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Country Update BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS FEBRUARY 10, 2020 | PAGE 1 OF 17 INSIDE BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE [email protected] Morris’ ‘Bones’ Felice & Boudleaux Bryant: A Centennial Rattles No. 1 >page 5 Celebration Of Nashville’s Songwriting Pioneers Morgan Wallen’s Dane Bryant London Surprise They’re present every time you hear “Love Hurts” in the with brother . “They didn’t start out thinking they >page 9 Aspercreme commercial. Or when “Rocky Top” plays at a were going to be country writers, and Dad never told anybody, Tennessee Volunteers game on TV. And they were there when ‘You’re a country writer’ or ‘You’re this or that.’ They thought, Jake Gyllenhaal and Rufus Wainwright sang “All I Have to ‘We’re songwriters. We’ll write anything.’ ” Do Is Dream” during an American Songbook concert at New It’s that Broadway mentality that drove the Bryants and Musgraves’ York’s prestigious Lincoln Center. thus set the template for the songwriting community in Music ‘Slow Burn’ Felice and Boudleaux Bryant were among Nashville’s first City. Tin Pan Alley songwriters fed the Great White Way Still Flickers full-time songwriters and the first full-time music for decades, holing up in Manhattan >page 10 songwriters inducted into the Country Music enclaves and churning out songs on a 9-5 Hall of Fame. Feb. 13 marks 100 years since basis. The Bryants took a similar approach Boudleaux was born in Moultrie, Ga., and to the craft. But rather than sitting in the couple will get its due that evening with a Music Row cubicles, they did the bulk of FGL, Aldean tribute concert at Schermerhorn Symphony their work at home, often with Boudleaux Hit The Bottle Center in Nashville. manning the notepad as Felice traded >page 10 The Bryants left a deep legacy, writing melodies and phrases from the kitchen songs that propelled the careers of The while she cooked. Everly Brothers, Little Jimmy Dickens, They treated their writing very much like Roy Clark, Charley Pride, The Osborne a business, compiling their lyrics in a series Makin’ Tracks: Brothers and Ray Price. Not that they of 500-page accounting ledgers, where they FELICE and Old Dominion were confined to country and bluegrass kept fastidious notes about what artists had BOUDLEAUX Gets Personal — the Bryants’ works also appear in the recorded them. They wrote regularly across BRYANT >page 14 catalogs of R&B icons Ray Charles and four decades, filling multiple ledgers, some Ruth Brown, rock bands R.E.M. and of which are on current display in a Country Nazareth, traditional pop crooners Dean Martin and Al Music Hall of Fame exhibit, “We Could: The Songwriting Country Coda: Martina, and rock-era pop figures Carly Simon, Leo Sayer Artistry of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant.” When T.G.’s ‘Devil’ and Simon & Garfunkel. “My folks knew volume was a friend,” says Del. “Eventually, Reigned “Some of the stuff is just clever wording and internal rhymes, you would find jewels.” >page 17 really like writing Broadway things — that’s what they thought The Bryants found inspiration in every way imaginable. they were doing,” says Del Bryant, a former BMI president/CEO They penned “Rocky Top” in 10 minutes as a diversion from a who runs his parents’ publishing company, House of Bryant, concept album of songs about growing old they were fashioning BRYANT OF HOUSE COURTESY BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE FEBRUARY 10, 2020 | PAGE 2 OF 17 for Archie Campbell. “We Could” was Felice’s birthday present to Boudleaux when they had no money. “Bye Bye Love” was carved out with an unconventional rhythm machine. “He says, ‘Felice, I got this great idea,’ ” recalls Del. “They go out driving, and they start writing the idea he had, ‘Bye Bye Love,’ to the windshield wipers. Dad wrote a lot to windshield wipers’ rhythm in the car. If it was raining, man, there was a song coming on.” The couple was an interesting amalgam, a progressive pair who came from significantly different backgrounds. Felice grew up a passionate Sicilian with a difficult family life in Milwaukee. At age 8, she had the first of many dreams about an unidentified man with a beard. It was, it turned out, Boudleaux, whom she encountered on Valentine’s Day 1945, a day after he turned 25, when she Chris Janson (center) welcomed KXKT Omaha, Neb., executives when worked at the Schroeder Hotel. Boudleaux was playing violin for a touring he played Ralston Arena on Jan. 31. He’s flanked by iHeartMedia/ classical quartet, and their seemingly predestined meeting led the couple to Omaha senior vp programming Erik Johnson (left) and KXKT PD/music informally marry within a few days, later tying the knot officially in September. director Hoss Michaels. Boudleaux was a speed reader — he often knocked out a book daily in a 90-minute clip — and he was obsessed with words, owning a collection of dictionaries from multiple languages. His boys tried to find words that he did not know — they never did stump him — though he and Felice were able to hone his wide vocabulary into notably conversational songs. Del discovered how significant that was during his time at BMI. He had access to reams of data for more than 15 million musical works and recognized that his parents came to prominence while writing songs with much shorter titles than their peers. They were the first to have BMI songs with such streamlined titles as “Bye Bye Love,” “We Could,” “Love Hurts” and “Raining in My Heart.” “They took very, very commonplace experiences that many people could associate with and nailed them in the title for the first time,” says Del. “And that’s part of the magic.” Tyler Farr (center) visited with iHeartMedia/West Michigan senior vp Felice and Boudleaux spent much of their later years in Gatlinburg, Tenn. programming Dave Taft, who oversees WBCT Grand Rapids, while When a forest fire threatened the physical remnants of their legacy in November promoting new single “Only Truck in Town.” They’re accompanied by 2016, Del and Dane organized the collection and donated it to the Hall of Broken Bow Midwest promotion director Dawn Ferris. Fame, providing greater security for the memories from one of songwriting’s most influential duos. The Everlys’ driving “Wake Up Little Susie,” Ricky Van Shelton’s propellant “Hole in My Pocket,” Clark’s lush “Come Live With Me” and Red Foley’s bluesy “Midnight” covered a wide range of turf, helping country develop a diverse footprint. The Feb. 13 Schermerhorn concert likewise will reach across genres. The Nashville Symphony provides an orchestral undercurrent, while Jamey Johnson adds an outlaw-country flavor, The Milk Carton Kids offer folky harmonies, The War and Treaty bring rootsy soul, The McCrary Sisters contribute gospel texture, and Steve Tyrell injects a classic pop vibe. And The University of Tennessee’s Pride of the Southland Band is assuredly kicking Curb artist Filmore performed for Billboard staff in Nashville on Feb. 5. in a round of “Rocky Top.” It’s a fitting approach to Boudleaux’s centennial. From left: Billboard country correspondent Annie Reuter, Filmore, Del says, “We’re trying to do exactly what my parents’ music did: appeal to Billboard Country Update editor Tom Roland and Billboard senior chart a wide audience.” manager Jim Asker. ACCESS THE BEST IN MUSIC. A DIGITAL VERSION OF EVERY ISSUE, FEATURING: COVER STORIES . SPECIAL REPORTS . CHARTS . REVIEWS INTERVIEWS . EVENT COVERAGE & MORE AVAILABLE FREE TO CURRENT BILLBOARD SUBSCRIBERS billboard.com/iPad BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE FEBRUARY 10, 2020 | PAGE 5 OF 17 ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected] Strong ‘Bones’: Maren Morris Hits No. 1 On Country Airplay Chart, Marking First Solo Leader For A Woman Since Her Own ‘Girl’ Maren Morris earns her fourth No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart as No. 7 high. It also reached No. 17 on the Triple A chart in December, aided by “The Bones” (Columbia Nashville) rises 2-1 on the list dated Feb. 15, up 11% a remix with adult alternative format mainstay (and fellow Columbia signee) to 37.3 million audience impressions in the week ending Feb. 9, according to Hozier. The track hits a new high on Adult Contemporary, lifting 21-17, and Nielsen Music/MRC Data. is nearing the Mainstream Top 40 tally. The song is the follow-up to Morris’ “Girl,” On the all-genre Radio Songs chart, “Bones” which topped the Aug. 3, 2019-dated chart, retains its No. 10 high, up 11% to 60.8 million in making her the first woman to rule Country audience. It’s the first song by a solo woman and Airplay with consecutive, proper singles in no accompanying billed artists to top Country lead roles since Kelsea Ballerini, whose “Dibs” Airplay and hit the Radio Songs top 10 since Taylor and “Peter Pan” led in March and September Swift’s “You Belong With Me” in 2009. Only five 2016, respectively. Just before Ballerini, Carrie other such hits also have achieved the feat: Swift’s Underwood completed such a twofer with “Love Story” (2008-09), Underwood’s “Before “Heartbeat” and “Church Bells,” which reigned He Cheats” (2006-07), Faith Hill’s “The Way You in March and July 2016, respectively. Love Me” (2000-01) and “Breathe” (1999-2000), Including featured roles since 2016, Lauren and Shania Twain’s “You’re Still the One” (1998). Alaina tallied consecutive Country Airplay No. 1s Since its release, “Bones” has drawn 694 with her own “Road Less Travelled” (March million in cumulative radio reach and 244 million 2017) and as featured on Kane Brown’s “What on-demand U.S.