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A discussion of the effort behind Blackout Tuesday, how it was co-opted by some, and how to reclaim its original focus for lasting change.
About this Event
Intended to be a moment for the music industry to look inward, Blackout Tuesday challenged the industry, especially large entertainment companies, to reflect on years of exploitation of the musical contributions of Blacks and to determine how to address past inequities moving forward. Instead of seeing Blackout Tuesday as a one-time event, this discussion offers the opportunity for everyone -- from student to industry executive to performer — to contemplate how they can play a role in addressing past wrongs while building a more equitable industry for the future.
Moderator
Cheryl Carr, Associate Dean & Associate Professor, Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business at Belmont University
Panelists
Candice Watkins, Vice President, Marketing, Big Loud Records
Claude Kelly and Chuck Harmony, the Grammy-nominated songwriting duo, Louis York, and founders of Weirdo Workshop
Eric Holt, CEO, Chiminus Enterprises and Assistant Professor of Music Business, Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business at Belmont University
Gina Miller, SVP and General Manager Entertainment One (eOne Nashville, Music)
About this panel series
Presented in celebration of Black Music Month, this panel is the first in a series of conversations about Black experiences and participation in the music industry hosted by the National Museum of African American Music and the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville as part of NMAAM's Fine Tuning: A Masterclass Series.
About Fine Tuning: A Masterclass Series
Fine Tuning is a masterclass that consists of instructional, contextual, theory-based lessons and professional development for aspiring artists and vocalists. Each course is taught through lectures, interactive music lessons and performance. This program allows attendees to learn in an intimate setting from professionals who have excelled in classical, jazz, blues, sacred, gospel, popular and hip-hop.
About the speakers
Cheryl Carr
Cheryl Slay Carr, Associate Professor, Author, Attorney, and Vocalist, is an award-winning Associate Dean of the Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business at Belmont University. She facilitates journeys in arts and entertainment through administration, authorship, advocacy, discourse (as a speaker and vocalist) and education. She focuses in the areas of leadership and inspiration, career empowerment, and diversity in law, arts and entertainment. She is author of Music Business Careers: Career Duality in the Creative Industries, co-author of Music Copyright Law, contributing author to ABA-BNA published book Trademark Infringement Remedies, as well as other publications. She is a recipient of the Nashville Business Journal’s Women of Influence Award, and Women in Music City Award.
Carr earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan, received a Master of Public Administration from Clark-Atlanta University, and earned her Juris Doctor degree from The University of Maryland School of Law. She currently serves as Associate Dean of the Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business at Belmont University, where she supports the mission of the college through oversight of its operations and leads the college’s diversity initiatives, strategic planning, curriculum development, and faculty development. Prior to joining Belmont, she worked as an intellectual property/entertainment law attorney representing a range of businesses, filmmakers, novelists, record companies, musicians, technology companies and visual artists.
Professor Carr’s entertainment industry experience is augmented by 17 years of experience in developing public policy through managing and advising public sector programs. She commenced federal service through the Presidential Management Fellowship program at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under the chairmanship of Justice Clarence Thomas. During her years as a Fellow she also served at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and as Division Director for administrative appeals at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Nashville Opera Company and for Creative’s Day, a non-profit organization formed in partnership with Nashville’s Office of the Mayor. She has previously served on the Board of Directors for the Association of Popular Music Education, the Jazz Education Network, the Tennessee Jazz and Blues Society, and Maryland Lawyers for the Arts.
She completed the Harvard Law School Program of Instruction for Lawyers in International and Comparative Intellectual Property, is a Maryland Bar Foundation Fellow, and is an alumna of the 2010 class of Leadership Music. She has been a performing artist for over 20 years, and released Invocation, an EP of jazz-inspired recordings in 2015.
Candice Watkins
With over 15 years of on-the-ground experience, Watkins brings proven leadership and a new level of across-the-board expertise to the Big Loud family. As VP of Marketing, Watkins is responsible for the label’s marketing strategy as careers soar for breakout star Morgan Wallen, HARDY, Chris Lane, and Jake Owen. After beginning her journey at Boston’s Northeastern University and Los Angeles’ USC, Watkins’ Nashville career stops include Red Light Management, mobile marketing and promotion company Mozes Inc., Borman Entertainment as Keith Urban’s day-to-day manager, Martingale Entertainment managing Hunter Hayes, and her own company, First22, a consulting firm that she continues aimed at pastors, public speakers, and worship leaders. Her most recent role was as the Senior Director of Marketing & Artist Development at Universal Music Group Nashville, overseeing a quarter of the label group’s roster including Dierks Bentley, Lady Antebellum, Shania Twain, Vince Gill, Lauren Alaina, Kip Moore, Kassi Ashton, Mickey Guyton and more. There she developed and executed full marketing plans and campaigns, acting as a central hub for the label group.
Chuck Harmony
Charles T. Harmon, better known as Chuck Harmony, was born and raised in East St. Louis, Illinois. He is an American music producer, musician, songwriter and entrepreneur, based in Nashville, Tennessee and is a three- time Grammy Award nominee and winner of the 2011 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Song for Fantasia’s “Bittersweet". Growing up performing in church, he learned to play the drums at the early age of four, which quickly led to Harmony playing the trombone, tuba, and piano, in addition to singing in the church choir. He studied music at Alabama State University, taking up piano lessons with the goal of becoming a jazz pianist.
After college, Harmony relocated to Atlanta, Georgia where he garnered his first major songwriting credit as a co-writer alongside with Ne-Yo on Celine Dion's "I Got Nothin' Left" from her 2007 album Taking Chances. Since then he’s earned production, composition, and songwriting credits on songs by artists including Rihanna, Ne-Yo, Toni Braxton, Jesse J, Mary J. Blige, Jennifer Hudson, Olly Murs, Kanye West, Janet Jackson, John Legend, NAS, Kelly Rowland, Johnny Gill, Keyshia Cole, Keri Hilson, K'naan, Bono and Corinne Bailey Rae.
In 2015, Harmony partnered with longtime collaborator Claude Kelly forming the progressive band Louis York releasing their debut EP, Masterpiece Theater – Act I, released through their independent record label and creative collective Weirdo Workshop and distributed by The Orchard/Sony Music. In 2017 Kelly and Harmony partnered again to form the educational and community building initiative Tiny Book Club which has held events in Nashville, New York, Los Angeles, and New Jersey. Chuck Harmony’s main objective is to continue to promote excellence in music through first class musicianship, empathetic business practices, and pure inspiration.
Claude Kelly
Claude Kelly was born and raised by Jamaican immigrants in the heart of New York City where he was exposed to music at an early age. He found his way into the church kitchen during service and managed to turn pots, pans and a ladle into a makeshift drum set. From there he was hooked. He attended Riverdale Country School and then Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, receiving a degree in Music Business and Management. He then returned to New York City, and through networking and word of mouth, met as many producers as he could. By 2002 he had written a song that ended up a compilation by the Japanese clothing line A Bathing Ape. “It was a lucky break,” he said. “It boosted my confidence.”
Kelly got his big break when he wrote the song, “Daddy’s Little Girl” for Frankie J’s 2006 album, Priceless. Although it didn’t chart well, he said, watching his song go from recording to mixing to mastering to music video was the confirmation that he needed to press on.
He parlayed his knowledge of the business and love for music into a successful career, which was jumpstarted when he found himself in the studio with Akon. Kelly’s work so impressed Akon that in late 2007, the singer suggested Kelly write to some of his music, one of which was “Forgive Me”, written for Leona Lewis’ debut album and produced by Akon respectively. Another song he wrote was “Hold My Hand” which was set to feature on Akon’s third album, however the song leaked and it was decided not to be included in the album. The song, which features Michael Jackson, is the first single to be released from Michael, (Jackson's first posthumous studio album).
Since, Kelly has written songs for Kelly Clarkson ("My Life Would Suck Without You") Britney Spears ("Circus"), Whitney Houston, Fantasia Barrino, R. Kelly, The Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, Carrie Underwood, Jessie J, and Miley Cyrus' ("Party in the U.S.A."), which debuted at #2 on Billboard Hot 100, and many more!
Today, for the first time, he's standing behind the mic as the vocal element of the progressive band Louis York. Forged with long time friend and collaborator Chuck Harmony, responsible for producing Rihanna, Mary J Blige, and Celine Dion.
Though this songwriter/producer team would be the last to bite the Hot 100 hand that's fed them, last fall they found themselves burnt out on what Kelly calls "the regular runaround of what the music industry can sometimes be for us: a last minute call for a first single.” So on a creative whim during days off between star assignments, Kelly and Harmony booked some studio time to work on a project of their own.
At first, neither knew they were making an album or forming a group. They just knew they had a creative itch to collectively scratch and a day off with a studio available. That one day produced one amazing song, so they booked the next day
they had mutually available, with the same fertile results. In all, they recorded 15 songs in 15 days, stretched over a period of four months.
They dubbed the project Louis York, named after their mutual cities of origin (Harmony's from east St. Louis and Kelly hailing from New York) and their eclectic but hook ridden sound is a genre bending blend of modern pop, old school R&B, thick grooved rock and tribal African sounds. Harmony played every instrument on the record, while Kelly wrote the melodies and sang vocals.
In 2014, the duo founded the music collective Weirdo Workshop, home to Louis York and sister band The Shindellas.
Eric Holt
Holt is CEO of Chiminus Enterprises, a diverse lifestyle marketing and consulting company that is nationally recognized. He is also the Managing Partner of Chiminus’ successful subsidiary concert promotions company, The Lovenoise Group. Holt earned his Bachelor of Science degree with a concentration in Communications from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and a J.D. from Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Law School. Considered an expert in branding, marketing and urban music, Holt is a regularly sought-after speaker at universities and business groups. He also consults within the entertainment industry and business leaders on promotion and branding strategy.
Relentless in his pursuit of excellence which is complemented by his great work ethic, Holt insists on giving back to the community. In addition to sitting on several non-profit boards, he proudly served as a board member on Nashville’s Mayor Karl Deans’ inaugural Music Business Council. Holt, also had the esteemed pleasure of serving as an Advisor and Diversity Committee Chair for Nashville chapter’s National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS/Grammy’s). Most recently, Holt graduated the 30th Anniversary class at Leadership Music.
At the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business at Belmont University he specializes in Urban Music, Live Music Venues, Marketing and Promotions in his full-time role as an Assistant Professor.
In his free time you can find him at a concert or traveling around the world!
Gina Miller
Gina Waters Miller has been passionate about music and writing for as long as she can remember. A lifelong musician, music educator, and music industry veteran, her love for music and the arts has forged the way and proven to be a significant part of her life’s purpose and work.
Gina’s formal career started after a year long internship, where she worked for free before being offered a job in 2004, as a part time Radio and Retail Coordinator. From there her full time roles included: Marketing Manager, Dir. National Sales and Label Relations, VP Promotions & Marketing, VP Promotions and Label Relations, to SVP and GM. As Senior Vice President and General Manager of Entertainment One in Nashville, TN; Miller oversees the day to day operations for Entertainment One in Nashville, which includes monikers eOne, Light Records & IndieBlu Music Distribution. eOne Music Nashville continues to dominate the gospel music space across a variety of track sales, albums and airplay charts.
The label is aggressively building its R&B (urban adult contemporary) presence, and recently signed artists Syleena Johnson and Q Parker to its roster (among others to be announced).
Miller is currently a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) and recently appointed Chapter Advisor, Women In Film, The Americana Music Association, Women In Music, the Gospel Music Association (GMA), the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the Stellar Awards Gospel Music Academy (SAGMA), Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She also leads the Nashville Network of the National Association of Black Female Executives in Media & Entertainment™ (NABFEME) and is the Founder of the Beautiful Girl, You Are Already Enough campaign, amongst other initiatives. Gina believes in service and is committed to reaching back, pulling up and pushing forward. As an executive, entrepreneur and educator; she is a sought-after speaker, clinician, writer, mentor contributor, and philanthropist. Currently on several boards; Gina uses her voice, influence and time to work, empower, and illuminate the organizations she faithfully serves. MENTOR to many, and the MOTHER of two millennial sons, Miller says, "besides my work in music, those are two of the most fulfilling "jobs" in my world along with motivating and ministry.
In 2018 Gina received a Stellar Women of Gospel Award, and Gina was also recognized in 2018 by Billboard, as one of the most powerful women in music.
Gina was born and proudly raised in Memphis, TN, and has happily been a resident of Nashville for the past 25 years.