Joe's Pub Hosts CMA Songwriter Series feat Easton Corbin & Clay Walker

Joe's Pub at The Public Theater debuted in October 1998 and has quickly became one of New York City's most celebrated and in-demand showcase venues for live music and performance. With its genre-blind booking and vast diversity of interests, the stage at Joe's Pub gives voice to a world of varied and stellar artists.

JUST ANNOUNCED
Trapper Felides: TRAPPER'S BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE

Friday, June 17 at 11:30 PM; $20 in advance; $25 at the door

Come on out for your last chance to see Trapper Felides and his special breed of Broadway/Pop hybrids at Joe's before the Pub breaks ground for an exciting renovation. You last saw him rock the Our Hit Parade stage with YouTube sensation Jeffrey Sewell. Come back and see the kid ripping it up again in a lineup that includes snippets from Trapper's upcoming production of "Red, White and Blaine" (the Waiting for Guffman musical, of course), a teaser for Celina Carvajal's Janis Joplin tribute, and a little disco era Barbra Streisand for good measure. Let's see Joe's Pub out with a bang!

Trapper Felides is thrilled to be back on stage at Joe's Pub where his recent concert work includes Our Hit Parade, Trapper's Greatest Hits, The Molly Pope Show, and Bridget Everett's We've Got Tonight (Time Out New York's pick for Top Cabaret Show of the year). At le (poisson) rouge: Emma Hunton's Bon Voyage show before she originated the role of Natalie on the Next to Normal tour and The Meeting's (with Justin Sayre) fundraiser for The Ali Forney Center. Recent highlights also include music direction for Arts Horizons' Tribute to Paul Simon (with Paul himself in attendance) and the upcoming Broadway on the Rocks tour presentation, and music directing and producing Jay Kuo and Blair Shepard's "It Gets Better" which benefited the Trevor Project and became a benchmark of its namesake campaign. Charitable work also includes benefits for The Point Foundation, GLAAD, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS,The Human Rights Campaign, Susan G. Komen for a Cure, United Cerebral Palsy,The Make-a-Wish Foundation and the LA Gay and Lesbian Center.Trapper has been seen on The Today Show and Nightline, and he has been filmed for E! and the Oprah Women's Network and profiled in the New York Post and the New York Times. Trapper founded LA's Upright Cabaret with Shane Scheel and Chris Isaacson where he performed with the best talent in stage and screen. In 2011: Tune in for upcoming pop albums from teens Samantha Fly and Allie Trimm, a lifestyle/cookbook with food authority Helen Kimmel, and Trapper's own untitled reality show.

JUNE 21-25
CMA SONGWRITER SERIES
Tuesday, June 21 at 6:30 & 9:00 PM; $30
featuring Easton Corbin, Bob DiPiero, Carson Chamberlain & Mark D. Sanders
AND
Wednesday, June 22 at 6:30 & 9:00 PM; $30
featuring Clay Walker, Bob DiPiero, Carson Chamberlain & Mark D. Sanders

Joe's Pub and the Country Music Association are proud to announce the continuation of the successful CMA (Country Music Association) Songwriter Series with some of Nashville's finest songwriters. Bob DiPiero will return as host. CMA Songwriters Series is proudly sponsored by American Airlines, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GAC.

Easton Corbin (June 21 only)

Performance credits:

"Roll With It"

"A Little More Country Than That"

"I Can't Love You Back"

Clay Walker *(June 22 only)

"Rumor Has It"

"Live Until I Die"

"Who Needs You Baby"

"She Won't Be Lonely Long" (not written by Clay Walker)

Bob DiPiero

"If You Ever Stop Loving Me" / Montgomery Gentry

"Southern Voice" / Tim McGRaw

"Blue Clear Sky" / George Strait

"You Can't Take The Honky Tonk Out Of The Girl" / Brooks & Dunn

Carson Chamberlain

"Love's Got A Hold On You" / Alan Jackson

"The Best Day" / George Strait

"Country Ain't Country" / Travis Tritt

"I Can't Love You Back" / Easton Corbin

Mark D. Sanders

"I Hope You Dance" / Lee Ann Womack

"(This Ain't) No Thinkin' Thing" / Trace Adkins

"It Matters To Me" / Faith Hill

"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" / Reba

EASTON CORBIN

Easton Corbin knew he wanted to be a country singer well before he learned how to play guitar.

"One of my earliest memories is from when I was three or four," he remembers. "I was sitting between my parents in the car and a song came on the radio-it was Mel McDaniel's ‘Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On.' I began using the gearshift as my microphone. The desire has always been there."

Now those lifelong dreams are coming true. The accolades are continuing to roll in for Easton, who is the first country male artist in 17 years to have his first two consecutive singles reach No. 1 - "A Little More Country Than That" and "Roll With It."

In a six-month period, he received 13 country music award nominations and won three country music trophies. Most recently, he received three nominations from the Academy of Country Music Awards -- Top New Solo Vocalist as well as Single and Song of the Year for his debut hit, "A Little More Country Than That."

He won three 2010 American Country Awards, sweeping every breakthrough artist category - Artist of the Year: Breakthrough Artist, as well as Single of the Year: Breakthrough Artist and Music Video: Breakthrough Artist for "A Little More Country Than That." He tied with Lady Antebellum to earn the most fan-voted nominations, garnering seven. In addition, he received nominations for Best New Artist and Single and Song of the Year for "A Little More Country Than That" at the 2010 Country Music Association Awards.

Billboard named Easton the Top New Country Artist of 2010 and "Roll With It" the No. 6 Hot Country Song of the Year, while "A Little More Country Than That" was ranked No. 19. His album was also named Country Breakthrough Album of the Year by iTunes Rewind.

The Nashville Scene's 11th annual Country Music Critics' Poll named Easton the Best New Act of 2010 and included his self-titled album in its Best Albums list at No. 19. "A Little More Country Than That" was ranked No. 11 on its Best Singles list.

"This is a dream come true," he says. "This is something I've wanted all of my life. To be able to do this for a living and have people like it, I couldn't ask for any better. I am so blessed."

Born and raised in rural Gilchrist County, Fla., Easton spent much of his time on his grandparent's cattle farm after his parents divorced when he was young. "I lived a mile from the Suwannee River," he says. "I grew up fishing on it and I loved to work on The Farm. Every weekend, that's where I'd be."

A member of FFA and 4-H, Easton showed cattle at the local livestock fair. Growing up in the smallest county in the state on farmland nestled between two small towns had its advantages. "It's a close community," he says. "Everybody knows everybody.

"There's no Walmart there," he says. "There was a Hardee's, but it closed. That was the only franchise fast food place in the county. Trenton has a red light; Bell has a blinking light. It's a great place."

While no one in his family played a musical instrument, music was a big part of his upbringing. "My grandparents liked to watch the Opry," Easton remembers. "We'd start Saturday night off with ‘Hee Haw' and then ‘Opry Backstage' and then ‘Opry Live'."

It was also at his grandparent's house that he discovered a record player and his father and aunts' left-behind records in a front room. "I'd go in there and play those records for hours," he says.

When Easton was 15 years old he began taking guitar lessons from Pee Wee Melton, a local musician who had at one time played on sessions in Nashville. "He was a great mentor," Easton says. "He was a great player and a great teacher. He was a really big influence on me."

Every day when he got home from school, Easton would practice guitar for hours, sometimes until his fingers were raw, then help his grandfather around The Farm.

Encouraged by Melton, Easton began playing lead guitar in a local band. "I'd always wanted to play and sing, but up until that time I never really did it in public," he says. "We'd play school functions and parties. We were too young to play bars, but we played everything else."

An impromptu audition at a local music store led to a slot on the Suwannee River Jam, a nearby festival that attracts thousands of people and national touring acts. "It was just me and a guitar in front of a 40-acre field full of people," Easton remembers. "It was great."

Soon he was opening for other national acts when they played the area, including Janie Fricke and Mel McDaniel, the man whose song Easton had performed in the car years earlier.

After earning a business degree through the College of Agriculture at the University of Florida, Easton moved to Nashville. "I always knew I wanted to move up here," he says. "There was never any question about it. I didn't want to wake up one day and wish I would have tried it, but I had to get my education first so I had something to fall back on."

Easton, who had been making regular trips to Nashville to perform at writer's nights, took a day job at a local Ace Hardware.

When a distant cousin, also a professor of music management at the University of Montana, heard Easton's music, he asked if he could send it to some of his Nashville contacts. Among those who were impressed by Easton's music was booking agent James Yelich, who asked if he could hear him play in person. Easton, eager for a shot to pursue his dream, quickly agreed.

Also at the meeting was Joe Fisher, who had recently joined Universal Music Group Nashville as Senior Director of A&R. The two men were blown away and Fisher quickly signed him to the label.

Easton, whose musical influences include George Jones, Merle Haggard, George Strait and Keith Whitley, found a kindred spirit in producer Carson Chamberlain, who years earlier had toured with Whitley as his steel guitar player and bandleader. "We really hit it off," Easton says. "I love traditional music and he does too. I knew he was the producer for me."

The two men began working in earnest. "We worked our butts off trying to find the right songs," Easton says. The result is an over-the-top album that includes cuts from Nashville's top songwriters, including Mark D. Sanders, Wynn Varble, Tony Lane and David Lee, among others.

Like his heroes Strait and Whitley, Easton is unapologetically country. His songs, while rooted in the present, call to mind simpler times when the back porch was where folks gathered to network. Steel guitars and fiddles are as much a part of his sound as his baritone drawl.

First single, "A Little More Country Than That," which was written by Rory Feek, Don Poythress and Varble, paints a picture of rural life that speaks to Easton's small town sensibilities. "Even though I didn't write it, this song identifies who I am," he says. "It shows character and that's important where I'm from. You learn to say ‘yes, ma'am' and ‘no, sir,' and to open the door for the ladies."

Among the songs included on the album are four Easton co-wrote with Chamberlain and Sanders during a trip to Colorado. "When I came to Nashville I realized how important it was to write songs," Easton says. "The opportunity to sit in a room with experienced songwriters and learn their craft has helped me become a better writer.

"I'm still working and developing as a writer, but I was fortunate enough to get some songs on the album," Easton says, perhaps more humble than he needs to be.

"The Way Love Looks," which Easton co-wrote with Chamberlain and Sanders, is a love song pure and simple. "It's just a fun upbeat song," Easton says.

Tony Lane, David Lee and Johnny Park wrote "Roll With It," which speaks to the important things in life like sunsets and pick-up trucks. "I love that one," Easton says. "I can imagine listening to it just floatin' down the river on the boat on a Saturday."

The tender "I Can't Love You Back," written by Chamberlain, Clint Daniels and Jeff Hyde, is Easton's third single and has a universal message of loss. "It can mean different things for different people," Easton says. "She could have died, she could have left him-people can interpret it the way they feel."

Now that his life long dream is upon him, Easton says he's ready. "I just want to make great country music," he says. "Just the opportunity to play music for a living is a great thing. I'm just thankful to have the opportunity to do what I'm doing now."

CLAY WALKER

"The things to me that last are things that are real," Clay Walker says. "Realness is what draws people in."

Keeping things real has been a priority for Clay Walker. That may be why on his new album, "She Won't Be Lonely Long," his second for Curb Records, Walker sounds as fresh and hungry as he did when he released his first hit, "What's It To You," 17 years ago.

And there have been plenty since. Of his nine previous albums, four are RIAA-certified platinum, two more are certified gold; among nearly three dozen singles, 11 have been No. 1. But Walker sounds like he's just getting started.

Like his 2007 Curb Records debut, Fall, Walker's new album, She Won't Be Lonely Long was produced by Keith Stegall. The collection of songs is as solid and filler-free as he's recorded over the course of 10 studio albums. Radio friendly? Hello, cover of Alabama's immortal "Feels So Right," with Randy Owen, the writer of the song and Alabama member, performing it as a duet with Walker.

It has special meaning for the singer, since the first concert he ever saw was an Alabama show in Beaumont, Texas, that Walker's mother took him to see. "I remember them taking the stage, and the emotion that came over my mom. I just fell in love with their performance, as entertainers, they influenced my wanting to become an entertainer; I think that's where the energy of my live show comes from. So the song has a special place in my life, and I'm proud to do it."

The album's first single is "She Won't Be Lonely Long," written by Galen Griffin, Phil O'Donnell and Doug Johnson. But the story, about a woman walking into a club with the decisive purpose of finding at least a temporary replacement for the fool who let her go, is one Walker has seen transpire from many a bandstand.

"I've played in bars my whole life," he says. "As a singer, you have a bird's eye view of everyone in the club. When a good looking woman walks in, you notice it. What makes it so real is that if a guy does a girl wrong, the first thing she wants to do is go out, look great, show him that you're not the best I ever had, I'm the best YOU ever had."

Three of the tunes were written with longtime writing sidekick M. Jason Greene, who like Walker grew up in the Beaumont area. "Summertime Song" is an easygoing pleasure, a song that began taking shape years ago when Walker was performing a solo gig and Greene bartending at a local Steak and Ale. It's a song that evokes good times, good friends, and the dangers of forgetting what the merciless sun can do to your skin on Galveston Beach.

Two of Walker's new compositions are likely to stir conversation and perhaps controversy: "Double Shot of John Wayne" and "All American." Walker makes it clear that the John Wayne reference in that roaring up-tempo song is not an embrace of machismo or a desire to return to simpler, more violent Western past, when men were men and settled disputes with six-guns at high noon. What inspired it was a nasty accident on a bike during an exercise stretch off the tour bus in Flagstaff, Arizona, a few years ago. "I shattered my helmet, I was bleeding from head to toe," Walker said. "I had to go onstage that night, I never missed show." Putting ointment on his torn skin made Walker ponder "the ruggedness of men," as epitomized by John Wayne. "It's not supposed to be about John Wayne, his tough persona, or being a man's man," he says. "It's about how you live, not how you die; you don't have to die to be a hero; being a hero is how you live every day."

"All American" is an attempt to quiet the dissonance and mutual disrespect that has characterized too much political discussion in recent years. As the song makes clear, "there's blue collar, white collar, but we all bleed red." The song is a rebuke to the racism Walker says he was exposed to growing up. "It's about not being prejudiced or judgmental," Walker says. In the song, Walker sings about having "a best friend with a funny last name/and a weird accent/and now he's an astronaut." Says Walker: "You can succeed in this country with a great work ethic, I really believe that. Everybody deserves a fair chance. Not everybody seizes it, but everybody deserves it."

A number of songs written by some of Music City's finest allow Walker to cut loose with one of the finest voices in country music. "Keep Me From Loving You" is one of the songs that has what Walker describes as "a real country soulfulness." Though he didn't write it, he identifiEd Strongly with the story of parents who disapprove of the young man their daughter is dating. "I dated a girl in high school whose mother and father didn't like me," Walker said. "I never understood why they looked down on me. The song is bluesy and soulful, it gives me a chance to stretch out vocally. I've been blessed with the ability to stretch out with a kind of R&B style and still keep my country roots. I cut it a half step [octave] too high so I could express more vulnerability. I wanted to give this everything I had, the monitors were on fire by the time I was finished."

Another track with the same soulful intensity, "Where Do I Go From You." "Out of all the songs I've recorded since ‘What's It To You,' my first record, this has that youthful energy I had on that first song. Production-wise it's as modern as anything I've ever done. I'm pretty much considered a new traditionalist, but I do have R&B and pop roots mixed in."

"Sometimes I Feel Like Jesse James" kicks it up even a notch higher: It's the most fired up country rock'n'roll Walker has ever recorded. "Sometimes I feel like Jesus, sometimes I feel like Jesse James," the refrain goes. Walker explains: "It's like Tim McGRaw sang, ‘I may be a real bad boy, but baby, I'm a real good man.' I think most men are in that spot. It also reminds me of ‘Tombstone,' with Val Kilmer and Kurt Russell, it's one of the my favorite movies-I ad-libbed some lines from the movie at the end of the song." Walker recalls that the first time he played it for his oldest daughter, MaClay, she said, "Dad, all the hairs on my arms are standing up." Clay also has a daughter Skylor, and a son, William.

Songs that tell stories without clear resolutions and unpredictable rhymes are especially meaningful to Walker, who likes the ambiguity of "Seven Sundays," which could draw the interest of Christian radio, and "Like We Never Said Goodbye," which has some pop possibilities. "It's about having your ex-lover walk in [to a club or party or other social gathering] and you get butterflies, worse than butterflies," Walker says. The lyrics change in the chorus as the song progresses, giving "Like We Never Said Goodbye" the feel of a short story. "The end of the song leaves it open: You decide whether they get back together again or not."

Another story song Walker finds intensely meaningful is "People in Planes," which unfolds like a movie. "It's very philosophical; it's a huge risk, because it's way outside the box for me, but it can be a game-changer," Walker believes. It's a simple set-up with complex emotions: The singer observes all kinds of people on an airplane, imagining where they are coming or going from. There is a sudden, nostalgic memory of a safe and happy moment from childhood. "You go from childhood to adulthood, losing that innocence, then it takes you back the other way, like a good movie, at the end, it gives you some release. "We're all waiting on somebody we can't see to land this thing," one of the last lines goes. Walker explains: "Everybody is looking outside of themselves for help."

When it comes to helping others, Clay Walker is there. In 1996, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and since then has become a relentless advocate for a cure. "My first thought was, I'm not going to be able to walk my daughter down the aisle. The other was, that I thought my kids would be ashamed of me because I was incapacitated."

Walker, a competitive cut-horse rider and skilled golfer, is one of fortunate ones whose MS is for now contained by medication. But he carries the fight for a cure for MS with his charity organization, Band Against MS.

"A good friend once said you should spend 10 per cent of your time on the problem, and 90 per cent on the solution," Walker said. "It took me a couple of years to get over the shock of the diagnosis. Now my focus is not so much the mental or physical or spiritual damage caused by the disease, it's all about the healing and conquering. Band Against MS is an organization I founded. It's my promise to other people that just because I am doing well doesn't mean that everything is OK. Arresting the disease is not enough, because there are a whole lot of people that don't have the disease under control, that's not acceptable to me. Only about 30 per cent of those diagnosed with MS get it slowed down or arrested. What about the other 70 per cent? That's not fair. Band Against MS teams up with the National MS Society to raise awareness that this is a disease that needs research and needs a cure. We have a start, there's a chance here, that there can be a cure for this disease."

For forcing him to reorder his priorities, Walker says that the diagnosis of MS was a blessing, making him "focus on the things that are really important."

Last year [2009], Walker gave a new tilt to his hat, as producer of the soundtrack to the film "Noble Things," which features songs performed by Mark Chesnutt, Tracy Byrd, Dobie Gray, Pam Tillis, Tracy Lawrence, Bo Bice and others. The music on the soundtrack was published by Walker's company, E L Music; it was shortened from its full name, Espiritu de Leon (BMI), Latin for "Spirit of the Lion," a name suitable for a fictional, medieval-looking coat of arms invented for boyish pleasure by Walker and Greene.

Walker has had some success with soundtracks before: Walker's song "Chain of Love" appears on the Clint Eastwood film, "Space Cowboys." "Imagine, Clint Eastwood calling you up personally to ask to use a song. Now that got my wheels turned," Walker says. Walker continues to look at entrepreneurial opportunities for soundtracks and music publishing, among other options, while retaining his down to earth perspective.

"I've worked for more than 16 years," Walker says, pondering what lies ahead. "I have established a reputation, but have not established a ‘brand.' It's time to do that. That is the payoff for all the hard work. The music I've put out has been quality, everything else needs to be quality. Would I like to become an empire? Absolutely, I would love to see that happen. But Jack Burke Jr., who owns the Champions Golf Club in Houston, he won the 1956 Masters tournament, he told me, ‘All these people who come up, they all want a clothing line. You're very successful, but you should never chase the money. If you chase money, all your fans will go always. If you follow the music, all the rest will follow."

As always, Clay Walker follows the music.

"One of the things that I have learned through experience is that if you are able to sustain a career in this business you will have the opportunity to reflect on your past, especially the songs you have recorded and hopefully realize which ones worked for your audience and try to figure out why they did," Walker says. "There are very few career songs and we have been able to put out one or two. Seriously, one or two. The Fall album was the first "true" album I've done since my first one. It really put me on track to the future I've been wanting for several years. The "New Untitled" album is a HUGE step in that direction as well. I've never been more proud to say, "Here it is."

BOB DIPIERO

For the past 20 years, Bob DiPiero has helped define the best that is Music Row. A legendarily funny and compelling performer, he is one of a handful setting the bar for present-day songwriter/entertainers.

As a raconteur, he may have no equal among his peers, and as a musical ambassador and bridge-builder, he has helped make Nashville a port of call for legendary performers from all genres, writing with Neil Diamond, Carole King, Johnny Van Zant and Delbert McClinton, among many others.

He is one of Nashville's most consistent and prolific writers of hits, and he remains at the top of his profession more than two decades after hitting #1 on the charts for the first time in 1983. His long string of hits includes the Oak Ridge Boys' "American Made," Montgomery Gentry's "If You Ever Stop Loving Me," Vince Gill's "Worlds Apart," Shenandoah's "The Church On Cumberland Road," Ricochet's "Daddy's Money," George Strait "Blue Clear Sky," Brooks & Dunn's "You Can't Take the Honky Tonk Out Of the Girl," and Martina McBride's "There You Are."

DiPiero has received three dozen BMI Country and Million-Air honors; CMA's Triple Play Award in 1995 and 1996, "Song of the Year" for "Worlds Apart" at the Country Radio Music Awards in 1997, and Songwriter of the Year awards in 1998 at the Nashville Music Awards and in 2000 from Sony/ATV Nashville.

 

 

CARSON CHAMBERLAIN

Carson Chamberlain, a native of Berea, Kentucky, started professionally in the music business as a musician, bandleader and tour manager for the late Keith Whitley. After Keith's untimely death in 1989, he became tour manager for Clint Black, and later held the position of tour manager for Alan Jackson. In April of 1994, Carson took the position as Director of A&R for Mercury Nashville and was promoted to VP of A&R until his departure in August of 2002. Now Chamberlain is focusing all of his energy on writing and producing.

 

As a BMI songwriter, Chamberlain has penned several number one singles for Alan Jackson such as "Love's Got A Hold On You," Everything I Love," and "Between The Devil And Me." His penned song, "The Best Day," the first single release from George Strait's Greatest Hits LP, quickly moved up the charts and stayed at #1 for three weeks.

As a record producer, he has had other #1 success with the Mark Wills' singles "I Do (Cherish You)," "Don't Laugh At Me," and "Wish You Were Here," all #1 songs from his platinum-selling LP entitled Wish You Were Here.

Chamberlain penned Travis Tritt's hit single "Country Ain't Country," and scored cuts on Gary Allan's Alright Guy album as well as Alan Jackson's Greatest Hits Volume 2, the single release "Another Side of You" on Joe Nichols, and the single release "Groovy Little Summer Song" on James Otto.

In 2002, Chamberlain produced the Billy Currington's debut album for Mercury Records. Chamberlain also co-wrote the single "Walk A Little Straighter and "I Got A Feelin'" both top ten country singles.

Chamberlain also produced Billy Currington's #1 singles "Must Be Doin' Something Right" and "Good Directions" on his platinum selling album Doin' Something Right and #1 singles "Don't", "People Are Crazy", and "That's How Country Boys Roll" from his gold selling album A Little Bit of Everything. Chamberlain also produced Billy Currington's #1 singles "Pretty Good At Drinkin' Beer" and "Let Me Down Easy" from his current album.

In 2009, Chamberlain produced Easton Corbin's debut album. The first single "A Little More Country Than That" went to #1 and was the first single on a debut male artist to reach #1 in 7 years. The second single "Roll With It" also reached #1, making it the first time for a debut male artist to reach #1 with two consecutive #1 singles in 17 years. Chamberlain co-wrote the current Corbin single "I Can't Love You Back" and is currently in the studio working on the next Easton Corbin record.

Other artists who have covered Carson's songs include Jamey Johnson, Craig Campbell, John Michael Montgomery, Billy Ray Cyrus, Julie Roberts, Blaine Larsen, Keith Stegall, Don Williams, Jeff Bates, Chad Brock, Ronnie Milsap and The Lynns.

 

MARK D. SANDERS

With almost three decades in the music business, Mark Sanders has forged a resplendent career from his innumerable successes and accomplishments as a songwriter. Since his beginnings on Music Row, Sanders has accumulated a multitude of awards from respected publications and organizations including Nashville Songwriter's Association International, Billboard Magazine, Music Row Magazine and American Songwriter Magazine. In addition to these awards, Sanders has also received numerous industry honors including four Country Music Association Triple Play Awards (three No. 1's in a twelve month period), ASCAP's 1997 Writer of the Year and Song of the Year ("No News") and the 2000 CMA Song of the Year for "I Hope You Dance" and the 2001 Grammy for Country Song of the Year, also for "I Hope You Dance."

 

Sanders has also penned a multitude of career defining, award-winning songs for artists. Among these No. 1 hits are "Money in the Bank" (John Anderson), "Whatcha Gonna Do With a Cowboy" (Chris LeDoux & Garth Brooks), "It Matters to Me" (Faith Hill), "No News"(Lonestar), "Blue Clear Sky" (George Strait), "Daddy's Money" (Ricochet), "This Ain't No Thinkin' Thing" (Trace Adkins). Other hits include, "Bobbie Ann Mason" (Rick Trevino), "Walkin' To Jerusalem" (Tracy Byrd), "Heads Carolina, Tails California" (JoDee Messina), "I'd Rather Ride Around With You" (Reba McEntire), "Mirror, Mirror" (Diamond Rio) and the #1 and internationally successful, "I Hope You Dance" (Lee Ann Womack).

At the prompting of his longtime industry friend, Stephanie Cox, Sanders joined her young,

independent publishing company, Larga Vista Music. After numerous, fruitful years working with Sanders at both Starstruck and MCA, Cox knew the addition of this veteran songwriting

powerhouse to Larga Vista's roster was truly extraordinary and exciting. Since joining Larga Vista, Sanders has been enjoying success with numerous cuts by recording artists including Josh Turner, Joe Nichols, Jeff Bates, Shawn Camp, Kathy Mattea and Lori McKenna. The two, whom collaborate frequently, have created a cache of brilliantly crafted material, some of which McKenna has recorded for her upcoming Warner Bros. project. In 2005, the Oprah Winfrey Show aired a segment featuring Sanders and McKenna during a writing session in Nashville.

The astounding success of "I Hope You Dance" inspired a book by the same name, penned by Sanders and fellow songwriter Tia Sillers. Sanders has since authored three more books, one of which is a children's book, all focusing on themes of inspiration, hope and joy. Since their publishing, combined sales of his books have reached the figure of close to 2 ½ million.

THE LOSER'S LOUNGE TRIBUTE TO PRINCE

Thursday, June 23 at 7:00, Friday & Saturday, June 24 & 25 at 7:00 & 9:30 PM; $25

The Losers Lounge is back with at Joe's Pub June 23rd- 25th with all of the incredible songs, great performances, irreverent antics and special guests that you can only find at The Losers Lounge. For one weekend only, Only at Joe's Pub. www.loserslounge.com

SHUSMO

Thursday, June 23 at 9:30 PM; $15
"This year, one of the highlights of the festival was Shusmo" - Rachelle Kliger, The Media Line (Jerusalem Festival-2005)

This progressive New-York-based band was formed by Palestinian musician Tareq Abboushi in the Fall of 2000. Since its inception, Shusmo has cultivated a unique identity by creating an innovative and original type of music utilizing a wide range of influences with Middle-Eastern music at its core.
What makes it stand out is how organically their rich and versatile repertoire blends different genres. It is almost impossible to label the style, thus the name "Shusmo" which in Arabic means "Whatchamacallit".

www.shusmo.com

DANGER ZONE BURLESQUE! THE TOP GUN SOUNDTRACK TRIBUTE

Saturday, June 25 at MIDNIGHT; $15

Casino O'Fortune Cookie Productions presents:

DANGER ZONE BURLESQUE

The Top Gun Soundtrack Tribute

Casino O'Fortune Cookie Productions, the East Coast's premier purveyors of pop-culture burlesque, presents a night of epic striptease that feels the need...the need for speed! It's DANGER ZONE BURLESQUE: the world's first bump 'n' grind tribute to the classic soundtrack to the sweatiest movie ever about a man, his big jet, a volleyball game on the beach and the woman who loves him. Featuring the movie's soundtrack in its entirety, from Kenny Loggins to Berlin, performed by an all-star lineup of burlesque stars led by Anita Cookie, Clams Casino and emcee Neil O'Fortune. So grab your bomber jacket and your mirrored shades and get to Joe's Pub, because this show is gonna take you to bed or lose you forever!

TICKETS

Online at joespub.com

Phone 212-967-7555,

In Person At The Public Theater Box Office (1 PM to 6 PM), or at the Joe's Pub Box Office from (6 PM to 10 PM) both located at 425 Lafayette Street, NYC