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A year ago, Country Radio Seminar (CRS) gave broadcasters a wakeup call.
With the 2023 edition of the conference, it should become clearer if the industry is facing a new day head on or if it simply hit the Snooze button.
Panelists in 2022 lamented a four-year decline in listenership, a drop that overlaps with a system in which singles often take over 40 weeks — sometimes as much as 60 weeks — to run their course. By contrast, labels are increasingly gearing their marketing plans to streaming platforms that expose wider arrays of music and target individuals’ playlists with greater specificity. On the final day last year, Country’s Radio Coach owner/CEO John Shomby gave a TED Talk-style presentation that chided broadcasters for a nagging sameness and called for a committee of radio and music business executives to figure out a reboot.
As Country Radio Broadcasters revs up CRS again March 13-15, that chat continues to echo in the agenda at the Omni Nashville Hotel. Shomby’s CRS Music Committee — which generated 60-70 respondents in its first hour, according to CRB executive director R.J. Curtis — has been segmented into four overlapping subcommittees that will likely make their first reports in an upcoming CRS360 webinar. Meanwhile, the CRS presentations include several topics that address the issues that have brought the format to a crossroads — “Radio & Records: Redefining the Relationship,” “Just Effing Do It: The Rewards of Taking Risks” and “Fred Jacobs’ Fred Talk: The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be.”
“CRS should be a reality-check moment,” Curtis says. “I don’t believe our purpose is to just shake each other’s hands and high-five and congratulate each other on another great year because not every year is great. We’re facing a lot of different challenges, and I think it’s important for us to own them and figure out how to solve them.”
Country music has a long history with radio. March 2022 marked 100 years since Fiddlin’ John Carson became the first hillbilly act to perform on-air, on WSB Atlanta, and Jan. 4 represented a century since country was introduced on the medium west of the Mississippi River, via The Radio Barn Dance on WBAP Dallas-Fort Worth. Still, the genre never had a full-time station until KDAV Lubbock, Texas, debuted in 1953.
Radio ultimately became the primary method of exposing the genre’s new music. It went largely unchallenged in that position until streaming took hold this century. The new medium operates differently — pressing a Skip button allows a streaming listener to skirt individual titles while still listening to the playlist, whereas skipping a song on the radio requires changing stations. To preserve listenership in this era, programmers generally relied on safe measures that had worked previously, cutting the size of playlists and/or hanging on to proven titles for longer periods of time. Those solutions tend to pay off in the short run, but over the long haul, they can discourage extended listening among the most passionate music fans.
“They’re just afraid of making a mistake,” says Shomby of programmers’ dilemma. “It’s like a football team that just hands the ball off to one guy and he runs up the middle, and then you hope that somebody opens up a hole. There’s no [taking chances] — there’s no throwing any long passes, you’re not doing any double reverses or anything like that. You just run left. And that’s kind of the way I feel like our industry is at this point.”
Actionable Insights Group head of research Billy Ray McKim was among the attendees who signed up for the CRS Music Committee last year after Shomby’s presentation.
“Plenty of people talked about it for days and weeks, and I continue to hear people refer back to it,” McKim says. “He managed to tie a bow on it.”
McKim is now overseeing the subcommittee studying the life cycle of songs, generally aiming to speed the march of singles through national radio charts and energize the format. The issue is complex.
“There was this idea that we would spend a year and find a finite solution and move on,” says McKim. “What’s become even more clear through this process is there isn’t a simple solution. So I think that this committee will continue to live and evolve.”
Changing aspects of the industry will get center stage through much of CRS. Digital streaming, for example, has a full day of convention programming. CRS also offers a panel on “expansive inclusion” and an examination of evolving demographics in “Okay Boomer! A Conversation With Gen Z.”
CRS will continue to offer some familiar elements. Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney will be the focus of keynote artist Q&As, the annual research panel presents insights from a 700-song auditorium test, and the closing New Faces of Country Music dinner will feature Jackson Dean, Priscilla Block, Jelly Roll, Nate Smith and Frank Ray.
That latter event will include recognition of a new wrinkle in the convention. The last of CRS’ founders, Charlie Monk, died Dec. 19, and this will be the first year he is not at the seminar in some form or fashion. New Faces is expected to honor his influence, which is particularly fitting this year. Monk’s ability to process the past and anticipate the future should provide some inspiration for the industry as it moves forward: the “Mayor of Music Row” counted classic singer Frank Sinatra as his favorite artist, but often said his favorite single was whatever was No. 1 that particular week.
“He didn’t get stuck in one particular era, and that’s very evident by the amount of people much, much younger than him that called him a mentor and a friend,” Curtis says. “He sought out younger leaders in our format. He benefited from their knowledge and their way of doing business, and I think it was really impressive.”
Country music’s relationship with radio predates even Monk’s arrival. Programmers’ goal during CRS will be to create some forward movement for a platform that is still regarded as a key means of exposure for even the newest generation of talent.
“I come across a lot of young artists, and they still have that dream to be heard on the radio,” says Shomby. “I mean, it doesn’t get them as excited to have a song playlisted on Spotify as it does to hear their song on their local radio station. So there’s still something there that creates a passion for the format.”
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The Cadillac Three members Jaren Johnston and Neil Mason have teamed with Warner Records via a joint venture to launch the Nashville-based label War Buddha Records.
The first signing to the venture is Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Rett Madison, who recently wrapped a run of shows with St. Paul & The Broken Bones and is slated to play during SXSW 2023.
“As artists ourselves, we created War Buddha first and foremost as a home for artists,” Johnston said via a statement. “In partnering with our longtime friend Aaron Bay-Schuck, alongside Tom Corson and the stellar Warner Records team, we saw the opportunity to mix our dirt with Warner’s power to create a venture fostering both creative expression and commercial success.”
“We want the label to offer a platform for artists with unique perspectives who fit out, not in, and feel unafraid to tell their stories unapologetically,” Mason added. “Rett is the perfect first signing for the label: an artist with the incredible ability to capture life experiences in songs that make the listener feel they are in those moments with her. We’re so grateful to Aaron and Tom for the chance to build this label together.”
Nashville natives Johnston and Mason, along with their The Cadillac Three cohort Kelby Ray, have released albums via Big Machine Records including 2016’s Bury Me in My Boots, and a pair of 2020 projects, Country Fuzz and Tabasco and Sweet Tea. As songwriters, Johnston has written songs recorded by artists including Tim McGraw (“Southern Girl”), Keith Urban and Eric Church (the duet “Raise ‘Em Up”). Mason has written songs recorded by artists including Miranda Lambert (“Old Sh*t”), and Jake Owen (“Days of Gold”).
“For as long as I have known Jaren and Neil, they have never taken a conventional path,” said Bay-Schuck, co-chairman & CEO of Warner Records, via a statement. “They’ve been fearless in their pursuit of great art, never compromising any integrity or authenticity in their approach to their own artistry or collaborations as songwriters and producers for other artists. As we continue to build the Warner Records brand as one that is always a safe and encouraging place for artists who dare to be different, take risks, and have a point of view, it made total sense to partner with War Buddha on their mission to do the same. We are very excited to welcome Rett Madison as the first artist from this partnership and we can’t wait to see what other unique and amazing talent Jaren and Neil discover.”
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to be joining the Warner Records family with War Buddha!” Madison said. “I’ve felt such genuine enthusiasm from Neil and Jaren in regards to my music and their total support of me sharing my most authentic, artistic voice feels refreshing. I can’t wait to see what we all build together.”
With Country Radio Seminar just a week away, key showcases are taking shape, with three record labels unveiling their lunchtime performance lineups and CMT announcing a handful of acts appearing at the first evening’s opening reception.
Brad Paisley, making his first CRS appearance since signing with Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN), will play during the label’s annual takeover of the historic Ryman Auditorium. Brantley Gilbert, Vince Gill, Sam Hunt and Cody Johnson are among the major acts officially in the mix during the three-day seminar March 13-15 at the Omni Nashville Hotel.
Newly announced entertainment lineups include:
• Warner Music Nashville sponsors the March 13 lunch that offers Johnson, Chase Matthew and Ian Munsick, with additional acts promised.
• The March 13 happy hour opening event will feature four acts associated with CMT’s Next Women of Country: Julia Cole, Ashley Cooke, Miko Marks and O.N.E the Duo.
• At least 14 acts are appearing at the lunchtime UMGN Ryman gig on March 14: Gill,Hunt,Paisley, Kassi Ashton,Boy Named Banjo,Brothers Osborne,Dalton Dover,Caylee Hammack,Tyler Hubbard,Parker McCollum,Kylie Morgan,Catie Offerman,Josh Ross and Darius Rucker.
• Big Machine Label Group hosts the March 15 lunch that will feature Gilbert, Danielle Bradbery, Mackenzie Carpenter, Riley Green, Chris Janson, Justin Moore, Shane Profitt and Conner Smith.
CRS previously announced the lineup for the closing New Faces Show: Priscilla Block, Jackson Dean, Jelly Roll, Frank Ray and Nate Smith.
“I really do feel like it’s my best,” Dierks Bentley says of his upcoming 10th studio album, Gravel & Gold, which arrives Friday, Feb. 24 via UMG Nashville.
It’s the kind of platitude that artists often say with every new project they set out to promote. However, Bentley says it with the kind of steady confidence borne of the painstaking process of scrapping two previous album-making attempts in order to craft the new album, picking up portions of those previous projects and adding new songs and recordings.
“I feel like this is my best representation of the kind of country music I’m trying to do, the kind I’ve been trying to work on since I moved to town,” Bentley says.
The third attempt worked, resulting in an adept synthesis of the sleek, commercial country sounds that have permeated previous projects such as 2016’s Black, his ‘90s country influences, and the organic, bluegrass leanings that swathed previous projects including 2010’s Up on the Ridge (helmed by Jon Randall) and 2018’s The Mountain (Randall and Ross Copperman).
“All the pieces were there for the 10th project, and those earlier sessions were good, it just ultimately wasn’t right,” Bentley says. “I hadn’t been in the studio much, and I hadn’t been writing a lot of songs; I had taken a lot of time off during the pandemic. With every album, you gotta leave out some songs. It’s gonna hurt when you are going in there to make the final sequence — and it should be painful; it means you are cutting out good stuff to get to the best songs you can.”
Gravel & Gold marks Bentley’s first time as an album co-producer, working on tracks with Randall, Copperman and F. Reid Shippen.
The album is the result of Bentley falling back in love — with Nashville, with music — after a year spent living in Telluride, Colorado. Arizona native Bentley had been trying to find a respite from Nashville for 15 years, longing to spend more time out West, though his touring and recording schedule didn’t allow for it. In 2020, when tours shut down during the height of the COVID-19, pandemic, he relocated to Colorado for a year with his wife Cassidy and their three children, Evie, Jordan and Knox.
“I was really happy being out there, but when I came back to Nashville, I realized how much I love Nashville and how great the town has been to me — the history I have here, the friends I have here. It’s realizing that gravel can be gold; it’s just about your perspective on it and the way you look at it. That’s the underlying theme I had going into the making of the album, and certainly on that third go-around of making it. It felt like I settled back into Nashville.”
While other artists have used the pandemic become ever-more prolific in their songwriting, and issue multi-part albums, Bentley opted for a tightly-constructed project across a comparatively lean 14 tracks.
“I love that a lot of guys are putting out double and triple albums, but for me personally, I can’t consume much more than like 11 or 12 songs. But it’s a different world. I also see kids’ attention spans are so little these days — so it’s hard to get through a whole album, let alone a double or triple album.”
Taken together, the songs are a natural evolution for an artist who discovered his love of bluegrass while taking in countless shows at Nashville’s longtime bluegrass hotbed Station Inn and playing some of his earliest shows at Exit/In. He released his debut album in 2003 and earned a Country Airplay-topping hit with the sleek “What Was I Thinkin’.” In the 20 years that have elapsed, he’s become a consistent hitmaker (with 18 No. 1 Country Airplay hits), a 14-time Grammy nominee and an artist unafraid to take risks to follow his creative inclinations.
“Something Real” is straightforward about Bentley’s intentions for substantive music.
“I had ‘Gone’ and ‘Beers on Me’ on the radio, and those are fun songs that needed to be there at the time, coming through this whole pandemic, songs that feel good,” Bentley says. “But I really wanted to make an album that has great country songwriting that packs a whole lot of emotion, feeling and story into three minutes.”
The humor fans know from songs like “Drunk on a Plane” returns in the clever “Beer at My Funeral.” Meanwhile, a similar tone to Bentley’s 2013 hit “I Hold On” — which displayed a fierce loyalty to “dancing with the one that brought ya,” whether it be worn, lived-in trucks or guitars — permeates “Cowboy Boots,” featuring recent Grammy winner Ashley McBryde,
“Everyone loves Ashley McBryde,” Bentley says. “She’s a great singer, songwriter, a great personality. I was lucky enough to get to tour with her last year and just watch her command a stage every night. She has this great mix of rock, country and attitude. The first time I saw her perform, I was blown away by her whole deal.”
Bentley has utilized the music videos accompanying the songs on this album to spotlight music venues around Nashville, including Exit/In (“Same Ol’ Me”) and Robert’s Western World (“Cowboy Boots”).
“This album is all about returning to Nashville, with a new appreciation for all that we have here, that I’ve kind of taken for granted — places like Exit/In, Station Inn and Robert’s. Robert’s is one of my favorite bars — I used to go down there and watch BR-549, Brazilbilly, Wayne ‘The Train’ Hancock. It was nostalgic for me to go back to these venues where I cut my teeth.”
Reprising his previous bluegrass-centric work, Bentley pays homage to weed and bluegrass on the album’s closing track, “High Note,” while welcoming red-hot bluegrass picker Billy Strings, as well as a host of musicians including Jerry Douglas (dobro), Sam Bush (mandolin), Charlie Worsham (guitar) and Bryan Sutton (guitar/banjo). Since making his debut in 2017, Strings has risen from clubs to selling out a string of arenas on his current tour — a rarity for a bluegrass artist.
“I’m just lucky that I got the chance to meet [Billy] as he was coming up five or six years ago,” Bentley says. “His rise is unbelievable. Charlie Worsham wrote [“High Note”] and I wanted to have some bluegrass on this project. We cut it with drums and gave it a bit of a country-rock feel. It’s just a great collection of people coming together, playing on a fun song. I would love for that song to be a single on country radio, but I don’t know if it would work. It’s a great way to end the project and go out on a high note.”
The album’s blend of well-crafted songwriting across an array of styles from ‘90s honky-tonk, pop-country, and bluegrass leanings is uniquely positioned, given country music’s current sonic landscape. The highly produced works of Morgan Wallen top the country charts alongside the decidedly less-polished acoustic-rock works of Zach Bryan and the ‘90s country influence of Luke Combs, while Strings’ progressive bluegrass and Tyler Childers’ raw roots music draw ever-surging audiences, and Elle King powers her country-rock with banjo.
Though perhaps not reaching the threshold of a full-fledged bluegrass/roots music resurgence on the scale of 2001-2002 — spearheaded by the juggernaut soundtrack of O Brother Where Art Thou?, which dominated the charts alongside albums from Tim McGraw, LeAnn Rimes and Lonestar, while artists like Patty Loveless and Dolly Parton released acoustic albums and Nickel Creek won Grammys for their breakthrough album — hints of rootsier leanings are apparent. The landscape could be more akin to early 1980s, when two former members of Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys (Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley) went on have chart-topping country music careers.
In 2015, Bentley and his touring band delved deeper into his ‘90s country influences, often serving as tour openers for themselves via the side project Hot Country Knights, which released an album, The K Is Silent, in 2020. In recent months they have continued their bluegrass connection by launching bluegrass group Long Jon, with a slate of regular performances on the first Tuesday of each month at Station Inn.
“I think for me and the guys, it’s about chasing that first-time feeling again, musically,” Bentley explains. “With Hot Country Knights, it was scary, that first time walking on stage like that. I thought my whole career was gonna come to a crashing halt, but it ended up obviously being super fun. With Long Jon, I have a huge respect for the Station Inn stage. To me, the Station Inn is as important to Nashville as the Ryman. And I’m a little biased, but my band’s incredible and I’m so proud of them to be able to jump between all these different gigs. It keeps us all on our toes.”
As the country music community continues to grapple with ways to increase diversity and inclusion, the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) and Academy of Country Music have come together to launch OnRamp, a program set to empower the next generation of Black leaders.
The OnRamp partnership will take 20 young, Black artists and music industry professionals in Nashville through a year-long program that includes access to top leaders, community mentorship and professional development. Vitally, the program comes with a guaranteed $1,000 monthly stipend for the 12 months.
Applications will be available starting in late Spring with the program kicking off in June during Black Music Month. Candidates can sign up for email notifications now at acmcountry.com/onramp to learn more.
This inaugural program will be funded by BMAC, the Academy and industry partners, and aided by social impact agency BreatheWithMe. The hope is that Nashville companies will make financial contributions to fund future years.
“The Academy has a rich history of fostering diversity and inclusion in the country music industry both on stage and behind-the-scenes, and we see this partnership as a particularly impactful way to continue our committed work to making the statement ‘Country Music is for Everyone’ a true reality,” said ACM CEO Damon Whiteside in a statement. “We’re excited to work with BMAC on this pivotal and transformative work for our Nashville community by increasing opportunities for young professionals from diverse backgrounds in our industry.”
The Academy relocated from its longtime home in Southern California to Nashville last year.
The guaranteed income component was critical, BMAC co-founder/co-chair Willie “Prophet” Stiggers tells Billboard. He studied such initiatives including a program started by former Stockton, Calif., mayor Michael Tubbs a few years ago that guaranteed $500 a month to 125 residents for 18 months and has now spread to more than 50 cities.
“All the data showed how people were lifting themselves out of poverty and realizing their dreams, not just from the cash relief, but the mentorship and wrap-around programs,” Stiggers says. “I said to myself and the BMAC team, with the billions of dollars the entertainment industry generates, we can, without government support, have these programs happen across the country and really begin to close the wealth gap that is targeting Black and Brown people.”
OnRamp comes several months after BMAC released its Three Chords and the Actual Truth report last June. The report called for the country music community and the city of Nashville to commit to change and equity through partnering with BMAC. The Academy was among the first companies to come aboard.
“They were really the first to raise their hand and says, ‘we’re prepared to stand with you and launch this program in Nashville and then call on the other companies up and down Music Row to partner with us.’ So this initiative can grow and become a sustainable part of the Nashville community,” Stiggers says.
The Academy’s LEVel Up: Lift Every Voice program will help facilitate OnRamp. LEVel Up is a two-year professional development program, originally launched last year and fully funded by the Academy, for rising leaders in country music. The members of the current LEVel Up cohort will play a hands-on role in the application review process and drive the candidate selection work, proposing a recommended slate of candidates to the Academy and BMAC teams.
Each of the 20 members of the inaugural OnRamp cohort will have a program designed specifically for them with their own facilitating team with the help of LEVel Up members and the Academy’s DEI task force. “For instance, if you’re a young person trying to become a manager, we’ll pair you with a manager who is killing it in that space and allow you to shadow them,” Stiggers says.
“It’s my pleasure to stand alongside other industry leaders to support this important program,” said ACM DEI Task Force chair/ACM board member and BMI executive Shannon Sanders, in a statement. “The Academy continues to play a pivotal role in ushering in a new era in country music by truly supporting and lifting up those underrepresented in the industry.”
Additionally, there will be money management and mental health components activated on a weekly or monthly basis. “The idea is to build the communities around each of these individuals that they need to help them realize their dreams,” Stiggers says.
Ultimately, the idea is to transform the country music industry across the board. “Five years from now when you’re able to have a few hundred young people who have been provided access in the training, resources and connections they need in the country music space I think we see a more diverse pool of artists and executives,” Stiggers says. “I think we see more Black women faces showing up on the executive side and I think we’ve opened this up to allow the charts to be reflective of the community that enjoys the genre, which isn’t the cast today.”
Earlier this year, the Country Music Association launched a diversity and inclusion fellowship program to provide an immersive experience in the country music industry initially through the CMA’s communications team in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of CMA Fest this June. Fellows will then work for six weeks with a country music publicity firm. Set to launch this Spring, the program is open to all students from underrepresented communities through Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations and the University of Alabama, with additional collegiate partners including the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Nashville’s Belmont University.
Such programs, as well as The Hubb, a professional development summit started by CAA in 2018, have Stiggers feeling optimistic. “I am encouraged to see people actually moving past the hashtags and trying to implement sustainable programs that are really going to create a more level playing field.”
In the decade that has passed since Music Health Alliance launched in 2013, the non-profit organization has become a critical healthcare resource, providing free healthcare advocacy and resources to artists, music industry professionals and their families.
The MHA’s 15-person staff has saved clients more than an estimated $100 million in healthcare costs and provided free advocacy and support to more than 20,000 music industry clients in 50 states. Along the way, the organization has saved nearly 2,500 families from bankruptcy due to medical bills, aided 31 people in getting life-saving transplants, and provided urgent diagnostic care to 57 clients via the Ben Eyestone Fund.
But behind those massive stats are incredibly personal stories of musicians, artists, songwriters and industry members who lives have been impacted for good.
“Getting access to healthcare is the biggest thing,” Dierks Bentley tells Billboard. The country singer-songwriter is a longtime MHA supporter/client and now celebrity ambassador. “I’ve had some of my own crew that was sick in Canada with a life-threatening illness. It would have cost him like $550,000 out of pocket. He ended up paying $5,000. It saved his life, and it’s amazing what MHA does. It’s God’s work.”
MHA’s services are free to any person who has worked in the music industry for two or more years, or who has credited contributions to four commercially released recordings or videos. Spouses, partners and children of qualifying individuals may also receive access to the nonprofit’s services from birth to end of life.
“About 12 years ago, when I was chewing on the idea of Music Health Alliance, I looked at all the economic impact studies of cities where they had big entertainment economic bases,” says Tatum Allsep, Music Health Alliance founder and CEO. “At that point it was around 76% of all entertainment industry employed were small businesses and self-employment.”
Allsep is empathetic to the plight of primarily self-employed and small-business music creatives and professionals navigating the complex healthcare process. The organization’s typical “busy season” arrives Nov. 1 through Dec. 15, the window for open enrollment for individuals and families to get health insurance. “We see about 6,000 clients in total, and about 3,200 appointments to get people insured across the nation. Probably 68% of our clients are in Middle Tennessee but we also have a footprint now in all 50 states.”
Dierks Bentley with MHA Team
Courtesy Photo
Sony Music Publishing Nashville CEO Rusty Gaston tells Billboard of the importance of MHA’s efforts in offering peace of mind to songwriters.
“Songwriters are independent contractors, so they don’t have access to group insurance plans,” Gaston says. “When Music Health Alliance came along, they were the gateway to providing help to get songwriters into affordable insurance plans. Our health system is so complicated, and MHA is a safe place for songwriters and anyone who works on [Music Row] to call and it’s completely confidential and free. It is such a unique and remarkable service for our community.”
Allsep notes that MHA was created to be nimble, given the ever-shifting needs of the music industry. But in March 2020, at the genesis of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization was put to the test, right along with the rest of the industry.
“Literally, overnight, the calls we were getting usually saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got a huge medical bill,’ or ‘I just got this diagnosis,’ went from not being about medicine and doctors, but people saying, ‘I need food, I need diapers and formula for my kids,’” Allsep says. “There is no more basic form of healthcare than food — and we just said, ‘We gotta get food into our industry, because that’s what they need.’”
The Music Health Alliance board and staff turned to a fund named after MHA’s first public client, producer Cowboy Jack Clement, the famed writer-producer known for working with such artists as Charley Pride, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, as well as for his work as a music publisher and label operator.
“We had this fund, which had no revenue strings to it and it had about $60,000 in it,” Allsep says. “We went to City National Bank and said, ‘We need to withdraw this cash because we tried to order gift cards online and we could only order one or two at a time.’ So we literally went to Walmart, Kroger, Trader Joe’s, and other places and bought $20,000 in gift cards. We thought we would end up doing this for like three months; we did this for a year and a half, to the point where anytime we would walk into Trader Joe’s, people would cheer.”
The team also curated lists of additional resources for places to get diapers, formula, mortgage and rental assistance, utilities assistance and more. The organization provided access to more than 1 million meals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Music Health Alliance also began offering resources for mental health counseling, with Allsep noting that between 2019 and 2020, MHA saw a 300% increase in requests for counseling.
“That was another pivot for us: finding a way to administer getting counselors paid, because most counselors don’t accept health insurance,” Allsep says. “So we created the MHA’s mental health fund that the Music Biz Association, Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music and so many individuals and organizations pitched in to help find a way to get counseling to the masses. Every Tuesday we have our finance meeting, and we write, on average, 150 checks that go out to counselors across the nation. To date, we’ve provided more than 3,500 counseling sessions. I am so proud of that, because people are talking about mental health and our industry is a right-brain, creative industry. They are more predisposed to facing things like depression and self-medicating. If we can get ahead of that and dispel the negative stereotypes around counseling and mental health, that’s good for the industry.”
Gaston adds, “A big secret to the creative is simply being in a good mental place to be able to create. At Sony, we were able during the pandemic to start a songwriters’ assistance program to offer free mental health counseling to all of our songwriters. But the MHA, for songwriters outside of Sony, have been able to help them find counseling [and] get paired with the right people to address mental health needs — especially when it was at an all-time high during the pandemic.”
In 2021, the CMA honored the MHA’s work by naming Allsep and MHA’s CFO and certified senior advisor Shelia Shipley Biddy as CMA Foundation Humanitarian Award recipients, alongside singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. Last year, Big Machine Label Group founder/president/CEO Scott Borchetta and his wife Sandi Borchetta made a $150,000 grant to MHA through their Music Has Value fund.
“It has been remarkable to witness Music Health Alliance in action over the past decade,” Borchetta tells Billboard via statement. “Their efforts to provide accessible healthcare to countless members of our beloved music community, especially throughout the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, are undeniably heroic. Their contribution and dedication to the wellbeing of our industry is truly awe-inspiring and we are honored to continue supporting their mission.”
Launching its 10th year, MHA has added a fund dedicated to dental health. The new resources are in conjunction with the Richard M. Bates SMILE fund, in memory of the music enthusiast and Walt Disney Company longtime senior vp of government relations.
Allsep says the next stage for Music Health Alliance will focus on the senior population, with Shipley Biddy leading that division.
“The senior population is the legacy of our industry, and there is such as deficit when it comes to things like home health, or being sent home from the hospital and not being able to take care of yourself,” Allsep says. “Home health is not covered by health insurance and it’s so expensive, but it enables someone to live with dignity and that’s important to us. We are focused on how we can do better for the legacy of our industry.”
AJ Capital Partners, the new owners of revered Nashville music venue Exit/In, have named a new talent buyer for the iconic entertainment hub and plan to re-open the shuttered venue as early as this Spring after it temporarily closed in late November.
Though there had been local speculation and concern that AJ Capital would turn to a large promoter such as Live Nation to book the 51-year old independent venue, the new owners are utilizing an in-house team with Dan Merker serving as Exit/In’s lead talent buyer. Merker, who oversees talent buying for all AJ Capital properties, has previously worked at Outback Presents, HUKA Entertainment and Tortuga Music Festival.
“We are honored to carry on the legacy of this iconic venue and raise the bar for both the fan and artist experience,” Merker said in a statement to Billboard. ‘We look forward to announcing 2023 shows soon and as the calendar will reflect, restoring Exit/In as a welcoming place for artists that span all genres and everyone within our community.”
After moving their headquarters from Chicago to Nashville in 2020, AJ Capital Partners in July 2021 acquired the beloved Exit/In, located at 2208 Elliston Place, as well as the adjacent Hurry Back bar, for $6.45 million from Anthony Rentals (representing property owners the Nash and Anthony families). AJ Capital says they plan to continue Hurry Back as a restaurant/bar concept. A representative for the Nash and Anthony families declined to speak for this story. AJ Capital Partners officially take over operations of Exit/In on Jan. 1, 2023.
In addition to the Graduate Hotel chain, AJ Capital owns and developed the buildings that house two current music industry entities: Live Nation’s Nashville office in the Nashville Warehouse Co., and newly opened Nashville headquarters for the Academy of Country Music, both in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood.
AJ Capital Partners also owns the Memphis, Tennessee venue Minglewood Hall. Other venues in AJ Capital Partners’ portfolio include New Orleans’ Joy Theater, The Senate in Columbia, S.C., Houston’s White Oak Music Hall, and Iron City in Birmingham, Ala. AJ Capital also has plans for a 4,500-capacity music venue in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston area.
“The Exit/In has been Nashville’s music forum for 51 years, under the stewardship of more than two dozen operators over that time,” Tim Ryan, Principal focused on live music venues, boutique hotels and other experiential real estate, AJ Capital Partners, told Billboard via a statement. “Ultimately, the venue’s history, legacy and soul belong to Nashville. As the next stewards in line, we’re committed to doing whatever is necessary to restore her to good health and set the stage for another legendary half-century and beyond. AJ’s track record of restoring and reviving historic spaces speaks for itself, both here in Nashville and across our portfolio.”
After AJ Capital takes over the venue’s operations on Jan. 1, 2023, it plans to renovate the Exit/In’s bathrooms and green room. Updates will also include refreshing of the building’s west-facing outer wall, which previously showcased a mural featuring artists who have performed at Exit/In. The mural has since been painted over.
Since opening in 1971 with a performance by Jimmy Buffett, the bare-bones, 500-person capacity Exit/In has been one of the city’s most enduring and popular venues, and a mainstay of Nashville’s rock music scene, hosting a diverse slate of artists, including Billy Joel, Etta James, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, Muddy Waters, Jason and the Scorchers, R.E.M and more. On the back cover of The Police’s Zenyatta Mondatta, Sting is seen wearing an Exit/In shirt. Episodes of the CMT series Western Beat with Billy Block — which grew out of Block’s Western Beat Roots Revival — were taped at Exit/In beginning in 2000.
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.
The switchover in ownership has not been without controversy as the most recent operator, Chris Cobb, had been passionately opposed to the change. Cobb, whose name had grown synonymous with the venue, has been an integral part of Exit/In for 18 years. In 2012, he partnered with Josh Billue to oversee Exit/In, and became its sole operator since 2019 until the last show under his watch on Nov. 23.
In February, as Exit/In went on the block, Chris Cobb and his wife Telisha, partnered with Grubb Properties’ Live Venues Recovery Fund, an entity that helps club operators become owners, to try to buy the property. The Cobbs also launched a GoFundMe campaign that reached its initial $200,000 goal, ultimately raising more than $271,000, but were unsuccessful in buying the club. Cobb pledged to donate the money raised to the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) and to Music Venue Alliance (MVAN). Cobb was unavailable for comment by press time.
In April 2021 Cobb also filed trademark applications for the name “Exit/In Nashville’s Music Forum,” as well as “Exit/In Nashville Music Forum Fifty Years and Counting 50,” which were subsequently opposed by AJ Capital in October of this year. The opposition filing from AJ Capital contended that according to license agreements, tenants were granted a limited license to use the name Exit/In on the leased premises only, and that the landlord “at all times shall retain sole and exclusive ownership and right to the name Exit/In subject only to the limited license granted herein.”
There is no word on when the patent office will hand down its decision.
The Exit/In has long served as the anchor for the geographic area dubbed The Rock Block, which over the decades has included The End, Elliston Place Soda Shop, Obie’s Pizza and The Gold Rush. The Rock Block was commemorated with a historical marker in 2020.
Ned Horton, whose The Horton Group operated Exit/In from 1998 through 2001, says, “Real estate in Nashville has been going through the roof, home neighborhoods are changing and in rapid fashion. So to be beholden to a landlord in running a business does have its limitations from time to time. AJ controls its destiny by owning the building and the land. But it does seem like the new owners are well-intentioned and have the capital to do somethings that others maybe couldn’t in the past.”
Rick Whetsel, who operated Exit/In from 2003-2006, says, “It’s really exciting to have an owner with deep pockets. As caretakers or stewards of Exit/In, we’ve always kind of financed things out of our own pockets. Taking care of upgrades and fixing various things, we tended to kind of put off repairs or kick things down the road a bit. It’s nice that someone has the money and capital they have to take care of the building and put it on the path to a good future. The Exit/In is such an important part of not just the music industry, but the city of Nashville. There’s such a sense of history and you can feel that energy when you are in there.”
“Change is not always a bad thing,” Whetsel added. “Financial security is a wonderful thing. It’s nice to know that the place will be here and able to operate as a venue for a long time. The stewardship of Exit/In, they realize it is a big deal. You have to go out there and build bridges and become part of the community and they are. It’s amazing the work that myself, Chris Cobb, Josh Billue, and others in the past couple of decades have been able to do, to get the Exit/In on the right path. The Exit/In has always been here and it needs to stay here.”
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.”
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They’re the keys to a solid business plan: a sound product, an understanding of the target customer, focused marketing and country music.
That’s right — country music. Nashville songwriters have over the last decade amplified a secondary source of revenue by giving more in-the-round performances beyond Music City’s club circuit, particularly for America’s corporate movers and shakers. Sometimes it’s a hometown gig at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe or The Listening Room for 50-75 staffers with a company enjoying an entertainment break during a conference. In other instances, the composers may travel out of town to perform for a dozen senior members of different companies that are engaged in a leadership exercise.
Regardless of a company’s purpose, it gives songwriters — who create their material in small rooms — a chance to see their songs at work in front of an audience and to get paid for the privilege.
“A lot of songwriters are doing it because they’re not making money on getting cuts anymore,” says songwriter Hillary Lindsey (“Blue Ain’t Your Color,” “Jesus, Take the Wheel”). “Even if you get the album cut, if you don’t have a single, you’re not making money. So a lot of people are hustling and getting a lot of these gigs. If you do enough, I think you can make some money.”
The development was not born in a songwriting room. Instead, it came indirectly from the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp., which is tasked with marketing Music City as a destination for both vacation and business travel. Songwriters are “a secret weapon of Nashville,” says NCVC CEO Butch Spyridon. Roughly 20 years ago, he rounded up three writers — Brett James (“I Hold On,” “Blessed”), Rivers Rutherford (“Ain’t Nothing ’Bout You,” “Real Good Man”) and Tim Nichols(“Live Like You Were Dying,” “Heads Carolina, Tails California”) — and hit a handful of other markets, attempting to entice convention bookers to plot their events in Middle Tennessee.
“The irony was it was so good, so cool and so special,” Spyridon says. “The client base responded better than if they were seeing the artists. It resonated out of the gate, and so then we just never stopped.”
Around 10 years ago, some of the executives who experienced those songwriter-in-the-round performances started booking them for their own corporate events. The price was much less than booking, say, Tim McGraw, and the event proved more personal and intimate, as attendees heard familiar songs in the vocal-and-guitar format in which they were originally conceived. While prices vary, the typical writer might get $5,000, so a company could conceivably book a four-person event for $20,000 and minimal production costs, far cheaper than a corporate McGraw gig.
“Not only that, you can get the writers that wrote most of the Tim McGraw hits,” says songwriter Rob Hatch (“I Don’t Dance,” “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away”), who co-founded a songwriter booking agency, Entersong, with Jerrod Niemann and Indiana-based entrepreneur Steve Stewart this year. The company has over 50 writers on its roster, and bookings can range from appearances at established venues to informal dates at backyard barbecues or house parties.
“COVID-19 created a situation where people couldn’t go out and go to concerts,” Hatch says. “A lot of the private concerts popped up more because they couldn’t go anywhere else.”
Like any other performer, songwriters determine the workload that suits them. Ashley Gorley (“You Proof,” “You Should Probably Leave”) takes out-of-town dates only if they’re with fellow writers who are already friends and/or it’s in a location where he and his wife would like to vacation. Chris DeStefano (“At the End of a Bar,” “Something in the Water”) is more aggressive.
“I try to do as much of it as possible,” he says. “It’s a great way of reaching fans and [a chance to] do some traveling, too, which I go do a lot of times. I get to bring my wife, and that’s always great. It’s working vacations, but also, it’s a way of really communicating directly with fans. And any opportunity I get to do that is some of the best parts of what I do.”
But a number of writers have also found that the shows can become too much of a good thing, as they start eating into their family time or damaging their creativity in the writing room.
“They are good for a songwriter to get some hard cash because our money is so delayed, the way we get paid,” says Jessi Alexander (“Never Say Never,” “I Drive Your Truck”). “If you’re going to pay me to come sing five songs with my friends, I’m going to do it, but I found that it was really starting to disrupt my writing — go play a gig, get home late at night, start all over again.”
Some of the gigs are ideal — Corey Crowder (“Famous Friends,” “Minimum Wage”) did one for Waldorf Astoria Hotels in Hawaii — and others have ranged from a trucking tire company that employed Track45 to a winery that booked Hunter Phelps (“wait in the truck,” “Thinking ’Bout You”). Another songwriter booking agency, Mike Severson’s Songwriter City, lists a bundle of clients — including Morgan Stanley, AT&T and Amazon — on its website.
In the end, the trend is one that takes advantage of the most unique feature of Music City’s creative class, providing an extra income stream to songwriters and setting the community apart in the business world.
“This kind of shows who we are,” Spyridon says. “You clear away all the clutter, and there’s a heart and soul, and it comes from the songwriter.”
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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.