I think the signings are a reflection of the diversity that we’ve been hearing for a while.”
• The proliferation of radio chains: When country stations were locally owned, management tended to be more provincial about the genre. Now that chains frequently have programmers overseeing four or more formats, radio is more receptive to artists such as Jelly Roll or Dan + Shay working beyond their home base. “A big hit for one of those executives is something they’re going to be aware of,” says Big Machine Label Group president/CEO Scott Borchetta. “You don’t have to go and reeducate everybody because it’s the same people.”
• DIY technology: With budding artists able to learn music-making at home and promote themselves on social media, a la UMGN’s Priscilla Block, they arrive in the business with built-in knowledge that makes them less apt to bend to accepted norms than previous generations. “We don’t try to fit any of our artists into a box,” Kohli says. “We tell them to go make the music, and we’ll follow it.”
• Digital consumption: Streaming sites have given the consumer easy access to music on country’s margins, allowing fans to find outside-the-box artists such as Corey Kent or Bailey Zimmerman, while they’re still indie acts, forcing labels to be more nimble in reacting to the marketplace.
• Precedent-setting change artists: A wide range of acts — from Willie Nelson to Chris Stapleton to Florida Georgia Line — have made the mainstream bend to their style instead of conforming to the format’s preexisting sound. The genre has been rewarded for pushing the limit in the past: Sound-alikes, as in the hat-act era or the bro-country era, have actually hurt the format, and the business is more committed to widening the playing field instead of just staying inside of it.
• Better inner-division cooperation: Music can still get lost, but the Nashville offices of major labels and publishers are generally working better with coastal pop divisions. That means greater potential for nontraditional acts, which also makes them less risky to sign.
• Expanding demographics: Music Row is more interested than ever in expanding its core audience, intent on attracting more young fans and minorities, especially Blacks and Latinos. In particular, the increase in Black artists — most of whom blend country and R&B influences — means more acts are stretching the sound of the genre.
• Faster trends: In the entire 1980s, country had two trends: the Urban Cowboy movement and New Traditionalism. The last 10 years have seen bro-country, Motown country, boyfriend country, ’90s retro country and, now, the lightly produced, gruff Yellowstone country (think Warren Zeiders and Zach Bryan). The format changes quicker than ever, and labels have to be prepared to shift with it. “If you don’t diversify in some regard, you’re going to have to scrap a whole roster really quickly,” Mabe says. “You have to have a vision of where you’re going.”
• The next big thing: While ’90s-style country and Yellowstone country are current, labels are already looking to the future, unpredictable as it is. “We always are fighting to stay on the edge of what’s next,” Borchetta says. “You want to be early, you want to figure out if there’s more to it than just a TikTok moment. You’re always looking for the next one that has all the right parts and pieces or could grow the right parts and pieces.”
Ultimately, those new artists are stepping into a genre that already has consistent hitmakers with Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert and Keith Urban. Thus, predicting the format’s future direction is only part of the challenge; the new acts also have to be capable of making a difference when matched against the genre’s established voices.
“New artists are competing against artists who’ve had many, many No. 1s,” Davenport says. “It’s not enough to have a good story. You have to have the best story as new artists.”
Subscribe to Billboard Country Update, the industry’s must-have source for news, charts, analysis and features. Sign up for free delivery every Monday.
They’re the keys to a solid business plan: a sound product, an understanding of the target customer, focused marketing and country music.
That’s right — country music. Nashville songwriters have over the last decade amplified a secondary source of revenue by giving more in-the-round performances beyond Music City’s club circuit, particularly for America’s corporate movers and shakers. Sometimes it’s a hometown gig at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe or The Listening Room for 50-75 staffers with a company enjoying an entertainment break during a conference. In other instances, the composers may travel out of town to perform for a dozen senior members of different companies that are engaged in a leadership exercise.
Regardless of a company’s purpose, it gives songwriters — who create their material in small rooms — a chance to see their songs at work in front of an audience and to get paid for the privilege.
“A lot of songwriters are doing it because they’re not making money on getting cuts anymore,” says songwriter Hillary Lindsey (“Blue Ain’t Your Color,” “Jesus, Take the Wheel”). “Even if you get the album cut, if you don’t have a single, you’re not making money. So a lot of people are hustling and getting a lot of these gigs. If you do enough, I think you can make some money.”
The development was not born in a songwriting room. Instead, it came indirectly from the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp., which is tasked with marketing Music City as a destination for both vacation and business travel. Songwriters are “a secret weapon of Nashville,” says NCVC CEO Butch Spyridon. Roughly 20 years ago, he rounded up three writers — Brett James (“I Hold On,” “Blessed”), Rivers Rutherford (“Ain’t Nothing ’Bout You,” “Real Good Man”) and Tim Nichols(“Live Like You Were Dying,” “Heads Carolina, Tails California”) — and hit a handful of other markets, attempting to entice convention bookers to plot their events in Middle Tennessee.
“The irony was it was so good, so cool and so special,” Spyridon says. “The client base responded better than if they were seeing the artists. It resonated out of the gate, and so then we just never stopped.”
Around 10 years ago, some of the executives who experienced those songwriter-in-the-round performances started booking them for their own corporate events. The price was much less than booking, say, Tim McGraw, and the event proved more personal and intimate, as attendees heard familiar songs in the vocal-and-guitar format in which they were originally conceived. While prices vary, the typical writer might get $5,000, so a company could conceivably book a four-person event for $20,000 and minimal production costs, far cheaper than a corporate McGraw gig.
“Not only that, you can get the writers that wrote most of the Tim McGraw hits,” says songwriter Rob Hatch (“I Don’t Dance,” “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away”), who co-founded a songwriter booking agency, Entersong, with Jerrod Niemann and Indiana-based entrepreneur Steve Stewart this year. The company has over 50 writers on its roster, and bookings can range from appearances at established venues to informal dates at backyard barbecues or house parties.
“COVID-19 created a situation where people couldn’t go out and go to concerts,” Hatch says. “A lot of the private concerts popped up more because they couldn’t go anywhere else.”
Like any other performer, songwriters determine the workload that suits them. Ashley Gorley (“You Proof,” “You Should Probably Leave”) takes out-of-town dates only if they’re with fellow writers who are already friends and/or it’s in a location where he and his wife would like to vacation. Chris DeStefano (“At the End of a Bar,” “Something in the Water”) is more aggressive.
“I try to do as much of it as possible,” he says. “It’s a great way of reaching fans and [a chance to] do some traveling, too, which I go do a lot of times. I get to bring my wife, and that’s always great. It’s working vacations, but also, it’s a way of really communicating directly with fans. And any opportunity I get to do that is some of the best parts of what I do.”
But a number of writers have also found that the shows can become too much of a good thing, as they start eating into their family time or damaging their creativity in the writing room.
“They are good for a songwriter to get some hard cash because our money is so delayed, the way we get paid,” says Jessi Alexander (“Never Say Never,” “I Drive Your Truck”). “If you’re going to pay me to come sing five songs with my friends, I’m going to do it, but I found that it was really starting to disrupt my writing — go play a gig, get home late at night, start all over again.”
Some of the gigs are ideal — Corey Crowder (“Famous Friends,” “Minimum Wage”) did one for Waldorf Astoria Hotels in Hawaii — and others have ranged from a trucking tire company that employed Track45 to a winery that booked Hunter Phelps (“wait in the truck,” “Thinking ’Bout You”). Another songwriter booking agency, Mike Severson’s Songwriter City, lists a bundle of clients — including Morgan Stanley, AT&T and Amazon — on its website.
In the end, the trend is one that takes advantage of the most unique feature of Music City’s creative class, providing an extra income stream to songwriters and setting the community apart in the business world.
“This kind of shows who we are,” Spyridon says. “You clear away all the clutter, and there’s a heart and soul, and it comes from the songwriter.”
Subscribe to Billboard Country Update, the industry’s must-have source for news, charts, analysis and features. Sign up for free delivery every Monday.
Later this month, Chris Cobb, longtime independent operator of revered Nashville music venue Exit/In for nearly two decades, will conclude his work at the 51-year-old music venue due to the lease ending at the conclusion of 2022, as Nashville-based development firm AJ Capital Partners (which purchased the Exit/In property in 2021) are set to begin overseeing operation of Exit/In.
“It looks like 51 years of local, independent ownership and operation have come to an end,” said a statement from Chris and Telisha Cobb. “We are humbled to host this last run of concerts with friends from many eras gracing our stage again. There have been too many incredible moments to count over the 18 years we’ve stewarded Exit/In. It’s an incredibly special place that we are so fortunate to have been a part of.”
The final 2022 concert at Exit/In is slated for Nov. 23, with the second of a pair of shows from Diarrhea Planet.
A statement from AJ Capital Partners, which recently moved its headquarters from Chicago to Nashville, provided to Billboard says, “The Exit/In will remain open, as it has under the stewardship of dozens of operators over the past 51 years, as its irreplaceable self: an iconic Nashville venue and gathering place for music lovers from all over. We spent the last year securing historic protections for this special and sacred space, which we’re committed to preserving while providing some long overdue physical improvements. We look forward to the next half-century of moments and memories, and to announcing 2023 show dates very soon.”
In 2021, AJ Capital filed a request to designate the Exit/In as a historical landmark, and historic overlays were approved for a section of the property this year.
Last year, the Cobbs launched a GoFundMe campaign with the aim of purchasing Exit/In, shortly after the venue went under contract. The fundraiser received over 4,000 donations and accumulated over $270,000 from supporters. In his statement, Cobb said that the money will be donated to National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) and to Music Venue Alliance (MVAN).
Exit/In, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, opened in 1971 and is located at 2208 Elliston Place, as the anchor of “The Rock Block,” which over the years has been home to businesses including The End, Elliston Place Soda Shop and The Gold Rush. Exit/In quickly became known for the diverse slate of artists who have performed there — with many of their names scrawled on its Wall of Fame at the front of the building. Those artists have included Billy Joel, Etta James, Johnny Cash, Muddy Waters, Paramore, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chuck Berry, The Allman Brothers Band, Jason and the Scorchers, Cage the Elephant and R.E.M., among many others.
Jimmy Buffett was the first performer at the venue when it opened in 1971.
The Rock Block was commemorated with a historical marker in 2020.
Artist and brand manager Craig Dunn has launched One Spark Entertainment, in partnership with mtheory. Dunn’s longtime client Sara Evans will join One Spark Entertainment, while Broken Bow Records duo Everette also joins the new roster.
Dunn has more than two decades of experience in areas including artist management as well as digital marketing, merchandising, label operations and revenue development. Prior to launching One Spark Entertainment, Dunn served as vice president at Collective Artist Management beginning in 2012, and worked as sr. vp at digital marketing and merchandise company Music City Networks, where he oversaw digital marketing, websites, fanclubs and more for artists including Lady A, Eric Church, Dierks Bentley, Little Big Town and Toby Keith.
“The idea behind the name of One Spark Entertainment came to me in the middle of the night as I was unable to sleep, excited about starting the new chapter of leading my own management company. The phrase of ‘it only takes one spark to start a fire’ popped into my head and just wouldn’t leave, no matter how many other ideas I considered,” Dunn said via a statement. “It just takes one spark of imagination or an idea to start a fire. I’m excited to bring my years of artist management, digital, event management, merchandise, road experience, and revenue generation across music, touring, TV and literary to One Spark Entertainment as we service the current roster and grow the company strategically, partnering with multi-talented artists that share the same creative passion and drive to create, innovate and grow as a team to reach the next level of success. Having known and previously worked with most of the senior team at mtheory, I’m thrilled to call them partners and bring their expertise and creative thinking to the roster.”
Founded in 2010, mtheory handles artist development, marketing, strategy and operations infrastructure designed for artist managers. Recently, mtheory also teamed with CMT to launch the Equal Access Development Program, year-long program designed to provide access and training for underrepresented demographics — including Black, Native and Indigenous, Latino, LGBTQ+ and female artists and managers — in the country music industry.
“The senior Nashville team at mtheory have known Craig for more than a decade and could not be more excited to be part of his new venture,” added mtheory CEO Cameo Carlson. “His forward-thinking approach to management and spirit of teamwork are exactly what we look for in our manager partnerships. Being able to add strategy and marketing resources to the incomparable Sara Evans and up-and-coming superstars Everette is just icing on the cake!”
In addition to new clients, One Spark Entertainment also welcomes Nicole Lewis as management coordinator.
Live shows are back in full force — Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, two years after the pandemic relegated it to hockey games in front of empty seats , is currently in a run of 12 shows in a 23-day period, including country concerts headlined by Keith Urban, Jason Aldean, Reba McEntire and Wynonna Judd on successive Friday nights.
But the live-show reboot has come with its challenges. The volume of acts has caused logistical problems, including a shortage of available tour buses and operators to drive them. The loss of some venues during the shutdown — particularly at the club level — has increased competition among touring acts for bookings in the remaining outlets, creating routing issues. And artists in smaller venues often encounter spotty attendance, thanks to the glut of concert options for a fan base that isn’t entirely back: 20% of American adults remain uncomfortable with the prospect of attending mass public events, according to a May survey by CivicScience.
It’s in that context that independent singer-songwriter Gretchen Peters — whose body of smart, emotional work includes hits with Martina McBride‘s “Independence Day” and Faith Hill‘s “The Secret of Life” — has announced that her current concert tour will be her last. She remains open to performing the occasional one-off concert, much like George Strait has since he quit doing full-fledged tours in 2015. The feedback from fellow artists has been mixed.
“A couple of them said, ‘Oh, no, you can’t stop,’ you know, as if ‘the show must go on’ is actually a rule,” Peters says. “I thought that was an interesting reaction. But then I’ve also gotten — and I won’t mention their names because this is something everybody needs to make public for themselves — but I’ve also gotten quite a few ‘I’m right behind you, girl.’ I’ve gotten a few of those.”
To observers who see only the glamorous, onstage part of touring, the idea of walking away might seem shocking. But the road is never easy — it’s a business in which employees navigate a different working environment on a daily basis, and the lifestyle itself is physically taxing. The costs of putting on a concert in an era of 8% inflation have increased across the board, and many of those expenses are significantly higher. Bus drivers, when they can be located, are sometimes getting double the daily rate they charged before the pandemic. And security costs, compounded by the volume of mass shootings in the 21st century, have risen as much as six times in the last five to eight years.
Those costs are borne by promoters and the acts themselves, who already pay their bands and crews, share commissions with business associates, rent transportation and cover volatile fuel costs. Outside of the top-tier acts, artists are facing a financial squeeze.
“They can’t go out and charge $125, $150 a ticket, so they either have to cut their operating costs [or] go out with less crew, or that cost gets passed on to the promoter. And the only way for the promoter to recoup is to keep their costs down, which is very difficult to do,” says Action Entertainment Collaborative partner Nick Meinema (Trace Adkins, High Valley) . “But the audience is not willing, or in some cases not able, to afford a higher ticket price. That becomes a conundrum.”
There are ways to combat the problem. Some of Meinema’s artists are cutting fuel costs by refusing to tour west of the Rocky Mountains unless they receive a superb contract. Others are declining Canadian offers, choosing to avoid customs issues on top of the fuel costs, or they are asking to book 10-day runs that cover two weekends and the days in between instead of traveling only on the weekend before driving back home. Additionally, some artists are booking fewer dates and discovering in the process that they create higher demand — and higher grosses — by becoming a little more scarce.
“Country music artists overplay at every level,” Meinema says.
During 2023, Reliant Talent artist David Nail will be doing more soft-ticket shows — fairs and festivals — where the income is more reliable.
Transportation has not been. Nail had an issue this past summer when Nashville coach companies ran out of buses. Two days before a Thursday getaway, his team finally located a vehicle in Indiana: Someone had to travel to pick it up and drive it back to Nashville, adding gas charges in the process. And it was only the morning of their departure that they were able to fly a retired driver who still had his license from Texas to man the wheel.
“A lot of that has to do, obviously, with everybody touring, but a lot of huge tours have 15 to 20 buses,” Nail says. “I can remember thinking, ‘Man, I might have to call Luke Bryan and just see if maybe he could double up on the buses and maybe throw me a bone.’”
In the face of that shortage, Meinema has a client who plans to tour strictly in the spring and fall in 2023, taking a summer vacation from the road for the first time in 26 years after a lackluster 2022 experience.
“The shows were great, the money was great, the merch was great, the travel — it was too much, not the level that that artist was accustomed to having,” he says. “It just didn’t feel worth it.”
While much of the fan base is acting as if the pandemic is over, the coronavirus remains an unpredictable issue. Nail has picked up some good money by subbing last minute for other artists whose teams suffered COVID-19 infections. But the artists who have to back out of the shows still have to pay their bands and crews. And the thought of losing dates to the virus is haunting.
“It’s impossible to not feel a little different, whether it’s the meet-and-greets or whatever,” says Nail.
Peters has thought at times during a performance — particularly when the reboot began — that working without a mask made her vulnerable in smaller, indoor venues.
“I was very appreciative of the audience members that masked up early on,” she says. “But just to think, ‘Boy, how much air am I sucking in here tonight?’ I mean, I can’t wear a mask because I have to sing. For somebody with asthma, it was surreal and a bit terrifying.”
By contrast, Peters is comfortable with her decision to back out of touring, ready to discover how her work/life balance will change when her schedule is a little more predictable. She’ll miss the shows, but that’s the smallest portion of the day.
“There’s a whole list of other things that I really won’t miss,” she says. “[Particularly] airlines — I mean, it’s a long list.”
Nail, on the other hand, is committed to slugging it out, even if touring remains unpredictable for the near future.
“I don’t have that plan B,” he says. “This has to work, one way or another.”
Subscribe to Billboard Country Update, the industry’s must-have source for news, charts, analysis and features. Sign up for free delivery every Monday.
