Music News (8/5/15)

Billy Sherrill

Country Music Hall of Fame member Billy Sherrill passed away Aug. 4 at age 78.

As a record producer, his name is on some of the most iconic singles ever created on Music Row — Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man,” George Jones’s “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” Charlie Rich’s “Behind Closed Doors,” Johnny Paycheck’s “Take This Job and Shove It” and Tanya Tucker’s “Delta Dawn” among them. As a songwriter, Sherrill earned BMI Awards for 52 of his compositions. His contributions to the country repertoire include “Too Far Gone,” “My Elusive Dreams,” “Til I Can Make It On My Own,” “The Most Beautiful Girl,” “Soul Song” and “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad,” as well as “Stand By Your Man.”

His co-written “Almost Persuaded” and “A Very Special Love Song” both won Best Country Song Grammy Awards. “Til I Can Make It On My Own” and “The Most Beautiful Girl” were both CMA Song of the Year winners. He cowrote 18 songs that became No. 1 country hits and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984. As a record executive, he headed the Nashville office of CBS (Columbia and Epic Records) and discovered Wynette, Tucker, Barbara Mandrell, Lacy J. Dalton and Shelby Lynne.

He retired from the record business around 1990 and was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2008, and two years later, he entered the Country Music Hall of Fame.

•••

Johnny Slate.

John Thomas Slate passed away on Friday, July 24 at age 77, following a battle with cancer. He had a multifaceted music career in Nashville, making his mark as a songwriter, publisher, producer and manager for more than 40 years, known for such BMI award-winning songs as “Better Love Next Time” (Dr. Hook, 1979) and “Blaze of Glory” (Kenny Rogers, 1982), plus the Razzy Bailey hits “Friends” (1981), “I Keep Coming Back” (1981), “Loving Up a Storm” (1980) and “Tonight She’s Gonna Love Me (Like There Was No Tomorrow)” (1979).

He also cowrote the Joe Diffie hit “Next Thing Smokin’” (1992), The Younger Brothers’ “Nothing But the Radio On” (1982), Joe Sun’s “Shotgun Rider” (1980) and Eddy Arnold’s “Don’t Look Now (But We Just Fell in Love)” (1981).

•••

The Johnny Cash Museum is hosting a new Songwriters Night in its cafe. Twice every month, writers and musicians will be invited to play at the museum.

The first event is free to the public. More information on this and future shows can be found here.

•••

According to Billboard, multiple sources have confirmed the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has notified BMI and ASCAP (the two regulated, domestic performance right organizations) that “split work” songs — songs written by multiple writers — may be licensed 100 percent by any rights holder.

“In other words, the long-established industry practice of each rights owner greenlighting their particular portion of a song in order to establish a license — also known as fractional licensing — may no longer be allowed,” said Ed Christman in his piece for the trade publication. “As of now, a music licensee has to go to all rights owners to get a license. That’s why so many synchronizations don’t happen: because all songwriters and publishers have to sign off on a song’s use. With the possible change, it would only need one rights holder to sign off.”

These changes are pending review and approval by ASCAP and BMI rate court judges. So for now, the DoJ is simply notifying and seeking feedback from affected parties.

•••

Top Row (L-R): BBR’s Colton McGee and Jon Loba; Magic Mustang’s Juli Newton-Griffith; Almon & McPike’s Orville Almon. Bottom (L-R): BBR’s Benny Brown; Vicky McGehee

BBR Music Group has announced  the signing of songwriter Vicky McGehee to its Magic Mustang Music publishing roster, administered by Warner/Chappell. McGehee was named MusicRow’s Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year in 2006 and BMI’s Songwriter of the Year in 2007.

She co-wrote the Grammy award winning song “Like We Never Loved At All” (Faith Hill feat. Tim McGraw) and also penned Jason Aldean’s “Hicktown,” “Johnny Cash,” and her first No. 1 song “Why.” McGehee scored No. 1 hits with “How Country Feels” (Randy Houser) and “God Love Her” (Toby Keith). She co-wrote Craig Campbell’s current single “Tomorrow Tonight” and “Holy Water” for Big & Rich, in addition to 14 songs on Gretchen Wilson’s first three albums.

McGehee has earned eleven Top 50 Played Songs of the Year awards from BMI and received eight BMI Millionaire Awards. Over the course of her career, McGehee has earned several CMA, ACM and CMT Award nominations.

She joins a publishing roster including Jason Aldean, Kurt Allison, Steve Bogard, Westin Davis, Brooke Eden, Lindsay Ell, David Fanning, Rob Hatch, Tully Kennedy, Justin Lantz, Dave Pittenger, Thompson Square, Justin Wilson, Craig Campbell and Jason Vanover.