Barry Shrum’s interview with DigiMusicTV.com

I was surfing around yesterday and discovered that my interview with DigiMusicTV.com, recorded in 2007, was recently posted on brightcove.  Here it is in all it’s glory:

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Kristi Lee Cook signs with Nashville Label

According to news reports that broke first on Fox yesterday, then appeared on CMT and Billboard, Kristi Lee Cook, who took seventh place in this year’s seventh season of American Idol, signed a recording agreement with 19 Recordings/Arista Nashville, a Sony BMG label.  This is Kristi’s second attempt at success on the Arista Nashville brand, [...]

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Why "Freeconomics" - and the Music Industry’s Five Point Plan - won’t work in the long term

There is a great deal of talk these days about the concept of “freeconomics,” spurned by the fact that most teenagers and college students are still ripping music and sharing it online.  Most recently, the major record labels commissioned a study from two think tanks, The Leading Question and Music Ally, which resulted in a [...]

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Music Row Magazine sold

Music Row magazine has been “Nashville’s Music Industry Publication” for 26 years.  Yesterday, Music Row announced that it was being acquired by SouthComm Communications, Inc. 
SouthComm is a Nashville-based media company founded in 2007 by Chris Ferrell and Nashville investment firm Solidus Co., led by Townes Duncan.  Duncan is chairman of SouthComm and Ferrell is [...]

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Nashville Mayor Announces "Country Radio Week"

Nashville Mayor Karl Dean issued a proclamation declaring the week of March 3, 2008 “Country Radio Week.”  The mayor will present the official proclamation to Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc.’s Executive Director Ed Salamon and President Becky Brenner when he officially welcomes attendees to the 39th Country Radio Seminar (CRS-39) on March 5th.
The mayoral proclamation recognizes [...]

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Music Publishing 101, Part 1: A brief history

This blog series will explore music publishing, giving a little bit of history and outlining the basic steps necessary to form a music  publishing company.  Part 1 looks at a brief history and background of music publishing.
Modern music publishing in the United States can trace its roots to “Tin Pan Alley,” the name given to [...]

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Nashville’s Blue Bird Cafe is a songwriting legacy

Amy Kurland’s Blue Bird Cafe on Hillsboro Road in Nashville is the kind of stuff of which fairy tales are made.  Now, Kurland has left the legacy in the hands of Nashville’s best songwriting organization, NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International) — a fitting end a dynasty.
The legend of Blue Bird Cafe, which first opened in [...]

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Last Man Standing - collaborating with other songwriters

See Jane. 
See Jane write lyrics. 
See Dick. 
See Dick write melodies.  
See Dick meet Jane.
See Dick and Jane combine their efforts and collaborate together to write a song. 
This is one frequent story among Nashville’s songwriting community.  On any given afternoon in Nashville, there will be innumerable co-writing sessions occurring at any given moment.  [...]

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Sonny Lemaire’s "Fall" climbing the charts to Top Ten

Clay Walker’s "Fall" Video

Together with Clay Mills and Shane Minor, my new client Sonny Lemaire is one of three songwriters on Clay Walker’s new single, Fall, featured in the video link above.  The song is currently climbing Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and, after a 31-week run so far, is breaking well into the top [...]

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Porter Wagoner Dies at age 80

Perhaps Porter Wagoner should be remembered as the original “Rhinestone Cowboy” because of his penchant for sparkling two-piece rhinestone often adorned with wagon wheels and other cowboy themes — at one point he owned over 60 suits. 
The longtime country music legend died at 8:25 p.m. CDT in a Nashville hospice Sunday night at the [...]

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