Admission: $15

In fitting tribute, an elite slew of artists contributed performances of Pop Stoneman-popularized songs: Cowboy Jack Clement delivered "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues," Jim Lauderdale, along with help from the Jordanaires, sang "Are You Washed in the Blood," Old Crow Medicine Show provided "Tell Mother I Will Meet Her" and a group featuring Clement and Stoneman's three surviving daughters Donna Stoneman, Patsy Stoneman Murphy and Roni Stoneman performed Stoneman's influential classic, "The Titanic."

Former BMI President & CEO and Country Music Hall of Fame member Frances Preston presented Stoneman's Hall of Fame medallion to his family. Before draping the award around the neck of his eldest daughter Patsy, Preston said, "Ernest Stoneman had a lifelong motto, 'Don't quit.' And he didn't. Tonight, Pop Stoneman's perseverance is being rewarded."

From his earliest days as a roaring 20's crossover sensation to his leadership of the award-winning Stoneman Family ensemble, Ernest "Pop" Stoneman embodies the term "pioneer." In the early 1920s, his performance of self-penned "The Titanic" charted at No. 3 on both the Billboard and Variety charts and remained there for 10 weeks. One of the first country records to sell more than one million copies, the song became one of the biggest hits of the decade. Stoneman's keen eye for talent in Bristol, Tennessee, led to the landmark Bristol recording sessions. Considered one of the most seminal events in country music by many historians, the Bristol recording sessions introduced artists including Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family to the nation. Throughout the 40s, 50s and 60s, Pop Stoneman focused on the popular bluegrass, bucolic musical concoction of The Stoneman Family band. Made up of his wife Hattie and many of their 13 adult children, the group debuted on the Grand Ole Opry in 1962, and in 1967, The Stoneman Family earned the first ever CMA Vocal Group of the Year award. Ernest "Pop" Stoneman recorded, composed and performed well into his mid 70s.

For more on Pop Stoneman's remarkable life, click here.

Photo Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame ® & Museum

The BMI Country Awards turned a spry 55 years old as they were held tonight, Tuesday, Nov. 6, at the performing right organization's Music Row offices in Nashville. Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) - the first home for country music - was also the first U.S. organization to honor the genre's songwriters and publishers with their own awards show in 1953. BMI President & CEO Del Bryant and Jody Williams, Vice President of Writer/Publisher Relations, Nashville, hosted the black-tie ceremony toasting the writers and publishers of the past year's 50 most-performed country songs in the BMI repertoire.

2007 BMI Country Awards: Award Winning Songs

Jeffrey Steele received his second Country Songwriter of the Year title, while his poignant composition "What Hurts The Most" earned the coveted Song of the Year crown. Sony/ATV Music Publishing Nashville snagged Publisher of the Year bragging rights for the sixth consecutive year, and a tribute to Willie Nelson recognized the newest BMI Icon's unifying music and humble dignity.

"What Hurts The Most," co-written by Jeffrey Steele and published by Gottahaveable Music and Bug Music/Songs of Windswept, landed the 39th Robert J. Burton Award, presented to the most performed country song of the year. Recorded by crossover titans Rascal Flatts, the nostalgic ballad earned a slew of accolades including two Grammy nominations, and became the group's fifth no. 1 single.

Nashville's best-selling artists have come to rely on 2007 Country Songwriter of the Year Jeffrey Steele's uncanny hitmaking prowess. Steele secured his first Country Songwriter of the Year win in 2003, and has spent the past four years enriching his bejeweled catalog, which includes five of this year's most performed songs: Rascal Flatts' "My Wish," "Me and My Gang," and "What Hurts the Most," Steve Holy's "Brand New Girlfriend" and Keith Anderson's "Every Time I Hear Your Name."

With 17 songs among this year's top 50, Sony/ATV Music Publishing Nashville (through its companies Sony/ATV Acuff Rose, Sony/ATV Songs LLC, Sony/ATV Melody and Sony/ATV Tree) picked up its sixth consecutive Publisher of the Year win. The publishing powerhouse accumulated the highest percentage of copyright ownership thanks to award songs including "Give It Away," "Would You Go With Me," "Every Mile A Memory," "Tim McGraw" and "Kerosene."

The capstone of the evening took the form of the Icon tribute to beloved legend Willie Nelson, featuring performances by fellow pioneers Kris Kristofferson and Emmylou Harris, along with contemporary country trendsetters Toby Keith, Josh Turner and Keith Urban. Willie Nelson's ascendance to internationally-renowned treasure is a singular path marked by self-belief and musical brilliance. As a BMI Icon, Nelson will perhaps be recognized most for his songwriting, which has long enraptured the entire world. His love of the offbeat and heedlessness of conventional time signatures have made Nelson an innovative and inimitable guitarist. As a singer, his deft phrasing and naked sincerity are irresistible. A romantic aesthete, Willie Nelson makes all that he touches beautiful. The Texas native's "Crazy," "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground," "Funny How Time Slips Away," "On the Road Again" and "Good Hearted Woman" merely skim the surface of a catalog stacked with unvarnished classics. Famous for his ceaseless touring, Nelson is an untiring philanthropist and humanitarian, most visibly through Willie-coined events including Farm Aid.

The 2007 BMI Country Awards also honored hit songwriters Brett Beavers, Rodney Clawson, Jamey Johnson, Tony Martin, Bill Anderson, Steve Bogard, Scotty Emerick, Toby Keith, Wayne Kirkpatrick, Bobby Pinson and the Warren Brothers, who each supplied two or more songs to the top 50 list.

Publishers EMI Blackwood Music, Inc; Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.; Jeffrey Steele Music Group; Bug Music/Songs of Windswept; Universal Music Publishing Group; Big Gassed Hitties; Brett Beavers Music Group; Gold Watch Music; Music of Stage Three and StyleSonic Music each took home three or more awards.

Space is limited. Please RSVP to rsvp@bmi.com with subject header: Cliff Demo.

About Cliff Goldmacher: He has recorded and produced over forty album projects and worked with artists from Emmylou Harris to Chris Barron of the Spin Doctors. Cliff has also served as a staff songwriter for Wrensong Music Publishing and has recorded hundreds of demos for major and independent publishers in both Nashville and New York.

Frances W. Preston has come a long way since her position as receptionist at WSM radio station, which she left in 1958 to open a southern regional office of Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) in Nashville. There Preston issued performing rights licenses for songwriters and music publishers, and she quickly led BMI to a position of preeminence in the south. In 1964, the year the BMI building opened on Music Row, Preston became a Vice President. Quickly moving up the ranks, she served as President and CEO of BMI from 1986 to 2004, during which time the company’s revenue more than tripled to over $673 million. Under her leadership, BMI enjoyed a consistent record of increasing revenues and royalty distributions to its more than 300,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. She has been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and a Trustees Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Recording Academy, the President’s Award from the Nashville Songwriters Association International, the President's Award from the National Music Publishers' Association, and the City of Hope "Spirit of Life" Award. She has twice received a Humanitarian Award from the International Achievement in Arts Awards in New York. Photos highlighting Frances Preston’s prolific career can be enjoyed above.

In a career that has spanned nearly five decades, and with millions of records sold, The Crickets are unquestionably "The American Rock and Roll Band." The group was formed in 1957 in Lubbock, Texas by Buddy Holly, J. I. Allison, Niki Sullivan and Joe B. Mauldin. After Sullivan and Holly left the group, Sonny Curtis joined to form the ever-popular trio. Their hits "That’ll Be the Day," "Peggy Sue," "Maybe Baby" and "I Fought the Law" are rock classics considered by many to be primary lessons in how rock music should be written and played. In the mid '70s, the three moved to Tennessee where they continued their long association with Waylon Jennings and began touring and recording with him. Their latest release, The Crickets and Their Buddies, was partly recorded in Nashville and features Eric Clapton, Rodney Crowell, Nanci Griffith, Waylon Jennings and John Prine, to name a few. This induction is a fitting tribute to a band who literally defined rock and roll music, and who today, after 50 years, continues to set the standard of excellence by which it should be judged.

John Hiatt wrote his first top-40 hit, "Sure as I'm Sitting Here," while working as a songwriter for Tree Music Publishing in Nashville. The song was covered by Three Dog Night, and in 1974 the band took the song to No. 16 on the Billboard chart. Since then, Hiatt's songs have been recorded by a number of artists including Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffet and Rosanne Cash, to name a few. Hiatt has released 18 studio albums and two live albums, and he has been nominated for 11 Grammy Awards. His 1987 hit "Have a Little Faith in Me" brought him national attention and was covered by several artists, with the most notable versions being recorded by Jewel, Mandy Moore and Joe Cocker. Hiatt has written and recorded duets with respected vocalists like Bonnie Raitt ("Thing Called Love"), Emmylou Harris ("Icy Blue Heart"), Rosanne Cash ("The Way We Make a Broken Heart"), Suzy Boggus ("Drive South") and B.B. King & Eric Clapton ("Riding with the King"). A musician's musician, Hiatt has proven to everyone that he has what it takes to be an all-around great singer/songwriter.

Created in the fall of 2006, the Music City Walk of Fame on Nashville's Music Mile will be a landmark tribute to those from all genres of music who have made significant contributions to preserving the musical heritage of Nashville and have contributed to the world through song or other industry collaboration.

Permanent sidewalk medallions made of stainless steel and terrazzo, with each honoree's name displayed in a star-and-guitar design, will be installed in the sidewalk along the Music Mile, the roughly one-mile stretch of Demonbreun Street from 4th Avenue South to the Music Row Roundabout at 16th Avenue South. The plaques for this class of inductees will be inlaid in Hall of Fame Park on Demonbreun, between 4th and 5th Avenues South.

About the Music City Walk of Fame The Music City Walk of Fame is an official project of Music City, Inc., the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau's 501(c)(3) foundation; Sandra Fulton, chair. The Music City Walk of Fame is produced with the support of Gibson Guitar, Great American Country, the City of Nashville and Metro Parks.

Entitled These Days, each disc within the box set features Gill employing a different method of attack: funky soul, moody jazz, bluegrass/Americana and, of course, rootsy honky-tonk. Critics have salivated over the compilation, and despite its recent release in October of 2006, the set has already been certified platinum and garnered Gill his 35th Grammy nomination. That’s resounding applause for the humble singer/guitarist, who is generally regarded not only as one of the most talented artists in Nashville, but one of the town’s nicest guys as well.

The characters, virtuosos and storyteller guests on These Days are big — really big — and cross genre and generation. Emmylou Harris, Diana Krall, Guy Clark, Alison Krauss, Phil Everly, Lee Ann Womack, John Anderson, The Del McCoury Band, LeAnn Rimes and Bonnie Raitt color the jaw-dropping list. Good friend and fellow Notorious Cherry Bomb Rodney Crowell, wife Amy Grant and daughter Jenny also make for sublime collaborators.

Vince Gill’s path to country stardom started in Norman, Okla. His father, a judge by trade, played the banjo and guitar; Vince followed suit, picking up not only the guitar, but the mandolin, fiddle, dobro and bass as well. He dove into bluegrass, playing in one band during his high school days and another after graduation in Louisville, Ky. Positions in the bands of torch-carrying innovators like Ricky Skaggs, Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris helped lay Gill’s solid foundation.

After three well-received albums for RCA in the ’80s, Vince switched labels to work with longtime friend Tony Brown. His Brown-produced, MCA debut, When I Call Your Name, made Gill a star, earning the crooner his first Grammy. Simple numbers may help tell part of the story: 16 albums, 17 Grammys and multiple BMI Million-Air and Country awards are scattered throughout his career, illustrating his longevity in a music world sometimes eager to move on.

Gill’s sheer strength as a songwriter, producer, vocalist and instrumentalist tells the rest of his story. Throughout commercial successes and decades, he somehow remains staunchly true to his roots, yet artistically exciting and experimental. It’s been four long years since Vince Gill’s last album, and These Days temporarily satisfies music lovers’ seemingly inexhaustible desire for more, firmly solidifying Gill’s place among the giants of any genre.

Born in a small town in West Virginia’s Eastern panhandle and raised in Round Hill, Va., Stephanie grew up with a geographic and demographic backdrop as eclectic as her father’s music tastes. She spent her childhood in the country, literally playing in cow pastures with her siblings, and grew up to earn two degrees, write for various publications, and work in the Pentagon. At the same time she was exposed to Broadway musicals and Frank Sinatra, Stephanie learned from her father to love bluegrass, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. It only makes sense that this amalgamation of influence, both in music and in life, would lead to a writer whose songs appeal to a wide audience. Proof of this are two different yet equally-respected artists who have recorded Stephanie’s songs, Bonnie Raitt and Trisha Yearwood. 

Though Stephanie counts her happy childhood as fodder for many of the songs she writes, the road to writing songs about the human conditions of love, loss and heartache was not always smooth. A few months into her sophomore year of college, Stephanie was hit by a car while walking to campus and suffered a severely broken leg which she almost lost. While the outcome could have been much worse, Stephanie says the accident that literally knocked her off her feet changed her life. “There are people who’ve been through so much more, but for a small moment in my life I really thought I was going to die. I’ve always been sensitive to the world around me, but from then on I found myself acutely aware of the beauty and sadness in our world. Everyone deals with emotions and events in a different way; I am lucky to get to write songs about them.”

In a world where there can often be more bad news than good, the need for beautiful music is great. Stephanie’s songs seem increasingly poignant and somehow find a balance between sorrowful and uplifting; as if to say that first we recognize hardships and then we find the good in them. The voice that shares this message is uplifting too. Stephanie’s voice is reminiscent of Linda Ronstadt and her songwriting style recalls Rodney Crowell. Having shared a stage with legends like Merle Haggard and Ricky Skaggs, Stephanie’s music has thrived equally among rowdy, loyal Merle fans and the scrutinizing ears of bluegrass lovers, once again proving the constant appeal of touching lyrics sung beautifully. 

Stephanie calls East Nashville home and lives with her producer/guitarist husband Nathan Chapman. She continues to write songs for herself and others and at Jody Williams Music. 

http://www.stephaniechapman.com

True, his hair and beard have long gone gray, and his singing voice is grittier than ever. But when he's on stage now, in his black work shirt with its tails hanging over his black denim pants, accompanying himself solo on guitar and harmonica, he's never looked or sounded better.

Indeed, ladies more than half his age still shriek when he eases into "Help Me Make it Through the Night," the Sammi Smith country crossover pop hit from 1971 — the same year Janis Joplin made Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee" a posthumous No. 1.

And based on his latest album, This Old Road, Kristofferson is also more musically alive and lyrically vital than ever, too. His first studio set of new songs since 1995's A Moment of Forever (likewise produced by Don Was) not only continues the singular mix of personal and political work that virtually redefined the practice of songwriting in Nashville in the 1960s (for which he has been justly rewarded with inductions into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame), but brings him up-to-date: "I want nothing but the endin' of the war," he sings in "In the News." On "Wild American," he singles out personal heroes like Steve Earle and Native American activist John Trudell while declaring, "When they burn your brother down in the name of freedom/I don't care if it's left or right/It's wrong."

Of course, Kristofferson himself has long ago achieved hero status, both as singer/songwriter and humanitarian. This stature has now been further certified with the release of The Pilgrim: A Celebration of Kris Kristofferson, a 17-track compilation of classic Kristofferson songs sung by Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash and Shooter Jennings, among others.

Meanwhile, his movie stardom, which commenced in the 1970s with hits like Barbra Streisand's A Star is Born, maintains full throttle with key roles in films like last year's The Jacket with Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley. And after a hiatus from concert performing, he has returned to the road to find adoring audiences hanging on every word, be it song lyric or off-the-cuff commentary.

"I'm not going to dazzle you with fireworks," he acknowledged at a nevertheless electrifying recent acoustic show, fittingly held at New York's Ethical Culture Center. He followed with the typically Kristoffersonian wisdom of "Heart" and its closing line, "The heart is all that matters in the end."

As none other than former BMI President Frances Preston once said, "You really have to see Kris Kristofferson every time you can. He sings the truth."]]> 2006-06-12T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/334842 Artists, Harris, Emmylou, Juanes, Molotov, Nelson, Willie, Santaolalla, Gustavo, Musical Styles, Film-TV, Musicworld, Feature Noted composer Gustavo Santaolalla said when he first got the script to the Oscar-winning movie Brokeback Mountain, he saw it as a romantic tale.

“I always saw it as a story of love. I compared what was different or similar to a traditional love story. These personalities get married, have families, and it just never really hit me as a gay movie,” Santaolalla said in a recent interview.

Santaolalla won the Oscar for Best Original Score for Brokeback Mountain. “It was a universal movie that happened to have a moment in the movie where there was a relationship between two men. But I think it's not a movie that was meant for a community. I think it really has the universal thing and at the end of the day, it has meaning for all of us.

“I don't think it matters what religion or genre you are. At the end of the day, even though we may all be different, we're all very similar and there is a common thread which unites us and that is love, solitude, and pain.”

The film stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal and Randy Quaid.

The soundtrack for Brokeback Mountain, which was produced by Santaolalla, won a Golden Globe for “A Love That Will Never Grow Old.”

Latin alternative fans will recognize Santaolalla from his production work on Juanes, Molotov, Julieta Venegas and Café Tacuba.

He has also won the BAFTA Award for his original score on the film Motorcycle Diaries and the Flanders Film Festival's best original score in Belgium for his work on 21 Grams. He also scored North Country and the critically acclaimed Amores Perros.

The Brokeback Mountain soundtrack also features tunes by Emmylou Harris, Mary McBride, Rufus Wainwright, Linda Ronstadt, Steve Earle and Willie Nelson.

Working on rock artists may seem quite a bit different than working on movie soundtracks, but Santaolalla says it's still all about getting to know the artists, or in this case, the film director, on what they hope to accomplish.

“In movies, I have been lucky to work with big name directors — Gonzalez Iñárritu, Walter Salles, Niki Caro and Ang Lee,” Santaolalla said from his Los Angeles office. “These are talented directors who have big stories to tell and they tell it very well. “So what you don't want to do with the music is interrupt the storyline in any way. The music is simply a backdrop over the story and the personalities.”]]> 2006-06-12T18:00:00-05:00