How did Music City pubberies fare during lockdown? What new approaches to collaboration were opened up by our Year of Zooming? What lies ahead? We invited some key players in the space to join us in a virtual bourbon and give us the lowdown.

UMPG

“I’ve been blown away at how our entire roster and team never missed a beat, but rather excelled during such a stressful time,” says Troy Tomlinson. “That gave us a year of substantial growth across every key measurement.”

Still, he allows, “Like everything else this past 15 months, there have been good and not-so-good outcomes. It has opened up so many doors for multi-genre writers and has provided many more opportunities without having to travel. However, it was lacking some of the camaraderie, vibe and emotion of face-to-face songwriting.”

Such an absence was in part compensated by a great deal of winning. Let’s start with Uni’s trove of awards. Grammys were presented to Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Taylor Swift (the latter taking Album of the Year, becoming the first female artist to win thrice in that category); at the CMAs, Maren Morris took home Female Vocalist, Luke Combs won Male and Brad Tursi of Old Dominion shared a Vocal Group statuette; Tursi also took an ASCAP Song of the Year Award for “One Man Band.” Carlile, Hemby, Morris and Amanda Shires’ Highwomen project also claimed Americana Awards for Album, Song and Group of the Year.

Grammy nominee Ingrid Andress and “More Hearts Than Mine” (co-penned with Sam Ellis and Derrick Sutherland) scored an array of laurels. Among these: Music Row Breakthrough Aritst, Artist-Writer and Song of the Year, not to mention Song of the Year at the Nashville Songwriter Awards. Andress’ Lady Like was named the all-time top-streaming debut album by a Country female.

Hitmaker signings included Luke Combs, Kenny Chesney, Carlile, Scotty McCreery, Caitlyn Smith and Dave Cobb, among others. Meanwhile, numerous writers secured label deals, notably Catie Offerman (UMG), Ian Munsick (Warner), Laci Kaye Booth (BMLG), Dan Smalley (BBR), Hemby (Fantasy) and Ray Fulcher (BRE).

Tomlinson also hails a new “rock star” on his creative team, Director of A&R Roxy King.