Country Update BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS MARCH 18, 2019 | PAGE 1 OF 22 INSIDE BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE [email protected] Maren Morris: Brooks & Dunn, Ray Stevens, Jerry Chart Meets Girl >page 4 Bradley Immortalized In Hall Of Fame George Strait Packs ’Em In “I don’t know how I got here, but I ain’t leaving.” Retired music RCA executive — providing the vital, unsung foundation upon >page 11 executive Jerry Bradley was both dumbfounded and celebratory which such Hall of Fame members as Waylon Jennings, Dolly on March 18 as he contemplated his entrance into the Country Parton, Charley Pride, Alabama and Ronnie Milsap were able Music Hall of Fame, an achievement that stands as the ultimate to build their creative houses. music-industry endurance test. Bradley, Brooks & Dunn and The Country Hall is, museum CEO Kyle Young said, a Where There’s Ray Stevens were revealed as the newest entrants inside “meaningful hall of fame.” Country music is an American- Smoke, the Hall of Fame’s Rotunda, bred genre, and the Hall There’s Country where the announcement was recognizes the figures who >page 11 made amid the plaques of the played the most significant Hall’s previous 136 inductees, roles in transforming it from an including Hank Williams, informal front-porch diversion Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash into a big business. Jake Owen and Jimmie Rodgers. Each of 2019’s inductees Sends His Greetings The names at the top of the impacted both the creative >page 11 charts regularly turn over, and and the business sides of the even the places where the music industry. Bradley made RCA’s gets made are increasingly torn Nashville division the first Makin’ Tracks: down and replaced in Nashville. major-label enterprise with Dierks Bentley’s But once someone has their The 2019 Country Music Hall of Fame inductees autonomy from the home ‘Living’ name added to the Hall’s roll of were unveiled March 18. From left: Stevens, Bradley office, a move that gave the >page 17 honor, it’s not something that and Brooks & Dunn members Dunn and Brooks. country wing greater creative can be taken away. control and an ability to move Brooks & Dunn, Stevens and Bradley all found their own way faster when its product worked in the marketplace. At the same in. Brooks & Dunn logged 20 No. 1s on both the Hot Country time, Bradley signed or advanced artists who expanded the Country Coda: Songs and Country Airplay charts using Eagles-like harmonies music’s place in the culture, through the crossover efforts of No ‘Doubt’ About and a relentless party-time concert atmosphere. Stevens mined Milsap and Parton, the barrier-breaking presence of Pride and Neal McCoy comedic talents and an entrepreneurial spirit while registering the trend-setting works of Jennings and Alabama. >page 22 an optimistic signature song, “Everything Is Beautiful,” that Stevens wisely invested in both the business and his own countered the wartime era in which it was spawned. Bradley talents. At one time, he owned 13 parcels along Music Row, but worked behind the scenes — mostly as a record producer and he also sunk his funds into other areas: building one of the first BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE MARCH 18, 2019 | PAGE 2 OF 22 theaters in the country-tourism mecca of Branson, Mo.; packaging a historic box set of comedic recordings; and putting his money into several TV shows, including his latest, Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville, shot at his own Nashville club and carried on PBS. Stevens had serious musical talents (he worked as a studio musician-background singer on recordings by Elvis Presley, Faron Young and Leroy Van Dyke), but his flair for comedy — demonstrated by “Ahab the Arab,” “Shriner’s Convention” and “The Streak” — made him a quasi- bridge between early country’s vaudevillian aspirations and contemporary country’s more subtle approach to humor. Brooks & Dunn helped move the genre’s stage presentation forward. Their incorporation of confetti machines and inflatable figures that towered 20-30 feet above them let their high-amperage brand of music touch even fans in Kane Brown (center) met up with KASE/KVET Austin PD Anthony Allen venues’ upper reaches as country concerts expanded in the 1990s from a stand- when his Live Forever Tour arrived at the HEB Center March 8. They are and-deliver medium for theaters to spectacular, arena-size events. shown with RCA director of regional promotion Mallory Michaels. Still, none of the innovations in the new Hall of Famers’ approaches would have succeeded if the music at the heart of their game plans wasn’t solid. “That’s been one of my favorite things through this Reboot process,” said Kix Brooks, referencing an April 5 album that revisits Brooks & Dunn’s catalog through collaborations with such newer faces as Thomas Rhett, Luke Combs and Kacey Musgraves. “People are talking about this music and how it stood the test of time. Nobody is talking about confetti and balloons and inflatables. We spent thousands of dollars making these big messes every night, and nobody’s talking about it. They’re talking about the music.” For Brooks & Dunn, that means a range of material from patriotic anthems (“Only in America”) and gospel life lessons (“Believe”) to honky-tonk dance tunes (“Boot Scootin’ Boogie”). For Stevens, that means bluegrass-tipped reinvention (“Misty”), relentless goofiness (“Gitarzan”), tongue-in-cheek Lee Brice (center) guested on NBC’s Today while in Charleston, S.C., on social commentary (“Would Jesus Wear a Rolex”) and that classic signature, March 8. He’s pictured with co-hosts Al Roker and Kathie Lee Gifford. “Everything Is Beautiful.” For Bradley, it’s a hand in the development or exposure of Parton’s “9 to 5,” Milsap’s “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me,” Presley’s “My Way” and Jennings’ collaboration with Willie Nelson, “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” As was demonstrated by Stevens’ sale of his core Music Row property and the recent near-demolition of RCA Studio A (the building that formerly housed Bradley’s office), much about the conditions that surround music is up for frequent renewal. Buildings may disappear, the delivery platform is ever- changing, and the music makers themselves all eventually pass on. The Hall of Fame recognizes the work that endures. “It’s not the bricks and mortar,” said Bradley, emphasizing what’s in the heart and soul of Music Row. “It’s the people. It’s a songwriter with a hit song, it’s somebody that can sing, and it’s the world’s best musicians, and that comes Waterloo Revival played an acoustic set for WOKQ Portsmouth, N.H., out on a piece of tape or a CD or what have you, and that’s played all over listeners during a March 12 station visit. From left: Show Dog Nashville the world. It could be cut in a garage, it could be cut in one of those Sears & Northeast/Midwest regional promotion manager Denise Roberts, Roebuck houses. It’s not bricks and mortar. It’s what those 15, 16 people do.” Waterloo Revival’s Cody Cooper, Townsquare Media/Portsmouth The four people that comprise 2019’s class will be inducted later this year operations manager Robby Bridges and Waterloo Revival’s in a formal medallion ceremony at the Hall of Fame’s CMA Theater. George Birge. FINAL ROUND VOTING DEADLINE TOMORROW MARCH 19 CLICK HERE FOR YOUR ACM CONSIDERATION FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR Selected as the COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME® AND MUSEUM’S 15TH ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 7 MULTI-PLATINUM® 2 MAJOR HEADLINING TOURS RIAA CERTIFICATIONS The Bandwagon Tour Livin’ Like Hippies Awarded in 2018 with Little Big Town Solo tour Including PLATINUM® “Tin Man” MUSIC EVENT OF THE YEAR “DROWNS THE WHISKEY” — Jason Aldean feat. Miranda Lambert #1 RADIO HIT © 2019 Sony Music Entertainment. BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE MARCH 18, 2019 | PAGE 4 OF 22 ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected] Maren Morris’ Girl Bows At No. 1 On Top Country Albums Chart With Record Debut-Week Streams Singer-songwriter Maren Morris’ second studio LP, Girl (Columbia Nashville/ EP entered at No. 27 in November 2015 and peaked at No. 22 the following April. Sony Music Nashville [SMN]), released March 8, flies in at No. 1 on Billboard’s The album’s title-track lead single rockets 27-9 on Hot Country Songs, which Top Country Albums chart dated March 23. In its first week (ending March 14), blends streaming, airplay and sales data. It’s Morris’ fifth top 10 on the chart. the set earned 46,000 equivalent album units (25,000 in traditional album On Country Airplay, “Girl” rises 26-25 (7.7 million in audience, essentially even sales), according to Nielsen Music. week over week). The track is the first Hot Country Songs top 10 by a female On the all-genre Billboard 200, Girl starts at No. 4, marking Morris’ second unaccompanied by another artist since Morris’ “Rich” ranked at its No. 8 high top 10 and highest career rank. on Dec. 8. The album is the first No. 1 debut by a woman Morris co-wrote all 14 songs on Girl, which was in 2019 on Top Country Albums and the first since produced by busbee and Greg Kurstin. She is Carrie Underwood’s Cry Pretty arrived at the nominated for female vocalist of the year at the pinnacle of the survey dated Sept. 29, 2018, with 54th annual Academy of Country Music Awards, 266,000 units. to will be held April 7 in Las Vegas. With Girl, Morris notches the largest debut- week streaming sum for a country album by a NEW TOP 10s Chase Rice’s “Eyes on You” female artist: Its songs logged 23.96 million on- (Dack Janiels/Broken Bow) enters the Country demand audio streams in its premiere frame.