Country Update BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS JUNE 29, 2020 | PAGE 1 OF 18 INSIDE BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE [email protected] Chesney’s ‘Here’ Is Nashville Video Shoots Make Do ‘Now’ No. 1 >page 4 Amid COVID-Related Limitations Rice, Janson The morning after a night of protest in downtown Nashville, video. Cole Swindell did a herky-jerky version of the moon- Concert Pushback Matt Stell snuck into the Fleet Street Pub in the city’s Printer’s walk in a NASA-themed shirt during the “Single Saturday >page 10 Alley, occupying the space for 12 hours as he portrayed 13 dif- Night” video. And Kane Brown shot appearances on two NBC ferent characters for the video to “If I Was a Bar.” shows — The Voice and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon — In the end, the on the same day, project had Stell using a green screen Paisley, Greenwood interacting with to make “Cool Again” Line Up For 4th different versions look different on both >page 11 of himself, a clever, programs. humorous way to “The virus has build a story and definitely made mak- create online content ing videos more diffi- Ell, Hammack Share at a time when plenty cult,” says Brown. “In Release Dates of consumers are the past when we had >page 11 isolated and searching the opportunity to tape for entertainment. a performance like BROWN BRADBERY STELL It’s also a victory over The Voice, we would Makin’ Tracks: creative limitations, fly to L.A. and record Wallen Rooted In given that social-distancing practices related to the coronavirus in front of an audience with all of the show production. Now we ‘Hometown’ forced him to do the shoot as the lone on-camera actor, captured have to figure it out ourselves and try to still make it look good.” >page 15 by a skeletal three-person crew. And they have to make it safe, too. Record labels and video “My mind was geared on ‘What can I do without bar extras or production companies have all established guidelines for on- all these different patrons we’d have, including a bartender?’ ” set behaviors. Crews are kept small to make social distanc- says video director Dustin Haney. “I had pretty much nobody ing easier; masks are required, except for actors while they are Country Coda: to work with, so I kind of took that from there and went, ‘Well, being filmed; the production sites are scrubbed in advance of George Jones’ what if I just use Matt a bunch of times over?’ ” the shoot; hand sanitizer is plentiful; and all foods are boxed 40-Year Landmark The clip is just one of numerous examples of directors and and individually wrapped, eliminating the buffet setup that >page 18 producers finding ways to flex their creative muscle amid re- was previously standard for a shoot. strictions imposed by COVID-19. Danielle Bradbery took a Complicating matters, some video professionals are sexy walk through a lonely field for her “Never Have I Ever” understandably squeamish about working in public spaces BERINATO. MATTHEW STELL: ZAVADIL. PETER BRADBERY: LLANES. JOSEPH BROWN: 47 Breaker! BB 44 CA 24 Most Streamed Current 15% Audience Increase ADD IT / CONVERT IT NOW! 48% Shazams BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE JUNE 29, 2020 | PAGE 2 OF 18 during the COVID era, forcing producers to hire from a smaller talent pool. The work, however, is fairly plentiful. With concerts on hold for the fore- seeable future, video is increasingly important as a vehicle for exposure. Both official and lyric videos, as well as TV and concert performances, are in larger demand, and since the crews are smaller, the productions generally cost less, allowing labels and artists to finance more shoots. But the creators are doing their best to heighten the quality, and variety, of the productions. The industry initially responded to self-isolation with a pa- rade of live, at-home Facebook and Instagram events. Those attempts quickly lost their novelty, and video pros made inventive adjustments within the pan- demic’s limitations, such as the split-screen effects director Haney employed in Stell’s “If I Was a Bar.” “Dustin came up with that cool idea,” explains Stell. “Necessity is the mother of invention. Figur- ing out the way that we could do something fun and creative within this space, sometimes it does almost help to have some boundaries to push against.” To facilitate the collection and rollout of the vid- GICKER JOSH BARRET: eos, labels have made adjustments, too. At Big Ma- Gabby Barrett received RIAA-certified gold and platinum singles chine Label Group, creative content/asset manager for her debut, “I Hope,” during a June 23 livestream. From left: Red Seth Hellman developed three simple video kits, Light Management head of marketing Tom Lord, Barrett, Warner each of which includes an iPhone with dual-camera Music Nashville executive vp/GM Ben Kline and Red Light manager HANEY technology, a high-grade microphone, a tripod, in- Brooke Yancey. structions and return packaging. The label sends a kit to an artist, who can easily create the content and ship the kit back to the label, where the phone is sterilized and the materials are downloaded and distributed. Even when the business returns to some level of normalcy, the video kits are likely to remain a part of the BMLG creative department’s practices. “Especially with some of our artists that don’t live here in Nashville, it’s not easy to have them just, you know, ‘Hey, hop on over here tomorrow at four; we need some liners from you,’ or ‘We need just a little bit of content,’ ” notes senior vp creative Sandi Spika Borchetta. “Almost all of them actu- ally are really savvy with capturing things on their own phone. So this is a step above that.” BORCHETTA Given the current explosion in COVID-19 cases and the likelihood that a vaccine will not be avail- able until 2021, smaller video productions might be the only realistic alter- native for another year or so. BMLG employees and artists are flying rarely, if at all, for safety reasons, so most videos are made near the act’s locale. The lone exception so far is Bradbery’s “Never Have I Ever” clip. Since her home is a three-hour drive from Austin, she met director Peter Zavadil there and purposely conducted the shoot outdoors, which is Shawn Parr joined WQKZ Jasper, Ind., social media manager Lindsey currently considered to be a safer environment than Sipe for lunch at the Schnitzelbank restaurant during a visit to the an indoor site. station, which is among the early affiliates on his Key Networks show “It was a very, very small, stealth crew,” says Shawn Parr’s Across the Country. Borchetta. “They shot an interview with her, we got liners, they shot footage for the music video, and everybody was masked up. They had gloves ZAVADIL on, they stayed far apart, and it was very isolated.” While the video pros are finding ways to work around COVID, it becomes more difficult with each shoot to find new, cre- ative ways to react to the pandemic. “The videos are more cost-effective, and that’s great for the short term,” says Brown’s video director, Alex Alvga. “However, we can’t do performances like this indefinitely. I don’t think I’m speaking just for myself, but I do look forward to a time when we can get back to fuller performances.” Even when that time arrives, the coronavirus era will likely leave a mark because it’s forcing cre- ative adjustments and imprinting memories on the participants. “As different as it was, I’ll never forget it,” says Singer-songwriter Adam Sanders (“Ain’t Worth the Whiskey,” “Hell Swindell of the green-screen production behind of a Night”) inked a co-publishing deal with Round Hill Nashville. “Single Saturday Night.” “I’ll probably never shoot Clockwise from left: Round Hill senior vp Mark Brown, manager Bob ALVGA another video like it.” Squance and Sanders. BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE JUNE 29, 2020 | PAGE 4 OF 18 ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected] Kenny Chesney ‘Now’ Scores 31st Country Airplay No. 1; Gabby Barrett Strikes Gold With Top Five Country Albums Debut Kenny Chesney’s “Here and Now” (Blue Chair/Warner Music Nashville/ country album by a woman. The sum also marks the biggest opening stream- WMN) ascends 2-1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart dated July 4. In the ing week for a debut country set in 2020 and the third-largest debut stream- week ending June 28, the song’s audience impressions increased by 18% to ing frame for any such album this year (after Sam Hunt’s Southside, with 36.8 29.8 million, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. million, and Kelsea Ballerini’s Kelsea, with 16.7 million). The song is Chesney’s record-extending 31st leader. Dating to the list’s The 13-track set includes 12 songs co-authored by the 20-year-old Barrett, January 1990 launch, Tim McGraw ranks second with 29 No. 1s, Blake Shel- who finished in third place on ABC’s American Idol in 2018. First single “I Hope,” ton places third with 27, and Alan Jackson and George which led Country Airplay in April, was the first career- Strait follow with 26 apiece. opening No. 1 by a woman since Carly Pearce’s “Every “I remember cutting ‘Here and Now’ and how great it Little Thing,” which reigned in November 2017. felt,” Chesney tells Billboard. “But I also hoped it might re- On the airplay-, streaming- and sales-powered Hot mind really busy people what matters is: Be in the moment.