Sarah Jarosz. Photo: Scott Simontacchi

By Bob Doerschuk

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Music found its way early to 18-year-old Sarah Jarosz, beginning with solfège and ear training in kindergarten and culminating with her participation for seven consecutive years in the Organization of American Kodaly Educators National Honor Choir.

But her true muse came in the form of a mandolin, given by her parents one Christmas when she was almost 10 and living in Wimberley, Texas. Her proximity to Austin may have been the final ingredient in leading her toward American roots music. Continue Reading

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Hank Williams Sr. and Ray Price. Photo: courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

By Deborah Evans Price

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Ray Price could relax and look back on an incredible career. Instead, the Country Music Hall of Fame member is looking ahead. He’s starting his own record label, recording new music and performing for his enthusiastic fans.

But doesn’t he ever think about taking it easy, maybe doing a little fishing? “I’d be wondering why the hell I ain’t out there singing — that’s what I’d be doing on a fishing boat,” he said. “I love making music. It’s my life. I was born for it, I guess. I want to do it better and better and better and better. I’m not satisfied. I don’t think anybody should be.” Continue Reading

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Gloriana photo courtesy of Emblem Music Group. Photo credit: Kristin Barlowe.

By Bob Doerschuk

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Established through club gigs in North Carolina as a duo, brothers Mike and Tom Gossin moved to Nashville in 2007 and soon after hooked up with Rachel Reinert. Working now as a trio, they connected with Cheyenne Kimball, a member of the audience during one of their gigs at Nashville club 3rd & Lindsley; instrumentally as well as vocally, she proved the last ingredient in the sound of Gloriana.

They rehearsed for six months before sending a demo to Emblem Music Group. Matt Serletic, founder of the new record label, responded immediately, welcomed them to the roster and got to work lining up material for their debut album. Continue Reading

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Holly Williams photo courtesy of Mercury Nashville. Photo credit: Autumn de Wilde.

By Tim Ghianni
© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

The blonde with the face that carries the delicate features of her grandfather likes to drop in to check out the goods in her upscale Nashville boutique, where boots that were dragged by a truck through Italian dirt go for $1,200-plus.

“I love it,” said Holly Williams, granddaughter of Hank, daughter of Hank Jr., talking about her Nashville store H. Audrey, whose stock of contemporary clothing and accessories ranges from those Golden Goose boots at the higher end to some $198 jeans on sale for $50. Audrey is her middle name as well as the name of her dad’s mother, the woman who inspired Hank Williams to compose some of Country’s greatest songs of heartbreak and love. Continue Reading

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Justin Moore photo by Kristin Barlowe, courtesy of The Valory Music Co.

By Bob Doerschuk

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

If you can make your past come alive through music, then you’ve got a gift that will serve you well. In this department, Justin Moore is amply blessed.

Case in point: Though written by Randy Houser and Jeremy Stover, Moore’s first single, “Back That Thing Up,” conjures how life must have felt back on the Arkansas farm where he was raised. Kids grew up there hunting, fishing, milking the cows and working the land — the kind of routine that feeds the good-natured, double-entendre swagger in this tale of a country boy as he introduces a city lass to the wonders of rural recreation. Continue Reading

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Craig Morgan, with Duke and Jay Bush, graduates from Grill U. Photo courtesy of Bush's Baked Beans.

By Bob Doerschuk

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

There were plenty of reasons why it made sense that Craig Morgan and Bush’s Baked Beans could form an ideal partnership of artist and product, each enhancing and benefiting from what the other had to offer. But for Morgan himself, none of it mattered if not for one essential truth.

“I love to grill,” he said. “I could probably try to sell something I’m not that into, but when I’m looking at potential sponsors or endorsements I try to affiliate myself with products I would use. I ride Kawasaki motorcycles. When I’m on a tractor, it’s my Case IH. I’m loyal to these products.” Continue Reading

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Promotional collateral for Red Roof Loves Country. Courtesy of Rink Entertainment.

By Bob Doerschuk

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Several years ago, seeking a better insight into their customer base, Red Roof Inn assigned its public relations and marketing partner, Florida-based Hill & Knowlton/SAMCOR, to look into the subject.

The results of the investigation were clear. “The Red Roof Inn customer is ‘gray-collar,’ not quite white- or blue-collar,” said Jim Rink, President, Rink Entertainment. “They don’t need to spend a lot of money. They don’t care about frills. And their passion lifestyle experience is dead on target with two areas: NASCAR and Country Music.” Continue Reading

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Eric Church photo courtesy of Capitol Records Nashville. Photo credit: Jim Wright

By Vernell Hackett

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

When Eric Church wanted to leave college to pursue music, his dad made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. “He told me if I’d graduate from college, he would pay for my first six months living expenses in Nashville,” the North Carolina native recalled. “I graduated with a degree in marketing and my dad was true to his word.”

That degree has paid off. Church’s sophomore album, Carolina, is out. He has already wrapped up the 37-stop first phase of “The Young & Wild Tour,” to resume in mid June. And his fan base, known as the Church Choir, is expanding not only because of their hero’s all-stops-out shows and originals-only sets but also because of where many of those shows take place – like, for instance, Lollapalooza. Continue Reading

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Matt Stillwell photo courtesy of Aristo Media.

Written by Bob Doerschuk

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

Matt Stillwell has figured it out. On his debut album, Shine, produced by Mickey Jack Cones and released by Still7 Records, he walks that line where the gritty and commercial sides of life intersect. These 10 tunes, half of them co-written by Stillwell, are suited equally for radio listening and dance-club partying. And this Sylva, N.C., native sings each one with a voice that sounds both young and experienced. Continue Reading

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Pat Green photo courtesy of BNA Records. Photo credit: Danny Clinch.

By Holly Gleason

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

“I don’t need to be seen as an intellectual,” Pat Green admitted, with a laugh. “I’m not trying to save the planet or the monkeys or whatever. I just like to make people feel good. I love that part of my job – and it destroys my soul any time I think I make anyone feel bad. That’s who I am, and I think it says a lot about the music I make.”

Having quietly become an outdoor-shed headliner in Texas, Green broke through on national radio in 2003 with his double-Grammy-nominated existential hit “Wave on Wave.” Since then, he’s balanced uneasily between the Texas songwriter that he was and the mainstream Country star he seems destined to be. Continue Reading

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