Philadelphia
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Since its founding in April 2021, the Black Opry has championed the work of numerous Black country and Americana artists and has worked to increase opportunities for the artists the organization supports across various platforms, including media, industry showcases and touring.
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Earlier this year, the Black Opry partnered with Philadelphia public radio station WXPN to initiate an artist development program to highlight five emerging Black country and Americana musicians, and offering resources, mentorship and other support to each of the artists. WXPN produces World Cafe, public radio’s most popular program of popular music that is distributed by NPR to more than 280 U.S. radio stations.
Now, these artists’ stories will be further spotlighted in a new five-episode podcast, Artist to Watch: Black Opry Residency, launching on Thursday (June 8). A new episode will release each week throughout June, in support of Black Music Appreciation Month.
“We’ve been focused on showcasing emerging talent through our Artist To Watch program for two decades,” Bruce Warren, WXPN’s associate GM for programming, tells Billboard in a statement. “Building on that commitment, we really wanted to up our game and build an artist development residency. We chose to partner with Black Opry and focus on Black creators who have not traditionally been afforded access to resources to help their careers.”
The premiere episode will highlight the musical journey of Texas native Tylar Bryant, who first gained a following in 2016 through a cover of Brothers Osborne‘s “Stay a Little Longer,” and now blends elements of country with R&B and rock. Bryant has played over 80 shows per year throughout the Lone Star State, and recorded his debut EP, Don’t Let Go in 2017, before moving to Nashville in 2019.
The subsequent episodes will trace the journeys of Samantha Rise, Grace Givertz, Denitia, and sibling duo The Kentucky Gentlemen.
Rise is a Philadelphia-based teacher, performer, songwriter/singer and activist whose music is rooted in indie folk. Boston-based Givertz is a multi-instrumentalist with a blazing folk sound. Nashville-based Denitia fuses elements of country and folk with poetic lyrics, The Kentucky Gentlemen’s Brandon and Derek Campbell, who issued their debut EP, The Kentucky Gentlemen, Vol. 1 last year, blend pop, country and R&B.
“The partnership with xpn for the Black Opry Residency has been such an easy fit, it felt like we were meant to work together,” Holly G, founder of the Black Opry, tells Billboard in a statement. “It can be hard to find people in the industry that are passionate about emerging artists and willing to provide the resources to support them, especially artists from marginalized identities in the country and American landscape. It displays a tremendous amount of leadership and faith that Bruce and his team were able and willing to put their efforts behind such a big project and i’m grateful they were so keen to listen to myself and people like Rissi Palmer about the needs of our community.”
Additionally, WXPN hosted each of the Artist to Watch: Black Opry Residency artists for a week-long residency in Philadelphia, where they collaborated on writing and recording and performed at World Cafe Live. Those performances will be released on Monday (June 5), alongside the World Cafe interview on the national show.
Artist to Watch: Black Opry Residency is produced by Rowhome Productions and hosted by journalist/radio host John Morrison. Artist To Watch: Black Opry Residency is distributed by PRX and available at XPN.org and on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and most other podcast providers.
“My hope is that others will see the success of this project and realize that we need to do it many times over,” Holly G says.
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Do not show your plate to those who are hungry. Thieves made away with two million dimes in a Philadelphia street heist.
As spotted on CBS News local badges say some unidentified individuals hit a lick like never before. On Thursday, April 13 a truck was parked in the Northeast section of Philadelphia from the evening prior. While the vehicle was clearly unmarked, a team of robbers were wise to the contents and found a way to gain entry into the trailer. Inside were 15 pallets of ten cent coins; with each pallet holding just about $50,000 in dimes.
The crooks made away with roughly five of those pallets but left a mess during the heist. That morning police found the truck door wide open and hundreds of dimes on the floor. Originally authorities estimated their caper landed them $100,000 but have increased the guess to $200,000. Police say that the driver picked up the currency from the local mint Old City and was headed to another mint in Miami, Florida. The trucker said he parked it overnight in a Walmart parking lot to get some rest.
“There’s been a lot of cargo thefts here and there in Northeast Philly and South Philadelphia over the ensuing months where we’ve had lamb, chicken, TVs, refrigerators, etc. taken, alcohol,” Philadelphia Police Captain John Ryan said. Police are currently looking for “10 or more men wearing wearing all black”.
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A legal cacophony is brewing in the City of Brotherly Love.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the Philly Pops accused the Philadelphia Orchestra of violating federal antitrust laws by abusing its control over local concert venues and ticketing services to try to crush its smaller rival.
“Defendants have engaged … in unlawful, anticompetitive and predatory conduct with respect to the Philly POPS for the purpose and with the intent to force the Philly POPS out of business so that Philadelphia Orchestra could eliminate the Philly Pops as a competitor in and monopolize the market for live symphonic popular concert music concerts in the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area,” lawyers for the Pops wrote.
Philly Pops claims that it has long peacefully co-existed with the Orchestra, one of America’s so-called Big Five symphony orchestras. The Pops has played symphonic versions of Broadway show tunes, movie scores and popular music, while the Orchestra has stuck to classical symphonic – and the two have been “marketed to different potential patrons” and “attended by audiences with little duplication.”
But starting last year, Philly Pops says the Orchestra has been jumping into the pops space and trying to put its smaller rival out of business. The lawsuit claims that the Orchestra has done so mostly by abusing its merger with the Kimmel Center, the primary orchestra venue in the city and the ticketing service Ticket Philadelphia.
According to the lawsuit, the Orchestra “substantially and unreasonably” increased fees for the Pops to perform at the Kimmel Center and slowed down the sale of tickets to previously scheduled shows. It then hired a PR firm to “create media messaging” that the Pops would be absorbed by the Orchestra after the 2023 season.
When the Pops said it would not go along with such a plan, the Orchestra “summarily evicted the POPS from the Kimmel Center forcing the POPS to cancel and postpone its concerts [there] and scramble for different but substantially less viable indoor venues.”
In addition to naming the Philadelphia Orchestra-Kimmel Center, Inc. as a defendant, the lawsuit also named Matias Tarnopolsky, the company’s president and CEO.
In a statement to Billboard, a spokesperson for the Orchestra said: “We have just received the lawsuit, which was brought to our attention by the media. As the complaint has yet to be formally served, we will reserve comment until then and once it has been reviewed with counsel.”
Read the entire lawsuit against the Philadelphia Orchestra here: