Country Update

Country Update

NEWSLET TERS

INSIDE

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE

APRIL 1, 2019 | PAGE 1 OF 19 Tom.Roland@

Kelsea, Combs Make Chart News

ACM Surprise: How Golden Hour Brought

>page 4

Six Nominations To A `Hack Of All Trades'

Zac Brown Band's Great Escape >page 9

Austin Bashes Bolster Lineups

>page 10

Country Singer Shifts To Politics

>page 10

Makin' Tracks: HARDY Gets `Rednecker'

>page 14

Country Coda: Historic Keith Whitley Moment

>page 19

When Ian Fitchuk showed up at a Nashville studio on Feb. 20 for

a Carly Pearce recording session, the moment had an awkward

air about it.

The Academy of Country Music had announced its

nominations just hours earlier, and Fitchuk -- who had never

been an ACM finalist -- appeared

six different times on the ballot.

He was up for producer of the year,

and Kacey Musgraves' Golden

Hour -- which he co-produced

with Musgraves and buddy Daniel

Tashian -- was in the running

for album. Fitchuk also became

the first person nominated

simultaneously in four different

musician categories: bass player,

drummer, piano/keyboards

player and specialty instrument(s)

player of the year.

At least three people at the Feb.

20 session --Pearce, drummer

Aaron Sterling and guitarist

Derek Wells -- were fellow

nominees, but Fitchuk was the center of the conversation. For

FITCHUK

someone who makes his living in

a support role, that spotlight brought some uneasiness.

"I felt a little sheepish," says Fitchuk during a break at a

session in north Nashville, where he's producing new music

for Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards. "I have

trouble accepting recognition." Fitchuk has gotten plenty in recent years, particularly the kind

musicians want most -- numerous calls for repeat business -- as he has steadily built his reputation in Nashville. He plays keyboards on most of the tracks on Maren Morris' new Girl album and

contributes piano and/or drums on the latest albums by Shania Twain, Chase Rice, Lucie Silvas, Midland, Ruston Kelly and Brett Eldredge. Fitchuk also plays bass on Dierks Bentley's The Mountain, which will compete with Golden Hour for album of the year when the ACMs are handed out April 7 in Las Vegas.

"He's such a musical guy," says The Mountain co-producer Ross Copperman. "[Engineer] Reid Shippen actually told me after we booked Ian on the session, `You know, Ross, Ian doesn't really do bass on sessions, but I know what a great musician he is.' Reid was that confident in him. We f lew him out to Telluride [Colo.] to be the bass player." Fitchuk's approach to the instrument shows a nuanced uniqueness. In Bentley's current single, "Living," the bass lifts and rolls quietly from one measure into the next through the first verse, creating subtle movement to help push the narrative

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APRIL 1, 2019 | PAGE 2 OF 19

forward without calling attention to Fitchuk. He clearly works well with others. "The fact that Ian plays drums doesn't hurt," says Bentley. "He and

[drummer] Matt [Chamberlain] really spoke well together on a musical communicational level."

Fitchuk is well trained for that sort of communication. The Chicago native's parents are classical musicians with side pursuits: His father plays viola but earned his college degree by studying voice; his mother is a flutist who is also a member of a bagpipe band. Both are music teachers as well, and they schooled their son by example to meld personal creativity into the needs of the group.

The younger Fitchuk was particularly enamored of pop records that featured complex arrangements or emotions, and he moved to Nashville in 2000 to study jazz piano at Belmont University. That didn't last long -- he joined jam band The Dahlia Llamas and toured long enough to realize he preferred steady local work over the grind of the road. Producing an album by singer-songwriter Griffin House in 2004 helped him transition into regular studio work, and Fitchuk became a part of Nashville's underground scene.

Two 2009 projects -- Landon Pigg's melancholy track "Falling in Love in a Coffee Shop" and Mindy Smith's moody album Stupid Love -- made a particular impression within the community, though it was years before that became apparent. Both Musgraves and Morris cited Smith's album as an influence.

"It just goes to show: Do your best at all times," reflects Fitchuk. "The seeds that you plant, you don't have control over how they're going to grow in the end."

Morris had flirted with Fitchuk as a producer before she instead landed with busbee, but she recommended Fitchuk to Musgraves, who worked with him and Tashian to write and produce the first five tracks for what became Golden Hour. Her management, Sandbox Entertainment, thought so highly of the work that the company self-financed the album and unveiled it to Universal Music Group Nashville only after it was completed. Commercial expectations were not particularly high -- "It seemed too arty," says Fitchuk -- but the album's mix of acoustic and programmed elements, plus its moody vibe, connected at a deep level with her audience and the Nashville music community.

"She has this melancholic voice that is both comforting and sad at the same time," he says. "Then we have that song `Happy & Sad.' The topic of that song somewhat frames, I think, the album as a whole, which isn't just trying to make you feel one way or another. It's trying to accept the human experience as a complex and layered experience."

Not surprisingly, Fitchuk has layered more work atop the notoriety Golden Hour has yielded. His professional dance card of late has included Edwards, Eldredge, Lady Antebellum and Little Big Town, and he's expecting to work with non-country acts Leon Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld. Some of those efforts have been joint projects with Tashian, who is likewise a fellow band member in Skyline Motel, a Fleetwood Mac-like ensemble they formed on the side with Nashville singer-songwriters Sarah Buxton and Kate York. Fitchuk primarily plays drums with the unit, which opened for Musgraves during her recent fournight stand at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium in advance of a forthcoming EP.

Meanwhile, Fitchuk's versatility is evident on Musgraves' "Rainbow," which is currently No. 38 on Country Airplay. His piano is the sole instrument backing her on the recording, taken from perhaps 11 attempts on 11 different days; she sang it at the close of each Golden Hour recording session, and the single is the best take of those informal performances.

He was the lone visible musician when she performed it at the Grammy Awards, where Golden Hour earned album of the year, and it was -- much like the day that he secured those ACM nominations -- a bit awkward. After he flubbed some chords in the dark at dress rehearsal, he asked for a light on the keyboard, but it was never clear until the on-camera live performance started that that request had been fulfilled. He froze slightly at the bridge, missed a chord and, for a split second, harbored a fear that without that chord, the whole song would fall apart. It did not -- "Rainbow" was one of the highlights of the telecast -- and Fitchuk does what comes naturally in explaining that situation: He puts the focus on the artist.

"Kacey, thank God, came back in, and everything was fine," he says. "It was terrifying, but I thought she did a great job."

Fitchuk, who calls himself a "hack of all trades," can thus be taken at face value when he looks ahead with humility to the ACMs, downplaying his role as a single musician and focusing on how he syncs up with the larger group, in which he clearly belongs.

"I don't necessarily expect to win any of those musician categories," he says. "I don't. I'm just thankful that of all those people in all those categories, pretty much most of them are really close friends."

Blake Shelton welcomed Brooks & Dunn as guest advisors for four episodes of the current season of NBC's The Voice. From left: Ronnie Dunn, Shelton and Kix Brooks.

Rodney Atkins headlined a March 26 installment of the Country Music Association's CMA Songwriters Series at Nashville's Listening Room during the Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival. From left: songwriter Shane Minor ("Chillin' It"), Atkins and songwriter Rose Falcon ("Friday Night").

Dustin Lynch visited Cumulus' syndicated morning program, The Ty Bentli Show, in support of new single "Ridin' Roads." From left: Bentli, Lynch and Bentli Show co-hosts Tricia "T.J." Jenkins and Chuck Wicks.

Scotty McCreery (center) celebrated the chart-topping success of "This Is It" with co-writers/co-producers Aaron Eshuis (left) and Frank Rogers during a March 20 No. 1 party hosted by ASCAP and BMI.

ATKINS: HUNTER BERRY CMA. MCCREERY: ED RODE

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE

APRIL 1, 2019 | PAGE 4 OF 19

ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER jim.asker@

Kelsea Ballerini Adds One `More' Hot Country Songs Top 10;

Luke Combs Extends Airplay Reign

Kelsea Ballerini nets her sixth top 10 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart,

which combines airplay, streaming and sales data, as "Miss Me More" (Black

River) jumps 14-8 on the list dated April 6.

The track is the just the second top 10 for a female artist unaccompanied by

another act in 2019, following Maren Morris' "Girl" (No. 9). That's as many as in

the same span last year -- when the same two artists hit the top 10: Ballerini with

"Legends" (No. 10 peak) and Morris with "I Could Use a Love Song" (No. 7). In

2017, two solo women also reached the region through the same stretch (Lauren

Alaina and Carrie Underwood), down from six in 2016 and three in 2015.

"Miss" re-enters Country Streaming Songs at a new No. 14

high, up 30 percent to 5.5 million U.S. streams in the week

ending March 28, according to Nielsen Music, while logging

7,000 sold in the same frame (down 2 percent) as it lifts

6-4 on Country Digital Song Sales. The track bumps 12-11

on Country Airplay, with a 5 percent boost to 19.6 million

audience impressions in the week ending March 31.

Ballerini is supporting Kelly Clarkson on the latter's

Meaning of Life Tour and advising for Clarkson on NBC's

The Voice. "Miss," which Ballerini co-wrote, is her first Hot

Country Songs top 10 since "Legends." She led the list for

two weeks starting Sept. 24, 2016, with "Peter Pan."

BALLERINI

UP TO THE TOP 10 Jake Owenbanks his ninth Hot Country Songs top 10 as "Down to the Honkytonk" (Big Loud) leaps 17-9. It boasts 24.2 million impressions (up 8 percent) as it climbs 10-7 on Country Airplay, 4.9 million U.S. streams (up 36 percent) and 5,000 sold (up 7 percent).

A TOAST FOR WALLEN Also on Hot Country Songs, Morgan Wallen's "Whiskey Glasses" (Big Loud) bumps 12-10 to become his second top 10. It's up 11 percent to 8,000 sold, 9 percent to 16.2 million in radio reach and 8 percent to 6.2 million U.S. streams. Wallen first hit the top 10 with "Up Down" (featuring Florida Georgia Line; No. 5, June 2018).

ONE `HAPPY MAN' Luke Combs continues his historic run atop all five of Billboard's country charts simultaneously: Hot Country Songs, Country

Airplay, Country Streaming Songs, Country Digital Song Sales and Top Country Albums. He concurrently leads the lists for a third frame. Only Kane Brown has previously achieved the feat, on Oct. 28, 2017.

Combs' "Beautiful Crazy" (River House/Columbia Nashville) rules Country Airplay for a sixth week (40.1 million, up less than 1 percent), marking the list's longest-leading No. 1 since Thomas Rhett's "Die a Happy Man," which dominated for six weeks beginning in January 2016. "Crazy" is the 21st song to top Country Airplay for at least six weeks in the chart's 29year history and is two frames shy of the record: Alan Jackson and Jimmy

Buffett's "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere," which led for eight weeks in 2003.

"Crazy" also commands Hot Country Songs and Country Streaming Songs (13.4 million, up 11 percent) for a sixth week. On Country Digital Song Sales, it prevails for a seventh week (11,000 sold, down 9 percent).

Meanwhile, Combs' debut LP, This One's for You, logs a 30th week at No. 1 on Top Country Albums (25,000 equivalent album units, up 3 percent). The set is just the 11th to reach the milestone since the chart launched in 1964 and is the first since Lady Antebellum's Need You Now (31 weeks on top) in 2010-11. It's the first album by a solo male to reach the threshold since Billy Ray Cyrus' Some Gave All (34 weeks 1992-93), passing the 29-week reigns of Chris Stapleton's Traveller (2015-17) and Tim McGraw's Not a Moment Too Soon (1994).

PARDI CLOCKS IN Jon Pardi adds his fourth Country Airplay top 10 as "Night Shift" (Capitol Nashville) strides 13-9 (21 million, up 10 percent). He collects his first top 10 since 2017's No. 3-peaking "Heartache on the Dance Floor," which followed the No. 1s "Dirt on My Boots" and "Head Over Boots."

`GOOD' TIME Kane Brown banks his fourth Country Airplay top 10 as "Good as You" (Zone 4/RCA Nashville) hops 11-10 (20.9 million, up 11 percent). It follows his No. 1s "Lose It," "Heaven" and "What Ifs" (featuring Lauren Alaina).

JORDAN STRAUSS/INVISION/AP

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