Music News 6/23/11

Roger Murrah

Murrah To Exit Bug Music
Roger Murrah will officially leave his post as Sr. VP of Bug Music when his contract with the publishing company ends in August. The publishing vet came on board with Bug in February 2009, overseeing the Nashville office and reporting directly to Los Angeles-based CEO John Rudolph.

At that time, Bug Music acquired a portion of Murrah’s independent publishing company, Murrah Music, and its associated catalogs. Today, Roger Murrah reportedly retains ownership of the publishing house he founded in 1990. He says, “I’m putting no limitations on the possibilities ahead.”

Murrah is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and was honored as BMI’s Songwriter of the Decade for the ’90s. His credits include Alan Jackson’s “Don’t Rock The Jukebox,” Al Jarreau’s “We’re In This Love Together,” Alabama’s “I’m In A Hurry (And Don’t Know Why),” and Waylon Jennings’s album, A Man Called Hoss. He can be contacted at roger.murrah@nashville.net.

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Rhett Akins Re-Ups with EMI
Riding high with a string of hits and two rising singles, songwriter Rhett Akins has extended his relationship with EMI Music Publishing. Under terms of the new co-publishing deal, EMI Music will continue to represent Akins’ future work and catalogue of songs which includes the No. 1s “All About Tonight” (performed by Blake Shelton), “Gimme That Girl” (Joe Nichols) and “All Over Me” (Josh Turner).

Akins, who first joined EMI six years ago, is a co-writer on the latest singles from Shelton (“Honey Bee”) and Rodney Atkins (“Take A Back Road”). “I want to thank my EMI family, co-writers, and music partners for giving me the opportunity to create music and live my dream,” he said.

Since moving to Nashville more than 15 years ago, Akins has had hits as a recording artist with “That Ain’t My Truck” and “She Said Yes.” He was named one of Billboard‘s top five country songwriters in 2010, and his songs have collectively sold more than 2.5 million digital downloads. His other hits as a writer include “Farmer’s Daughter” (Rodney Atkins), “Put A Girl In It” (Brooks & Dunn) and “The Shape I’m In” (Joe Nichols). EMI Music Publishing’s current Nashville hit-making writers include Dallas Davidson, Alan Jackson, Chris Young, Kelley Lovelace, and Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott.

(L-R): EMI's Tom Luteran, BMI's Jody Williams, EMI's Laura Wright, Rhett's son Thomas Rhett Akins, Rhett Akins, BMI's Leslie Roberts, EMI's Ben Vaughn, BMI's Clay Bradley, daughter Kasey Lee Akins, EMI's Josh Van Valkenburg, BMI's Beth Laird, EMI's Missy Wilson and BMI's Mark Mason

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Angel Snow Inks With Bug Music
Bug Music recently signed songwriter Angel Snow. She has three cuts on the deluxe edition of Alison Krauss and Union Station‘s new album, Paper Airplanes. Snow is also set to open for the band during their two-night stand at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Aug. 26-27. In between dates on her current headlining tour and recording a new album, Snow has been busy co-writing.

(L-R): Bug Music VP John Allen, songwriter Angel Snow, attorney Tyler Middleton

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Ten Ten Welcomes Scott Stepakoff
Ten Ten Music Group has signed up and coming songwriter Scott Stepakoff. He is a co-writer on the debut single from MCA artist Kip Moore, “Mary Was The Marrying Kind.” Stepakoff penned the track with Moore and Dan Couch.

(L-R): Ten Ten co-Pres. Jewel Coburn, songwriter Scott Stepakoff, Creative Director Daniel Lee, and co-Pres. Barry Coburn

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Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Nominees Announced
Five artists and ten songwriters are among the 2011 nominees named by the Nashville Songwriters Foundation for induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In the Songwriter/Artist category, nominees are Garth Brooks, Larry Gatlin, Amy Grant, Alan Jackson and Townes Van Zandt. In the Songwriter category, nominees are John Bettis, Robert Byrne, J.J. Cale, Jan Crutchfield, Mark James, Dan Penn, Gretchen Peters, Thom Schuyler, Allen Shamblin and John Scott Sherrill.

“This is an amazing group of songwriters and songwriter/artists,” said John Van Mol, chair of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Foundation (NaSHOF), which owns and administers the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.  “Every one of them is extremely worthy of induction, and it is our honor to place each of their names in nomination.”

Songs penned by the nominees include “Top of the World” by The Carpenters/Lynn Anderson (Bettis), “Two Dozen Roses” by Shenandoah (Byrne), “Cocaine” by Eric Clapton (Cale), “Statue of a Fool” by Jack Greene/Brian Collins/Ricky Van Shelton (Crutchfield), “Suspicious Minds” by Elvis Presley (James), “The Dark End of the Street” by James Carr/Archie Campbell & Lorene Mann (Penn), ”Independence Day” by Martina McBride (Peters), “16th Avenue” by Lacy J. Dalton (Schuyler), “I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt (Shamblin), “Nothin’ But the Wheel” by Patty Loveless (Sherrill).

Songwriter/Artist nominees had numerous successes writing their own material, including “Unanswered Prayers” (Brooks), “Broken Lady” (Gatlin), “Every Heartbeat” (Grant), “Chattahoochee” (Jackson), “Pancho and Lefty” (Van Zandt).

Two songwriters and one Songwriter/Artist will be inducted at the NaSHOF’s annual Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction Ceremony Saturday, October 16 at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel.