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.
After Park: West To The Rest/Triple Tigers' Ian Munsick (c) with KUZZ/Bakersfield's Kenn McCloud, Brent Michaels and Ness Heraldez and the label's Dave Collins (l-r) at Boots in the Park.
Ain't A Plaid Life: Blue Highway's Thomas Rhett with the KEEY crew at Morgan Wallen’s Still the Problem Tour kickoff in Minneapolis. Pictured (l-r) are Gregg Swedberg, Rhett, Patrick Knight and Rich Davis.
Burning Humanitarian: MCA's Dierks Bentley is presented the 2025 CMA Foundation Humanitarian Award by CMA's Sarah Trahern during a CMA Songwriters Series show at Racket NYC in New York City.
Industry veteran Louie Newman has launched record label and promotion company Saddle Up Records, where he will serve as Founder/President. The staff includes SVP/National Promotion & Marketing Chele Fassig and VP/National Promotion & Streaming Matt Galvin, with enRG Promotions' RG Jones joining on special projects.
“Radio remains a primary driver in country music, and we understand how critical airplay is to breaking and furthering an artist’s career,” says Newman. “We’ve built a team with a long track record of credibility at Country radio, while also working closely with digital and streaming partners to build momentum across all platforms. We’re excited about what’s ahead.”
Newman spent more than 25 years with MCA Nashville before briefly retiring in 2019 (CAT 7/1/19). Most recently, he has been working alongside Fassig and Jones at Lyric Ridge Records, a role for which he was named 2026 CRS/Country Aircheck Independent Promotion Executive of the Year in March (CAT 3/20). Prior to Lyric Ridge, Fassig was Mgr./Promotions at Records Nashville after 25 years with Beasley/Charlotte. Galvin previously was Dir./ National Digital Strategy & Promotion at Quartz Hill/Stone Country Records, spent nearly 25 years at RCA and, most recently, worked music for Grindstone Recordings. Jones spent 22 years at Sony/Nashville, rising to Dir./Promotion Strategy & Analysis.
Saddle Up's first artists will be announced in the coming weeks; the company will collaborate on select projects with Lyric Ridge. Reach Newman here, Fassig here, Galvin here and Jones here.
