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Country Radio Seminar aka CRS held February 13-15, 2019 at the Omni Hotel in downtown Nashville celebrated its 50th anniversary with three educational and fun-filled days focused on country music.

Day 1 started with lunch sponsored by Warner Music Nashville with great performances inside the grand ballroom of Omni Hotel by Cole Swindell, Dan + Shay, Ashley McBryde, Cody Johnson, Morgan Evans, Chris Janson, and Devin Dawson with a headlining performance at the end by country superstar Blake Shelton.  Blake Shelton was also presented with the Humanitarian Award just prior to his acoustic performance where he sang early hits as requested by the audience, “Austin” and “Ole Red”.

Later that day following the opening ceremony, educational seminars, and artist interviews, we enjoyed the welcome reception just prior to the Amazon Music Country Heat concert featuring performances by several artists.  My favorites were Zack Brown Band who performed several of their hits along with a fun cover of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, the energetic King Calaway, and unique vocals of Tenille Townes.

The night was still not done as attendees were treated to a special, intimate, nearly 2 hour performance from country superstar Garth Brooks inside the Bridgestone Arena with only his guitar as he shared stories of his music influences, songwriting, and career.

Day 2 of CRS featured the always steller and highly-anticipated Universal Music Group Nashville lunch inside the historic Ryman Auditorium.  Almost their entire roster performed one song acoustic with Darius Rucker rejoining with his bandmates from Hootie & The Blowfish before they embark on their recently announced cross country tour.

Following were more educational seminars and artist interviews.   Later that day we were treated to “90’s Country Night” sponsored by Monument Records on the top floor of the Country Music Hall of Fame with a great acoustic performance by Brandon Ratcliffe and a fun performance by Walker Hayes who had the audience going with his contagious energy encouraging crowd to sing along.

Afterwards, we celebrated with the official launch party held at Redneck Riviera on lower Broadway of John Rich’s second whiskey named after his beloved Granny Rich called Granny Rich’s Reserve by Redneck Riviera.  He honored his grandmother seated next to him at the beginning of the night in a throne fit for a queen.  He also graciously presented his Granny Rich with a $10,000 check of her cut from the first royalties of sales of the new whiskey available now for sale in liquor stores across the country.

Attendees were given a shot of the new smooth whiskey to share in a toast and cake was passed around to enjoy along with a nice offering of southern food.  The night concluded there with a fun blowout featuring performances from John Rich and friends well into the night.

Pictured (L-R): Back Row –  Riley Green, Rascal Flatts Jay DeMarcus, Noah Schnacky
Front Row – Rascal Flatts Joe Don Rooney and Gary LeVox, BMLG President/CEO Scott Borchetta, Brantley Gilbert, Lauren Jenkins. Photo courtesy of Country Radio Seminar.

Day 3 of CRS began with the last of the artist interviews for me followed by lunch sponsored by Big Machine Label Group in the grand ballroom.  The lunch performances featured Brantley Gilbert, Riley Green, Lauren Jenkens, and Noah Schnacky from their roster with a special guest performance  of Lindsey Ell joining Brantley Gilbert for their current duet climbing the charts. Long-time, multiple award winners and hitmakers Rascal Flatts headlined the lunch performances closing it out.  Gary LeVox’s lead vocals were as strong as ever with the stellar musicianship and harmonies of Joe Don Rooney and Jay De Marcus.

I attended a panel focused on artist visits to radio stations and got some great tips on interviews with artists.  The panel that lasted an hour featured several label executives and radio programmers with country artist, Carly Pearce.

Concluding the 3-day seminar was the highlight event of CRS, New Faces cocktail party followed by the New Faces dinner and performances of 5 rising country artists voted on by Country Radio Broadcasters membership.  These are the new artists they most wanted to see with a full band performance.  It was a special night filled with outstanding performances by Russell Dickerson, Lindsey Ell, Jimmie Allen, LANCO, and Dylan Scott.  As a special surprise, country superstar Tim McGraw took to the stage to repeat during the 50th anniversary what has come to be known as the very best New Faces performance when he was just starting out and sang his first hit, “Don’t Take The Girl”.  Country superstar Keith Urban was also on hand to help honor long-time music industry veteran and outgoing Country Radio Broadcasters Executive Director, Bill Mayne, who announced previously this past April that he would be stepping down from his position at the conclusion of the 50th anniversary CRS.  He has also been announced as the recipient of the 2019 CRB President’s Award. The award will be presented during the Country Radio Hall of Fame Dinner and Awards ceremony, to be held at the Vanderbilt Marriott in Nashville, Tennessee on Wednesday, June 19th at 6 p.m. CDT.

Bill Mayne

That is a wrap for CRS 2019 and the 50th anniversary! Thank you for having us.  Artist interviews to come. Stay tuned!