Little Rebellion Music

The last few years, one of the absolute highlights of CRS is Bob Kingsley’s Acoustic Alley songwriters’ show. It brings together the most successful songsmiths in Nashville and introduces the radio execs to the talents behind the hit songs they have been playing.

The opening round had close friends and frequent co-writers Josh Osborne, Shane McAnally, and Luke Laird present some of the twenty two #1 hits they’ve written between them. Their renditions of ‘Take a Back Road,’ ‘Come Over,’ ‘Pontoon,’ and ‘Mama’s Broken Heart’ got outings, along with future hits ‘Give Me Back My Home Town’ (Luke Laird, current Eric Church single) and ‘Chainsaw’ (Josh Osborne, the new single by The Band Perry).

Cranking up the hit power even more, the second group to take the stage was Brett James, Matt Jenkins, Rodney Clawson, and Ashley Gorley. Dozens of #1 hits and too many singles to even start counting! The industry audience enjoyed songs including ‘Out Last Night,’ ‘Runnin’ Outta Moonlight,’ ‘Amarillo Sky,’ ‘Crash My Party,’ ‘Sure Be Cool If You Did,’ ‘Drunk on You,’ and ‘You’re Gonna Miss This’ while there was a tornado warning issued for the Nashville area. But see what I mean about too many chart songs to count? And more are coming as they showcased upcoming hits ‘I Hold On’ (Brett James, hopefully Dierks Bentley‘s next #1 hit), ‘Cop Car’ (Matt Jenkins, current single for Keith Urban), and ‘Rewind’ (Ashley Gorley, the new Rascal Flatts single).

The current red-hot Music Row hit men closed the evening. Dallas Davidson, Rhett Akins, and Ben Hayslip have so far racked up thirty-four #1s between them. Many were written by them as a trio as they are collectively known as The Peach Pickers. With these guys pretty much the vanguard of the cold-beer-on-a-tailgate-by-the-river songs of the last few years, you can love or hate some of their hits, but in either case you have got to respect their careers. Among the chart-toppers played last night were ‘All About Tonight,’ ‘Boys ‘Round Here,’ ‘The One That Got Away,’ ‘I Don’t This Night to End,’ ‘When She Says Baby,’ ‘Anywhere with You,’ ‘Point at You,’ ‘Honey Bee,’ ‘Country Girl,’ and ‘Gimme That Girl.’ We even got treated to a blast from the past when Akins sang ‘That Ain’t My Truck’ by request.

With the increasing popularity of songwriters rounds, and many now taking place outside of Nashville, I highly recommend finding the nearest one near you. If you love songs, there is no better place to be than at a writers night!

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Liv Carter

Liv is a career coach for creatives, and the people who work with them.
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.

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