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R & B Singer Percy Sledge Dies
"When A Man Loves A Womans"
Percy Sledge, the great R & B singer from Leighton, Alabama, whose 1966 #1 Billboard Hot 100 hit, "When A Man Loves A Woman", has died in his Baton Rouge, Louisiana home.
Percy, born in Leighton, AL, was working for a hospital near Muscle Shoals, AL. in the 1960's when he met Alan Walden, co-founder of Capricorn Records, publisher, producer and artists manager, 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 & Hot 100 charts - "When A Man Loves A Woman". Many other major recording artists would later cover Percy's
song, which allowed new generations to become familiar with it. The song was listed 53rd in the list of Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 greatest songs of all time.
Percy would continue to have Hot 100 hits until the late 60's,
touring and make appearances throughout the USA and overseas. In 2013, he performed at Washington Park in Macon, GA. Bob & Ron with The Georgia Music Channel was there to greet him as he arrived at the park to perform.
Percy Sledge was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. He is survived by his wife and children.
Craig Campbell Signs With Red Bow Records
December 2014

Craig Campbell " Keeps Them Kisses Comin' " with the signing of his new record label Red Bow Records, a division of BBR Music Group. It shouldn't be too long before the label and Craig decide on a new release.
With the release of Garth Brook's album in November, "Man Against Machine" which includes one of Craig's songs, "All American Kid", it seems like Santa Claus arrived early for the Lyons, Ga native.
Last October we met up with Craig Campbell at Party On The Farm in Covington, GA. " Outta My Head ", from his Never Regret album, was really going strong, peaking at #15 on the Billboard Country Airplay charts and spending 54 weeks on the charts, nearly surpassing Lee Brice's " Love Like Crazy " run of 56 weeks. " Out Of My Head' " was written by Michael Carter, Brandon Kinney and Georgia's Cole Swindell.
After talking with Craig and Jamie Michael last October, Craig's guitarist, I felt that " Keep Them Kisses Comin' " would be the next single to be released from the album. We'd already been playing it on our radio station for several weeks, since it's such a great song. We felt this would be Craig's next big hit and sure enough it was released December 2013 and April 2014 became his highest charting single peaking at #9 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart and reaching #15 on Billboard's Country Songs chart. " Keep Them Kisses Comin' " was written by Georgia songwriters - two of The Peach Pickers, Ben Hayslip and Dallas Davidson. During all this great success, Craig's label, Bigger Picture, closed its doors a month later, but Craig kept charging ahead reaching new goals, scoring his highest charting single and constantly touring the country performing his songs. He attributes that success to his fans, telling us, " I have the best fans in the world. They are the reason I get to do what I love and I love seeing their faces at the shows. I am here to stay and I hope they are too."
Craig hasn't forgotten his roots growing up in rural Lyons, GA and was able to make it back home recently for the annual Real Squeal to perform where his mother made his introduction and sang with him on stage and his daughter, Preslee, performed the National Anthem at his high school's football game.
Prior to the announcement of Craig's new record label deal, Ron Holland with The Georgia Music Channel caught up with him to talk about the Real Squeal concert, his last two recent hits, "Outta My Head" and " Keep Them Kisses Comin' " and to discuss what's new.
View My Interview With Craig
Singer Songwriter Thomas Fountain
Named 2014 Georgia Country Male Artists Of The Year & Overall Artist Of the Year

The Thomas Fountain Band Members
Thomas Fountain - lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Gaylon Mathews - steel pedal/dobro
Drew Lawson - electric & upright bass
Blake Mincey - drums
Grant Reynolds - lead guitar
Alan Sanders - lead guitar
Simply put, Thomas Fountain is a rising star in a state known for producing huge country artists. Born and raised in the mountains of North Georgia, this Ball Ground native has seen his career take off in 2014. He was awarded Georgia Country Male Artist of the Year and Overall Artist of the Year in 2014.
Thomas has been entertaining audiences for several years but decided in 2013 to take a different direction with his music. He wanted to write, record, and perform his own material. The response to that life altering decision was astounding. In just his first year as a solo artist, Thomas was a Finalist for 2013 Georgia Country Artist of the year (1 of 6), toured 6 states, recorded his first EP, performed live on television, and his songs hit large market radio, among many other accomplishments. He is quickly gaining recognition as both an entertainer and songwriter.
Music Visionary Frank Fenter Inducted Into The Georgia Music Hall Of Fame
By Ron Holland – The Georgia Music Channel
Contributions & Photos: Rob Duner-Fenter

Frank Fenter was a man of strength, conviction and vision.
He proved that when he left South Africa when he was only
22 years old arriving in England broke, but not broken. In the
early 60's, he began booking bands such as The Rolling
Stones, The Animals and others well before they became
popular and had recording deals. In 1964 he would head up
Chappell Music Publishing, Liberty-Imperial Records, Chess
Music and became head of Atlantic Records in the UK. Only
six months later he became Managing Director of Atlantic
Records for all of Europe, implementing his keen vision
promoting British music, and helping make Atlantic Records
the most important American label in promoting British Rock
N Roll music, according to the late Ahmet Ertegun,
co-founder and Chairman of Atlantic Records and the Rock
N Roll Hall of Fame.
While at Atlantic, Fenter was instrumental in helping sign
Led Zeppelin, Yes and King Crimson in his capacity as
Managing Director of European operations and had a
yearning and distinct love for R & B music, bringing the "Hit
The Road Stax" tour to Europe which included artists Sam &
Dave, Otis Redding and Booker T and the MGs. People still
talk about the legendary performance by Otis Redding in
London. The shows were so popular that not only the fans
were scrambling for tickets, but The Beatles sent a limo to
pick up the Stax crew after the shows. There's rumor that
Paul McCartney kissed the ring of Steve Cropper, Booker T
and the MGs guitarist, amazed by his incredible guitar
performances. As a result of the insight and vision by by
Fenter, the tour was recorded and Stax Records, a division
of Atlantic, album sales soared. Seven of the eleven albums
went to gold certification.
Other inductees include
Lady Antebellum, Wet Willie,
Francine Reed, Ed Roland, Danny Beard, Jeff
Foxworthy, Sean Costello, Wally Fowler, Eddie Horst
and Bobby Byrd.
Remembering Joel Mathis

Joel Mathis, singer/songwriter from Valdosta, GA, played the local scene for several years before hitting the Nashville recording studios and charting some songs on the Billboard country charts. He later toured Chicago and various cities, but always remembered his Valdosta, GA roots and the fans that helped him make it to Nashville. Learn more about Joel and his contributions to Georgia music.
R.E.M. Remasters Entire Catalog Of Tunes
R.E.M.'s complete catalog of studio albums and rarities, a massive collection, have been remastered for iTunes. The release will ensure that the listeners will have increased audio fidelity that reproduces what the artists, recording engineers and the producers intended. The fans have the ability to obtain the release by albums or individual tracks or in four special bundles: Complete I.R.S. Studio Albums, Complete Rarities - I.R.S. 1982 - 1987, Complete Warner Bros. Studio Albums Vol. I and Complete Rarities - Warner Bros. 1988 - 2011.
View The Songs In The Collections & Read More
Riley Biederer Signs Publishing Deal
With Sony / ATV
By Ron Holland
The Georgia Music Channel
Listen To My Full Interview With Riley

Photo Credit: David Duong / Pixelslick Designs
Riley Biederer has signed a publishing agreement with the
world's largest publishing company, Sony/ATV. Biederer,
the recipient of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame Horizon
Award in 2012 and signed by Elton John's Rocket Music,
has over 200 songs she has written or co-written that was
included in the deal with Sony/ATV. Making it super
special, the signing came on her 18th birthday. She said,
"it was so amazing and I also just got a new car because
of that, so it was super amazing. I've been waiting to buy a
car for about two years, so I finally got to." Signing with
Sony/ATV is an amazing accomplishment for a young artist
that's never released music commercially or had a publish-
ing deal in the past.
Riley has co-written songs with several Nashville chart buster
songwriters such as Bob Dipiero, Liz Rose and numerous
other major songwriters. She told me, "I'd actually written
with Bob a few times, the first time I did it I wrote with just
me and him, and he's super and nice and really funny, the
experience was really like easy and yea, that was the first
time we did a couple of songs together and they were really
great songs. The second time I wrote with him and Liz Rose
who's close friends and mentor to Taylor Swift and did a lot
of the work on her "Fearless" album so that was really awe-
some because I've always wanted to write with her. It was
really fun, it was super honoring to write with them and they
are really amazing at what they do and it was kind of inspiri-
ng."
Riley continues to perform live at various venues having
appeared in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and
several other cities.
We salute and congratulate Riley on her recent signing with
Sony/ATV. Click on the audio above to listen to my full inter-
view with Riley.
Find Out More About Riley Here
Visit Riley's Website
Country's Not So Countrywide: Why
South Georgia Is Country's New Epicenter
By Billy Dukes

Our apologies to Brantley Gilbert, but today’s country music is not as country wide as he claims. It’s actually limited to about 18 states, a half-dozen of which really dominate what we hear on country radio. Put a pin on an American map for the city of origin of every artist with a song on this week’s Top 50 airplay chart and you’ll find that — to borrow the title from an awful Lindsey Lohan movie — Georgia rules!
Specifically, southern Georgia rules. Six artists grew up between Macon, Ga. and the Florida border, including recent CMA Entertainer of the Year nominees Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean, plus promising newcomers Kip Moore and Thomas Rhett (by extension, this also includes super hot songwriter Rhett Akins, his father). Head north toward Atlanta, and you’ll find the hometowns of two-thirds of Lady Antebellum (Augusta), Zac Brown, Tyler Hubbard from Florida Georgia Line and Gilbert (Jefferson, Ga.).
Read More: Country's Not So Country Wide After All

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
Jacob Poole Competes In Elimination Duet
With Matthew Schuler On NBC's The Voice -
Who Did Christina Choose?
READ MORE
Party On The Farm Georgia Artists Rock
Covington, GA

The Georgia
Music Channel
It's our mission to preserve the history of Georgia music
through education, information and entertainment - it's all
about Georgia music artists and those having a connection
to Georgia. We cover a wide spectrum of genres - Country
music, Rock music, Pop music, R & B / Soul Music and so
many other genres. We've begun also listing non-perform-
ing artists to the Georgia Music Artists page- like producers,
managers, etc. and have opened a page for up-and-coming
musicians. We are constantly adding artists that have made
a contribution to GA music to the Georgia Music Artists
page. The list will never be complete, as we're fortunate
to have an abundance of music artists from Georgia. Feel
free to make recommendations for artists you'd like to
see listed by contacting us @ The Georgia Music Channel.
Remember, we include music artists that have a connection
to Georgia. For example, you may see a video or hear a
song by an artist like Elvis, who apparently never lived in
Georgia. However in this case, if the video or song is "In
The Ghetto" or "Don't Cry Daddy", these are relevant
because Mac Davis (a Georgia music artist) wrote those
songs. Therefore, it's Mac Davis and his work that we're
recognizing. This is an example of the depth of the work
by music artists from Georgia and how we honor and
recognize their contriubution to Georgia music.
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