{"id":378,"date":"2011-12-23T01:47:35","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T01:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.wordpress.com\/?p=378"},"modified":"2011-12-23T01:47:35","modified_gmt":"2011-12-23T01:47:35","slug":"tim-mcgraw-shops-after-split-with-nashvilles-curb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2011\/12\/23\/tim-mcgraw-shops-after-split-with-nashvilles-curb\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim McGraw Shops After Split With Nashville’s Curb"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Tim McGraw shops new label after split with Nashville’s Curb <\/span><\/strong>Country superstar pursues life after Curb Records\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>\u00a0Even before a Nashville judge released<\/a> country singer Tim McGraw<\/a> from his 20-year contract with Curb Records, the superstar\u2019s manager was looking for his next recording deal, according to newly released court records.<\/p>\n

With 40 million albums sold to date and an estimated $35 million in earnings<\/a> last year alone, the singer is one of Nashville\u2019s biggest country music franchises. Any multi-year recording deal he strikes is likely to be worth tens of millions to both McGraw and the company that signs him.<\/p>\n

The mission that McGraw manager Coran Capshaw described as \u201cfind a future home for Tim\u201d has led to discussions with chief executives at the nation\u2019s biggest recording companies: Warner Music Group, Universal Music, Sony Music and Capitol Records. Capshaw has also consulted with Big Machine Records, the independent Nashville label that launched Taylor Swift\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

There is no word yet on whether any deal has been struck.<\/p>\n

McGraw \u2014 whose spokeswoman cited current legal hurdles \u2014 had no comment. Sony and Big Machine records also declined to comment on the outcome of any conversations, while other labels didn\u2019t respond to emailed requests for comments.<\/p>\n

McGraw and Curb Records<\/a> formally parted ways on Nov. 30 when Nashville Chancery Court Judge Russell Perkins ruled that McGraw was free to record with another company.<\/p>\n

The judge\u2019s written order in the case, filed after the hearing, outlines testimony by McGraw\u2019s manager in out-of-court depositions about McGraw\u2019s post-Curb business<\/a> dealings.<\/p>\n

Since Curb filed suit, Capshaw noted, there have been numerous conversations about McGraw\u2019s future, including discussions with Warner Music Group\u2019s most powerful<\/a> executives, among them Los Angeles-based Warner Brothers Records Vice Chairman Rob Cavallo and Nashville\u2019s chief Warner executive, John Esposito.<\/p>\n

At Sony Music, Capshaw talked about a possible deal with Nashville CEO Gary Overton, New York-based executive Mel Lewinter and former Nashville executive Skip Bishop before he left the company.<\/p>\n

At Universal, Capshaw has had discussions with Nashville-based Chief Executive Luke Lewis and the company\u2019s top man, Lucian Grange. Capshaw also testified he had a \u201cgeneral conversation\u201d with Mike Dungan, president and CEO of Capitol Records Nashville. At Big Machine Records, he spoke with Scott Borchetta.<\/p>\n

Capshaw\u2019s discussions come amid an upheaval at record companies, with expected shake-ups and possible executive-level changes to come soon in the industry after last month\u2019s breakup of global music company EMI Group.<\/p>\n

Universal Music now owns the company\u2019s recording division, including Capitol Nashville.<\/p>\n

Career in high gear<\/h3>\n

The potential upheavals mean that McGraw\u2019s future contract could depend in part on where the executives he has negotiated with in recent months land in an industry that often sees leaders jump from one label to another.<\/p>\n

Even without a new recording contract, McGraw\u2019s career<\/a> appears to be moving forward faster than it has in the year since the dispute began with Curb.<\/p>\n

Two new McGraw songs<\/a> were released in the past month. Curb Records, which owns the rights to all McGraw music recorded before November, will release McGraw\u2019s Emotional Traffic<\/em> album in January.<\/p>\n

McGraw announced he would release a new single in January as well. He said he is releasing his single independently.<\/p>\n

While Curb Records and McGraw focus on future releases, both parties continue to hint at lingering animosity after the end of what had been one of the longest-running business partnerships in Nashville\u2019s music industry.<\/p>\n

An ongoing breach of contract lawsuit first filed against McGraw by Curb Records and a subsequent countersuit by McGraw against Curb are scheduled to be heard separately in the months to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t over,\u201d Curb Records Chairman Mike Curb told The Tennessean<\/em> in rare public comments about the case. \u201cIt\u2019s not over. Historically over the last 50 years, we\u2019ve figured these things out. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve had anything like this in the whole time we\u2019ve been in Nashville.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGraw has left little doubt about how he feels about Curb Records\u2019 efforts to halt the release of his latest album.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s extremely unfortunate that it wasn\u2019t released earlier this year in conjunction with the Emotional Traffic tour,\u201d McGraw told his fans online, before adding: \u201cBut all I want to do now is focus on the positive and look to the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennessean reporter Cindy Watts contributed. Reach Anita Wadhwani at<\/strong> <\/strong>awadhwani@tennessean.com<\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>or 615-259-8092.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0News kindley supplied by Marty Martel email: martymartel@earthlink.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tim McGraw shops new label after split with Nashville’s Curb Country superstar pursues life after Curb Records\u00a0 \u00a0Even before a Nashville judge released country singer Tim McGraw from his 20-year contract with Curb Records, the superstar\u2019s manager was looking for his next recording deal, according to newly released court records. With 40 million albums sold to date and an estimated $35 million in earnings last year alone, the singer is one of Nashville\u2019s biggest country music franchises. Any multi-year recording deal he strikes is likely to be worth tens of<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}