Lady Antebellum were recently honored in Nashville for their single, "Need You Now," which is just coming off of a five-week run atop Billboard's Country Songs chart. A large gathering of industry big-shots and Music Row insiders descended on Music City's hip Cabana restaurant to hobnob with each other and pay tribute to the members of Lady Antebellum (Dave Haywood, Hillary Scott and Charles Kelley) and Josh Kear, who co-wrote "Need You Now" with the group. Kear also co-wrote Carrie Underwood's second No. 1 hit, "Before He Cheats," from her 2005 debut album, Some Hearts.
Mike Dungan, the president and CEO of the group's label, Capitol Nashville, spoke about the song and how it's been downloaded from iTunes 1.4 million times. He also marveled at the song's strong cross-over appeal and how it's being played on more than 50 Top 40 stations nationwide. "Need You Now" currently sits at No. 19 on both Billboard's Hot 100 songs and Digital Songs charts, as well as No. 30 on the Radio Songs chart. Dungan called the song an "absolute monster."
Representatives from the three major performance rights organizations, BMI, ASCAP and SESAC, were on hand to heap praise on the song's co-writers (Kear is affiliated with ASCAP, Scott with SESAC, and Kelley and Haywood with BMI).
Jody Williams of BMI called Lady Antebellum "one of the most influential game-changers our format has heard in years," while Tim Fink of SESAC reminded everyone that one of Scott's songs will appear on Blake Shelton's new album.
The evening ended with Lady Antebellum performing "Need You Now" with Kear accompanying on guitar, which they followed by performing their next single, "American Honey." Lady Antebellum's third album, Need You Now,, is scheduled for release on Jan. 26. The trio will open up for Tim McGraw on his upcoming tour, which kicks off in Omaha on February 11.
Photo © Getty Images/Rick Diamond
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