Author Archive: Sarah Skates
Sarah Skates has worked in the music business for more than a decade and is a longtime contributor to MusicRow.
Country Christmas Special Is Fun, Festive
Last night’s CMA Country Christmas special on ABC offered viewers a spirited show to ring in the holiday season. The 90-minute special drew a second place finish for ABC, according to overnight ratings from Zap2it.com. Beginning in the 9:30 PM/ET half-hour, the show attracted 7.2 million viewers, and increased to 7.4 million for the 10 […]
Hummon Inks With Warner/Chappell
Warner/Chappell Music has signed a worldwide co-publishing agreement with hit songwriter Marcus Hummon. He is behind hits and cuts for Rascal Flatts, Garth Brooks, Dixie Chicks, Brooks & Dunn, Tim McGraw, Wynonna Judd, Sara Evans, Alabama, Lee Ann Womack and more. His co-write “Bless the Broken Road” (Rascal Flatts) won the 2006 Grammy for Best […]
Category: Featured, Publishing
On-set With Charlie Louvin, Daisy Mallory, Jason Sturgeon
Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie Louvin recently filmed his first music video, and recruited bluegrass legend Del McCoury to appear in it. The song “Weapon Of Prayer” is from Louvin’s True North Records debut album The Battles Rage On. The video was directed by Christian Moriarty. •••••• FrontWater Records artist Daisy Mallory completed the […]
Extreme/Watsky Debut Country Music Production Library
Extreme Music has partnered with Watsky Music to form Stampede, a country music production library geared toward film and television licensing. Watsky is headed by Jonathan Watkins and Dennis Matkosky. Among the songwriters on board with Stampede are Matksoky, Travis Howard, and Ty Lacy. Lacy and Matkosy are co-writers of hits for Keith Urban (“You’ll […]
Category: Featured, Publishing
SOLID Flag Football; ACM Stage At National Finals Rodeo
SOLID joined forces with the Nashville Sports Leagues and 12 music industry companies to collect more than 4,000 nonperishable food items for Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, and raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The one-day co-ed flag football tournament known as the Turkey Bowl was won by Show Dog – […]
Keith Urban, Garth Brooks Visit Oprah
Keith Urban’s debut on the Oprah Winfrey show airs today (11/29). He and wife Nicole Kidman sit down with the daytime diva and he performs latest single, “Put You In A Song,” from his new album Get Closer. See the video of the performance here. Urban spent Thanksgiving Day playing the half-time show of the […]
John Esposito’s Sister Janis Hitchings Passes
Condolences to Warner Music Nashville Pres. and CEO John Esposito and his family on the passing of his sister Janis Hitchings last week. She had been battling cancer. Funeral services were held today, Nov. 29, at Church Of The Annunciation in Paris, Kentucky. Memorial donations can sent to: St Mary’s School Scholarship Fund St Mary’s […]
“CMA Country Christmas” Airs Tonight
CMA is using funny viral videos to promote tonight’s (11/29) Christmas special on ABC. Marketers visited JibJab.com and dropped in the faces of show performers Martina McBride, Darius Rucker and members of Rascal Flatts. See the clips here and here. Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland hosts CMA Country Christmas, with performances by Sheryl Crow, Little Big […]
Swift’s TV Special Showcases New Album
Taylor Swift’s Speak Now television special aired on Thanksgiving night (11/25), drawing 4.4 million viewers to NBC during the 8 PM/ET block (according to Zap2it.com). It came in fourth place among the major networks, with first going to Fox’s NFL game, which ran-over into the 8 PM time slot. Swift’s hour-long special was built around […]
Memorial For Songwriter Linda Hargrove
A memorial service for songwriter Linda Hargrove will be held Wednesday, Dec. 8, from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Douglas Corner Cafe (2106 8th Ave. S.). She died Sunday, Oct. 24. Hargrove was one of the few female session guitar players in Nashville in the ’70s. She also recorded for three major labels (Elektra, […]
Category: Featured
Weekend Shopping Up Slightly
Early reports from consumer marketing research company the NPD Group show that more people made purchases during the recent Thanksgiving holiday weekend than last year. The number of survey respondents that reported making a purchase, whether in a store or online, is up almost 7 percent over last year. Almost 45 percent told NPD that […]
Category: Featured, Sales/Marketing
