News Archive
Alison Brown has built a career pushing the boundaries of what people typically think the banjo is capable of. The GRAMMY-winning artist’s genre-bending approach to the five-string banjo draws from jazz, world music, and classical as much as bluegrass, resulting in a style that is uniquely hers. Brown recently released…
Duets and Featured Artists: The Hot Trend in Recordings
It would be hard to look at a list of current hit songs without noticing a trend: the growing use of featured artists. A featured artist is one who makes a guest appearance on another artist’s recording to create a collaboration. What’s the difference between a duet and a song…
BMI Mourns the Loss of Texas Outlaws Shaver, Walker and Bush
BMI is saddened by the passing of three Outlaw-Country pioneers, Billy Joe Shaver, Jerry Jeff Walker and Johnny Bush. Shaver was the writer of some of country music’s greatest songs, including “Honky Tonk Heroes,” “Georgia on a Fast Train,” “Old Five and Dimers Like Me,” and “Live Forever.” Along with…
Tips for Writing Songs About Anything…But Love
At my BMI Nashville Songwriters’ Workshops, I screen and critique songs from each attendee. When I find songs that I believe are competitive with those being written by today’s top hitmakers, I forward them to ten music publishers who have agreed to listen. After the last BMI Workshop, I forwarded…
John Frizzell Tackles an Animated Version of Three Chords and the Truth in “Tales From the Tour Bus”
Every country music fan knows that there are more than a few tales about country stars that sound almost too unbelievable to be true. These stories work extremely well with the film genre of animated documentary, which is exactly what it sounds like: an animated version of the truth. What…
BMI Luminaries Nile Rodgers and Chip Taylor to be Inducted in Songwriters Hall of Fame
BMI congratulates its affiliates Nile Rodgers, Chip Taylor, Seymour Stein and Nick Jonas, who are being celebrated at this year’s induction ceremony for the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Established in 1969, the Songwriters Hall of Fame serves as the bridge between music’s past and present, honoring the contributions…
Shooter Jennings Recalls George Jones With Tribute EP
Paying homage to the late George Jones comes easily to Shooter Jennings, who as a child became friends with George through his parents, BMI legends Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, who had a close friendship with “the Possum.” Shooter remembers vividly when Jones invited him to his tour bus, cut…
BMI Mourns the Loss of Tompall Glaser
Country singer, publisher, studio owner and longtime Broadcast Music, Inc. member Tompall Glaser passed away Tuesday, August 13, 2013, at the age of 79. A pioneer of the outlaw movement alongside Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson, Glaser rebelled against commercial, formulaic country and opened his own publishing company…
10 Questions: Marty Stuart
Traditional country music has no greater ambassador than Marty Stuart. Whether using his acclaimed RFD-TV show, The Marty Stuart Show, as a platform for the music’s best practitioners, or sending his vast collection of country memorabilia on the road, so that fans can get a tangible sense of the music’s…
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,…