Industry Pics: ‘Nashville Songwriter,’ Island Hopper Songwriters Fest, SOLID

Some of Music Row’s biggest hit-writers of the past 30 years came out to 3rd & Lindsley Bar & Grill to celebrate the release of Nashville Songwriter: The Inside Stories Behind Country Music’s Greatest Hits, featuring those writers’ life stories and how they inspired the tens-of-dozens of hits between them that followed. The release is the 36th book from Jake Brown, available nationwide from BenBella Books.

Pictured (L-R): Jeff Silbar, Craig Wiseman, author Jake Brown with arm around Freddy Powers and Catherine Powers. Standing (L-R): Neil Thrasher, Sonny Curtis, Bob DiPiero and Kelley Lovelace. Photo: Kindell Moore

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BMI, iHeartMedia, and the Lee County, Fla. Visitors and Convention Bureau presented the first Island Hopper Songwriters Fest during Sept. 26-28, and Oct. 3-5 on Captiva Island, and Fort Myers Beach, which featured more than 50 songwriters, including Kristian Bush of Sugarland, Loving Mary, and Stoney Creek Records duo Thompson Square. The events featured more than 85 shows and 20 BMI-licensed venues.

Pictured (L-R): Cat Country 107.1 Program Director Mike Tyler, Lee County Visitors and Convention Bureau Director of Marketing Laura Chmielewski, Thompson Square’s Shawna Thompson and Keifer Thompson, BMI’s Dan Spears, and Market President of iHeartMedia Southwest Florida Sherri Griswold. Photo credit: Courtesy of BMI.

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SOLID held their fourth General Assembly meeting of the year Tuesday night (Oct. 7) at City Winery in Nashville. John Marks, Sirius XM Senior Director of Country Programming, was the guest speaker. Marks spoke to the SOLID membership on a number of subjects including the role radio plays in music discovery and the listener’s power as a consumer.

Pictured (L-R): Eric Wright, SOLID Secretary; Alex Luebbert, SOLID Education Committee Chair; Marks; Michelle Tigard Kammerer, SOLID Vice President; Stefany Reed, SOLID Education Committee Co-Chair