Red Bow Records artist Craig Campbell is set to release his first collection of music in five years, titled See You Try, on June 8.

The title track was penned by Florida Georgia Line‘s Tyler Hubbard, along with co-writers James McNair, Bart Butler, and Jordan Schmidt. The EP also includes two versions (one electric and one acoustic) of Campbell’s radio single “Outskirts of Heaven.” Other tracks on the EP include the Tejano-dipped “Mas Tequila,” and the ballad “Upstairs.”

“For the past few years, I’ve created and found some of the best music of my career,” shared Campbell. “I’m beyond excited to release this EP and show the country music world what I’ve been up to. I’m very proud of the music and can’t wait for everyone to finally hear these songs!”

See You Try EP Track List:

1. “See You Try” (James McNair, Tyler Hubbard, Bart Butler, Jordan Schmidt)
2. “Me Missing You” (Barry Dean, Jonathan Singleton, Dave Barnes)
3. “Outskirts of Heaven” (Craig Campbell, Dave Turnbull)
4. “Mas Tequila” (Craig Campbell, Jim Beavers, Chris DuBois)
5. “Upstairs” (Kelly Archer, Justin Weaver, Al Anderson)
6. “Kids in the South” (Chase McGill, Ben Hayslip)
7. “Outskirts of Heaven (Acoustic)” (Craig Campbell, Dave Turnbull)

Ashley Monroe will appear on the Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum’s Songwriter Session series on June 9. Monroe will perform songs from her new album Sparrow and will be interviewed by Tyler Mahan Coe of the podcast “Cocaine & Rhinestones.”

Songwriter Sessions are included with museum admission or free to museum members. The program is interactive, with visitors encouraged to ask the songwriter questions about the industry. Following the program, The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum store will host a Sparrow CD and vinyl signing for fans.

Monroe will perform on Late Night with Seth Meyers on Monday, May 14.

Members of the Nashville songwriter community have been in California this week to take part in ASCAP’s “I Create Music” EXPO at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Hollywood, California.

Songwriters Hall of Fame member and Nashville resident Desmond Child (“Livin’ On A Prayer,” “Dude Looks Like A Lady,” “Livin’ la Vida Loca”) used sing-alongs, improv skits, animation and audience participation to take EXPO attendees to “Splitsville USA,” a lively, informative panel on the ins and outs of songwriting splits.

David Garcia, who wrote the chart-topping country song “Meant To Be” by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line (and who is producing Carrie Underwood’s upcoming album Cry Pretty), appeared on the cross-genre “We Create Music” panel to discuss first breaks, overcoming self-doubt and the art of songwriting with multi-platinum recording artist Jason Mraz, ASCAP Latin Songwriter of the Year Claudia Brant and noted film composer Junkie XL.

Cassadee Pope, the first female winner of The Voice and chart-topping country singer-songwriter, performed as part of the EXPO finale Writers’ Jam. Pope reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 with her debut album Frame By Frame and had a No. 1 on the Country Airplay charts with her Chris Young collaboration “Think of You.”

A team of Nashville power players from William Morris, Warner/Chappell, Red Light Management and Spotify tackled “Making It In Music City,” in a conversation with No. 1 songwriter Adam Sanders, whose decade-long rise was also used as a case study by the group. Among other insights, Sanders and team discussed how playing a 2:30PM show on a Tuesday and befriending a pre-fame merch salesman named Cole Swindell changed his life forever.

Grammy-winning songwriter Darrell Brown spent more than four hours on Tuesday helping music creators get the best of their song ideas as part of his annual “Multi-Genre Feedback” panel. With No. 1 Billboard hits on the country, dance and pop charts, Brown is uniquely qualified to give hands-on advice to writers in a wide range of genres.

Nashville singer-songwriter Edwin McCain, whose smash hit “I’ll Be” turns 20 this year, shared a star-studded stage with Marc Cohn, Jason Mraz, songwriter Johnta Austin (Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige) and more at the EXPO’s first night Center Stage concert.

Spotify has introduced a new policy on Hate Content and Hateful Conduct geared toward content that expressly and principally promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics, including, race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability.

The new policy allows the company, once alerted to content that violates the policy, to remove it (in consultation with rights holders) or refrain from promoting or playlisting it on the service. Spotify also states that “it’s important to remember that cultural standards and sensitivities vary widely. There will always be content that is acceptable in some circumstances, but is offensive in others, and we will always look at the entire context.”

In a statement Spotify said: “We have tens of millions of tracks on Spotify, growing by approximately 20,000 recordings a day. Nothing makes us more excited than discovering and sharing that music. One of the most amazing things about all that music is the range of genres, cultures, experiences, and stories embodied in it. We love that our platform is home to so much diversity because we believe in openness, tolerance, respect, and freedom of expression, and we want to promote those values through music on our platform. 

“We’ve also thought long and hard about how to handle content that is not hate content itself, but is principally made by artists or other creators who have demonstrated hateful conduct personally. We work with and support artists in different ways – we make their music available on Spotify and help connect them to new and existing fans, we program and promote their music, and we collaborate with them to create content. While we don’t believe in censoring content because of an artist’s or creator’s behavior, we want our editorial decisions – what we choose to program – to reflect our values. So, in some circumstances, when an artist or creator does something that is especially harmful or hateful (for example, violence against children and sexual violence), it may affect the ways we work with or support that artist or creator.”

To help them identify hate content, Spotify has partnered with rights advocacy groups, including The Southern Poverty Law Center, The Anti-Defamation League, Color Of Change, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), GLAAD, Muslim Advocates, and the International Network Against Cyber Hate. They have built an internal content monitoring tool, Spotify AudioWatch, which identifies content on the platform that has been flagged as hate content on specific international registers.

The company urges users to report violations here that will be reviewed carefully against the new policy. The entire policy can be found here.

BOBBY KARL WORKS THE ROOM
Chapter 590

The future looks blindingly bright for Dan + Shay.

With “Tequila” steamrolling towards a certain shot at No. 1, anticipation is high for the duo’s upcoming CD. At an exclusive listening party on Tuesday evening, May 8, the team offered a tantalizing sneak-peak of what we can expect. It took place at WB boss John Esposito’s vintage Belle Meade home.

“Five-and-a-half years ago, everybody in town was trying to sign Dan + Shay, but this house was a secret weapon,” said host Espo. “It was because of the back yard. They came and played here for four nights. They shot their first EPK here.

“You’re really lucky in life when you can hit a vein,” he added, pointing to the team’s songwriting talent, Shay Mooney’s stunning, effortless, tenor voice and Dan Smyers’ “ears” as a producer, guitarist and velvety baritone harmony vocalist.

“We’ve already had success. And then we got ‘Tequila.’” With 80 million streams, the song is one of the 10 most streamed country songs so far this year. And, “It’s getting on music charts around the world.

“We have seven or eight No. 1 single contenders on this record, and I’m not exaggerating. Welcome to ‘Live at Espo’s!’”

Dan + Shay sang their No. 1 smash “How Not To,” while the audience sang along. They followed it with “Tequila.” Both were performed without amplification, with Dan’s acoustic guitar as their only accompaniment. And both pinned our ears back.

“Thank you guys for always kicking ass for us,” said Dan, referring to the assembled media mavens. “It takes a village. We got to live our dream every day because of the people in this room. We feel so damn lucky. And I get to live this dream with my best friend in the world. I think this guy right here is the best singer in country music,” he added, smiling at Shay.

Dan was our DJ as he played some tracks from the upcoming album. “All to Myself” was joyous and bopping, followed by a string of additional titles from the upcoming project.

Grooving to the tunes were Jon Freeman, John Hamlin, Susan Stewart, Sherod Robertson, Steve Buchanan, Shane Tarleton, Lisa Ray, Leslie Fram, Beville Dunkerley, Brittany Shaffer, Ann Powers, Alicia Warwick, Chuck Aly, Tom Roland, Wes Vause, Jewly Hight, Cris Lacy, Frank Tanki and R.J. Curtis.

One particular delight was Dan + Shay’s merry riffing on an improvised ditty with the theme of “Drinkin’ Wine at Espo’s,” which was what we were doing, after all.

“This is a special place for us,” said Shay of their label chief’s elegant, 101-year-old manse. “This is awesome.”

Then label chief presented Dan + Shay with Gold Record plaques for “How Not To” as a climax of the eve.

“This is the year for Dan + Shay,” said John Esposito. “They are superstars in waiting.”