Country Update BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS JANUARY 7, 2019 | PAGE 1 OF 23 INSIDE BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE [email protected] Dan + Shay: Two Guys, Two No. 1s What’s New? Fresh Sounds On >page 4 The Way In 2019 Everyone’s Promoted! Job New artists are, according to an old adage, the lifeblood of the the entries incorporate foreign roots: Twinnie, a singer/actor Changes Galore music industry, but the digital age has brought a transfusion from the United Kingdom; Canadian singer/songwriter Aaron >page 11 to the very process that rolls artists out. Goodvin; and King Calaway, a six-man ensemble with two Where labels once discovered, developed and marketed acts, European-bred members. the current model often requires that the performers develop Here’s a look at the seven acts breaking out during the first both their craft and an audience before they find their way half of 2019 with the equivalent of their first album or EP for Opry: onto a record-company roster. Thus, the seven artists that a prominent country label: The Final Frontier will launch their >page 13 first album or EP • BLANCO for a prominent (Broken Bow) imprint during — “Speechless” the first six may be a Dan + Chris Young Adds To Shay Old-School Trend months of 2019 hit, but it’s have invariably also a word that >page 13 created some BBR Music Group kind of history on executive vp Jon their own. That Loba u s es to Makin’ Tracks: includes building describe Blanco Dickerson Single Is a n a u d i e n c e Brown, whose ‘100 Percent Me’ through heavy authentic hybrid >page 18 touring and/or sound is self- producing EPs defined as “trailer for self-release. trap” — part LANGSTON JENKINS TWINNIE The creative trailer park, part Country Coda: class rolling out trap music. After Who Had The First between January and June shows just how much the genre’s splitting his childhood between the urban ’hood and summers in Country No. 1? marketing formula and content is changing. EMI Nashville the country, he is able to seamlessly knit multiple genres together, >page 23 artist Jon Langston is releasing tracks one at a time rather blending Tracy Lawrence, T-Pain, “Dixieland Delight” and The than in a collectable bundle. Broken Bow artist BLANCO unites Beach Boys in a series of yet-to-be-released tracks. Real artists the country/hip-hop trend in a next-level blend. And three of don’t just break rules; sometimes they rewrite them. BARLOWE KRISTEN LANGSTON: POWER UP THIS WEEK FOR DUSTIN’S SIXTH #1 SINGLE! Written By: Dustin Lynch, Justin Ebach, Andy Albert MASSIVE MEDIABASE CALLOUT RESEARCH! BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE JANUARY 7, 2019 | PAGE 2 OF 23 • Aaron Goodvin (Reviver) — The winner of the Canadian Country Music Association’s songwriter of the year award, Goodvin placed songs with Luke Bryan, Jon Pardi and Cole Swindell on his way to a deal with Warner Music Canada. His voice has a grainy tinge, applied to a mix of hooky uptempo songs and revealing ballads. Raised in Alberta, 420 kilometers from the High Valley boys, he spent much of 2018 in Nashville working on his U.S. debut, which will be released as part of a global rollout on Feb. 8. • Sam Grow (Average Joes) — With three self-released EPs under his belt, the Maryland-bred Grow is an experienced music maker with his first full country album due in the spring. Having played a reported 200 live dates in 2018, he’s a hard-working band leader with a smoky vocal Mitchell Tenpenny (center) dropped by Cumulus’ syndicated morning tone who counts Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke and Willie Nelson among show on Dec. 17, days after the release of his debut album, Telling All his influences. Still, there’s a slight Daughtry undercurrent to his My Secrets. He’s shown with Cumulus personality Ty Bentli (left) and first Average Joes single, “History Repeats Itself,” due in late January. Cumulus personality Chuck Wicks. • Lauren Jenkins (Big Machine) — Two years after issuing her inaugural EP, Jenkins lobs her first album, No Saint, into the market on March 15 with a voice that employs multiple personalities. Her lower resonance is haunting and spooky, while her upper register is biting and forceful. Quietly introduced on a 2014 Nashville album paying tribute to Mötley Crüe, her talents extend beyond the microphone: She wrote, co-produced and starred in a forthcoming short film, Running Out of Road. • King Calaway (Broken Bow) — As country music becomes increasingly global, King Calaway is a natural evolution, a six-piece band with roots that extend from Minnesota to Delaware to Scotland to Gibraltar. Its debut EP, rife with thick harmonies, poppy energy and Ashley McBryde hung out with WPGB Pittsburgh PD J.D. Greene when likely a cover of Stephen Stills’ “Love the One You’re With,” has a target she played Jergel’s on Dec. 12. From left: Warner Music Nashville national date of Jan. 25. Produced by Ross Copperman (Dierks Bentley, Brett director/WAR radio and streaming James Marsh, Greene, McBryde and Eldredge), the band’s drummer has some key country heritage: Chris WMN Northeast/Midwest manager/WAR radio and streaming Anna Deaton’s father is CMA Awards producer Robert Deaton. Cage. • Jon Langston (EMI) — Langston is rolling out tracks in a Sam Hunt fashion: There’s no official major-label EP, though he has already digitally released five songs and expects to have perhaps three more in circulation by June. The previously self-released artist has toured aggressively in the Southeast, building an audience before manager Kerri Edwards’ KP Entertainment (Bryan, Swindell) picked him up. Langston’s delivery combines swagger and immediacy over a production that’s clearly geared for modern country radio. • Twinnie (BMG) — The photo on her website has a distinct Shania Twain vibe, as does the pop-leaning hooks in her sometimes- danceable tunes, particularly the loping “Type of Girl.” Hailing from York in northeast England (you just know someone is going to label her “the Duchess of York”), Twinnie Lee Moore earned attention in Jordan Davis participated in the WIL St. Louis Jinglefest. From left: WIL the U.K. soap Hollyoaks and played the Country Music Association’s PD Scott Roddy, Davis, WIL music director Danny Montana and MCA C2C Festival in 2017. Her first U.S. EP is expected Feb. 1. Nashville director of Midwest promotion Donna Passuntino. Saving SFX? Bankrupt dance promoter targets Randy Phillips as CEO Song of the Summer? Not So Fast... AVAILABLE Sia ends Drake’s 10-week reign atop Hot 100 FREE ACCESS THE TO CURRENT BILLBOARD BEST IN MUSIC. 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INTERVIEWS Blake Again EVENT COVERAGE & MORE SHELTON shoots straight on his heartbreak: ‘I was at rock bottom’ August 6, 2016 | billboard.com MIKE DUNGAN leads Music Row’s 50+ most powerful players KACEY, MAREN and country’s rising female stars talk Tomato-gate and Hillary GARTH BROOKS on besting U2’s box-office record: ‘I’d like it for country music’s sake’ BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE JANUARY 7, 2019 | PAGE 4 OF 23 ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected] Dan + Shay’s ‘Speechless’ Stretches Reign Atop Country Airplay And Hot Country Songs Charts Dan + Shay, the duo of Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney, continue their peak on Country Streaming Songs (8-2) and spends a ninth week atop Country domination of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and the airplay-, streaming- Digital Song Sales (17,000 sold, down 26 percent). and sales-fueled Hot Country Songs survey (dated Jan. 12) with “Speechless” As Dan + Shay have now topped both Hot Country Songs and Country (Warner Bros./WAR). Airplay for four weeks running, the act is the first to simultaneously spend The love song inspired by the duo’s wives, which Smyers and Mooney co- that much time atop those tallies since Thomas Rhett, who led the lists for wrote with Jordan Reynolds and Laura Veltz, leads Country Airplay for a a record six consecutive weeks in January and February 2016 with “Die a fourth week. It increases by 15 percent to 39.4 million audience impressions Happy Man.” in the week ending Jan. 6, according to Nielsen Music. (All but two songs Plus, as “Speechless” paces Hot Country Songs, the pair’s “Tequila” logs a gain on the chart, reflecting the first full tracking week after holiday music 17th week at its No. 2 peak, setting the mark for the longest run in the runner-up returned to hibernation.) spot. It passes Brett Young’s “In Case You Didn’t Know,” which peaked at “It’s very fitting to start the new year with ‘Speechless’ No. 2 for 16 weeks in 2017. still at No. 1,” says Warner Music Nashville senior vp Dan + Shay’s concurrently holding the No. 1 and promotion and streaming Kristen Williams. “The guys No. 2 spots on Hot Country Songs for a fourth week have worked immensely hard to get to this point, and the is the most among duos and now the second-best sum entire team has been tireless in its efforts to execute their overall, passing Buck Owens’ three-week double-up in vision. Plus, thanks to country radio for its unending 1964. The pair trails only Luke Bryan, who controlled support. It’s going to be an exciting year.” the top two on the chart at the same time for nine weeks “Speechless” hit No. 1 for the first time on the Dec.