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Paige King Johnson Wins In Three Categories At The Carolina Country Music Awards

Paige King Johnson with awards

Awarded 2020 Female Vocalist of the Year, Country Emerging New Artist and Country Tour of the Year

Nashville-based singer/songwriter Paige King Johnson wins big at the 2020 Carolina Country Music Awards, being named Female Vocalist of the Year, Country Emerging New Artist and Country Tour of the Year with Faith Bardill. Clearly a force to be reckoned with, Johnson continues to deliver music to fans worthy of praises. Continuing the success of her current single “Just Like You,” with accompanying music video, co-directed by Read more →


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Daniel Lee – New Artist Spotlight

daniel lee
Daniel Lee

Daniel Lee

Daniel Lee isn’t the first young Country artist to write about trucks, beer and ball caps. But he’s found a few fresh perspectives on these tropes.

DOWNLOAD DANIEL LEE’s ROOTS ON AMAZON

Consider “Hell Yeah,” one of five solo-writes on Daniel Lee’s debut album Roots, available now from Average Joes Entertainment. This is a flat-out exercise in braggadocio. He hollers out that he’s a “throw-down fighter,” a “Mason jar sipper” and “one crazy S.O.B.” His litany owes less to Music Row than to Mike Fink, the frontier riverboat legend who informed the patrons of countless saloons, “I’m a Salt River roarer! I’m a ringtailed squealer! I’m a reg’lar screamer from the ol’ Massassip!”
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DownDay – New Artist Spotlight – CMA Close Up Interview

downday

downdayDownDay could fit in equally at CMA Music Festival or on a bill with Metallica.

But the Arkansas quartet’s hearts are pure, if power-chorded, Country.

Download DownDay Music On Amazon

Christian Dean and Rockey Jones, along with bassist Damon Shores and drummer Mike Martin, signed with Render Records in April 2013. Nearly two months later, the label released the band’s earlier, regional album, Chapter 1, along with “Back in the Day” (written by Jones, Dean, Steve Freeman and David Oneal). From the structure of the song to the catchy chorus, that debut single leaned strongly toward Country and began earning adds within a month on Country radio. Read more →


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JJ Lawhorn – CMA New Artist Spotlight

JJ Lawhorn

JJ LawhornJJ Lawhorn

Many artists draw from their background, but the music of 19-year-old JJ Lawhorn goes deeper, to embody the sights and sounds, aromas and soul, of rural America.

Raised on his family’s Virginia farm, he never dreamed of knocking on doors up and down Music Row. His plan was to study agriculture at Virginia Tech and devote his life to farming. Then, in the spring of 2010, producer Jeremy Stover came across a Lawhorn performance on YouTube. He tracked the young artist down; within a year, Lawhorn had signed with EMI Publishing and, in June 2011, to Average Joes Entertainment.

Produced by Stover and released on July 16, the 13 tracks of Original Good Ol’ Boy sound the way hay smells and the world looks from the bed of a pickup truck. Lawhorn wrote three of these songs alone and co-wrote the rest, investing each one with the kind of authenticity you can’t conjure in the studio. Some of this stems from his delivery: He drawls “count” as two syllables and nearly stretches “around” to three on his solo-written single “Stomping Grounds.”

JJ LawhornAnd his lyrics are extraordinarily evocative, often beginning with a snapshot-like picture: “Red clay mud caked up on the door” brings us close to the vehicle and its no-nonsense driver on “You Can Tell a Man by His Truck” (written by Lawhorn, Stover and Ben Hayslip).

Ultimately, it’s the whole package — the rough-edged music, the painterly words and Lawhorn’s conviction — that makes this a most auspicious debut.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

DREAM DUET PARTNER

“Alison Krauss or Chris Stapleton.”

SONG YOU WISH YOU’D WRITTEN

“‘Silver Wings,’ by Merle Haggard.”

TITLE OF YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY

The Road Less Traveled.

YOUR GREATEST CHALLENGE

“The only challenge I have is to be all that I can be.”

LUCKY CHARM

“I don’t believe in luck. I believe in God’s plan for my life.”

On the Web: www.JJLawhornMusic.com

On Twitter: @JJLawhornMusic