PROMUSICU - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Member of the ProMusicU Advisory Board
• Music Journalist and Former Senior Editor of Guitar Player Magazine

Andy Ellis grew up in Beirut, Lebanon and Paris, France, where he started studying classical guitar. While living in Bonn, Germany, Ellis discovered electric guitar and formed his first band, the Abstracts. The young teen played "beat shows" alongside older German bands in the mid '60s and this experience pushed him into the abyss of rock & roll. After studying at Boston's Berklee College of Music, Ellis joined the ranks of professional musicians, playing and teaching guitar in both the U.S. and Europe. In the late '70s, he took up the Chapman Stick, studying with its maestro and inventor, Emmett Chapman. Ellis' Stick playing led to a profile on NPR's Morning Edition and opened the door to studio work (he played the Stick solo on Amy Grant's Grammy-winning song, "Angels"). Ellis joined Keyboard magazine as a staff editor in 1988; two years later he jumped to its sister publication, Guitar Player, where he worked for more than 15 years. At GP, Ellis interviewed many greats, including Carlos Santana, Tony Rice, B.B. King and Mark Knopfler. Ellis' interviews and articles have also been published in Guitar World Acoustic, Acoustic Guitar, Frets and Fretboard Journal and his lessons appear in How to Play Blues Guitar, How to Play Rock Guitar, Guitar Player Sessions and other instructional books. Currently, Ellis lives in Nashville, where he accompanies singer-songwriters on baritone guitar and hosts his weekly radio show, The Guitar Show with Andy Ellis. The show is heard throughout the world through a number of terrestrial radio stations and, through the shows website, his interviews stream to over 130 countries and all 50 states. In addition, as Senior Editor at Premier Guitar magazine, he continues to explore his favorite instrument through words, sound and video.

Job Titles:

• Member of the ProMusicU Advisory Board

Job Titles:

• Member of the ProMusicU Advisory Board

American Songwriter magazine said this about CJ Watson's "The Everything Songwriting Book": "You won't want to miss a single page … while no book can cover every aspect of songwriting, this one certainly comes the closest. This is a reference every songwriter should own." His songs have been recorded by James Otto (Mercury), Lisa Shaffer (Lyric Street), Jason Whitehorn (Arista), Mustang Sally (Curb) and others and Trent Jeffcoat (Montage) made a video of Watson's "Forever Hold My Peace". He was interviewed in "The 2004 Songwriter's Market" and, along with "The Everything Songwriting Book" (©2003 Adams Media), is the author of, "Extreme Questions" (©2002 Nelson) and "Essential Songwriting" In addition to writing full-time and touring with his band, the Evertones, CJ travels around the US, giving seminars and workshops for ProMusicU and the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI). He was the keynote speaker at the 2005 Chicago Songwriter's Conference and a featured speaker at the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Nashville Songwriters Festivals.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Management Team
• Associate Director / Director of Performance and Songwriter Track Curriculum
• Director of Performance and Songwriter Track Curriculum / Instructor, Performance Track

Dave Isaacs has been called "utterly soulful" and "a musician's musician". A word-class guitarist, powerful vocalist, and acclaimed songwriter, he brings together a rare combination of rigorous formal training in music, twenty-five years of teaching experience in the academic and private realms, and a continuing parallel career as a performing and recording artist, session musician, producer, and bandleader. He holds degrees in guitar performance from New York's Manhattan School of Music (M.Mus. 1993) and the City University of New York (B. Mus. magna cum laude, 1991). He has studied with and performed for some of the most prominent artists in the classical guitar world, including Segovia protege Oscar Ghiglia, composer/virtuoso Benjamin Verdery, and international concert artist and founder of the guitar program at the Juilliard School, Sharon Isbin. When repetitive strain injury derailed his plans for a career as a classical recitalist, Dave's lifelong love of roots music - the blues, folk, country, jazz, and rock & roll - led back to songwriting, improvisation, and the electric guitar. Over the course of his six releases as an independent artist Dave has explored modern country-rock, literate singer-songwriter folk, ambient jazz, improvisational blues-rock, and Southern soul. The depth of this musical diversity combined with rigorous formal schooling and over twenty years of teaching private students offer him a rare and exceptionally wide perspective as an educator. In addition, his experience in overcoming repetitive strain injuries led to a comprehensive knowledge of the biomechanics of guitar playing and the development of the concept of "effortless guitar". One of Nashville's busiest and most respected music educators, Dave maintains a private teaching studio on Nashville's famed Music Row dedicated to helping creative people grow as writers, musicians and artists. He offers clinics and workshops for music schools and songwriters' groups around the country, including regular workshops for the Nashville Songwriters Association Int'l (NSAI) since 2006. While teaching at Tennessee State University from 2009-2013 he founded and directed the TSU Guitar Summit, Nashville's only multi-genre educational guitar festival, and continues to teach in the Audio Production program at the Art Institute of Tennessee - Nashville.

Job Titles:

• Member of the ProMusicU Advisory Board
• Publisher of the Weekly "Nashville Muse" Newsletter

Job Titles:

• Member of the ProMusicU Advisory Board
• Founder and Former Chairman, Recording Industry Program
• Professor Emeritus in the Recording Industry Department at Middle Tennessee State University

Geoffrey Hull is a professor emeritus in the Recording Industry department at Middle Tennessee State University. He is the author of The Recording Industry, Second Edition, (2004) published by Routledge/Taylor and Francis. Geoff received his J.D. degree from the University of Virginia Law School (1971), an M.B.A. from Middle Tennessee State University (1981) and a B.S. in Industrial Management from Georgia Tech (1968). He taught in Georgia State University's Commercial Music/Recording program for three years before coming to M.T.S.U. as the first full-time faculty member in the Recording Industry program in 1977. He served as chair of the department from 1988-1990. He teaches primarily law courses including copyright law, legal problems of the recording industry and media law, but has also taught a number of music business courses including music publishing, marketing recordings, record store operations and concert promotion. In the Mass Communication graduate program Geoff taught courses in Media Law and Ethics and Media Management. He was recognized as "Outstanding Teacher" by M.T.S.U. in 1981 and has been nominated for the award on three other occasions. Geoff is a licensed attorney in the state of Tennessee. His practice interests are copyright and entertainment law. His research interests are in copyright law, entertainment law, First Amendment law and recording industry economics. Geoff is listed in Who's Who in American Law. A recent article, "Termination Rights and the Real Songwriters" appeared in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment Law & Practice. He is a contributing author for the Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications, Great American Judges and The Encyclopedia of First Amendment Law. He is a member of the Copyright Society of the South. In addition to his teaching and law experience, Geoff played in rock bands and as a solo entertainer from 1965 - 1974. He built and ran a small recording studio in Atlanta in the early 1970's and continues to write songs. He was a news editor, announcer and later news director for WYZE-AM (an all-news station in Atlanta) 1972-1975. Geoff and his wife Patty enjoy canoeing, hiking and rock climbing. They have two grown sons, Gordon and Paul and three grandchildren, Cody, Ilan and Amia.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Management Team
• Director of Business Track Curriculum / Instructor, Business Track
• Executive Director / Director of Business Track Curriculum

John Haring has worn many hats in music and other businesses. After graduating with a degree from Middle Tennessee State University's prestigious Recording Industry Management Program, John spent time at RCA Records/Nashville in the publicity and artist development departments where he worked on tour press and promotional events with such artists as Alabama, Dolly Parton, Eddy Arnold, Charley Pride, Ronnie Milsap, Sylvia, Razzy Bailey and others. Moving back home to the New York area, John spent time in RCA Records' New Jersey offices where he managed IT operations for the RCA Records financial division. Upon leaving RCA, John spent a number of years managing and producing some high-profile, regional, independent artists in the northeast. During that time, in addition to producing recordings for the northeastern artists, he also was commuting to Nashville to advise and produce demo recordings for a number of independent artists there. At the same time, in addition to his work in the music industry, John was also involved in the IT world and is considered an educational software pioneer who designed and wrote some of the first software to be included with textbooks by the major schoolbook publishers, including the popular KeyStrokes, the first computer-based typing tutorial to replace typewriters in high schools throughout the country. From that success, he founded Random Micro, Inc. (later changed to American Softech, Inc.), a New Jersey-based IT consulting firm, and guided the company to locations in three cities and clients from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses and in all sectors from private to government to education to non-profit. He later returned to the academic world where he taught at the college level and was CIO of a northeastern college where he won national awards for his infrastructure design and execution and lectured nationally on campus-based IT issues. However, his fingers were always in the music business in some way. Since returning to Nashville in 2004, John has written and produced an independent CD of his own (with a second one in the works) and headed the design and opening of Nashville Independent Music, a website devoted to helping independent, unsigned artists and songwriters promote their careers through online exposure, live events and radio. On the literary front, John is Technical Editor and quoted authority for a popular textbook by Middle Tennessee State University professor, Dr. Tom Hutchison, entitled Web Marketing for the Music Business and has, in the past, written a monthly music column for local Nashville publication, City at Night magazine. In radio, John hosts and produces two shows devoted to independent music, The Nashville Songwriter Show (formerly The Nashville Independent Music Hour), a live acoustic music show featuring hit songwriters, co-hosted with CJ Watson, and The Nashville Independent Music Top 10, a studio-based show with an Internet-based, audience voting component. Both shows are currently on hiatus and John's attention is currently focused on serving as Executive Producer and announcer for The Guitar Show with Andy Ellis, a guitar-centered show hosted by legendary guitar journalist Andy Ellis (Guitar Player magazine, Premier Guitar magazine and others). The Guitar Show with Andy Ellis is currently heard on a number of community stations and is being prepared for syndication throughout the United States and the English-speaking world. A companion website, featuring it's vast library of interviews with world-renowned guitarists, is regularly visited by fans in all 50 states and over 145 countries.

Job Titles:

• Member of the ProMusicU Advisory Board

Karen E. Reynolds is a published singer songwriter with several independent releases on the market and is based in Knoxville, TN. As an artist, Karen has performed alongside some of the industry's best, establishing herself as one of their peers and is a regular at such venues as the Bluebird Café, Eddie's Attic and the Frank Brown International Songwriter's Festival. Her involvement in the business side of music is equally as vast and varied: She owns and operates a career consultation agency, has served as producer, promoter, agent or publicist for many nationally known artists and also teaches songwriting and music business for the University of Tennessee. She is the host, producer and program director for Writer's Block, a radio program that has been broadcast worldwide for 10 plus years. She has served as a panelist, judge and organizer of songwriting competitions for organizations such as Hard Rock Café and has been a featured guest speaker at many festivals and conferences. She is also a mentor for the Country Music Hall of Fame's prestigious, "Words & Music In Schools" program and was honored this past season for her work there, by joining Trisha Yearwood and others in concert at the Ford Theatre in Nashville. Karen freelances as an independent radio promotion consultant for both major and independent publishers and has been nationally recognized for her songwriting, as well as her work with Independent artists, by Americana Highway, Indiegrrl, Just Plain Folks and more.

Job Titles:

• Director of ProMusicU Kids / Instructor, Songwriting Track

Job Titles:

• Member of the ProMusicU Advisory Board

A performing songwriter who thrives on involving the audience, Kim encourages her fans to "experience" her shows rather than just watch and listen. Her songs live with a lot of humor and attitude, accompanied by a percussive acoustic guitar. Based in Memphis, she tours throughout the SE and recently stretched her boundaries to Chicago, playing Uncommon Ground, to Baltimore and Minneapolis performing house concerts. She has also played The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, The Grey Eagle in Asheville, the Arkansas Heritage and Blues Festival in Helena, and Memphis In May in (you guessed it) Memphis. Kim has been nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year by the Memphis Chapter of The Recording Academy and recently was a regional finalist in the Mountain Stage New Song contest performing at Eddie's Attic in Atlanta. In November 2008, she won the Ozark Folk Festival Songwriting Competition and the opportunity to open for Loudon Wainwright III at the Festival in Nov 2009. Kim has self-released two CDs, been featured on several other Memphis releases, and is currently working on projects with national independent artists. She has opened for Gretchen Peters and Sara Hickman and performed with Nashville's Matraca Berg and Deanna Bryant. Kim is currently serving on The Board of Governors for the Memphis Chapter of The Recording Academy (NARAS) Memphis Chapter. As for traditional business, Kim has eight years experience in corporate America complemented by as many years working with varied music organizations including The Recording Academy, Nashville Songwriters Association (NSAI) and GoGirls Music.

Job Titles:

• Member of the ProMusicU Advisory Board
• President, Copyright Solutions / Assistant Professor, Middle Tennessee State University

Job Titles:

• Member of the ProMusicU Advisory Board
• Creative Director, Tennessee Songwriters Association International ( TSAI )

Job Titles:

• Member of the ProMusicU Advisory Board
• Professor, Music Business Coordinator for the Recording Industry Program / Middle Tennessee State University

Thomas W. Hutchison received his Ph.D. in Marketing/Mass Communication from Florida State University. His expertise is in the areas of entertainment marketing, consumer behavior, Internet marketing and market research. Hutchison teaches in the Department of Recording Industry at Middle Tennessee State University where he is the Coordinator of the Music Business Internship Program and Coordinator of Marketing and Recruitment for the department. His industry activities include: member of the 2004 National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) Convention Committee, member of the Americana Music Association (AMA) research committee, panelist and moderator of the Internet Marketing Panel at the 2003 AMA Convention, former member of the NARM Retail Certification Committee and is the coordinator of the NARM Educator's Outreach Committee. Hutchison received the 2003 MTSU Outstanding Achievement in Instructional Technology award. He is very involved in distance learning and teaches two Internet-based classes. One of the classes, Inside the Recording Industry, was created in conjunction with Universal Music Group and Inside Sessions and features music celebrities such as Sheryl Crow, Elton John, Fred Durst, Jimmy Iovine and Sting. Hutchison has conducted focus group research on many artists for Sony, RCA, MCA/Universal and Giant/WB Records. He has conducted other marketing research and consumer research projects for Geffen Records, DreamWorks, Warner Music Group, MCA, RCA Label Group and Polydor. He has worked with a wide range of popular artists, including Faith Hill, Toby Keith, Travis Tritt, The Dixie Chicks, Ricochet, Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Sons of the Desert, Toby Keith, Gillian Welsh, White Zombie, Sonic Youth, Rufus Wainwright, Beck, Weezer and many others. His industry-wide research includes studies for NARM, Music Video Association, No Depression Magazine and ongoing research for the Country Music Association (CMA) on Fan Fair/CMA Music Festival fans. Hutchison has also implemented consulting/marketing projects for record labels RCA, EMI Christian, Columbia, Epic, Pioneer, Magnatone, Virgin, Sparrow, Compass, Mercury, Provident, Compendia, MCA, Universal Records and Lucky Dog. Hutchison has just completed the new book entitled Web Marketing for the Music Business and is currently working on the second edition of Record Label Marketing. He was also instrumental in starting the MTSU/ASCAP Songwriting Degree in the Recording Industry Program and in bringing the NARAS-sponsored Grammy University Network to MTSU as one of the first colleges to adopt the program.

Job Titles:

• Member of the ProMusicU Advisory Board