Music News (9/30/15)

Lionel Richie. Photo: Alan Silfen

Lionel Richie has signed a global publishing agreement with Kobalt Music Publishing, Inc. The pop star found Platinum success in country music with Tuskegee, a 2012 duets album with artists like Blake Shelton, Darius Rucker and Shania Twain.

Richie will begin a Las Vegas residency on April 27, 2016, inside The AXIS at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. He has also been named the 2016 MusiCares Person of the Year.

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Pictured (L-R): Ralph Murphy (ASCAP), Lew Garrison (Garrisongs 1-4-5), Matthew Becket (Beckett Law), Kelly Donley (Safford Motley, PLC), Jack Williams, Beth Brinker (ASCAP), Lynn Gann (LGME!), Michael Martin (ASCAP) & Mike Sistad (ASCAP).

Jack Williams has signed a songwriter agreement with Lynn Gann Music Enterprises (LGME!) in conjunction with Garrisongs 1-4-5. Williams’ recent cuts include “Back on a Dirt Road” by Montgomery Gentry, as well as recordings by Kevin Costner & Modern West, Aaron Pritchett, Kendra Kay and Rivertown Saints.

Williams signed his first songwriting contract in 1976. His credits include cuts by Gregg Allman, Blackfoot, Uriah Heep and Molly Hatchet. The Oak Ridge Boys and Steve Earle have also recorded Williams’ material.

With 27 years of publishing experience, Gann opened LGME! in 2014. Garrisongs 1-4-5 is the music publishing entity of Birmingham, Ala.-based songwriter/attorney Lew Garrison.

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Pictured (L-R): Chris Alderman, Rough Hollow Entertainment; Mark Brown, VP/GM Round Hill; Marcus Kiser; Josh Saxe, Creative Director Round Hill; Neil Gillis, President Round Hill, Braeden Roundtree, WME

Round Hill Music has signed a publishing deal with Marcus Kiser.

Kiser is the frontman of Old Southern Moonshine Revival who has spent the last 10 years in Nashville. Booked by WME and signed to Rough Hollow Entertainment management, the band’s current single, “Waste Another Beer,” is currently in the Top 20 on SiriusXM’s The Highway Countdown. Their latest EP, Can You Feel It Now, was produced by Danny Myrick (“Truck Yeah,” “International Harvester,” “She’s Country”).

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Pictured (L-R): back: Gilles Godard (ole, VP Corporate Affairs and Development), Shellien Kinsey (ole, Creative Coordinator), Mike Whelan (ole, Sr. Director, Creative), Emily Mueller (ole, Creative Manager), and Ben Strain (ole, Creative Director). Front: Jeremy Stover (ole songwriter), Adam Hambrick, and John Ozier (ole, GM, Creative).

ole and Jeremy Stover‘s Red Creative Group have signed a worldwide publishing deal with newcoming country singer/songwriter Adam Hambrick. Under the deal, ole will handle global co-publishing for Hambrick’s future copyrights.

Raised in Corinth, MS, and now based in Nashville, Hambrick released his first album, Fighting from the Ground, in late 2010. The following year, he caught the ear of Stover when Justin Moore recommended him. This led to the duet “Old Habits,” which Moore recorded with Miranda Lambert and featured on Moore’s 2013 album Off the Beaten Path. Stover then co-produced Hambrick’s most recent album, Wheels or Wings, with Andrew DeRoberts.

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The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has announced the line-up of songwriters that will make up the ASCAP Guidance from Publishers for Songwriters (GPS) Project LIVE at The Basement on Monday, Sept. 28, beginning at 5 p.m.

Now in its fifth year, the GPS Project aims to display unsigned writers to the Nashville publishing community. Throughout the project, songwriters are paired with publishers for one meeting a month along with a follow-up for critiquing and networking. Additional special activities this year have included a songwriters camp and various networking opportunities.

The 2015 ASCAP GPS Project kicked off in January and will continue through the end of the year.

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Judy McDonough

W Publishing Group has hired veteran publicist Judy McDonough as Director of Publicity. She started in her new role Sept. 15.

Prior to her work with W Publishing, McDonough ran independent PR firm JEMMedia for seven years. Before JEMMedia, she was a publicist at Capitol Nashville, working with Keith Urban, Eric Church, Lady Antebellum, Garth Brooks, Darius Rucker, and more.

W Publishing Group is a non-fiction imprint of Thomas Nelson.