The Peach Pickers


Georgia native songwriters Dallas
Davidson, Ben Hayslip and Rhett
Akins have written hundreds of
songs together, not counting the
songs written without collaborat-
ing with each other that have hit
the charts by major country music
recording stars. The trio is known
as "The Peach Pickers".

Seventeen years ago Rhett Akins
charted several hits including,
"That Ain't My Truck", "Don't Get
Me Started" and "She Said Yes".
His son, Thomas Rhett, is now
following his dad's footsteps. He
has a #1 song on the charts, "It
Goes Like This".  His father was
the co-writer of this song. Read
more on Rhett here

Dallas Davidson was honored
recently with the 2013  ACM
Songwriter of the Year Award.
Outside of writing as a Peach
Picker, he's written and co-written
numerous #1 hits - "Runnin'
Outta Moonlight" (Randy Houser),
 "That's My Kind Of Night" (Luke
Bryan), "Boys Round Here"
(Blake Shelton) and the list goes
on and on. Amazing for a fellow
that had $700 in his pocket and a
dream heading to Nashville in an
old pickup truck to write country
songs several years ago. Read
more on Dallas here

Ben Hayslip played baseball in
college but he always dreamed of
writing songs in Nashville. His
dream came true and a host of
artists have recorded his songs -
Brooks and Dunn, Joe Nichols,
Blake Shelton, Josh Turner, Luke
Bryan and the list continues.
Read more on Ben here

The threesome together as The
Peach Pickers have a long list of
hits. To mention a few - "I Don't
Want This Night To End" (Luke
Bryan), "All Over Me" (Josh
Turner), "All About Tonight"
(Blake Shelton), "Gimme That
Girl" (Joe Nichols) and "Put A
Girl In It" (Brooks and Dunn) and
then there's over six top tens and
over nine top 40's.  It's hard to
keep count of their hits as they
continue to produce so many.
They've also received a long list
of major awards for their achieve-
ments.

Steve Hinson -
Nashville's Go-To Guitar
Man

Born in Macon, GA, Steve Hinson
is a natural born guitar man.  Re-
gardless if it's a steel guitar, an
electric, acoustic, slide, dobro, ukelele or whatever, Steve can
hammer down on it.  Of course,
his favorite and what you hear in
many songs that he's recorded
or played on stage with countless
artists is the steel guitar.

When he moved to Nashville in
1977, he began his career as a
studio musician and performer.
The credits for his work on
albums and tours with artists are
incredible.  Just to mention a few-
Luke Bryan, Josh Turner, Randy
Travis, Dolly Partin, Darryl Worley
Kenny Chesney and more...
              View A List Of Credits

When artists and studios want it
done right.......they call Steve.

 

Percy Sledge Performs
To Large Crowd At
Washington Park In
Macon


Oct 13, 2013 Macon, GA (GMC)
Ron Holland
The Georgia Music Channel

VIEW PHOTOS

The fans kept pouring in until
Washington Park in Macon was
packed to the brim to see the
legendary Percy Sledge.

Percy, born in Leighton, AL, was
an orderly for a hospital near
Muscle Shoals, AL. when he met
Alan Walden, co-founder of
Capricorn Records, publisher,
producer and artists manager, at
the hospital who told him, "Percy
you're going to be a star!" It was
shortly thereafter in 1966 that
Walden made good on his word
and helped Percy score one of
the greatest hit songs of all times
and a #1 hit on the Billboard R &
B charts - "When A Man Loves A
Woman". The song peaked at #4
in Europe on the charts and was
featured in a Levi Jeans commer-
cial. It's been covered by Michael
Bolton,  Bette  Midler  Barbara
Mandrell, Jerry Butler, Art Gar-
funkel and others. The hit was
shown as #54  on  The Rolling
Stones 500 Greatest Songs of all
times list. Percy went on to score
several other hits throughout his
career.
                               READ MORE

The  Georgia  extraordinary
composer, singer, songwriter,
musician, Ray Charles, known
for  his  songs "Georgia On My
Mind", "I Can't Stop Loving You"
and many others, was honored
by the United States postal
service in their  Music Icons
series stamps.

The First Day Of Issue was
offered September 23, 2013.

    Learn more about Ray Charles

Florida-Georgia Line Breaks  Record  For Longest Running #1
Song. "Cruise"


The  song  "Cruise"  by  Florida-
Georgia Line  has  broken  a  69
year    record   for   the   longest
running #1 song on the Billboard
Country Songs  chart.   Also,  the
five time platinum selling single is
the   third   best   selling    digiital
song.

 

Jason Aldean  breaks George
Straits'   attendance   record  with
Night  Train  Tour  at  Cheyenne's
Frontier   Days    July  26th,   with
24,000 tickets sold.

This Macon, Georgia native just
keeps rockin' the fans.

3 J's Soul Food Restaurant
117 Russell Pkwy (Kroger Shopping Ctr)
Warner Robins, GA
(478) 225-9330
Click Here For Our Menu

As a school teacher and basketball coach in his early 20's,
Paul Cochran had no idea what impact he would have on the
music industry in the years to come. He would later become
the youth director and dance host for the Clearwater
Recreation Department in Clearwater, FL and organized
dance shows. After booking his first band, Terry and The
Pirates, which ultimately became the house band for the
recreation department, his innovativeness and accuity
allowed him to invision bringing in several major artists for a
concert. On August 16, 1961, partnering with WLCY Radio
and the Clearwater Recreation Department, he put together
a "Stars Spectacular Show" at the municipal auditorium
featuring Dion, Bobby Vee, Jack Scott, Joan Campbell and
Curtis Lee. The show was a huge success, so in October
1961 he had another concert with The Mar-Keys and Terry
and The Pirates and as they say, "the rest is history." He
began booking Del Shannon, Johnny Tillotson, Bryan
Hyland, Freddie Cannon Roy Orbison, Neil Sedeka, The
Rolling Stones, Ray Stevens, Tommy Roe, The Everly
Brothers, The Beach Boys, Manfred Mann, Bobby Rydell for
others shows throughout 1961 and 1962.

Paul would later manage The Roemans and Classics IV. He
worked with Buddy Buie, who at the time was promoting
bands with equal success, and together formed The
Buie-Cochran Management Company. They would later form
Low-Sal Publishing after moving to Atlanta and creating an
alliance with Bill Lowery. Together they would work with The
Classics IV, Joe South, The Candymen, Sandy Posey,
The James Gang and others to record in an old school
house near Brookhaven Station.

  Around 1970, Paul
  Cochran, Buddy
  Buie, J. R. Cobb
  and Bill Lowery
  would create the
  recording studio
  known as Studio
  One. The studio
  became THE place
  to record and was
  highly acclaimed
  by music artists.
 

Left To Right: J. R. Cobb & wife, Bill Lowery,
Paul Cochran and Buddy Buie.

Section, The Charlie Daniels Band, Marshall Tucker Band,
Billy Joe Royal, Joe South, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Journey, Alice
Cooper, The Outlaws, .38 Special, B. J. Thomas, Dee Clark,
Alicia Bridges and a host of other artists would record at
Studio One. By 1980, Paul sold his interest in Low-Sal
Publishing and Studio One and began managing acts such
as Billy Joe Royal, Joe South, Beaver Teeth and Back Alley
Bandits. He later produced the song, "Where's The Beef" in
association with the Wendy's hamburger chain. It was
recorded by Coyote McCloud (Atlanta radio personality) and
Clare Peller (the elderly lady from the tv commercial that
says "Where's The Beef").

Not long afterwards, in 1984, legendary producer Chips
Moman would choose Paul to be vice president of
operations for his production and publishing companies.
While working with Chips, Paul would work with Willie Nelson,
Waylon Jennings and Tammy Wynette who had major hits
during that time. One of Willie's largest hits, "You Were
Always On My Mind" was just one that comes to mind.

Having been dubbed as "Rock & Roll's Old Man", Paul has
worked with many great artists, producers, engineers and
others in the music industry. It all started with a small five
man band, Terry and The Pirates at the recreation depart-
ment and evolved into his contributions to the music industry
that has built foundations for many music artists, created
"dreams come true" for many and has allowed the fans to be
able to be privy to music that otherwise may not have
happened without his involvement. The impact he had on
music goes well beyond the state lines of Georgia or even
our nation - it's felt and appreciated worldwide. We salute
Paul Cochran for his desire to become involved in the music
industry, his ability to recognize talent and willingness to
extend his help to artists who were beginning and unknown
at the time, his dedication and years of hard work and for
just being the legendary Paul Cochran - "Rock & Roll's Old
Man".

In 2011, Paul was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of
Fame.

• View Related Photos - Videos / Music & More 
  

Corey  Smith  releases  his  new  single,  "Aint Going  Out
Tonight". Corey connected with famed producer Keith Stegall (Alan Jackson, Zac Brown Band, George Jones) to work with on his ninth album.

Georgia country music artist Corey Smith was born and
raised in Jefferson, GA. He's sold over a million digital
singles and over 250,000 records independently.

After playing many nights in bars and grills, Corey graduated
college, got married and settled down and started teaching
high school.  He would play songs for his students and to
his surprise they loved it.  Corey says his initial fan base
following came from playing for the students.

His first album, " Undertones", included the single "Twenty
One" which charted on the Billboard Country Songs chart in
2011 when he included it on the album "Broken Record".
The album hit the number 17 position on the country albums
chart.

This was the start of the career that Corey really wanted -
songwriting and singing.  His first moment of getting that
special "tingling" feeling was at a performance at a bar in
Dahlonega, GA that he'd never performed at before. He had
sold about 100 copies of his first album that originally had
Twenty One on it and it was spreading through various
college towns where he'd played. He thought there might be
15 - 20 people at the bar and since he'd not played that bar
he thought the crowd would want him to play his standard
cover songs, which he was doing at the time.  To his
surprise, there were over 200 people. He opened the show
with his first song and everybody started singing it.  It floored
him that everybody knew his music and sent chills down his
spine with joy.

In 2005 he headlined The Georgia Theater in Athens (The
Zac Brown Band opened the show.)  Everywhere he played
the crowds were swelling and his shows were selling out. He
states that in the last five years, he's played over 700 shows
throughout the USA, sold over 700,000 tickets and grossed
over $9 million in revenue. He's done all of that without a
record label and bypassed Nashville all together.  He relates
his success to writing songs that have genuine, truthful
meaning to people and just being himself. And of course a
lot of hard work.

Corey now tours throughout the country. He'll be appearing
with Brett Eldridge, Toby Keith, Eli Young Band, Darryl
Worley, Hunter Hayes, The Band Perry, Justin Moore,
Darrius Rucker, Love & Theft and others this year.

                                             Find out more about Corey
                                        View The "Twenty One" Video

A group with over 30 years of songwriting and performances
has inspired many other artists - that group is The Atlanta
Rhythm Section. With big hits like "Champagne Jam", "So
Into To  You", Imaginary Lover",  "Spooky" and 15 albums,
the 1970's was buzzing with the love for their music. 

It all started in Doraville, a suburb of Atlanta, when Atlanta
engineer Rodney Mills, music publisher Bill Lowery, producer
Buddie Buie and songwriter and guitarist J. R. Cobb got
together to form Studio One. Studio One became THE studio
to record in Atlanta for numerous music artists. 

Thomas Rhett Releases Video
 "It Goes Like This"
Thomas Rhett, (Valdosta, GA) Big Machine Records, released his video of "It Goes Like This".  Followed by "Something To Do With My Hands" and "Beer With Jesus", this is Rhetts' third single. The previous two songs broke the Top 20 on the Country Airplay charts and this one's on it's way. 
            More About This Georgia Country Music Artists