The Save The Music Foundation and SongFarm.org hosted their third annual “Hometown To Hometown” event in Nashville on Tuesday (April 26). The event honored Grammy award-winning songwriters Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne.

Hosted by Cody Alan, the show featured performances and special appearances by Brandy Clark, Walker Hayes, Kylie Morgan, and Carly Pearce. Attendees also had the chance to hear from teachers and students impacted by Save The Music and SongFarm.org’s programs.

The benefit was sponsored by CMT, Gibson Gives, MAXISIQ, and Wrensong. Funds raised will support music programs at under-resourced high schools in the honorees’ hometowns of Mineral Wells, Texas (McAnally) and Pike County, Kentucky (Osborne), as well as in Nashville.

McAnally has established himself as one of the top songwriters in Nashville with over 40 No. 1 songs, three Grammy awards and two Songwriter of the Year Awards from the Academy of Country Music. Osborne is a multi-Platinum, Grammy award-winning songwriter who has notched 26 No. 1 songs on the country charts.

For the past eight years, SMACKSongs has ranked in the Top 10 of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Publishing Corporations year-end chart. Led by GRAMMY Award-winning songwriters Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne, the country-focused independent publishing house has collectively amassed over 50 No. 1 songs since its formation in 2012.

Reigning Publisher of the Year, SMACK has received recognition from the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) Nashville Awards the past three years while SESAC named SMACK Publisher of the Year in 2018 and 2020. SMACK ended 2020 with six No. 1 songs including Sam Hunt’s “Kinfolks” and “Hard To Forget,” Kane Brown’s “Homesick” and Blake Shelton’s “Nobody But You” and “Happy Anywhere,” both featuring Gwen Stefani. McAnally credits the company’s success to hiring the right people and trusting each person to do their job.

“When these year-end lists come out, it really puts what we’re building into perspective and makes me feel so proud to see our independent company right in between all the huge publishing companies’ names,” McAnally tells me.

KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) is a true global investment giant, with over $230 billion (yes, billion) in assets under management.

Once upon a time, it had a material stake in the music business, until it sold its 51% holding in BMG to Bertelsmann in 2013 for approximately $1bn.

Last summer, KKR dipped its toe back into music rights by joining a $48m round in royalty-free music and content platform – and Epidemic Sound rival – Artlist.

Today, however, KKR has jumped back in the music biz in a much bigger way – announcing that it has bought a majority stake in a music catalog created by three-time Grammy winner Ryan Tedder.

How big a deal are we talking? Transaction details weren’t disclosed… but KKR is keen to remind us that, to date, songs written by Tedder have sold over 420 million copies, or the equivalent of 63 billion streams.

KKR says the Tedder catalog spans nearly 500 songs, covering both “music publishing and recorded music rights”.

For the past five decades, Scott Hendricks has been a mainstay on the country charts. Since his first chart topper with Restless Heart’s “I’ll Still Be Loving You” in 1987, the revered country producer has amassed a total of 77 No. 1 songs and has produced 120 Top 10 singles, making him the country genre’s most successful producer of the last quarter century.

Long before the Oklahoma native was the man behind successful projects by Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Dan + Shay, and Blake Shelton, he was in the high school band and stage band. In between football practice and school, Hendricks would spend his weekends playing in a country band. While attending Oklahoma State University, he played lead guitar in a band called Marin. When his bandmate introduced the group to Greg Jennings, Hendricks immediately recognized the future Restless Heart member’s talent and offered to give up his guitar playing go out front and mix the band instead.

Former BBR Music Group leaders Benny Brown and Paul Brown, along with hit songwriter Jason Sellers, have teamed with music distributor The Orchard to form the Nashville-based country label Quartz Hill Records.

Previously, Benny and Paul Brown headed Nashville’s indie music company, BBR Music Group, home of Broken Bow Records, Stoney Creek Records and Wheelhouse Records. Founded in 1999, under Brown’s leadership, Broken Bow Records had more than 30 No. 1 songs, including Craig Morgan’s “That’s What I Love About Sunday,” “She’s Country,” by Jason Aldean and Thompson Square’s “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not.”

Sellers has penned several hit singles, including Aldean’s “Don’t You Wanna Stay” ft. Kelly Clarkson, Rascal Flatts’ “I Won’t Let Go,” and Joe Nichols’ “Sunny and 75.”

More information regarding the new venture will be released in coming weeks.

Endurance Music Group has acquired Wide Open Music, adding a roster of artist-writers including Jimmie Allen and Matt Stell, Wide Open co-founder Ash Bowers, and songwriters Seth Alley and Paul Sikes to the Endurance fold.

Jaron Boyer has renewed his exclusive songwriter agreement with peermusic, it was announced Wednesday (Jan. 22) by peermusic President and COO Kathy Spanberger, as well as peermusic Nashville Sr. VP Michael Knox.

peermusic’s exclusive deal with Boyer includes all future works, and the company will now be collaborating with Hipgnosis Song Fund and Merck Mercuriadis, who purchased Jaron’s back catalog. Boyer was represented in the deal by Jason L. Turner, Esquire, Keller Turner Andrews & Ghanem.

SESAC songwriter Joe Fox has signed a worldwide publishing agreement with Liz Rose Music and Warner Chappell Music.

The New Jersey native relocated to Nashville after graduating from Berklee College of Music. Fox has won The John Lennon Songwriting Contest, played guitar on various records including Maren Morris’ Grammy-nominated album Hero, and toured with country stars like RECORDS/Arista Nashville’s Matt Stell.

Provident Label Group has partnered with Story House Music, which is helmed by multi-award winning artist Matthew West, to sign singer/songwriter Leanna Crawford.

“It is my honor to introduce Leanna Crawford, the newest addition to team PLG and the special joint venture with Story House Music,” shares West. “Leanna has such amazing talent that the world’s going to hear very soon, so get ready! She’s going to knock it out of the park, and the Lord’s going to use her voice in an awesome way.”