Jerry Lee Lewis appears in...
Remembering Liz Anderson, 1930-2011

Longtime BMI songwriter Liz Anderson has died. She was 81. The writer behind Merle Haggard’s “(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers” and “Just Between the Two of Us,” which Haggard recorded with Bonnie Owens, Anderson also penned songs for Jerry Lee Lewis, Del Reeves, Roy Drusky, Waylon Jennings, and others, including her daughter, Lynn Anderson, whose career gathered…
BMI, Galaxie Agency & Nashville Blues Society Celebrate Life & Work of Motown Legend Barrett Strong

On Sunday, August 28 at B.B. King’s Blues Club in Nashville, Galaxie Agency, BMI and the Nashville Blues Society will partner to celebrate the life and work of the incomparable soul songwriter Barrett Strong, with all proceeds going directly to Strong to offset care and medical bills. Featuring performances by John Ford Coley, Sarah Buxton, Nick Nixon, Jimmy…
Gregg Allman: The Long Rider

Gregg Allman is no stranger to the blues. As singer, songwriter, and organ player for the Allman Brothers Band, he has taken them about as far as they have ever gone. As skeletal 12-string Piedmont finger-picking stretches into swirling chromatic rhapsodies of improvisation, his Hammond B-3 sloshes against thundering double drummers and dueling Les Pauls howling through 100-watt Marshalls. The sound conjures electric ghosts…
“Memphis Beat,” Reborn: Keb’ Mo’, Dickey Lee & Allen Reynolds Win BMI Film/TV Awards

Keb’ Mo’ had two big reasons to smile during a recent visit to BMI’s Nashville offices. The acclaimed blues slinger earned BMI Film/TV Awards—one for composing the original theme and background music for brand new series Mike & Molly, and the other for his role in the music for TNT’s new crime drama Memphis Beat. The Memphis Beat music’s back story is further proof that a…
Jerry Lee Lewis, Great Ball of Fire

Against all conceivable odds, expectations, predictions, rumors, gossip and reason, Jerry Lee Lewis is 75 years old. He still sounds like he could hit the key of a piano with his pinky harder than most men could hit it with their right fist. His legacy—a smoldering trail of mayhem and masterpieces that stretches from here to Ferriday, Louisiana—was forged with the scorching barrelhouse piano and Pentecostal brimstone…
Waylon Payne Walks the Line

Waylon Payne is hitting Nashville early on a hot July morning. He’s driving a new, used gold Mercedes Benz and he needs a shave and a shower and a couple cups of coffee. He’s been up late seeing old friends, which by his own admission is not a wise decision. He’s up, though, nursing a root beer. “I’m trying,” he sighs. It isn’t easy. Payne’s had more…
Sweet Dreams: Roy Orbison and the Birth of the Pop Masterpiece

BMI legend Roy Orbison - rock & roll's greatest singer, a crooning rockabilly Caruso who brought opera's high drama to the malt shop jukebox, broke the hearts of bobbysoxers, and pioneered the three-minute pop masterpiece - started out in a dust-covered oven called Wink. He was a West Texas sensation by the time he was 17, playing to crowds as big as 10,000 in 100 degree heat…
Fats Domino: Rock & Roll Royalty Revisited

Fats Domino’s signature dancehall piano playing and drawling tales of love made him Elvis’s top rival during the dawn of rock & roll. When pressed, Fats softly declares undying admiration for Presley. “I like Elvis myself,” Domino says over the phone from his New Orleans residence. “So does everybody.” With a humble air that warmly wraps around each of his concessions, Fats says he was simply “lucky”…
BMI Songwriter/Artists Sweep Blues Awards

BMI songwriters made a clean sweep of the 2007 Blues Music Awards, winning in every category. To date, BMI songwriters have won 95% of these awards, the highest recognition of excellence in the blues community, given out by the Blues Foundation. The event was held on May 10th at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tennessee before an enthusiastic crowd. In addition to the awards ceremony, more than25 performances…
Charlie Musselwhite Leads List of BMI Blues Awards Noms
BMI blues artists once again dominated the nominees list for the Blues Music Awards, set for May 10 at the Cook Convention Center in downtown Memphis. Presented by the Blues Foundation and co-sponsored by BMI, the Blues Music Awards, formerly known as the W.C. Handy Awards, celebrate excellence in the performance and recording of the blues and is the highest honor bestowed upon artists in the genre.…
