BMI will have an incredible presence at SXSW 2017, featuring Ryan Adams at the Moody Theater, our Latin music showcase, our brand new YETI/BMI Day Party, the AT&T Fiber Acoustic Brunch and BMI’s Howdy Texas Party, all showcasing the best and brightest acts.
6-8 pm, Stubbs BBQ, 801 Red River Street
This is a private event, admission by invitation only
Valerie June knows a thing or two about turning hopes and dreams into realities. With Pushin' Against A Stone, she went from self-releasing her music as Tennessee's best kept secret to being hailed by the New York Times as one of America's “most intriguing, fully formed new talents." The New Yorker was captivated by her "unique, stunning voice," while Rolling Stone dubbed her "unstoppable," and NPR called her "an elemental talent born with the ability to rearrange the clouds themselves." She astonished TV audiences from coast-to-coast with spellbinding performances on The Tonight Show, The Late Show, Austin City Limits, Rachael Ray, and CBS Saturday Morning, and graced some of the world's most prestigious stages, from Carnegie Hall to the Kennedy Center. When it came time to record the follow-up, June felt liberated by the success, fearless and more confident than ever in trusting her instincts and following her muse. The result is an eclectic blend of folk, soul, country, R&B and blues that makes The Order Of Time undoubtedly the finest work of her career.
The Spirit Moves is Langhorne Slim’s newest collection of his now-signature, cinematic, joyful noise. Out on Dualtone Record, the album marks his second with rock-solid band The Law, and the highly anticipated follow-up to 2012’s critically acclaimed The Way We Move. Produced by Langhorne, The Law, and trusted cohort Kenny Siegal, the record was recorded with engineer Andrija Tokic at his East Nashville studio, the Bomb Shelter. A stunning portrait of Langhorne’s life in transition, The Spirit Moves offers beautiful glimpses of bold beginnings and risks taken, creating an ode not only to a better life, but to the vulnerability needed to live it. “By opening myself, I’m vulnerable and I’m fearful, but I start to get real. And in that realness, there is immense strength that I wish for everybody,” Langhorne says. “Maybe everybody’s scared to be a freak. But when you live as a freak––” he laughs––“it’s so much more fulfilling.”
With his new album, Ron Pope & The Nighthawks, Pope delivers music that is “affectionately-crafted and Americana-drenched; soaked in the country rooted-musicianship of the southern states” according to Chart Shaker. Co-produced by Pope and GRAMMY winner Ted Young (The Rolling Stones, Kurt Vile, Grace Potter), the band’s new LP showcases giant down home sing-alongs drenched in gorgeous church pew harmonies, New Orleans brothel horns, and Georgia firework slide guitar solos. It is distinctly American rock music that manages to feel inexorably tied to its past while remaining unquestionably contemporary and vibrant. On this record, you’ll find love and sex, fear and hope, pain and pleasure and hopelessness mixed with boundless optimism in a way that only notable song crafting like Pope’s can provide.
YETI Office, 220 South Congress Avenue, 2:00-6:00 pm
This is a private event, admission by invitation only
Dan Luke and The Raid is the sonically bipolar brainchild of frontman and songwriter Daniel Lucas Shultz. Growing up in a house full of musicians, at a young age Shultz developed a restless sense of urgency that he would later use to his advantage. Determined not to let opportunity slip, Shultz joined as many bands as he could as a teenager. Most weekends he threw underage house shows or played whatever local bar would let him in, but occasionally his hardwork would pay off and by age 20 he’d played Lollapallooza, and had the opportunity to open for the likes of Twin Peaks, The Growlers, and Peter Hook and The Light. Crafting raw, emotional rock songs with a psychedelic tinge, Dan Luke and the Raid is his most personal project to date. Influenced by Shultz’s diverse taste, the band’s sound is a combination of vintage pop and modern psych with a penchant for veering off into strange territory. The young five-piece group has quickly made a name for itself, fueled by Shultz’s intense drive, ambition, and unique perspective. Their debut album, Be Good, is due out in 2017.
Bronx-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jonny P has served up some truly delicious tunes rooted in the sounds of the past but anchored firmly and irrevocably in the present. Defined by disarmingly direct arrangements, a superlatively smooth vocal style, and an undying belief in the power of soul, he is a soul visionary. When a song is finished, the talented musician creates a demo at his home in East Nashville, playing all the instruments himself and laying them down one at a time: bass and drums, guitar and piano, then finally voice. This creative process, while time-consuming and laborious, not only weeds out the weaker ideas but results in gracefully minimalist arrangements that are quickly becoming Jonny P’s sonic signature. In 2014, he self-released his debut EP, Right to You (also co-produced by Goffrey Moore), which introduced him as one of Nashville’s most thrilling new voices. His new material, like “Say I Do” and “It’s Our Time,” build off that strong foundation.
Uplifting guitar-based rock influenced by alt-rock legends like U2, as well as more contemporary influences like Cold War Kids gives Colony House its signature sound. The 2014 issue of their debut full-length album, When I Was Younger, lead to heavy touring during 2015, and the trio of Caleb Chapman, Will Chapman and Scott Mills expanded to a four-piece band with Parke Cottrell on bass. In 2017, Colony House returned with their sophomore full-length album, Only the Lonely, which featured the explosive single "You & I."
“It started with golf clubs and country clubs, but now it’s all rock clubs,” Liz Cooper says, giggling. She spent most of her life developing her golf skills, only to drop her college scholarship to move to Nashville and pursue music. “Writing songs and playing the guitar came as naturally to me as golf did. But music tickled my brain in a way nothing else ever could.” Cooper didn’t know a soul in Nashville when she moved, so she got a job at a familiar place: a country club. “Liz may not have known anyone when she moved here,” says the Stampede low-end provider Grant Prettyman. “But now, I feel like she knows pretty much every person she walks past. She just doesn’t stop smiling, and people don’t stop smiling back.” Coincidentally—or not so coincidentally because, well, it is Nashville—some fellow co-workers at the country club also had a band. They called themselves Future Thieves, and they offered to record Cooper’s first EP, Monsters. After that, she began writing songs and formed a band with Ky Baker on drums and Prettyman on the weird long guitar, and they recorded the Live at the Silent Planet EP. Now, the psychedelic folk/rock band is working on recording a full-length album that brings together their different styles “to create something that makes us all question what kind of music we even like anyways.”
Brent Cobb didn’t set out to write an album that feels and sounds like the place he grew up, but now that the grooves have been cut in his debut LP, Shine on Rainy Day, there’s no denying the vibe of his southcentral Georgia home. From the Nashville slice-of-life narrative of “Solving Problems” to the delicate and powerful interplay of acoustic and electric guitars on the stunning closer “Black Crow,” the album, which was produced by his cousin and fellow Georgian, GRAMMY Award-winning Dave Cobb, feels like the people, places and sounds of Cobb’s life. With something of a Southern Gothic narrative, Shine on Rainy Day alternates between dark visions and self-deprecating scenes of black humor that bubble up in laugh-or-cry moments. In addition to this highly anticipated record which delivers all that was expected and more, Cobb has landed several cuts with country superstars including Miranda Lambert, Kenny Chesney and Luke Bryan.
Americana music fans will remember Paul Cauthen’s name from Sons of Fathers, the raucous Texicana group he co-founded in 2011 with bassist David Beck. The band earned glowing praise from Rolling Stone, NPR, and others, thanks to two albums that climbed into the Top 10 of the Americana Music Chart. After quitting the band three years ago to pursue a different message, Cauthen has learned to channel his racing mind and rumbling baritone into the blues, gospel, and rock-and-roll that fuel his mesmerizing full-length solo debut, My Gospel. Cauthen delivers the songs on the record, which cover our earthly struggles to love, connect, and just get by, with the tortured showmanship of Jerry Lee Lewis and seductive ease of Elvis. Ultimately, Cauthen is on a mission: to make music he can be proud of that also serves a higher purpose, both of which this record does.
The Townsend, 718 Congress Avenue Suite 100, 8:00 pm - midnight
Open to SXSW badgeholders
Gustavo Galindo’s music is a reflection of his life between two
countries and two cultures. Born in Mexico City, he lived in Lake Tahoe,
Mexico City, and then Sacramento before moving to Los Angeles for
college.
Family get-togethers were Mexican music jams, featuring everything
from ranchera to pop. Galindo majored in International Relations, but
his real education was in the record store, where he studied artists
like Juanes, Soda Stereo, Julieta Venegas, and Molotov. Gustavo's sound
is a combination of traditional and contemporary Mexican and American
styles in English and Spanish.
His 2008 EP, La Ciudad, caught the attention of multi-GRAMMY and
Oscar-winning Gustavo Santaolalla of the Surco label. Galindo signed to
Universal Latino/Surco in 2010 and his debut, Entre la Ciudad y el Mar,
debuted at #1 on the iTunes Latin Pop charts, #14 on the Latin Pop
Billboard charts and was nominated for a GRAMMY. Galindo’s latest,
produced by GRAMMY winner Alan Sauceda, is due in spring of 2017.
Purerto Rican singer/composer iLe (a.k.a. Ileana Mercedes Cabra Joglar) first came to prominence as a vocalist for Calle 13. While that versatile alternative ensemble won wide acclaim for its eclectic meshing of styles, iLe reinvented herself as a solo artist in 2015. Ilevitable, her solo debut, was released in 2016 and widely hailed as a new pinnacle of Latin American music, going on to win the GRAMMY award for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative album.
Italo-Chilean singer/songwriter/composer Nea Agostini became obsessed with music at an early age. By the age of 13, he was fronting his own band, later to study at prestigious institutions like the Modern School of Music in Santiago, Accademia del Suono in Milan and the Berklee College of Music in Boston. But beyond his formal immersion in music, his bicultural roots and personal experience inform his sound. Together with his brother and musical accomplice Ale on drums and percussion, Nea has crafted an exciting alternative pop-rock style with ambition to take it worldwide.
Gina Récamier, better known as Madame Récamier, is a singer-songwriter born in Mexico City. She adopted pop in Spanish as her main genre, influenced by a vast variety of styles. Madame grew up watching movies that her grandfather produced and was interested in cinema soundtracks. She began playing guitar and piano at the age of 14, and by 17, finished her first musical project, Tripped Lips. At 21, she toured with pop artist Aleks Syntek. Her first two independently released albums, Chocolate and ImaGina, were well received on the indie music scene, leading to theater and movie soundtrack opportunities and slots on Latin festivals Vive Latino and Corona Capital. She was nominated for Premios Pantalla de cristal and Indi-o Music Awards, won third place in the 2016 International Songwriting Competition and was selected as the winner of the inaugural “María Grever songwriting scholarship” in 2011. Her third album, Mi Corazón, will be a new step in her bright career.
Born in New York City, but raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico, PJ Sin Suela (also known as Pedro Juan Vazquez) is a talented rapper driven by his passions. Though currently consumed and committed by his love for hip-hop, he also penned a children’s book (2012’s Smart Is the New Cool) and earned a doctorate in medicine. Sin Suela’s musical career, however, is as ambitious and versatile as his scholarly extracurricular activity. His rhymes are rife with rhythm, passion and positivity.
Victoria “La Mala” Ortiz has been making waves, turning heads and crafting hits in her native Mexico for some time, putting a new spin on the traditonal Banda sound with a contemporary hip-hop take. Since first announcing herself with “Ahora Soy Mala” in 2013, La Mala has swiftly defined herself as a self-assured new voice of Regional Mexican music. And while this Mexico City native may have introduced a new sensibility into a traditional sound, she also boasts an infectious positivity that is impossible to resist. As one of Pandora’s Latin Artists to Watch in 2017, and with her latest single, “Vete Mucho,” debuting at #6 on Monitor Latino Hot Tracks, La Mala’s star is on the rise.
This is a private event, admission by invitation only
Raised in small town Cannon Falls, Minnesota, Caitlyn
Smith grew up singing in the church and at county fairs.
She wrote her first songs at the age of eight, and
convinced her parents she was meant to be an artist,
eventually landing in Nashville.
Now, in a time when everything is fast and bombastic,
it's rare to find an artist who can hush a room with just
her voice or her pen. Smith is one of them. She’s composed
songs for Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, Meghan Trainor, and
she recently released her album Starfire.
Her soulful vocals and honest lyrics amplify the
construction, occupying a unique space that can blossom
with a full band or be stripped down into intimate
experiences. Smith, who has opened for Eric Church, Sheryl
Crow and Dierks Bentley, understands not only how
important the craft itself is, but also how music can –
and should - transform in a live setting.
Atlantic Records / Warner Music Nashville artist Devin Dawson is not
your typical country artist. He has a knack for writing razor sharp
stories that cut straight to the heart, full of detail and clever turns
of phrase. And his songs speak the language of a new generation.
His approach to music is not different on purpose, it’s different
with purpose. Twenty-eight years old and from Orangevale, California,
Dawson grew up just outside the gates of Folsom Prison. He heard the
sirens at night, and sang along to Johnny Cash, Alan Jackson, Marvin
Gaye and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Arriving in Nashville in 2012, he
put his unique skills to use authoring songs for other artists. He
teamed with producer Jay Joyce on his debut album and co-wrote every
track, resulting in a mix of organic roots and high-voltage country,
full of romance and delivered with a distinctive saw-toothed vocal.
morgxn’s journey began in his hometown of Nashville where his earliest musical memories are singing with his mom. “I could hold melodies before I could talk,” he says. By age six, morgxn was dominating the gospel choir and at age nine, began taking voice and piano lessons and writing songs. After college, he made his way to New York City where he dabbled in theatre. Now telling his own stories, morgxn is drawn to writing about human resilience in his fearless, vulnerable, electronic-soul songs: “How we pull ourselves back up even when we’re knocked down a thousand times,” he says. “I’m chasing the tension of wanting love, having it, and needing more. It’s that desire to go beyond the surface.” Since the release of his single “love you with the lights on,” morgxn has been working on songs for an upcoming EP and album that he will release through his label, wxnderlost records.
Cutting her teeth as a folk artist in the small town of Forbes and adopted home of Sydney, Australian Vera Blue started as a singer and acoustic guitarist. Now, she’s found her sound, mixing the music she’s long-loved with lush, sultry electronica. The results are sometimes gentle, sometimes ferocious and always show-stopping, with her commanding vocals front and center. Blue burst into the iconic Byron Bay festival, Splendour in the Grass, July 2016, performing “Papercuts,” her #1 iTunes charting song with Illy, premiering her new track “Fracture” alongside Slumberjack, and performing as Flume’s surprise guest, singing his smash hit, “Never Be Like You,” in front of 20,000 people. Less than a day after wrapping up her sold out “Fingertips Tour” in Sydney, Blue announced she would embark on a national tour supported by triple j radio. This saw the rising artist perform 22 sold out shows in capital cities and regional areas in fall 2016.
Philly-born, L.A.-based singer/songwriter Brayton Bowman may still only be in his early 20’s, but his pliable voice exudes the flavor of classic soulful jazz. But Bowman’s no throwback. His style of contemporary pop merges elements of R&B, futuristic funk and even a bit of hip-hop swagger. Bowman dropped two EPs in 2015 and followed up with an appearance on “Shy” by the Magician in 2016, which hit 13.5 million total streams on Spotify and Soundcloud. His just-released 22 Minutes Later shows a brand new side to the rising singer/songwriter and is already blowing up.
With his unbridled passion and soul-baring rawness, Michael Blume is known for captivating listeners around the country. His debut EP, When I Get It Right, teems with thoughtful, socially conscious lyrics that are both personal and universal. Perfectly showcasing his unique mix of R&B, neo-soul, hip-hop, jazz, and electronica, Blume has sold out multiple live shows, including New York City’s famed Bowery Ballroom, with his confessional and inspirational performances. With a musical background rooted in the prestigious Yale University a cappella group, Blume effortlessly produces complex vocal arrangements that illustrate his comprehensive musicianship and complement his stellar range. Whether backed by his stripped-down, acoustic 5-piece band or his signature 11-piece band, his live performances shine.
The Moody Theater, 310 W Willie Nelson Boulevard, doors 6:45 pm, show 7:45 pm
SXSW Music and Platinum badges will have primary access; all other SXSW badges and Showcasing Artist wristbands will have secondary access
Prolific singer-songwriter Ryan Adams is on a musical journey driven by a restless muse. With a formidable catalog of music infused with honesty, wit and a deep regard for authentic storytelling, Adams’ eclectic tastes, encyclopedic knowledge and tireless thirst to create have resulted in 16 acclaimed albums, in addition to his many side-projects. From his humble punk rock roots to his role as frontman of the influential alternative country ensemble Whiskeytown to his innovative solo career, Adams is as comfortable and as adept at playing disarmingly poignant country ballads as he is ripping through a set of black metal bombast. His latest album, Prisoners, only further solidifies his reputation, delivering a moving rumination on heartbreak and healing, and receiving rapturous reviews for its intimacy, its rich well of musical influence and its cathartic emotional resonance.
With hair as imposing as his voice, Ron Gallo specializes in outspoken, high-octane rock. After years fronting the Philadelphia roots rock band, Toy Soldiers, Gallo’s muse steered him a louder direction, prompting the singer/songwriter to decamp to Nashville and form the Ron Gallo III, a fiery power-trio that realizes Gallo’s flair for cantankerous punk and stripped-down garage rock. His live shows are already renowned for being incendiary, and his new album Heavy Meta is suitably uncompromising. Gallo has shared the stage with Wanda Jackson, Dr. Dog, Deer Tick, Dr. John, The Walkmen, J. Roddy Walston, among others. He has been featured among USA Today’s “Bands to Watch,” Paste Magazine’s “Philly Bands You Should Listen to NOW” and has garnered appearances on PBS SUN Studio Special, Daytrotter, Audiotree, and many more.
As versed in dreamy ethereal pop as serrated noise, L.A. combo Cherry Glazerr (their name a cheeky homage to NPR correspondent Chery Glaser), started off as a grassroots indie endeavor before design house Yves Saint Laurent used their track “Trick or Treat Dancefloor” in an ad campaign. Regardless of that wider exposure, the band – led by distinctive singer/songwriter Clementine “Clem” Creevy – has remained true to its roots. Their newly released third album, Apocalipstick, boasts a slightly more polished punch, but Creevy’s songs retain a unique, deliberate character.
Practicing a full-throttled blend of hook-laden pop and punked-out riff-rock, Portland, Oregon’s Summer Cannibals – named after a track from Patti Smith’s 1996 album, Gone Again – honed their attack on their third album, Full Of It, last year, further cultivating their reputation as an aggressive live act on the Northwest rock circuit. Led by singer/guitarist Jessica Boudreaux, whose raw, no-nonsense songs thrive on candidness and confrontation, Summer Cannibals have evolved into a taut rock unit to be reckoned with. Attention from NPR, Pitchfork, Stereogum, SPIN and Entertainment Weekly, among others, are keeping a laser-focus on this band to watch.
Renowned for her blistering guitar playing and emotionally frank lyrics, singer/songwriter Emily Wolfe performs soulfully stripped-down blues-rock of a sort that is informed by a life of traveling difficult paths. This Austin native is a survivor, a passionate music creator and a bona fide guitar hero. Her songs act as both her deeply personal exorcism and a riff-driven catharsis. While her musical style has evolved from folksy acoustic to gritty electric, Wolfe’s songs connect on levels that are alternately haunting, heartening and harrowing, leaving precious few listeners unmoved.
