SESAC and ASCAP joined forces at The Local on Tuesday, May 24^th to celebrate RECORDS Nashville artist Matt Stell’s (ASCAP) second consecutive #1 single, “Everywhere But On” with co-writers Paul Sikes (ASCAP) and Lance Miller (SESAC).

The song, produced by Stell and Ash Bowers, hit the top of the Billboard Country Airplay chart on November 7, 2020. It follows his certified Platinum debut single, “Prayed For You,” which topped the charts in October 2019. Stell has amassed over half a billion streams across his catalog, and his latest single “Man Made” is impacting country radio now.

Shannan Hatch (SESAC), Mike Sistad (ASCAP), Michael Martin (Endurance Music Group), and Will Overton (Warner Chappell Music) all honored the group with brief remarks.

About ASCAP:
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a professional membership organization of songwriters, composers and music publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP’s mission is to license and promote the music of its members and foreign affiliates, obtain fair compensation for the public performance of their works and to distribute the royalties that it collects based upon those performances. ASCAP members write the world’s best-loved music and ASCAP has pioneered the efficient licensing of that music to hundreds of thousands of enterprises who use it to add value to their business – from bars, restaurants and retail, to radio, TV and cable, to Internet, mobile services and more. The ASCAP license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. With more than 850,000 members representing more than 16 million copyrighted works, ASCAP is the worldwide leader in performance royalties, service and advocacy for songwriters and composers, and the only American performing rights organization (PRO) owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. Learn more and stay in touch at www.ascap.com, on Twitter and Instagram @ASCAP and on Facebook.

EXCLUSIVELY WITH CMT AND CMT.COM

With his highly anticipated album Rich White Honky Blues set for June 17 via Easy Eye Sound, Hank Williams Jr. debuts the closing track of the 12-song collection produced by Dan Auerbach with Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “Jesus, Won’t You Come By Here.” The official music video premieres today, May 26, with CMT and CMT.com.

With Kenny Brown’s electric guitar, Auerbach on dobro and Bobbie Wood’s churchy piano and organ, the Country Music Hall of Famer sings with a robust conviction that suggests the larger than life amongst us transcend mortal limitations.

Directed by Tim Hardiman, the official music video features footage from the recording sessions of Rich White Honky Blues at Nashville’s Easy Eye Sound studio, interspersed with scenes of peaceful small-town living.

“My brother Dan, the band and I did our thing in the studio for a few days, and this video gives fans a look behind-the-scenes…in a room together, just playing the blues,” Williams shared with CMT.com. “The other clips were shot in a small town in Mississippi – just perfect for an old southern hymnal. It’s a reminder to slow down and enjoy ourselves.”

“This song perfectly encapsulates what it was like to make this record,” adds producer Auerbach. “You can hear us hanging out before we slowly fumble our way into the song. It’s a very raw and real moment in the studio caught on tape.”

“Jesus, Won’t You Come by Here” follows the release of “Georgia Women,” as Tennessean shared that with the “cover of blues legend, R.L. Burnside’s 25-year-old classic, Bocephus achieves tapping into the spirit of his father’s iconic teacher Rufus ‘Tee Tot’ Payne, and a century of other blues legends.”

Released alongside the announcement of Rich White Honky Blues, album opener “.44 Special Blues” (Williams’ take on Robert Johnson’s “32-20 Blues”) was dubbed by Rolling Stone as “a lonesome, acoustic blues number,” while Consequence shared “the spry solo track digs into the County Music Hall of Famer’s bluesy roots, with its vintage-style refrain, ‘Baby where’d you stay last night,’ pairing perfectly to his well-worn wail.”

More than the swaggering singles, roughneck fantasy videos or relentless sense of blue-collar boogie, at his core, the 72-year-old legend is a bluesman. With Rich White Honky Blues, Williams makes good on his legacy with a turpentine and rough wood take on the hill country blues that informed his father’s raw-boned style of putting his pain out there. GRAMMY-winning Producer of the Year Auerbach recorded the set live, with a dozen songs reprising classics from Robert Johnson, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Burnside, Muddy Waters, Big Joe Turner and a few from Bocephus himself.

Track is Featured on Forthcoming 12-Song, Label Debut, I’ll Tell You What’s Gonna Happen, Set for Release July 8 

On the heels of the announcement of her label debut, I’ll Tell You What’s Gonna Happen, arriving July 8 via Show Dog Nashville in partnership with Thirty Tigers, singer/songwriter Kimberly Kelly releases another taste from the forthcoming album with “Blue Jean Country Queen” featuring Steve Wariner. Listen HERE.

Produced by Brett Tyler, Kelly’s husband and a hit songwriter himself with No. 1s like “Cold Beer Calling My Name” under his belt, and written by Kelly, Tyler and Wariner the upbeat track is an ode to confident women with the chorus declaring:

She’s a blue jean country queen
A honky tonk heart attack
Boots to her knees fringe on her sleeves 
And horns on her Cadillac 
Momma’s prayer, and daddy’s nightmare, 
Made for the neon lights
She’s a blue jean country queen 
Looking for a king tonight

“It was the first-time meeting and writing with Steve for both Brett and I,” shares Kelly. “Brett was complementing Steve on his signature tempo like the one on ‘Nothin’ but the Taillights’ that he wrote, and I already had the title ‘Blue Jean Country Queen’ which just seemed right for a Steve tempo. Then to top it off, Steve ended up playing guitar on the song. He had us out to his home studio to play us the track. It was incredible. This track might be the theme of the whole album.”

“It was so fun writing this with Kimberly and Brett, even if it was via Zoom,” shares Wariner. “I LOVE this record! It’s a country ‘mini movie’ wrapped up in three and a half minutes. Kimberly absolutely lays it down! So proud to be in on this one!”

The new track follows the release of nostalgic song-of-summer ready track, “Summers Like That” which left Billboard praising Kelly’s “warm, lifting voice.” Written by Karyn Rochelle and Bobby Tomberlin and produced by Tyler, the song not only name checks a number of classic 90s country hits but is also sonically, reminiscence of some of Kelly’s biggest influences, artist like Trisha Yearwood, Pam Tillis, Brooks & Dunn and Deana Carter. Listen to “Summers Like That,” HERE.

A native of Lorena, Texas, Kelly spent years in both the Texas and Nashville music scenes earning an education in experiences that have made her both fearless in her approach to creating and unafraid to defy convention when it comes to industry expectations. Those years of hard work, all while also earning a Master’s degree and working fulltime, culminated last summer in a long-awaited record deal with Show Dog Nashville. Now she is set to make her label debut. Pre-order or pre-save I’ll Tell You What’s Gonna Happen, HERE.

Off stage Kelly possess an inviting warmth mixed with sly self-deprecation, a winsome combo only earned with some life experience, self-awareness and nothing to prove on stage just the goods to stop a listener in their tracks. “This is not my first rodeo,” Kelly says of her label debut. “I worked really hard in Texas before I came to Nashville. I wrote songs, put out records, did a radio tour, and played every weekend while going to school and working full-time.”

The album’s title, I’ll Tell You What’s Gonna Happen, is a clever nod to her friend and fellow Texas musician, the late Country Music Hall of Famer, Billy Joe Shaver. The abbreviated quote comes from the better-than-fiction-true story of Shaver forcing his way into a Waylon Jennings recording session after the star tried to renege on recording some of his songs. Brushing off a $100 bill to go away, Shaver said to Jennings, “I’ll tell you what’s gonna happen. You’re gonna either listen to these songs or I’m gonna whip your ass.” Waylon agreed to listen to one. The rest is history in the form of Jennings’ 1973 Honky Tonk Heroes album, on which every song but one was written by Shaver.

“I landed on this album title on a dare,” Kelly says. “I was like, ‘Sure. What do I care?’ I did the Texas music scene, I’ve done time in Nashville, and I thought my time had passed when I got offered my record deal. My husband could keep writing songs and I’d just be a speech therapist. So I made this album like it’s the last one I’ll ever get to make and the title is my mantra so to speak. I love good songs, and I let the best ones win whether I wrote them or not. It’s a compilation I’m proud of, and I’m thrilled for people to hear them!”

Additional Media Appearances Include Varney & Company, Fox News Radio, and more!

Grammy award-winning artist, Lee Greenwood, best known for his signature song “God Bless the U.S.A.” will appear on Fox & Friends on Friday, May 27 to kick off Memorial Day weekend and launch the network’s summer concert series. Greenwood will also make appearances on Varney & Company, Fox News Radio, and more.

Additionally, on Sunday, May 29, Greenwood will make his way to Concord, NC, where he will perform the national anthem for the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which will also air on the Fox network.

Greenwood’s documentary, ‘Proud to Be an American: The Lee Greenwood Story,’ released in 2021, is still available for streaming on Fox Nation.

“For most people, Memorial Day is a day off of work and a chance to get together with family and friends and enjoy the last few days of spring, but it is also a solemn day of recognizing and paying tribute to those who paid the ultimate price in support of our country,” stated Greenwood. “It’s important to not lose sight of this, so I hope my presence there will help honor them.”

Greenwood is considered one of the most avid and longstanding supporters of America’s troops and veterans. He recently partnered with global firework manufacturer Black Cat ® to introduce a 42-shot “Proud to Be an American” firework available in select locations across the country. He also recently partnered with veteran-owned Patriarch Distiller’s Soldier Valley Spirits to produce a signature line of whiskey, bourbon, and vodka, with a portion of proceeds going to support veterans’ charity groups.  Elite Source Pro teamed with Greenwood to produce the “God Bless the USA Bible,”, which contains the King James Version of the Bible and includes the founding USA documents: Pledge of Allegiance, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights, as well as a copy of the handwritten chorus to “God Bless the USA.”