ARTIST NEWSFLASH
■ BIG WEEK FOR TAYLOR SWIFT: WINS BMI POP SONG OF THE YEAR & NARM AWARD; ARTIFACTS ON DISPLAY AT COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME: Taylor Swift won top honors at this week’s BMI Pop Awards in Los Angeles, taking home the prestigious Song of the Year award for her multi-genre international #1 smash “Love Story.” 20-year old Taylor is the youngest songwriter in history to win this honor, and the first country winner in more than a decade. The most recent country songwriters honored with this award were Stephanie Bentley for “Breathe” in 2000, Shania Twain for “You’re Still The One” in 1998, and Dolly Parton in 1993 for “I Will Always Love You.” “Love Story,” which Taylor wrote by herself, was honored for receiving more radio airplay in the past year than any other song played on pop radio. “Love Story” earned BMI’s Country Song of the Year honors in 2009, and Taylor also won BMI’s Country Song of the Year in 2008, for “Teardrops On My Guitar.” That year she became the youngest songwriter in any genre to win the honor, and Taylor is the first female songwriter in history to win back-to-back BMI Song of the Year awards, in any genre. “Love Story,” from Taylor’s 6x-Platinum FEARLESS album, topped Billboard’s Country, Pop and A/C charts in the US, and became a global sensation, reaching #1 in countries including the UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand. “Love Story” is also the most downloaded country single in US history. Also this week, Taylor was in Chicago to accept the Artist of the Year award from the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM). The award recognized Taylor’s “extraordinary creative and commercial achievements” and her “brilliant and stellar contribution to the music industry in just a few years.” In Nashville the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum unveiled their update to the Sing Me Back Home exhibition, and Taylor has made several contributions to the new gallery. Now on display is her first Taylor guitar (a custom-made K-65-CE model twelve-string), and the Reem Acra gown she wore to the 2009 Country Music Association Awards, where she took home four awards, including Entertainer of The Year. Her Entertainer of the Year Award statue is also included in the exhibit. In addition, Taylor is featured in her own one-of-a-kind multimedia display in the Sing Me Back Home narrative. Entitled Taylor Swift: I’m Only Me, the mini-exhibit focuses on Taylor’s innovative use of social networking to communicate directly with her fans and features her own Apple ibook G4 laptop computer. On the road, Taylor continues her sold-out FEARLESS tour, which spends back-to-back nights in Houston this week. The tour will then head to Baton Rouge this weekend for the first of two stadium dates, and on to two sellout nights in Washington DC before concluding its 14 month run with a sold-out show at Boston’s Gillette Stadium on June 5th.
■ JACK INGRAM’S “BARBIE DOLL” SINGLE COMES TO LIFE ON COUNTRY THROWDOWN TOUR: “There’s no better place to play ‘Barbie Doll’ that during a hot afternoon festival, with the beer flowing, the girls singing along, and the guys commiserating with me!” observes Jack Ingram from his bus at Saturday’s Country THROWDOWN Tour stop in Chicago, referring to his fan-favorite anthem and current single. “You know, I love to write a deep ballad like ‘Seeing Stars’, and that is really powerful on many levels, but as far as defining the vibe me and the guys try to create out on the road every night, ‘Barbie Doll’ represents that.” The tongue-in-cheek song chronicles the back-and-forth courting that happens between a man and a woman, and from Jack’s view on stage, he has seen the situation play out time after time. “Man, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played this song through the years. It’s pretty funny actually. Most people who know me know that I can be a smart ass, and this song is certainly written with that slant. But the crowd is in on the joke with me. Whether it is ‘Barbie Doll’ or ‘Love You’, which are both very sarcastic songs, it gets people on their feet every time. I’m having so much fun out here on this tour. It’s the perfect fit for me and my music.” Fans can preview highlights from the opening weekend of the tour here and view photos from the tour here.
■ JARON’S TONGUE-IN-CHEEK SINGLE RESONATING WITH FANS & PASTORS ALIKE ON FACEBOOK: While many might expect Jaron’s Facebook wall to be filled with posts of support from fans across the country who have fallen in love with "Pray For You," they might not expect some of those fans to be pastors and priests! Yet, they continue to show their support of the song with dozens of posts weekly. Jaron of Jaron And The Long Road To Love, whose breakout solo single “Pray For You” is this week’s top 20 AIRPOWER title at Billboard, is pleased to see spiritual leaders receive the song as it was intended. “I hear frequently from pastors who have used the song in their sermon. They seem to be championing the song's cathartic message." Jaron notes. “It’s ironic to sometimes take phone calls [while conducting radio interviews] from a fan who finds the message 'blasphemous' only to have the call followed by a pastor who defends the song's humorous take. I've started telling naysayers to ask their preacher what he thinks about the song and inevitably they come back with a different take. I can honestly tell you that I didn't see that support coming, but I wholeheartedly welcome it." Jaron’s debut solo album Getting Dressed In The Dark will be released on June 22 nationwide.
■ STEEL MAGNOLIA’S JOSH & MEGAN THANKFUL FOR AWARD NOMINATIONS: Steel Magnolia’s Meghan Linsey and Joshua Scott Jones have received their first four major award nominations this year, two nods from the Academy of Country Music earlier in the spring and two nominations for the upcoming CMT Music Awards just announced. Since the duo got their start last summer on CMT, we asked the rising stars how it feels to have come so far in one year’s time. “CMT’s just been great to us!” exclaims Meghan. “It was a great platform to be on that show and expose us to fans. We’ve had a great partnership with them. They’ve been playing our video, and it’s just been really great. So, to have these nominations is incredible. Last year at this time, we were on the show, and then now to be going to the awards show and have a nomination for Breakthrough Artist and Duo Video of the Year, it’s really cool.” “It’s getting more and more exciting, as this stuff keeping building for us,” Josh chimes in. “All this stuff that we’re talking about, I get this grin on my face. I’m gonna need a grinectomy. It’s great!”
■ RANDOM NOTES: Jaron of Jaron And The Long Road To Love appeared this week on CMT Top 20 Countdown, where his video “Pray For You” is #18 this week. Elsewhere in video countdown news, Jack Ingram stops by this week’s GAC Top 20 Countdown, as broadcast from the Country THROWDOWN Tour…Last week we told you about Jack Ingram’s partnership withAmerican Songwriter magazine to spotlight a new song every other week for the next 14 weeks, and this week we can reveal the story behind the first track, “America”. "I was on tour and went for a walk along the Mississippi River in Moline, Illinois,” recalls Jack. “I saw some folks fishing the banks and passed a VFW hall. Most songs with references to America always seem to have such grand messages and huge themes. I was trying to paint a more subtle picture of what it looked like was going on during a normal day in one of the ‘fly over’ states. I don't fly over these places. I stop and play shows here; a lot of them. I've never written a song about 'em. I have now." Fans can check out "America" here…This week (Tuesday 5/18), VALENTINE’S DAY was released on DVD. The DVD features music included on the Big Machine-released soundtrack, in stores now.
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