Tag: Nashville

Music Spotlight: Country Radio Seminar 2025

Bethany Bowman
CRS New Faces

Country Radio Seminar (CRS) 2025 wrapped up last week after three days of unforgettable musical performances, insightful panels, and dynamic industry sessions.

This year’s event was a resounding success, offering attendees a dynamic lineup of showcases and events, including the Amazon Music Presents: “Country Heat at CRS 2025” showcase, Warner Music Nashville’s Luncheon, Bob Kingsley’s Acoustic Alley, “Team UMG” at the Ryman, BBR Music Group Decades Party, Big Machine Label Group’s Luncheon, and the highly anticipated New Faces of Country Music Show and Dinner.

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Music Spotlight: Wendy Moten

Bethany Bowman
Wendy Moten

Not long after I started writing my Music Spotlight column, I came across one of the greatest voices I’d ever heard in Nashville, Wendy Moten. I even gave her a shoutout when Heidi Newfield released her Barfly Sessions record in 2020.

After Moten rose to fame as the runner-up on NBC’s The Voice in 2021, the rest of the world saw how fabulous she was, and I knew getting an interview would be more of a challenge.

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Music Spotlight: Emmy Moyen

Bethany Bowman

When independent artist Emmy Moyen contacted me, I was unfamiliar with the name, but I was intrigued when I heard her music. She had just the right balance of sweetness and sass, and I wanted to learn more.

Moyen was born in Kentucky but raised in Starkville, Mississippi. Many from her Kentucky family have a background in bluegrass music, which has always been a part of her life.

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Chase Rice Releases ‘Go Down Singin’

Bethany Bowman
Chase Rice

I featured Chase Rice in 2018 when he celebrated achieving number-one status with his blockbuster hit, “Eyes On You.” Early on, Chase Rice was a fixture in the bro-country scene with other megahits like “Ready Set Roll,” “Ride,” “Lonely If You Are,” and “Gonna Wanna Tonight,” to name a few.

But something shifted in the artist recently, who splits his time between Montana and Nashville when, in 2023, he released I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go to Hell. Even by the retro picture of his hero, his dad, Daniel (Danny) Rice, on the album cover, you knew this record would be different. For anyone anticipating the usual new country vibe, boy, were they in for a surprise. With unexpected songs like “Bench Seat” and “Key West & Colorado,” Billboard Magazine called it “one of 2023’s most unexpected artistic pivots” across all genres last year.

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Amanda Kate Ferris’ New Album, ‘Rope the Wind,’ Is Out Now

Bethany Bowman

Music Spotlight and 2X Texas radio chart-topping artist Amanda Kate Ferris has released her sophomore album, Rope the Wind, and it is available now.

Produced by Jimmy Ritchey, the 10-track project features songs by numerous acclaimed writers and artists, including GRAMMY-winners Hillary Lindsey, Liz Rose, and Lori McKenna, as well as ACM and CMA Entertainer of the Year Lainey Wilson and others.

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Commentary: Court Threatens First Amendment Rights of Tennessee Star After Release of Covenant School Shooting Documents

RealClearWire
Judge I'Ashea L. Myles

The editor-in-chief and publisher of The Tennessee Star was ordered to appear in court last week and threatened with charges of contempt after his newspaper reported on an anonymously leaked collection of documents authored by Nashville mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale. Michael Patrick Leahy was joined by his attorneys in court on Monday for a “show-cause hearing,” where the journalist was asked by Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles to demonstrate why his outlet’s reporting does not subject him to contempt proceedings and sanctions.

On March 27, 2023, Hale (born Audrey Elizabeth Hale) entered the Covenant School armed with three semiautomatic guns and murdered six people, including three 9-year-old children. Hale, who was eventually shot and killed by police in the school, was a transgender man and former student at Covenant who harbored extremist sentiments on race, gender, and politics. The massacre remains the deadliest mass shooting in Tennessee history.

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Commentary: Faulty U.S. Crime Stats Make It Hard to Know What to Believe

RealClearWire

Americans can be forgiven for suffering from whiplash regarding law and order.

In recent weeks the Biden administration and many news outlets, including USA Today and The Hill, have touted declines in violent crime statistics to argue that America is becoming a safer place.

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Music Spotlight: Presley Tennant

Bethany Bowman
Presley Tennant

One thing I have learned about TV singing shows is that the finalists are nearly always as good (if not better) as the actual winner. So, I try to interview as many country singers from these shows as possible.

Presley Tennant is a powerhouse singer from Norco, California, a horse town that is 35 miles east of Los Angeles. She was a finalist on Season 16 of NBC’s The Voice in 2019 when she was just 16. She has often been compared to Whitney Houston and Carrie Underwood.

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‘Operation Rainmaker’ Arrests Result in Dozens Charged in Alleged Cartel-Affiliated Drug-Trafficking Ring

The Center Square
Seized Drugs

Agents arrested 23 people in relation to a cartel-linked drug operation in Texas that dealt in cocaine, fentanyl, heroin and meth. 

The arrests came after a five-year investigation that started in 2019. Prosecutors said the drug ring operated in the Houston and Galveston areas and was under the control of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

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Song Suffragettes Celebrate 10th Anniversary

Bethany Bowman

In a historic event at Belmont’s Fisher Center, the female collective known as the Song Suffragettes celebrated its tenth anniversary to a packed-out crowd last week

Each year, they celebrate their March anniversary, and they honor a significant female singer and/or songwriter. This year’s Yellow Rose of Inspiration award fittingly went to Wynonna Judd, an acclaimed singer/songwriter and long-time promoter of women in country music. Past Yellow Rose of Inspiration award winners include Laura Veltz, Ashley McBryde, Natalie Hemby, and Kelsea Ballerini.

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