Tube Time: Dolly Parton, Luke Bryan, More

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Luke Bryan and Jay Leno

Luke Bryan made his debut appearance on The Tonight Show last Tuesday, May 11, where he performed his new single, “Rain Is A Good Thing.”
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Dolly Parton rounded up her friends and fellow celebrities for a Hallmark Channel original special marking the 25th anniversary of her Dollywood theme park. Dolly Celebrates 25 Years of Dollywood will air Friday, July 3 (7 p.m. CT) and includes a musical tribute taped at the park in Pigeon Forge, TN featuring Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Kenny Rogers. The special also includes toasts from Faith Hill, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, and others.

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Joe Nichols will perform his three-week No. 1 hit “Gimmie That Girl” tonight (5/18) on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Next week (5/25), he will join the ladies of The View for a chat and performance.
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Catch Wynonna tomorrow (6/19) on CBS’s I Get That A Lot, a show about celebrities tricking everyday citizens in a supposed case of “mistaken identity.” Wynonna is shown working in a tire shop.

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Chely Wright has scored one of the most coveted spots on television, a sit-down with Oprah, where she will discuss coming out. She will appear on tomorrow’s (5/19) episode along with rocker Bret Michaels who will talk about his near-fatal brain hemorrhage.

John Grady Exits Borman Entertainment

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John Grady will leave his post at Borman Entertainment Nashville, it was announced today.

“For all of you looking for a juicy story, you will have to make one up,” says Grady said. “I have learned more from Gary and his staff at Borman Entertainment than I could ever have imagined. It’s simply time for me to apply my skills to other areas of my life and career. As for Keith, Lady A, and Randy Montana, I am the lucky one to have ever been in the same room with all of you.”

Gary Borman adds, “John has made valuable contributions to our company and I look forward to the opportunity to work together again in some capacity.  I wish him only the best in his new endeavors and I hope to continue our friendship well into the future.”

Grady started in the music business 34 years ago as a college rep for A&M Records and more recently served as president of DMZ Music, Columbia Nashville, Epic Nashville and Monument Nashville. Before joining Borman Entertainment in February, 2009, Grady was a partner in Redlight Management. He currently sits on the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Board of Directors and is the Academy of Country Music’s Chairman of the Board.

John Grady can be reached at: (615) 438-7557 and [email protected].

Kellie Pickler’s Summer Plans

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BNA Records artist Kellie Pickler will get summer started by hosting Westwood One’s America’s Opry Weekend Summer Kick-Off Special on Memorial Day weekend. Pickler will spin tunes about sunshine and summertime, several of them live cuts from the Opry stage.

Among the songs listeners will hear are her own “Best Days of Your Life,” Brad Paisley’s “Water”; “American Honey” from Lady Antebellum; “Til Summer Comes Around” by Keith Urban and Kenny Chesney’s “When the Sun Goes Down.”

Programmers interested in the special should contact Westwood One (212-641-2012) or [email protected]. America’s Opry Weekend presents country music’s most popular songs including  performances from the Opry stage plus top artist interviews, news from Nashville, and more each week.  The show, which launched in May 2003, is serviced by Westwood One and heard on the American Forces Radio Network.

In other Pickler news, GAC will air the world premiere of the video for the singer’s new single, “Makin’ Me Fall In Love Again.” Great American Country (GAC) will air the world premiere of “Makin’ Me Fall in Love Again,” on Top 20 Country Countdown this Friday, May 14 at 7:00 PM CT.  The single is from her self-titled sophomore LP.
 
Shot in Los Angeles, Pickler once again teamed with award-winning director Roman White for the clip that illustrates the singer’s support of the USO.  Passionate about the organization that supports men and women in the military, Pickler has done three USO tours with plans for a fourth in the works.

“Thanks to her amazing fans, Kellie’s spent more than 30 weeks on our Top 20 chart,”  said GAC SVP of Programming, Sarah Trahern.  “It’s fitting that we offer her fans their very first peek at her next hit video.”

Pickler will also perform on Sunday’s Music City Keep on Playin’ – A Benefit for Flood Relief live concert and telethon event at the Ryman Auditorium, airing live on GAC at 7:00 PM CT.

Holidays Drive Sales For Week Ended 5-9-10

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According to Nielsen SoundScan, the week ended 5-9-2010 saw country sales jump 12% from the previous seven days thanks to the Mother’s Day holiday, a new Zac Brown Band live offering (26k) and the Courtyard Hounds debut (61k). Country debuts usually boast a digital percentage of 20% or less, but ZBB fans downloaded 43% of those 26k sales!

The Hounds, whose members include two thirds of the Dixie Chicks, were not admitted to SoundScan’s country sales list, but iTunes seemed quite comfortable highlighting the project in its country area and giving it strong visibility.

Lady Antebellum continued to pace the pack staying on top of the Current Country Top 75 with 97k units, a jump of 28%. Other Top Ten CDs enjoying a holiday surge were newly engaged Miranda Lambert (No. 4;+27%; 23k), Carrie Underwood (No. 5; +32%; 19k), Taylor Swift (No. 6; +14%; 16k), Lady Antebellum’s debut CD (No. 7; +32%; 12k), and Alan Jackson (No. 9; +22%; 10k).

Digital country tracks showed few surprises with Lady A., Miranda and ZBB getting many of the downloads. Jaron and the Long Road to Love’s “Pray For You,” however climbed from No. 4 to No. 3 getting over 37k downloads for the week. Other’s in the Top Ten include Joe Nichols, Luke Bryan, Uncle Kracker and Jerrod Niemann all of whom downloaded from 20-25k units for the week.

The industry overall was up 11% offering a bouquet of new releases designed to attract holiday shoppers—in fact, half of the Top 20 all genre Current Albums contained new debuts. Country YTD sales remain off from last year 3.9%, however, digital country album sales are up 25.6%. Last year at this time the percentage of country album sales that were digital downloads was 6.5%. This year the number has risen to 7% of the approximately 13.8 million country units sold YTD.

Guitar Center Launches “Operation High Ground” Flood Relief

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In direct response to the devastation from the recent floods in Nashville, musical instrument retailer Guitar Center has launched a dedicated initiative titled Operation High Ground for Nashville Flood Relief, to help musicians, songwriters, recording studios and audio professionals re-build their lives. The goal of the program is to help Nashville’s music community get back on its feet as quickly as possible to keep the music going in Music City. Guitar Center’s President, Greg Trojan, made the announcement.

As the events of May 1 unfolded, Guitar Center management was kept apprised of the Nashville storm situation as the unprecedented floods destroyed several communities. Immediately, the company began to formulate a strategy to take advantage of its extensive resources, both locally and nationally, and put into place a comprehensive, multi-tiered plan that addresses the various musical instrument and professional audio needs of the flood victims.

Key elements of Operation High Ground include the following:

• Dedicated team specialists from both Guitar Center and GC Pro are on the ground in Nashville to interface with and advise flood victims on the best way to either repair or replace their musical instruments and recording gear as quickly as possible.

• Guitar Center has mobilized its distribution network to capitalize on the nearby Indianapolis warehouse, to ensure that if a replacement instrument, recording product or piece of audio equipment is not in stock in Nashville, it will be expedited to arrive as quickly as possible.

• A special toll-free Tennessee direct hotline (877-687-5405) to the High Ground Emergency Team has been established for customers who have experienced catastrophic loss. Callers can use this number to get rush access to musical gear purchases, along with personalized priority shipment and delivery logistics.

• Guitar Center is partnering with MusiCares® to assist the Nashville area music community by providing emergency financial assistance to help those affected get through this crisis. Donations can be made here or at any of Guitar Center’s 214 stores.

• TimePayment Corporation, an equipment leasing provider, is working with Guitar Center and GC Pro to develop a lease offering that will help the victims of the floods replace their equipment.

• Guitar Center has partnered with local Nashville FM radio station 104.5, The Zone, to help musicians rebuild their devastated communities. Beginning in May, for a six-week period, 104.5 will be holding live broadcasts from storm-damaged areas. Guitar Center representatives will be on-site to evaluate damaged gear and provide advice and assistance.

• Guitar Center has also partnered with local Nashville FM radio station 103 WKDF and 3rd and Lindsley to host a charity country music show titled Putting The Music Back in Music City. The show will be broadcast nationwide, and listeners will be solicited for donations to aid flood victims. Guitar Center will donate guitars that will be signed by the various performing artists and give one lucky listener in each market a signed guitar for donating to this event.

“Nashville has the greatest concentration of musicians, recording studios and audio professionals anywhere in the world,” says GC Pro Director Rick Plushner. “The entire community has banded together to rebuild Music City, and Guitar Center and GC Pro are proud to be a resource for those players and studios that have suffered a loss. We look forward to helping everyone get back on their feet and keeping the music alive in Nashville.”

Keith Urban Rocks “Jimmy Fallon”

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Keith Urban closed out Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last night (5/11) with a barn-burning version of the Rolling Stones’ classic, “Tumbling Dice.” Joining Urban and his band on Hammond B3 was Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell, with producer/pianist Tony Brown pounding the keys and stellar background vocals provided by Sarah Buxton and Little Big Town’s Kimberly Roads and Karen Fairchild. Urban even gave Nashville a big, post-flood shout-out. It was great. Check it out here.

CMT Award Noms., A Word From Pres. Brian Philips

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The final nominees for the 2010 CMT Music Awards will be revealed tomorrow (5/11) morning exclusively on People.com starting at 8 AM/CT. Mercury recording artist Laura Bell Bundy and CMT’s Evan Farmer will do the honors. And more nominations will be announced later in the day on CMT.com. The top nominees in all categories, except Video of the Year, will be posted on People.com, along with a video featuring Bundy and Farmer making the official announcement. Fans will be able to vote online at CMT.com through June 8 to determine the winners.

Hosted by Kid Rock, the 2010 CMT Music Awards will air live on Wednesday, June 9 and will feature performances from Toby Keith, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban, with more to be announced.

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An update from CMT Pres. Brian Philips:

Greetings from 330 Commerce Street, where I am delighted to say that power has been restored and our CMT team is back!  As were many of our downtown business partners, CMT was without power all last week.  Fortunately, through remote operations, we were able to keep CMT on the air and on schedule, in 90 million homes, throughout the disaster.

Many of you have kindly asked how CMT was affected by the floods: Most importantly, all CMT/MTVN Nashville employees are safe and accounted for, although a few of our families suffered widespread damage and loss to their homes.  In addition to CMT’s downtown power loss, which affected every aspect of our production, we experienced extensive damage to our warehouse facilities, including the loss of state-of-the-art television production vehicles.

We’ve always known the people of Tennessee to be extraordinarily caring, but their strength and generous spirit during this difficult time has been inspiring to witness.  It was rewarding to see CNN and other national media pick up on this theme, and use it to define Tennessee to the world.  Our hearts are with all in our area who continue to suffer hardship.

Like many of you this past week, our staffers have volunteered tirelessly with Hands On Nashville to begin helping people restore lives.  As a network, CMT has directed viewers on-air and online to give donations via CMT One Country to organizations which will help Tennessee rebuild.

We’ve decided that the single greatest contribution that we, as an organization, can make to the city of Nashville is the bold continuation of plans for the 2010 CMT MUSIC AWARDS.  Broadcasting live from the Bridgestone Arena on June 9, the Awards Show, coinciding with the CMA Music Fest, will provide a national platform for Nashville and the music community to demonstrate its recovery and celebrate its resilience.  These days will also bring in much needed commerce to help the city get back on its feet. We’re also developing other plans to support ongoing relief and recovery, more Awards Show-related news to follow soon.

Although CMT seemingly remained unchanged, broadcasting last week with no interruption, we were indeed immeasurably changed by the surging waters which affected Music City and neighboring communities.  We’ve never been prouder to live in the ‘Volunteer State’.  We look forward to showing off our amazing city and getting back to what we do best — throwing the best live music party in town, this June. Hope to see you there!

Thanks, BP
Brian Philips| CMT | President |

Van Fletcher Joins Chasin

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Van Fletcher

Longtime industry executive Van Fletcher is on board as President of a new company, Chasin Music Group.

Founded by John Acunto and Gary Hohman, Chasin’s first initiative is the Chasin Hits mobile phone music application, being developed and distributed by seasoned mobile services company Handmark.

The Chasin Hits application will be available to all mobile service providers and works on any mobile platform. Chasin Hits offers a proprietary interface that is designed for easy content management and updates, it offers targeted demographic gathering and reporting, combined social networking capabilities, sales reporting and more.

Chasin Music Group will have its primary offices in New York and Nashville as well as satellite offices in other cities to be announced.

Fletcher, who most recently spent eight years as Sr. VP of Sales and Operations at Universal Records South, is an equity partner in Chasin. Prior to his post at Universal, he was Exec. VP & GM at Virgin Records and Sr. VP of Sales and Branch Distribution for Polygram. Fletcher can be reached at [email protected].

ZBB/Ram Trucks Launch ‘Letters for Lyrics’ 

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The Ram Truck Brand, in partnership with Zac Brown Band, has kicked off Letters for Lyrics, a national letter-writing campaign targeted to U.S. soldiers. The goal for the Ram Truck Brand and Zac Brown Band is to send 1 million letters to U.S. troops deployed around the world.

In exchange for writing a letter to a U.S. soldier, participants will receive a special compilation CD titled, Breaking Southern Ground. This exclusive CD features three all-new songs from Zac Brown Band, as well as music from artists signed to Zac Brown’s label, Southern Ground Records – Sonia Leigh, Nic Cowan and Levi Lowrey.

“The Ram Truck Brand is grateful for the commitment and courage that U.S. soldiers give to this country each day,” said Fred Diaz, President and CEO, Ram Truck Brand. “Our company has been steadfast in its support of America’s armed services; we know these letters will help brighten a soldier’s day. We encourage our employees, suppliers and our customers to visit a local Ram Truck dealership to write or drop off a letter for these soldiers who protect our right to freedom.”

“We’ve had several opportunities to perform for the troops over the past year and each time we were deeply inspired by their positive attitudes and dedication to protecting our country and preserving our way of life,” said Zac Brown. “We were so moved that we knew we needed to recognize their efforts in a big way. Our hope is that by combining our experience overseas, our music, and the good people at Ram Truck Brand, we will be able to rally a movement of support for our brave service members abroad.”

Darren Doane, the CMT nominated director of Zac Brown Band’s live Pass the Jar DVD and their music video for the #1 hit “Toes,” traveled with the band to the Persian Gulf to document the moving experience – capturing footage of the band performing for the troops and meeting individually with the men and women in uniform. Bringing the experience home, Doane has constructed several mini-documentary style videos which will be posted to RamTrucks.com starting today and updated throughout the coming weeks.

Letters will be collected at Zac Brown Band concerts and all U.S. Ram Truck dealerships. People interested in writing a letter can visit any Ram Truck dealership where special Letters for Lyrics stationery will be provided.

Soldiers’ Angels, a nonprofit organization, will deliver the letters on behalf of the Zac Brown Band and the Ram Truck Brand. Soldiers’ Angels is a volunteer-led organization with over 225,000 members providing aid and comfort to the men and women of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, along with veterans and their families.
The Letters for Lyrics campaign is part of an integrated marketing campaign for the 2010 Ram Heavy Duty and is supported with broadcast, print, digital and social media efforts that will run concurrently.

Amy Willis Opens Amy Willis PR

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Veteran publicist Amy Willis has announced the launch of her own company, Amy Willis Public Relations. Willis’ extensive experience include time at Wortman Works Media & Marketing, Hallmark Direction Company, Stringtown Records, Sony Music and Spring Hill Music Group.

As the business launches, Amy Willis Publicity’s clients include Star City Recording Company and country artists Brady Seals and Nathan Lee Jackson. Willis is also working events for Bullying Hurts, an organization that educates children and their parents on how to deal with bullying.

Willis can now be reached at:

Amy Willis Public Relations
PO Box 2221
Mount Juliet, TN 37121
Ph: (615) 453-5625
Cell:  (615) 319-9756
Fx:  (615) 349-3584
[email protected]
www.amywillispr.com