Industry Ink (1/17/14)

Don Murry Grubbs. Photo by Factory Photography / Goldy Locks

Nashville entertainment PR firm Absolute Publicity is celebrating its 5th anniversary since originally launching in January 2009. Company president Don Murry Grubbs started the firm five years ago and has gone on to represent several Country music clients.

“Pam Tillis was my first client,” said Grubbs. “I am forever grateful to Pam for giving a young kid a shot. Without Pam, I don’t know that others would have taken notice. I owe her a few lunches. I’m still working on those!”

The company currently represents Ricky Skaggs, Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers, Charley Pride, Mel Tillis, Restless Heart, The Marshall Tucker Band, Ray Stevens, Sammy Kershaw, The Bellamy Brothers, Billy Dean, and WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler.

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The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum set an all-time attendance record in 2013, museum officials announced. The 2013 attendance total of 668,777 people is the largest in the institution’s 46-year history.

“We would like to thank our local, national and international visitors for such strong support,” said Museum Director Kyle Young. “Through November 2013, our operating revenues increased by about 25 percent over prior year, we held expenses in check, and we expect those numbers to hold through December 2013. In these challenging economic times, we don’t take this for granted.”

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Amateur and experienced musicians have the opportunity to win a $15,000 recording package at Dark Horse Recording studios in Franklin, Tenn. The winning artist or band will receive five days of studio recording time with a professional engineer and five days of mixing and mastering to create a complete six-song EP. The prize also includes lodging, a professional photo shoot, and graphic design services to create an album cover. Participants can enter at darkhorseinstitute.com.

Artists who have recorded at Dark Horse include Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Hunter Hayes, Matchbox Twenty, and The Fray.

To enter, contest participants upload a video of a song performance to the Dark Horse Institute website. Submissions are accepted until February 23. Qualified entries will then be posted on the company’s website for public voting until March 16. The three videos with the highest number of votes as well as one “wild card” submission chosen by the staff at Dark Horse Institute then move to compete against one another for the final round of voting which ends March 31. The winner will be announced on April 1.

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SESAC and Leadership Music, in cooperation with Metro Nashville Public Schools, have organized a “Songwriting Day” on Jan. 21 at SESAC for approximately 18-20 students from Pearl-Cohn High School and Nashville School of the Arts. Students will learn the “Business of Songwriting” from songwriter Brian White. White earned SESAC’s Country Song of the Year for penning Rodney Atkins‘ “Watching You.” He has more than 300 cuts to his credit, including writing for Trace Adkins, Gary Allan, Terri Clark, Point of Grace, Mandisa, Selah, Avalon and more.

The sessions will include information on copyrights, licensing, royalties, and writer-publisher relations. SESAC president Pat Collins will be on hand to welcome the group.