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.

Warner Chappell Music

Ben Vaughn and team Zoomed to ever-greater heights during lockdown, scoring ASCAP Country Music Publisher of the Year honors for the eighth consecutive year and their third straight BMI Publisher of the Year. Superstars like Dan + Shay (third straight Grammy for Country Duo/Group Performance, third consecutive ACM for Duo), Chris Stapleton (ACM Album of the Year) and Thomas Rhett (ACM Male Artist) claimed mondo hardware. Breakout Mickey Guyton became the first Black solo female artist to earn a Grammy nom in a country category (for the amazing “Black Like Me,” which she co-wrote at an all-genre WCM writing camp with Fraser Churchill, Emma Davidson Dillon and Nathan Chapman). Rookies Parker McCollum and Niko Moon scored their first #1 singles, as well as Music Row’s Breakout of the Year and 200m+ streams, respectively.

In addition to Rhett, WCM’s recent Nashville inkings include Priscilla Block, Willie Jones and Boys Like Girls writer/producer/frontman Martin Johnson. Vaughn and company also cheered the major-label deals secured by writers Kat & Alex (Sony) and Ben Burgess (Big Loud).

WCM’s virtual writing camp, Vaughn relates, presented new possibilities to tunesmiths who couldn’t yet gather in a physical space with their guitars. “Everyone in the [virtual] room was so open to new ideas and new sounds,” he insists. “The energy was tangible.” Indeed, Johnson’s collab with Lady A, “Like a Lady,” was a byproduct of that confab and is the lead single on the band’s new album.

“Our songwriters are really creative, and it doesn’t surprise me that they found ways to continue making new music despite the quarantine,” Vaughn adds. “Whether it was joining a virtual camp or sharing voice memos back and forth over text, they did everything they could to continue doing what they love. It’s never been easier to bring together different voices that location or distance might have made impossible before.”