Orlando Workshop Guest Speaker Bios Doug Johnson
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ORLANDO WORKSHOP GUEST SPEAKER BIOS KATIE JELEN is head of artist relations for Secret Road Music Services and one half of the creative team for Secret Road Music Publishing, handling the Nashville operations for the company. A "recovering singer- songwriter," she is a classically trained vocalist with a degree in Music Industry as well as a law degree from Drexel University with a concentration in intellectual property. Her responsibilities at Secret Road include setting up co-writes, coordinating the fulfillment of creative briefs for synch placements and pitching songs to the country and pop markets. Secret Road is a music licensing, publishing and management company headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, that has placed songs in such highly rated television shows as Grey's Anatomy, Parenthood, Girls and Pretty Little Liars, and in such films as What to Expect When You're Expecting, Something Borrowed, and No Strings Attached. Additionally, Secret Road artists have provided music for a wide range of brands, including Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, Target and Google. DOUG JOHNSON Whether it’s behind the pen as the writer of record-breaking hits like the recent Billboard “Song of the Year,” Love Like Crazy (Lee Brice) or the CMA and ACM “Song of the Year,” Three Wooden Crosses, (Randy Travis), at the console as the producer of artists like Lee Brice, Hank Jr., Clay Walker and Michael Montgomery, or behind the desk helming an A&R department, Doug Johnson knows his way around a hit. In 2011, Doug Johnson joined the team at Black River Entertainment as the V.P. of A&R and is currently working with the artist roster of Craig Morgan, Kellie Pickler, Kelsea Ballerini, John King, and Bobby Bones and The Raging Idiots. Throughout his 30-plus year career as a songwriter, Johnson has had over 100 cuts, including 7 Number One Hits and 10 Top 10’s by everyone from Bertie Higgins and Alicia Bridges to George Strait, Rascal Flatts, Trace Adkins, Wynonna and Kenny Rogers, among others. Johnson recently made history when he broke a country music record with new artist Lee Brice with the hit, Love Like Crazy, which spent an amazing 56 weeks on the charts. His production credits are equally notable as well: as VP/A&R for Epic Records in the early 90’s, he oversaw the careers of Patty Loveless, Collin Raye, Doug Stone, Joe Diffie, Ty Herndon, the Sons of the Desert and many others. He later moved to Giant Records as President, where he guided the careers of Clay Walker, The Wilkinsons, Blake Shelton, Joe Nichols and Neal McCoy among others. Following his time at Epic Records, Johnson lead the A&R department of Curb Records, whose roster included Tim McGraw, Leann Rimes, Wynonna, Rodney Atkins Lee Brice, Clay Walker and Heidi Newfield, among others. Over the past three decades Johnson has carved out impressive niches in all aspects of the business as an engineer, mixer, musician, producer and top executive, but it’s his passion for creating a well-crafted song that continues to inspire and motivate him with an energy and enthusiasm that is unparalleled in this business. “By far my greatest love is the song. Everything else is an attempt to powerfully capture and express the song in its truest sense to get it to the listener. I’ve been fortunate to be involved in several different aspects of the music business but if I could only do one, it would definitely be songwriting,” says Johnson, “Every other job I’ve had means absolutely nothing without a great song.” .