Three Haw: Broken Bow's John Morgan and his label team celebrate his CMA Triple Play Award. Pictured (front, l-r) are Shelly Hargis, JoJamie Hahr, Morgan and Katie Kerkhover; (back, l-r) Misti Douglas, Krista Hayes, Camille Kenny and Lee Adams.
Hootielicious: Triple Tigers' Scotty McCreery celebrates his seventh No. 1, "Bottle Rockets," at BMI's Nashville office. Pictured (back, l-r) are SESAC’s Abbey Watson, Studio Bank’s Kari Barnhart, songwriter Derek George, the label's Annie Ortmeier, songwriter Bobby Hamrick, ASCAP’s Mike Sistad, songwriter Jeremy Bussey, Sony Music Publishing’s Tom Luteran, BMI’s Shannon Sanders, songwriter Brent Anderson, Fluid Music Revolution’s AJ Burton, songwriter Monty Criswell, the label's Kevin Herring and UMPG’s Troy Tomlinson; (front, l-r) Hootie & The Blowfish’s Dean Felber, Jim Sonfeld and Darius Rucker, McCreery and producer Frank Rogers.
Happen Stance: Triple Tigers' Russell Dickerson celebrates his sixth No. 1, "Happen To Me" at BMI/Nashville. Pictured (back, l-r) are Big Machine Music’s Mike Molinar, UMPG’s Cyndi Forman, the label's Kevin Herring and Annie Ortmeier, BMI’s Mason Hunter, Studio Bank’s Ron Cox, Concord’s Courtney Allen and Hang Your Hat’s Hillary Lindsey; (front, l-r) songwriter Chase McGill, producer Josh Kerr, Dickerson and songwriter Chris LaCorte.
Small Town Buoy: Broken Bow's Dustin Lynch with Audacy's Katie Neal at Tortuga Music Festival.
Buck Wild: RCA's Nate Smith with WUBL’s Angie Ward (c) and the label's Ali O’Connell at Atlanta's Buckhead Theater.
Coming Out Of My Cave And I've Been Doing Just Fine: Columbia's Kameron Marlowe with his team at The Caverns Friday (4/10). Pictured (l-r) are the label's Caryl Atwood and Christy Garbinski, Marlowe, Red Light's Kaitlin Madewell and the label's Lauren Taylor, Liz Cost and Rachel Hobbs.
The Pitt: Atlantic/Warner/WRN's Bailey Zimmerman (in hat) with WDSY's Mark Anderson, WPGB's Mike Kasper and the label's Justin Newell (l-r) in Pittsburgh.
Country Music Hall of Famer Don Schlitz passed away yesterday (4/16) at a Nashville hospital following a sudden illness. He was 73. Schlitz's first hit as a songwriter came when Kenny Rogers recorded “The Gambler,” which became a hit in both country and pop upon its 1978 release. Among the singles Schlitz has written or co-written are Alabama’s “40 Hour Week (For A Livin’),” Mark Chesnutt’s “Almost Goodbye,” Paul Overstreet’s “Daddy’s Come Around,” Lorrie Morgan’s “Good As I Was To You,” Rogers’ “The Greatest,” Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her,” The Judds’ “Turn It Loose,” Collin Raye’s “I Think About You;” Garth Brooks’ “Learning To Live Again,” Tanya Tucker’s “My Arms Stay Open All Night,” Keith Whitley’s “When You Say Nothing At All,” and Randy Travis’ “Deeper Than The Holler,” “Forever And Ever, Amen” and “On The Other Hand.”
Schlitz is recognized as a co-creator of the “in-the-round” format of songwriter performances, along with his collaborators Fred Knobloch, Paul Overstreet and Thom Schuyler. He was awarded a CMA and a Grammy for “The Gambler” in 1979 (Song Of The Year and Country Song Of The Year, respectively); a CMA, ACM and NSAI Award for “On The Other Hand” as Song Of The Year in 1986; the CMA for Song Of The Year in 1987 and Grammy Award for Country Song Of The Year in 1988 for “Forever And Ever, Amen;” and was named ASCAP Country Songwriter Of The Year from 1988 through 1991. Schlitz was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2010, the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2017 and became the first songwriter invited to join the Grand Ole Opry in 2022. Read his complete bio via the CMHoF here; services are pending. Saturday night's Opry performance will be dedicated in his honor.
