Janet Weir, Red Light Management/42 Entertainment; Ryan Hurd; Maren Morris; Erika Wollam Nichols, Bluebird Cafe COO/GM; Jimmy Robbins; Laura Veltz. Photo Credit: Rick Diamond
Maren Morris led a sold-out songwriter round with Ryan Hurd, Jimmy Robbins and Laura Veltz recently at the famed Bluebird Cafe. Proceeds from the special performance were donated to The HEROES Fund, Maren’s charity benefiting fine arts programs and music education in public schools.
The event was filmed for Bluebird, the first-ever in-depth documentary about the influence the 90-seat venue has had on singers, songwriters and popular music in general. The film is in the final stages of production and heading towards post-production stage.
About Maren Morris: Twenty-eight year old singer/songwriter Maren Morris has quickly established herself with vocal stylings that reflect her country, folk and pop influences. Armed with sheer talent, honest lyrics and a completely magnetic presence, Morris’ label-debut album, the Gold-certified Hero, released via Columbia Nashville on June 3, 2016. One week after it was available, Hero entered the Billboard Country Albums chart at No. 1 and No. 5 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart, which spans across all genres. With this, the Arlington, Texas native became the first artist in the history of Columbia Nashville to open at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Charts with a debut album in the Soundscan era. Morris’ debut single from Hero, “My Church,” set a record at country radio by having the most chart reporting stations to play a debut single by a country artist with 107 stations the week it hit the airwaves, in addition to being certified Platinum by the RIAA. Later in 2016 Morris tied for the most nominations with five at the 50th CMA Awards, including Album of the Year (Hero), Female Vocalist of the Year, Single of the Year (“My Church”), Song of the Year (“My Church”) and New Artist of the Year, which she won, marking her first CMA Award. She was tapped by Billboard Magazine to receive the Billboard Breakthrough Artist Award at the 11th annual Billboard Women in Music Gala, as well as being awarded the Breakthrough Artist Award by the Music Business Association at Music Biz 2017. Kicking off 2017 Morris took home the GRAMMY for Best Country Solo Performance for “My Church” at the 59th GRAMMY Awards, in addition to having the most nominations for a country music artist with four to her credit, including Best New Artist, Best Country Album (Hero) and Best Country Song as the songwriter and performer (“My Church”). She received six nominations at the 52nd Academy of Country Music Awards, including Female Vocalist of the Year, New Female Vocalist of the Year, which she took home the trophy for, Album of the Year (as artist and producer) for Hero, and Single Record of the Year (as artist and producer) for “My Church.” Morris was also named Radio Disney’s Best New Country Artist at the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards. Morris wrapped 2017 with the conclusion of her first-ever headlining HERO Tour 2017, which also included dates in the U.K. Looking ahead at 2018 Maren received her fifth career GRAMMY Award-nomination for BEST COUNTRY SOLO PERFORMANCE (“I Could Use A Love Song”) for the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards. In addition “I Could Use A Love Song” was Morris’ first No. 1 country radio single, as both the performer and songwriter, reaching the top of both Billboard Country Airplay and Mediabase Country charts the week of January 15, 2018.
Morris’ current single for Country radio is the fun fan favorite song “Rich.” Though rooted deeply in country music, Morris has acquired a global, non-genre specific, fan base. It’s that global fan base’s appetite that Morris will satisfy in 2018 by collaborating with electronic house DJ and producer Zedd, along with electronic duo, Grey, for the smash hit, “The Middle,” in addition to joining Niall Horan on the Flicker World Tour 2018 with dates in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the USA.
Socials:
Twitter is: http://twitter.com/marenmorris
Website is: http://marenmorris.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/marenmorris
Facebook: http://facebook.com/marenmorris
About the Bluebird Cafe: Amy Kurland opened what she thought would be a small cafe in a nondescript strip center just south of downtown Nashville in June of 1982. Adding a stage as an afterthought, live music soon became a staple of the eatery. Recognizing the room was built for acoustic music, she offered the club as an outlet for songwriters and aspiring artists to perform original material. Inspired by private guitar-pulls, regular performers Thom Schuyler and J. Fred Knobloch, pioneered the idea of presenting songwriters “in the round,” where writers set their chairs in the center of the room to play their original material, telling the stories and inspirations for their songs.
In 2008, Kurland sold the legendary venue to the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), a 50-year-old, not-for-profit organization devoted to the service of songwriters and the craft of songwriting. In the ensuing 11 years, little about the club itself has changed as the small room continues to focus on promoting the craft of songwriting, but the reach has expanded and the Bluebird hosts several off-site events that bear the iconic name.
Bluebird on the Mountain – a sold-out concert series at Vanderbilt’s Dyer Observatory in Nashville, the Bluebird Cafe at London’s Country2Country Festival, and the annual Bluebird Cafe Concert Series at Utah’s Sundance Resort. Most recently, the new Opry City Stage in the heart of New York City’s Times Square began featuring the Bluebird Cafe Songwriter Series spotlighting songwriters from Nashville, New York and across the country.
For additional information on The Bluebird Cafe and the documentary, visit www.bluebirdcafe.com and follow The Bluebird at
https://www.facebook.com/bluebirdcafetn/
https://twitter.com/bluebirdcafeTN
https://www.instagram.com/bluebirdcafetn/
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