2017

The Country Radio Broadcasters have announced Zac Brown as the recipient of the CRS 2017 Artist Humanitarian Award and former Chairman and CEO of Greater Media, Peter Smyth, as the recipient of the CRS 2017 Tom Rivers Humanitarian Award, to be presented during Country Radio Seminar 2017; following the Opening Ceremonies on Wednesday, February 22nd, 3:30-4:00 p.m. The CRB Artist Humanitarian Award was created in 1990 by the organization’s board to honor those Country music artists who have exhibited exceptional humanitarian efforts during their career.  Past recipients of the annual award have included Lady Antebellum, Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Trace Adkins, Randy Owen, Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, Brooks & Dunn, Reba, Vince Gill, Garth Brooks and Charlie Daniels, among others. Zac Brown is a strong supporter of multiple philanthropic causes including his own Camp Southern Ground which was inspired by his experiences as a camp counselor. The program at the Georgia-based state-of-the-art facility is an inclusive camp that combines children with neuro-developmental disorders with mainstream children.  Its mission is to provide extraordinary experiences for these children to recognize and magnify the unique gifts within themselves and others in order to profoundly impact the world.   Additional organizations that Brown is committed to include GRAMMYS on The Hill, GRAMMY U, MusiCares, Robin Hood Foundation and The USO. Three-time GRAMMY winner and multi-platinum artist Zac Brown, of Zac Brown Band, is one of music’s most heralded acts.  The latest platinum-certified album ‘JEKYLL + HYDE’ (Southern Ground Artists/John Varvatos Records/Big Machine Label Group/Republic Records) marks the band’s fourth consecutive No.1 debut on the Billboard 200 chart. Zac Brown Band has earned a historic series of fifteen No.1 hit radio singles and is only the second band to top both the country and active rock formats.

The story of Shane O’Malley Firek, the single constant member of The Ferdy Mayne, is one of journeys – physical, spiritual, and a combination of the two. “I was going through massive change when I was writing this material,” Firek explains of his self-titled debut album, out March 24th via Greater Peaks Records. “Before my sobriety, I was completely insane, in and out of jail, losing friends and putting myself in considerable debt,” he confesses. “I quit drinking around the time I began to perform in New York, and I’ve been sober a little over three years now.” Free of the law, and free of the hold of alcohol, Firek accomplishes on this album what any artist hopes to who has lived through pretty good and really bad, and that is to fully inform the work with experience. Firek is most proud of his lyrics, and unlike some songwriters, he fights hard for them, sometimes over the course of many years. “This is the single most focused song on the record, lyrically,” Firek explains. “What else can it say? Define my name. Surreal, poignant Ferdy lyrics. This is what I do best.” It’s a lot of movement, the other side of the coin of confinement, which Firek also knows something about. It’s likely the same optimism about his first glimpse of Los Angeles that kept him going before arriving there. “Los Angeles is a shimmering object at first glance,” he remembers. “It is unreliable, similar to the unreliable dream of New York City, but I trust in the truth that you can sharpen the tools you came here with.” Firek’s journey continues in 2017. Details of a tour behind the release of the debut album by The Ferdy Mayne will be announced shortly. The self-titled debut album by The Ferdy Mayne arrives on March 24th, 2017 via Greater Peaks Records.

While Caroline Spence may not look like one of the road-hardened troubadours of America’s past, the latest record from the young songwriter from Charlottesville, Virginia proves she is every bit as serious. Her highly-anticipated sophomore album, Spades & Roses, is due out on March 3, 2017. It’s is a rare but unmistakable authenticity and emotional resonance that can’t be faked, all delivered from  a “feather-light voice that evokes the best singers of the Lilith Fair era” (Rolling Stone Country). Somehow Caroline Spence manages to be both ethereally pristine and yet profoundly raw and human–a disarming union of self-assuredness and vulnerability that runs throughout the record.  Under the guidance of Producer Neilson Hubbard, Spades and Roses strips away all of the sonic barriers that might stand between Spence and her listener, allowing her fragile melodies and first person confessionals to do their work– reaching out and empathizing, providing a soundtrack to our own hidden stories.  Every song on the record–whether pop or meditative, glib or heartbreaking– asks the essential question of whether or not the listener can recognize himself. Having won numerous songwriting awards from industry mainstays like the Kerrville Folk Festival and American Songwriter Magazine, and garnered nods and admiration from both Miranda Lambert and her fellow writers in the Nashville underground, Caroline Spence has delivered a record to meet the expectation: Quite simply, 11 songs of gorgeous Americana that remind us of why we fell in love with the genre in the first place. So who is Spades and Roses for? Songwriters who need a sympathetic shoulder?  Song lovers who are tired of the latest gimmick? Modern ladies who still enjoy knitting? Older men who have seen enough to not find that intimidating? In the end, it’s for all of us that demand a lot of life and love, and yet still have the grace and hope to go on loving the world in spite of what it is sometimes. It’s for all of us that still like to hear our story told in song.  In Caroline’s own words, which seem to summarize the record, “It’s all love, and it’s all pain. And after all, I can’t complain.”

The Recording Academy will honor three-time GRAMMY® award-winning country music icon Charley Pride with its 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award.Three-time GRAMMY winner Charley Pride taught himself to play guitar in his early teens, but he dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player. After playing in the Negro American League, he was signed by RCA Victor and in 1967 he became the first African-American singer to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. (Later, in 1993, Pride became the Grande Ole Opry’s first African-American member.) Just Between You And Me launched Pride to stardom, earning him his first GRAMMY nomination for 1966. In 1969, Pride scored his first No. 1 country hit with All I Have To Offer You (Is Me). The recognition led to a long and auspicious career for Pride, who is considered the first African-American superstar in country music.The Recording Academy will also honor Shirley Caesar, Ahmad Jamal, Jimmie Rodgers, Nina Simone, Sly Stone and the Velvet Underground with the Lifetime Achievement Award.“This year’s Special Merit Awards recipients comprise a prestigious group of diverse and influential creators who have crafted or contributed to some of the most distinctive recordings in music history,” said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy. “These exceptionally inspiring figures are being honored as legendary performers, creative architects, and technical visionaries. Their outstanding accomplishments and passion for their respective crafts have created a timeless legacy.”The Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates performers who have made outstanding contributions of artistic significance to the field of recording, while the Trustees Award honors contributions in areas other than performance. The recipients are determined by vote of The Recording Academy’s National Board of Trustees. Technical GRAMMY Award recipients are voted on by The Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing Advisory Council and Chapter Committees, and are ratified by The Academy’s Trustees. The award is presented to individuals and/or companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording industry.

Country superstar Reba McEntire, who makes a welcome return to these shores to headline the C2C music festival in March in London, Glasgow and Dublin, releases a new studio album SING IT NOW: SONGS OF FAITH & HOPE on February 3, 2017 via Big Machine/Universal.  In an illustrious career that has elicited 35 No.1 singles and over 56 million albums sold worldwide, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry member has won 15 American Music Awards, 13 ACM Awards, nine People’s Choice Awards, seven CMA Awards and two Grammy Awards in addition to several prestigious leadership, humanitarian and milestone honours. She is also an acclaimed actress with 11 movie credits to her name, a prominent role on Broadway and starred in the six-season US television sitcom Reba. Most recently she debuted her Reba Beauty cosmetic line and online education platform MasterClass invited Reba to offer her wisdom and knowledge as one of world’s best creators in a series out now. SING IT NOW: SONGS OF FAITH & HOPE is a double-disc project highlighting traditional hymns of “faith” on the first CD and more contemporary tracks of “hope” on the second. “SING IT NOW was the perfect title for this album because the message and melody throughout the song connects the dots between the traditional hymns I grew up on and new music that has been uplifting for me in challenging times,” said Reba. Reba let her heart and friends help guide the song selection, which includes the first tune she ever sang in public, “Jesus Loves Me,” a former Reba co-star’s suggestion of “Oh Happy Day” and an introduction from a close associate to “From The Inside Out”, alongside a collaboration with Kelly Clarkson and Trisha Yearwood, “Softly and Tenderly.” Reba co-produced the album with Jay DeMarcus* of Rascal Flatts in his home studio and band leader/musical director Doug Sisemore. “Music conjures up great memories and goes hand and hand with us McEntires,” said Reba. “Mama, Susie and Alice even came into the studio with me to record ‘I’ll Fly Away.’