Country Update BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS APRIL 5, 2021 | PAGE 1 OF 19 INSIDE BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE [email protected] New Leaders On The Class Of ’91: A Dozen Former New Kids Three Top Charts >page 4 Have Graduated To Key Influencers CMA, MHA Staff Up Time, as Tracy Lawrence sang in a 1990s classic, marches on. and Pam Tillis; Lawrence and fellow traditionalists Aaron Tippin >page 10 The current time finds Lawrence celebrating 30 years since and Sammy Kershaw; plus pop- and folk-influenced singers his debut single — “Sticks and Stones,” which first appeared on Collin Raye, Billy Dean and Hal Ketchum. Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart dated Nov. 9, 1991 —and And it really was a class, in the sense that all the acts — ar- that anniversary arrives as ’90s country is a big deal again. riving just as Brooks had attracted the national spotlight to the Combs, Rhett, Luke Combs, Carly Pearce, Jon Pardi, Tenille Arts and Mi- genre — experienced their launch with a greater sense of pos- Bentley On ACMs chael Ray are among the modern hitmakers who count music sibility than many of their predecessors were afforded. >page 11 from that era as an “Everything was influence on their new and buzzy and work. exciting,” recalls There’s a good McBride & The Alan Jackson case to be made R i d e f r o n t m a n Is Back that Lawrence and Terry McBride. >page 11 11 other artists who “There was that debuted the same camaraderie of year, the Class of those artists, sort Makin’ Tracks: ’91, form an under- of a kinship and Caroline Jones’ appreciated founda- friendship that ‘Come In’ tion for the country was being made music that resonates from seeing these >page 16 LAWRENCE TILLISDEAN McBRIDE in 2021. Music Row people on the road, BRIDE: JASON LEE DENTON LEE JASON BRIDE: executives have touring together, v long hailed the Class of ’89 as a standout: Garth Brooks, Alan doing these publicity things together. It was everybody kind Country Coda: Jackson, Clint Black and Travis Tritt all made their first chart of excited for everybody.” When Rascal Flatts appearances, while Vince Gill achieved his long-sought coun- Much of the excitement was a direct result of SoundScan. Had ‘The Most’ try breakout with “When I Call Your Name.” Prior to its introduction in the Billboard issue dated May 25, >page 19 But the Class of ’91 was special, too. Headed by Country Music 1991, album charts were derived from reports by retailers Hall of Fame members Brooks & Dunn, it included harmony acts and distributors. The reliability of that information was sub- Diamond Rio, Little Texas and McBride & The Ride; Country ject to the gatherers’ competence, perception and integrity. Music Association female vocalists of the year Trisha Yearwood SoundScan, which now operates as MRC Data, measured sales M BRUNO, PAUL JON LAWRENCE: BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE APRIL 5, 2021 | PAGE 2 OF 19 through a computer network that tracked point-of-purchase transactions, and it quickly proved that country was selling better than was generally known. Eighteen country titles moved upward on Top Pop Albums that issue. Sixteen of them jumped at least 10 positions, and 11 titles leaped over 20 spots. An additional nine country albums reentered the chart under the new method- ology. The media, and the music business itself, were forced to pay attention. “When it came out, we were keeping the lights on up in New York,” says Diamond Rio guitarist Jimmy Olander, contrasting Arista Nashville with the label’s pop division. “They were hav- ing dismal years. Alan was killing it [in country], Brooks & Dunn, you know — we were really, re- ally doing well. It was nice when the technology affirmed [that], for sure.” While ’90s country sounds traditional in 2021 Warner Music Nashville artist Ian Munsick chatted with KCCY hindsight, much of it was considered progressive Colorado Springs, Colo., staff amidst his first virtual radio promotion at the time. Eagles harmonies and Southern rock tour. Clockwise from top left: Munsick, WMN Team WEA manager OLANDER guitars were dominant influences on the genre, West regional promotion Ray Mariner, KCCY PD Shawn Patrick and country drum sounds approximated arena-level WMN Team WEA national director of radio and streaming Shari Roth. power and echo for the first time, and tempos were generally faster. The pre- viously ballad-tilted format would yield a line dance craze in 1992. “It kind of went through some of those pop-feeling moments with pro- duction,” reflects McBride. “It was a lot slicker and a little glossier than the hardcore country stuff, like Gary Stewart, that I grew up on. But still the same subjects.” Indeed, 19 of the top 20 songs on the Hot Country Singles chart dated April 6, 1991, were about commitment, future love, romantic misery or small- town values. The lone exception — Reba McEntire’s “Fancy,” about a woman who slept her way to being wealthy — at least had small-town imagery and an aspirational attitude. “I’m not seeing the big party vibe in here. I’m seeing a little bit more country value,” says Olander, comparing the music of the Class of ’91 with modern country. “We were doing stuff that spoke to us, and the values in our personal lives were not about the party. It was about relationships.” With the exception of Ketchum, who died in 2020, all of the artists in the Class of ’91 are still working in the music business 30 years later. Lawrence Dolly Parton received her second shot of the Moderna COVID-19 hosts a syndicated radio show and is launching an album trilogy, Hindsight vaccine on April 2 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. 2020, beginning with Volume 1: Stairway to Heaven Highway to Hell on April 23; From left: Dr. Naji Abumrad; Andrea Calhoun, RN; Parton; and Heather Tillis issued a quality project, Looking for a Feeling, O’Dell, Vanderbilt manager, abdominal transplant. in 2020; Olander and Diamond Rio keyboard- ist Dan Truman are collaborating on an instru- mental project; and McBride targeted the Texas red-dirt circuit with a solo album, Rebels & An- gels, while McBride & The Ride is reuniting with a handful of dates starting April 9. Some of that era’s longevity is an extension of an age-old pop-music cycle: Many of their origi- nal fans have grown up and are now accompanied OLSON PETE at concerts by their kids, who feel connected to TILLIS songs they’ve heard at home for years. But the Class of ’91 is also benefiting from a Seaforth lobbed an April Fools’ Day message about breaking up to speedier chart. The Hot Country Singles top 10 on April 6, 1991, ranged in their fans on social media, setting up the forthcoming release of a age from Alabama’s “Down Home,” which had charted for just six weeks, to new single, “Breakups.” The duo shifted to Arista Nashville from Dean’s ironically titled “Only Here for a Little While” logging its 16th week RCA Nashville the same day. From left at Nashville’s Queen Avenue on the list. By comparison, the top 10 titles on the April 5, 2021, Country Collective: The duo’s Mitch Thompson, Arista Nashville vp promotion Airplay chart span 21 weeks to 60 weeks. Josh Easler and the duo’s Tom Jordan. “We were getting four singles a year,” notes Lawrence. “A guy like me that had a really solid 10-year run and had a couple of hits as we got into the 2000s, I was able to amass a great body of work that allows me to keep working for a long time. It’s harder for a young artist to really get a body of work. It takes longer to put that together now.” While hip-hop sonic influences and the influx of party songs have changed some of country’s texture, Combs, Pearce and Pardi are still working old-school themes and musical structures in 2021, providing shoutouts to ’90s country that keep that era in mind. Since most of the Class of ’91 kept having hits for five to 17 more years, those dozen artists joined the Class of ’89 to create the backbone of the ’90s country now enjoying a resurgence. VALLE DEL OLIVIA “I think people will look back on the early ’90s like they do parts of clas- Scotty McCreery (center) signed a songwriting contract with Universal sic rock’n’roll,” predicts Lawrence. “That stuff’s going to stay around for a Music Publishing Group Nashville. He’s flanked by UMPGN vp A&R long time.” Terry Wakefield (left) and chairman/CEO Troy Tomlinson. BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE APRIL 5, 2021 | PAGE 4 OF 19 ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected] Good ‘Ones’: Gabby Barrett, Carrie Underwood And Florida Georgia Line Land New Leaders Gabby Barrett banks her second career-opening No. 1 single on Billboard’s The twosome passes Rascal Flatts for the second-most leaders among duos airplay-, sales- and streaming-based Hot Country Songs chart as “The Good and groups in the chart’s 31-year history, after Brooks & Dunn’s 20. Among Ones” (Warner Music Nashville/WAR) tops the April 10-dated list. all acts, Kenny Chesney leads with 31 No. 1s. Barrett, Zach Kale, Emily Landis and Jim McCormick wrote the track. “Live,” which Hubbard and Kelley wrote with Corey Crowder, David Gar- The song increased by 13% to 25 million audience impressions in the week cia and Josh Miller, marks FGL’s first Country Airplay leader since “Simple” ending April 4, according to MRC Data, as it pushes 6-4 on Country Airplay.