Nashville’s live New Year’s Eve event this year is expected to have an attendance of 200,000 people and generate as much as $30 million in direct visitor spending.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Baste Records own Chris Wallin in studio to discuss how Los Angeles has influenced Nashville’s music culture and the craft of songwriting.
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The recently released Tennessee State Report Card for schools and districts offers a means for parents to gather information about their children’s schools and compare and contrast neighboring school districts. The report focuses on performance, but also provides data on student demographics, student funding, staffing levels, and other pertinent information required by parents to make informed judgments about their children’s education opportunities.
“With the release of the State Report Card, Tennessee continues our firm commitment to providing families with clear, actionable information on how our districts and schools are serving students,” said Commissioner Penny Schwinn. “The Report Card allows stakeholders to access years’ worth of meaningful data through an interactive, easy-to-navigate online platform, and now the latest data is available to help Tennesseans to explore and learn about their local schools and districts.”
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A new study by QuoteWizard has ranked Nashville as having the worst pothole problem in the entire nation.
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Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed GlockStore founder, Lenny Magill to the newsmaker line to talk about Black Friday specials all week long, laws for firearm gift giving, and their special Shoot 270 range.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed new country singer-songwriter Alexis Wilkins in studio to talk about her musical beginnings and new song STAND written by J.T. Cooper.
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Hours after defeating State Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville), Maury County Mayor and Congressman-Elect Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) was welcomed by lawmakers to his new role.
“Thrilled to welcome [Andy Ogles] to Washington! He will fight hard to defend Tennesseans’ conservative values and help keep our state and nation on the right track,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
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The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department continues to plead with the citizens of Nashville to lock their car doors and secure their guns as the number of firearms stolen from vehicles climbs to 1,163 this year.
“It’s become a disturbing trend, and it needs to stop; guns being stolen from vehicles. Criminals are continuously checking door handles, ready to steal, and it guns are left visible, they will do whatever it takes to break in. It takes just seconds for someone to grab your gun and go. Stats from this year shows a tremendous increase in guns being stolen from vehicles,” Chief of Police John Drake said in a video posted by MNPD in September.
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The average median list price for single-family homes and townhouses in Nashville for October was $510,000, according to data compiled by Movoto Real Estate – down from the previous month’s average list prices of $549,000 in September and $569,553 in August.
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Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Metro Nashville Council Member At-Large Sharon Hurt to the newsmaker line to discuss the proposed financing of the Titans stadium deal and whether or not it should be privately funded.
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Brentwood area businessman Mahan Janbakhsh and Steven L. Piper of Joelton were arrested by FBI agents on Thursday for their role in an alleged conspiracy to commit multi-million-dollar bank fraud.
According to the Department of Justice, the indictment charges Janbakhsh and Piper with conspiring to defraud Capital One and First Tennessee Bank (now First Horizon); five counts of defrauding these financial institutions; five counts of making false statements and over-valuing property and securities to influence these financial institutions; and three counts of making false representations during official proceedings.
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Following a report that tech company Oracle has begun laying off workers from its Nashville location, the libertarian conservative political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity is calling on state and local leaders to scrutinize the company especially after it received “nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer money.”
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Julie Roberts returns to country music with a powerful new album on ONErpm’s distribution and marketing services. Listen to ‘Ain’t In No Hurry’ available now.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – When I got the press release that a Nashville-based rock band, Colony House, was releasing their fourth studio album on February 3, 2022, I was intrigued, because in this town we don’t have a lot of modern rock bands. All four band members are from Tennessee, with two being from Franklin.
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Members of the Metro Nashville City Council will be asked to approve a term sheet and legislation to enact a 1% hotel-motel tax starting Feb. 1 with its initial consideration of both to begin at the board’s Nov. 1 meeting.
The term sheet outlines plans for the projected $2.1 billion new stadium for the Titans, including the order of financing and how a fund that includes the hotel tax and sales tax at the stadium and outside the stadium can be used. The stadium is expected to be ready for the 2026 NFL preseason. The lease will be for the term of the bonds — about 30 years — with three five-year renewal options.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Those who follow my column know I find a lot of my new artists from the Song Suffragettes or SiriusXM’s The Highway. On The Highway, They feature new artists who are often named as their “Highway Finds.” And while I’m not always crazy about every new musician they feature, when I heard Mackenzie Carpenter’s “Can’t Nobody” a few months back, it was love at first listen.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Leah Marie Mason is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter from North Carolina. She comes from a musical family, and her dad was a drummer.
“We were always around music. My dad loves rock music,” she said.
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Nashville Mayor John Cooper Monday announced that he and the city’s professional football team had reached an agreement to build a new stadium.
The Tennessee Titans will reportedly have a new stadium by 2026, replacing the current Nissan Stadium, according to Titans Wire. The deal was made after months of negotiating whether to repair the current 23-year-old stadium, or build a new one.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee- Although she only vaguely remembers it, I met Erin Kinsey at a Writer’s Round in a side room at the Bavarian Bierhaus at Opry Mills in March of 2021 and we still weren’t sure if we should even be gathering.
Long before Kinsey officially launched her country music career, the Texas girl was already a full decade into it. Her parents had her in every sport, club, and extra-curricular activity they could think of. She played tennis, basketball, and soccer and even took piano lessons. They wanted to help her figure out what she loved. Their goal was to help her find a career born out of passion.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee- When I was invited to attend a reception that celebrated one of King Charles’ charities, The Unity of Faiths Foundation, (TUFF) who are co-organizers of The Road to Nashville songwriting contest, I knew it was going to be a spectacular event.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Ian Munsick comes from a musical ranching family. They were and are real-life singing cowboys. Under the tutelage of their fiddle-playing father, Munsick and his two older brothers grew up playing everything from bluegrass to The Beatles.
Ranching was how their father provided for them, but in the evenings, the family would often play music around town. They did rodeos and private events while traveling around the Rocky Mountain region.
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The First Lady of the United States will visit Nashville Wednesday to promote COVID-19 vaccine boosters.
According to several reports, First Lady Jill Biden will arrive in Nashville for a late morning visit to a COVID-19 vaccination site.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Taylor Edwards has been singing since she was a toddler. Her parents remembered that at age 3 she would jump on a table in a restaurant and start singing.
Her parents thought, “Oh goodness, this one, she likes the attention.”
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A new type of festival is coming to Nashville this October with all proceeds being donated to a good cause. ‘Good Coffee Fest’ is being put on by Humphreys Street Coffee Shop in partnership with Harvest Hands CDC.
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The Nashville Metro Council voted on Tuesday night to approve Mayor John Cooper’s $50 million four-part “Housing First” plan to address homelessness.
Following the Metro Council’s approval, Mayor Cooper issued the following statement, “I am grateful to Council for overwhelmingly approving my $50 million plan to get our most vulnerable off the streets and into the stable housing. Homelessness is a decades-old challenge for Nashville, and I believe the size, scope, and sophistication of this plan meets the magnitude of the problem.”
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An online and in-person Herzing University is opening a campus in Nashville, according to an announcement from the school.
Herzing University’s eleventh campus will provide students with “several nursing and healthcare programs and pathways for prospective healthcare professionals of all backgrounds and experience levels.”
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee –Before the rest of the world discovered Chapel Hart this summer on America’s Got Talent, I was a fan. They had come across my newsfeed, and I sent an email inquiring about a possible interview in 2021. When I never heard back, other artists got pushed to the forefront.
This summer Chapel Hart electrified America with the original hit “You Can Have Him, Jolene.” Multiple people contacted me asking if I had heard them sing. I determined then that I had to interview this dynamic trio because they truly were unlike any other group I had ever featured.
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Nashville and Davidson County Mayor John Cooper announced five new hires on Monday who will serve in his administration.
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Author and journalist Matt Walsh, who broke the story on how Vanderbilt University Medical Center was caught providing transgender surgeries to minors, announced that he is holding a rally at the Tennessee State Capitol to “end child mutilation, sterilization, and abuse in Tennessee hospitals and beyond.”
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According to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, this year, 998 guns have been stolen from vehicles in Nashville, Tennessee, including 17 guns, stolen from vehicles last week.
In a video posted by the MNPD, Chief of Police Chief Drake said, “It’s become a disturbing trend, and it needs to stop; guns being stolen from vehicles. Criminals are continuously checking door handles, ready to steal, and if guns are left visible, they will do whatever it takes to break in. It takes just seconds for someone to grab your gun and go. Stats from this year shows a tremendous increase in guns being stolen from vehicles.”
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee –In the past few years, a name that kept showing up in my feed was Chase Wright. (Not to be confused with another country singer/songwriter, Chase Rice.) Recently, as I was driving to work, I heard SiriusXM The Highway’s Storme Warren talking to Chase Wright. He invited him to become SXM The Highway’s next “Highway Find,” a platform that has launched many artists’ careers from Florida-Georgia Line to Carly Pearce.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – To be honest, I am overwhelmed by the number of talented artists who perform daily in Nashville. I find I must carefully schedule who I see and what I write about.
A genre of music that often gets overlooked by mainstream media is Americana. Each September the best of the best gather in Nashville with free or mostly free shows all over the city, with the highlight being the Americana Music Awards.
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Mayor John Cooper announced that effective October 3, LaTanya Channel will serve as director of the refocused Mayor’s Office of Economic Growth and Small Business Development, previously known as the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Community Development.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee- As part of a five-city tour to promote their new branded non-profit Music Will (formerly known as Little Kids Rock) founder Dave Wish spoke to me about their latest adaptation.
The former first-grade teacher started Little Kids Rock because his students didn’t like their current music program. He asked them what they wanted to play and at the time, they said, “Ricky Martin” and “Selena.” He began to teach the kids to play the music they wanted to hear and eventually it led to teaching other teachers to do the same.
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A 90s-inspired dark-rock band, CHLSY, presents original music on their latest record, ‘Quantum Entanglement.’
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The Metro Nashville City Council voted on an ordinance that would allow for sidewalk cafes to remain permanent on Tuesday.
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Nashville was rated as the fifth-best real estate market in the country in a new report from WalletHub.
The finance website rated the country’s top 300 cities based upon 17 factors to gauge the current environment based upon everything from building permits to property appreciation to affordability.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee- The Beasley Brothers are a country duo formerly from North Alabama but now based out of Nashville. They are comprised of Lawson and Jackson Beasley. Being only 18 months apart, the pair grew up doing everything together.
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Bailey James’ new single “Don’t Need Ya,” was written and produced by the incredible Nolan Neal Seals of The Voice and America’s Got Talent, who recently passed away.
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Protesters with the animal rights group PETA cemented themselves to a Nashville Starbucks’ driveway on Thursday to protest the price upcharge the coffee giant charges for vegan milk substitutions.
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Donny Van Slee is a Florida boy from the rural town of Weeki Wachee Springs, home of the famous live mermaids. Growing up, Van Slee was shy and his dad bought him a guitar to help him. Later, influenced by the bands he loved – Led Zeppelin and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – he took lessons, but his main focus in school was soccer.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee- Grace Leer is a country music singer from Danville, California. She is an American Idol alumnus who started singing at the young age of six. She recalls entering a talent show and singing Selena’s “Dreaming of You.” That was when she fell in love with being on stage.
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Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake announced Tuesday that police coverage at Metro Schools for the upcoming school year will be the highest ever, and will include elementary, middle and high school campuses.
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Nashville’s city council has reportedly rejected a draft agreement to host the 2024 Republican National Convention, likely ending the city’s competition with co-finalist Milwaukee to host the event.
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A recent study published by a travel blog says that Nashville is the least eco-friendly city in America.
Despite being one of America’s fastest-growing cities, ParkSleepFly says Nashville’s lack of bike paths makes it non-eco-friendly.
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The Middle District of Tennessee, which includes Nashville, will likely be receiving a new U.S. Attorney after the Biden Administration tapped a new lawyer for the job.
“These individuals were chosen for their devotion to enforcing the law, their professionalism, their experience and credentials, their dedication to pursuing equal justice for all, and their commitment to the independence of the Department of Justice,” said the White House in naming Henry Leventis and two other U.S. Attorney nominees last week.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee -When I discovered Charly Reynolds on Instagram nearly two years ago via live stream, she had an infectious energy that made me want to learn more about her.
Now on the cusp of her newest release, “Rodeo,” I was able to learn more about this charismatic country artist.
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Alfresco Pasta Brand, LLC held a grand opening ceremony Tuesday in Bells, Tennessee to celebrate the company’s expansion in Crockett County. The ceremony comes after the company announced in March its intention to invest $3.8 million to expand and relocate its operations from Nashville to Bells.
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The two finalists in the competition for the 2024 Presidential Convention are Nashville, TN and Milwaukee, Wisc0nsin.
As of July 15, 2022, Milwaukee is very much in the lead.
“Today, the Site Selection Committee voted to recommend Milwaukee to host the 2024 Republican National Convention and it is a testament to the forthright and professional behavior embraced by Milwaukee’s city leaders throughout the process,” RNC Senior Advisor Richard Waters said in a statement. “A final decision will be made by Chairwoman [Ronna] McDaniel and the full RNC in the coming weeks.
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Mikayla Lane is originally from rural Kentucky. But when she was 10, she and her family moved to Oklahoma where the young artist began to make her mark in country music.
Lane admits she is not from a musical family but started singing and performing in Kentucky as a child.
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