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Articles by Country Music Association®
July 27, 2010
By Tim Ghianni
The art of selecting the sequence of cuts on an album may seem to be vanishing in an age when downloading singles is the rage. But just don´t tell that to Rory Feek or David Nail.
In 2009, each of the two singer/songwriters issued what many would group among the more i...
October 27, 2009
By Bob Doerschuk and Maria Eckhardt
The music industry can seem like a labyrinth. Destinations are clear, but the paths toward them are prone to run head-on, double back and, too often, terminate in dead ends.
CMA Industry InSite offers a roadmap through this tangled terrain. Developed by...
October 27, 2009
By Kip Kirby
Tanya Tucker doesn´t intimidate easily. Since unleashing "Delta Dawn" at 13, she has stared down plenty of challenges. Still, when offered the opportunity to record an album of vault-enshrined Country classics, this two-time CMA Awards winner hesitated.
The problem wasn&acut...
September 09, 2009
BRAD PAISLEY LEADS FINALISTS WITH SIX NOMINATIONS FOR "THE 43rd ANNUAL CMA AWARDS," COUNTRY MUSIC'S BIGGEST NIGHT
Zac Brown, Jamey Johnson, George Strait, Taylor Swift, and Keith Urban Receive Four Nominations Each; Fresh Faces in Nearly Every Category Including Entertainer, Male, Group, Duo, and A...
September 08, 2009
By Tim Ghianni
The blonde with the face that carries the delicate features of her grandfather likes to drop in to check out the goods in her upscale Nashville boutique, where boots that were dragged by a truck through Italian dirt go for $1,200-plus.
"I love it," said Holly Williams, granddaug...
September 04, 2009
By Kip Kirby
Dierks Bentley: up 96 percent annually for the past four years. Keith Urban: up 170 percent in his first year. Brooks & Dunn: up more than 500 percent in 18 months. Kenny Chesney: from 3,000 to 30,000 in less than 18 months. Lady Antebellum: a 10 percent increase every month sinc...
September 04, 2009
By Ken Tucker
What started as a way to make sure favorite artists didn't slip by unnoticed has turned into a powerful information tool for fans and artists.
Launched in 2004, San Diego-based Eventful was conceived by founder and Board Chairman Brian Dear, a veteran of eBay and RealNetworks...
September 04, 2009
By Bobby Reed
Anyone who has studied Marketing 101 knows that music can help sell a brand, and a brand can help sell music. That´s a simple truth. What´s not so simple is the task of researching, constructing and strategically activating a sponsorship deal that will benefit the recording act ...
September 04, 2009
By Bob Doerschuk
If you can make your past come alive through music, then you´ve got a gift that will serve you well. In this department, Justin Moore is amply blessed.
Case in point: Though written by Randy Houser and Jeremy Stover, Moore´s first single, "Back That Thing Up," conjures ho...
August 17, 2009
By Ken Tucker
What started as a way to make sure favorite artists didn't slip by unnoticed has turned into a powerful information tool for fans and artists.
Launched in 2004, San Diego-based Eventful was conceived by founder and Board Chairman Brian Dear, a veteran of eBay and RealNetworks...
August 03, 2009
Popular Series will feature Kellie Pickler in Los Angeles And Lee Ann Womack in Chicago.
NASHVILLE - The wildly popular CMA Songwriters Series, which has played to sell-out crowds in New York City for the past five years, will be hitting the road this Fall with a show in Los Angeles on Tuesd...
August 03, 2009
By Bob Doerschuk and Wendy Pearl
The sights that open up on your screen are either comfortably familiar or enticingly just out of reach. You recognize these citadels of history up and down Music Row, in which deals have been made, classic albums recorded and opportunities for the next genera...
August 03, 2009
By Bob Doerschuk and Wendy Pearl
The opening of "The Art of Artist Management" might seem a little strange - a tropical forest, a burning sun overhead, exotic bird chirps in the distance. But it all becomes clear just a few moments into this second installment of CMA's educational Web series...
July 22, 2009
By Bob Doerschuk and Maria Eckhardt
Launched in 2005, the CMA Songwriters Series has become a popular recurring event at Joe's Pub in New York City. The fifth year of this successful run kicked off March 19, as the latest all-star assembly showcased some of the best recent songs to emanate from M...
July 22, 2009
By Vernell Hackett
When Eric Church wanted to leave college to pursue music, his dad made him an offer he couldn't refuse. "He told me if I'd graduate from college, he would pay for my first six months living expenses in Nashville," the North Carolina native recalled. "I graduated with a degree i...
April 16, 2009
By Bob Doerschuk and Scott Stem
On March 4, at the annual CMA Artist Relations Luncheon during Country Radio Seminar (CRS), CMA CEO Tammy Genovese unveiled a check for $1,011,294, representing the organization's latest donation to Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) for music education. Thi...
April 02, 2009
It's a nightmare scenario for any artist: You've just launched your concert or radio promo tour. Your schedule is packed with on-air interviews and onstage shows, with lots of highway time in between.
Then somewhere far from home, you feel a tickle in your throat. And you know that you'll soon b...
April 02, 2009
By Scott Stem
Beginning with the 2010 ballots, new categories and procedures will be in effect for election to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Approved by the CMA Board during its February meetings in Orlando, Fla., these changes begin with new names and criteria for the three categories thro...
April 02, 2009
By Scott Stem
Taylor Swift surprised Australian radio personality John Bond of 2KA Cool Country with the CMA International Country Broadcaster Award. Bond was backstage at CMC Rocks the Snowys Festival in Thredbo, NSW, Australia when Swift and CMA Board member Rob Potts, CEO Rob Potts Entertainme...
April 02, 2009
By Scott Stem
Recording and/or Touring Musician Active Prior to 1980
"All I ever wanted to do was play with the great people in this Hall. And now, to be joined with them, this is an honor way beyond my wildest dreams." - Charlie McCoy (excerpt from remarks at Feb. 4 press conference)
Cha...
April 02, 2009
By Scott Stem
Career Achieved National Prominence between 1975 and the Present.
"I am eternally grateful to be joining those honored in the Hall of Fame who I admire and hold in the highest esteem. I thank God for my blessings every day because I realize how very fortunate I am to have such ...
April 02, 2009
By Scott Stem
Career Achieved National Prominence between World War II and 1975.
"So many dear friends are members of the Country Music Hall of Fame. It makes me so proud that somehow, in some way, you have found it fit for me to become part of this fraternity." - Roy Clark (excerpt from rem...
April 02, 2009
By Maria Eckhardt
Debuting in 2005, the CMA Songwriters Series at Joe's Pub has become one of New York City's most popular and intimate nights of music. Due to popular demand, the series is back for a fifth year to showcase some of Nashville's renowned songwriters.
"Knowing what a treasure our...
April 02, 2009
By Alice Berlow
Legions of beer can chickens stood at attention on the biggest, blackest and most extreme-looking grill you've ever seen. That wafting smell of sizzling birds cooking up all the juice from cheap beer steam and charcoal smoke was sweet and strong enough to dispel even the heaviest d...
March 12, 2009
By Randy Rudder
When multi-tracking became popular in the 1960s, it made a strong and immediate impression on recording pop music. There were many reasons why this practice of recording tracks individually caught on, not the least of them the belief that controlling the music at a more detail...
March 02, 2009
By Tim Ghianni
On Jan. 9 and 10, the fourth annual Sprint Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust proved as much family reunion as festival, with fans and stars of Country Music and NASCAR gathered in the heart of Music City. In addition to providing world-class Country entertainment, this eve...
March 02, 2009
Mitch Joel's message was short, if not exactly sweet.
"Great artists always win when they go places other artists have not," the podcast guru proclaims as part of his pitch to get onboard the podcasting express before it leaves the station.
And for those who harbor doubts about working this on...
March 02, 2009
By Vernell Hackett
The key to moving a former pop or rock singer into the Country market seemed pretty straightforward to the record label folks who had engineered that transition for Darius Rucker and Jessica Simpson.
It was as simple as it was essential: Both singers truly love Country ...
January 12, 2009
By Tim Ghianni
While some artists famously can't wait to get on the road again, last summer's rapid ascent of fuel prices sparked some quick adjustments just to keep the music on the move. Even headliners felt the pinch: Big paydays kept the fuel crisis from slowing them down, but profits wer...
January 12, 2009
By Bob Doerschuk and Scott Stem
Conceived to help language arts and music instructors teach the basics of writing song lyrics, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's "Words & Music" program has received an $1 million endowment from CMA. The check was presented in September during festivitie...
October 29, 2008
By Dawn Fisher
Bucky Covington made radio's elite very happy on the morning of Oct. 10 when he called the 2008 CMA Broadcast Awards winners on the stations' studio lines to inform them of their victory.
"I see the hard work these Country radio stations do day in and day out," said Covington. ...
October 29, 2008
By Maurice Miner
He's the reigning Male Vocalist; she's the reigning Female Vocalist. They both won their first CMA Awards trophies as new artists honored with the Horizon Award. In the course of his decade-long chart career, he's become one of the most-nominated artists in the history of the CM...
September 29, 2008
By Bob Doerschuk and Scott Stem
When Bucky Covington and Chuck Wicks, two of Country Music's brightest young stars, are assigned to announce the CMA Broadcast Award nominees, one thing is sure: Their performance will entertain as much as it informs.
Seconds after taking their positions be...
September 20, 2008
By Vernell Hackett
Keith Anderson is living his dreams. It wasn't all that long ago that the Oklahoma native was working the Dallas club circuit with his band and dreaming of having a record deal. But Aug. 5, Anderson followed his debut album, the Gold-certified Three Chord Country and American R...
August 25, 2008
By Randy Rudder
Celebrities have consistently scored big endorsement deals, but Michael Jackson's arrangement with Pepsi in the early 1980s lifted the practice to an unprecedented level of income potential. Alabama, Garth Brooks, Brooks & Dunn, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Randy Travis and Shani...
July 15, 2008
By Bob Doerschuk and Scott Stem
In separate presentations during March, CMA honored three recipients with awards to commemorate their contributions to Country Music outside of the United States.
The 2007 Wesley Rose International Media Achievement Award was presented to Alan Cackett, Edi...
July 02, 2008
By Vernell Hackett
Jewel fell in love with words at an early age. It's a love affair that continues today. "I was fascinated by words and how more can be said than what is in the actual words," the singer/songwriter said. "Being raised in such a remote region, reading was a source of entertainmen...
June 25, 2008
By Vernell Hackett
Jewel fell in love with words at an early age. It's a love affair that continues today. "I was fascinated by words and how more can be said than what is in the actual words," the singer/songwriter said. "Being raised in such a remote region, reading was a source of entertainmen...
March 26, 2008
For young singers from around the world who dream of building careers in performing, the Music City Rising Star Youth Vocal Competition is an ideal place to start.
Two of the inaugural competition's outstanding performers were Avery Hovey, 16, of Portland, Tenn., the Champion as well as win...
March 20, 2008
By Randy Rudder
The motto of the Nashville Songwriters Association International lays out the truth in plain language: "It all begins with a song."
But how does that song get to where it needs to go to be heard?
The unsung hero behind these questions is the songplugger - the middleman whose...
March 20, 2008
By Crystal Caviness
What brought John Hamlin, a veteran producer for CBS News' award-winning show, "60 Minutes," to Nashville was dinner.
After hearing that Hamlin had some programming ideas, Bob Kusbit, Head of Development at Country Music Television (CMT), invited him to talk it over at a r...