Dan Thompson Single “A Day Without Progress” Produced by Nashville Trax, Distributed By Sony… 28 Weeks on Sirius XM. Give A Listen!

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Singer/songwriter Dan Thompson performing at the George Jones Entertainment Complex. downtown Nashville on Feb. 2, 2016.

Dan Thompson’s followup single, A Day Without Progress” has released to radio and is enjoying lots of radio play… April 3rd, 2017 marking 28 straight weeks on Sirius.

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A Danny Thompson fan’s shot of “A Day Without Progress” cranking out on Sirius XM 171.

In fact, the Nashville Trax produced Dan Thompson album is finished and Dan signed an agreement that even prior to completion, saw the first single Miles And Miles” released and distributed to 242 territories through Sony.

Miles was actually released midstream, about three months ago, before the full album was finished and even prior to the deal with Sony being finalized. It’s absolutely blew up on radio, receiving over 2,000 spins per week on hundreds of stations in Australia and the U.K. (including on the BBC).

Now “Miles and Miles” is starting to gain traction on radio in Dan’s home country of Canada:

CJFN in Peguis, MB – ADD – “Danny Thompson Band has been added to rotation.”

CFBW in Hanover, ON – ADD – “Danny Thompson Band is now in our system.”

“Miles and Miles is being played on a country radio station in Owen sound. One of my drivers heard it twice Saturday while working on his truck!!!!”

CHMM in Mackenzie, BC – ADD – “Danny’s song is now in full rotation.”

Glad to see our hard work and Dan’s investment in doing quality work is paying off!

And here’s the followup single:

Why? Because Dan’s kids love the way the harmonica sounds like a duck quacking in the intro; they want to hear it over and over. Now there’s a scientifically sound method. Why bother with demographic research and test marketing when you have quacking ducks, lol!

“A Day Without Progress”

Lead Vocals: Dan Thompson
Drums: William Ellis
Bass Guitar: Bill Watson
Acoustic and Electric Guitars:
Tom Wild
B3 Organ: Steve King
Harmonica: Mike Douchette
Background Vocals: Angela Derrington
Tracking engineering:
Bill Watson
Mixing and Mastering engineering:
Bill Watson, Shawn Conley
Written by: Dan Thompson
Arranged and produced by Bill Watson

Okay, there was more to it than a quacking duck! A Day Without Progress is uptempo, has the “bro country” rap portion near the end (bro country is super popular right now). Plus it’s a “pull ’em out of their seats” dance tune.

A Day Without Progress © 2016 by Dan Thompson, posted here for demonstration purposes only. Any other use is a violation of U.S. and international copyright law. The songwriter currently retains the right of first release until the projected release to radio April 10th, 2016 after which, requests sent to nashtrax@bellsouth.net by parties interested in recording* either song; program directors interested in airplay or by producers interested in using the songs in TV/film projects will be forwarded to the songwriter and/or publisher.
*A Compulsory Mechanical License must be filed by parties planning on recording “A Day Without Progress The current royalty rate is 9.1 cents per copy. Advance payment for 1,000 copies ($91 U.S.) must accompany the filing, payable to the music publisher.

Play It Again Demos client, Bobby Layton, Signs Publishing Deal

Just before his death in December, Bobby Layton’s good friend and sometimes co-writer,  Mark Gray, writer of #1 hits by Alabama (Close Enough To Perfect For Me) and most of Exile’s hits, heard a demo produced @ Play It Again Demos for Bobby Layton and said,”That’s the best demo you’ve ever had done, Bobby, this producer, Bill Watson, is the guy you need to stick with.” Here’s Bobby yesterday, signing a contract on the second song produced by Play It Again Demos for him, That Ain’t Country Music, to Listen Again Music, (BMI).

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The Swansons band from Los Angeles… going country in Nashville?

The popular Los Angeles area based band, The Swansons, have been secretly working on their first country album with Nashville area music producer, Bill Watson, of Nashville Trax.

How will their original tunes sound with fiddles, banjos and steel guitar?

Pick up their album expected to be released by the fall of 2017 and find out! (rumor has it the tracks rock!!!!) or Country? er…country rock???? hmmm….anyway, meet The Swansons:


Nashville Trax Contemporary Christian Production of “Lighthouse” makes the Grammy Ballot!

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Songs produced by Nashville Trax are listed in two categories on the 59th Annual Grammy ballot this year. This is not a formal “Grammy nomination,” it is the step prior, the ballot is the list from which a handful of nominations are selected in each category; however, it is an extremely notable accomplishment.

To make the ballot the song must pass a screening process performed by hand selected Academy members. To be selected as one of the handful of official Grammy nominees, the songs on this ballot will be voted on by all Academy members.

“Lighthouse,” Contemporary Christian Music category for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song.

And the album “Lighthouse is on”Fishers of Men” is on the ballot for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album.

Artist: The Greatest Gift, all vocals

Album Musicians:

Guitars: Tom Wild

Bass guitar: Bill Watson

Drums: Jim Riley, David Northrup, William Ellis

Keyboards: Steve King, Bill Watson

Violins: Jenee Fleenor

Horns: John Heinrick

Steel Guitar: Mike Douchette  “Surrender”

Produced and arranged by Bill Watson

Mixed by Bob Catalano

The Greatest Gift spent much of 2015 in a year-long grueling NACMAI sponsored competition, winning local, state, and regional contests; all this while honoring numerous  booked live shows and recording three album’s worth of material with Nashville Trax producer Bill Watson of Nashville Trax.

In early 2016 The Greatest Gift headed to Tennessee for the nationals, taking the #1 spots in several categories. Those wins and the Fishers of Men CD helped them sign a deal with Big Noise, culminating in The Greatest Gift making the 2016 Grammy ballot. God is good!

The Grammy awards show will be February 12th, 2017. The Nashville Trax team wishes this fine vocal group the very best of luck!


Now Tracking: Better Than A Hallelujah

I hope to help make YOUR project sound GREAT soon!

I hope to help make YOUR project sound GREAT soon!

Working on a limited release demo CD project mixing original songs with cover tunes. First up? A cover of Amy Grant’s Better Than A Hallelujah.

The songwriting craft evident in Hallelujah blows me away. The lyric is simple yet powerful. The melody just soars. Love it!

There’s no sense in copying Amy’s version, that’s pretty much a definitive performance so rather than attempt to emulate greatness, I want to do something different with it.

One thought was to make it much bigger sounding, over the top alt pop rock with distorted guitars, a full choir, big rock drums, etc.

But I decided while interesting to produce, going huge would lose the best quality this tune has going for it: simple understated beauty. So it will remain at about the same dynamic just a little more dense with a slightly bluesy lead vocal, some Hall & Oates style bgv’s (background vocals) and some unusual instrumentation. Exactly what, I’ll leave as a surprise for now and post an mp3 when the CD is finished.

In my research before charting I found an Amy Grant interview about the song I think you’d find interesting for a lot of reasons.

I also found the The Official Amy Grant Video of Better Than A Hallelujah Not too great of a discovery, Columbus’ place in history remains secure, it comes up 1st in Google, lol.


Beautiful the mess we are.

Wow!

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https://twitter.com/TaylorGiles02/status/373712911727742976

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https://twitter.com/aaron37227/status/374069958978068480


Camille Rae’s latest single, But I Want You, on CMT!

Congratulations to singer Camille Rae on her latest single, But I Want You, being added to CMT!

 

The CMT video version

Camille singing on our client’s songs:

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Songwriter Bobby Layton Drops By Nashville Trax

Nashville Trax music producer, Bill Watson, took a break today to meet with Songwriter Bobby Layton who stopped by to drop off 3 new tunes and talk music. He said he posted the first song Watson produced for him and his phone lit up immediately with calls from all over the U.S., best reaction he’s ever had to a song in his 12 years of writing, recording and pitching in Nashville.

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Songwriter Bobby Layton and Nashville Trax producer Bill Watson


The Jailbirds from Germany in to record yesterday!

Father and son duo, The Jailbirds, flew in from Germany to record 5 songs yesterday for their upcoming album.

Dirk played guitars, bass and percussion while his father, Walther, sang and occasionally added rhythm guitar. Great guys, good players, Walther sings great and somewhat surprisingly, they speak English very well.

What a fun session!. Tracking is complete, the project is ready to mix.

Other upcoming recording sessions with clients coming from overseas include clients from New Zealand (May 1st) and Australia (June 8th).

 

 

Hi Bill,

  Feel free to post the mixes on the website.  They really sound great, thanks again to both Shawn and you.

  Best regards from Berlin,

  Walther & Dirk

Looking to record a project in the Nashville, TN area? We can book your session, hire any needed Nashville based session musicians, help you arrange hotel accommodations, choose the proper facilities for recording, mixing and mastering each aspect of your project and more. Contact us at e-mail: nashtrax@bellsouth.net


NT client, Wayne Patterson, signs deal with Big Noise, wins NACMAI 2016 Album of the Year

WayneFromMainNashville Trax producer, Bill Watson was present yesterday to witness Nashville Trax’ client Wayne Patterson, and his trio partners, Krys Smith (left) and Mike Biasin ( rt) perform at the national finals of the NACMAI .

Singing to two of the 28 tracks Watson and his team produced, this Gospel trio has already won the local and state competitions.  The winner will be announced this coming Sunday. (Update: After enough contestants to fill an entire week of competition, on Sunday, March 13, 2016 the trio won Gospel Band of the Year, Gospel Album of the Year, and Horizon award in the Gospel Song category.)

Unrelated to this competition, the trio also announced the signing of a nine month development deal with Big Noise records. The direction will be focused on “Gospel with a rock edge”. The label head, Al Gomes, who produced two Christina Aguilera singles and helped break her career. said the tracks they perform with are major label quality and agreed to Bill Watson of Nashville Trax continuing to produce the trio’s music.

Mr. Gomes other credits include Red Hot Chili Peppers, J. Geils Band, Paul Doucette of Matchbox 20 and he is on the nominating committee for The Grammy’s.

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Wayne Paterson’s Gospel trio,, The Greatest Gift, with producer, Bill Watson at NACMAI in Pigeon Forge.

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Album of the Year winners at the 2016 NACMAI competition held here in Tennessee.

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On the Red Carpet!

 


“Miles And Miles” video released. Your song, our production= You Tube success!

Dan Thompson’s just-released video of the song he wrote for his long haul trucker son who tragically died when he fell asleep and crashed his rig about two months after Dan wrote it. Dan and his band are “lip syncing” and “air guitaring” to the track the Nashville Trax A team played on.

This video was made after Dan’s first trip here to record his vocals on three Dan Thompson penned tunes that producer, Bill Watson, arranged and produced prior.

A simple-to-shoot-and-edit video like this can be posted on You Tube as Dan has done. It’s extremely useful for promotion of your live shows and adding fans to your database, or if you don’t perform, you can monetize the video itself and get paid for the short ads that run each time someone clicks on it. One of our clients has made several of these videos, hiring actors to perform in fairly elaborate videos to the tracks we produce of songs he writes. He has hundreds of thousands of You Tube clicks on several of them and has quite a successful business going.

2-23-16 Bill Watson (center) and Shawn Conley (center) producing/engineering Dan Thompson’s  vocals on 5 additional tunes Dan (pictured left, in booth) wrote to complete the album. Dan has one more meeting to hopefully seal a distribution deal through Sony.

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Above: Dan Thompson performing at The George Jones Entertainment Complex in downtown Nashville on 2-21-16.

Musicians who played on the music track used in the above video:
Drums and percussion: Jim Riley (Rascal Flatts)
Acoustic and Electric Guitars: Tom Wild, (B.J. Thomas, Mindy McCready, Brenda Lee)
Bass guitar: Bill Watson (producer, Nashville Trax)
Vocals: Dan Thompson
Piano: Ronald Fairchild, (Oak Ridge Boys)
Fiddle: Jenee Fleenor (Blake Shelton, The Voice. Reigning winner of the CMA Touring Musician of th Year Award, Dec. 2015)
Engineers: Bill Watson, Shawn Conley
Produced & Arranged by Bill Watson.

 

The song and video of “Miles and Miles” is © 2016 Dan Thompson. It’s posted here for demonstration of production values only. Any other use is a violation of U.S. and International copyright laws.

Dan Thompson’s “Miles And Miles” Makes The Country Radio Most Added Prime Mover Chart!

Congratulations to Canadian singer/songwriter Dan Thompson, who’s first single, “Miles and Miles” has been gaining traction on radio, first charting on the SOCAN Internet Radio Stations Top 40 Up and Coming list and now has migrated to the Traditional  Country Top 40 Up and Coming chart.

If Miles & Miles climbs to the top of the up and coming Country charts (It’s currently sitting at number 28) the next progression is Bill Board top 40..

Update from Dan, 12-24-15.
“Hi Bill.  I just received the updated charts tonight.  Miles & Miles is number 38 on the top 40 AC/Hot AC main Charts with over 2000 spins this past week.  We also made it on the Country Internet Main charts sitting at position 46.  And currently position 3 on the up and coming Country charts. Its amazing we got this far starting out as an indie artist with no label.”
Dan

Miles and Miles was written and sung by Dan Thompson, produced by Bill Watson and recorded here at Nashville Trax.

Read more about the session here.

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Southern Shine Tracking Finished

Here’s a preview of the Dan Thompson’s song Southern Shine, no vocals, unmixed raw tracks:

It may be his next single to be released to Canadian radio this coming spring, his current single, also produced here, “Miles and Miles” is enjoying over 2,000 spins per week.

Dan will be returning to the Nashville area in late February to add his vocals.

Drums: William Ellis (Montgomery Gentry)

Bass Guitar: Bill Watson (Nashville Trax producer)

Acoustic and Electric Guitars: Tom Wild (Nashville session guitarist)

Fiddle: Jenee Fleenor (Blake Shelton)

Banjo: Aaron McDaris (Rhonda Vincent)

Produced, arranged and engineered by Bill Watson

Call your local radio station in March and ask for Southern Shine by the Dan Thompson Band!

© 2016 Dan Thompson. Posted for demonstration only. Any other use is a violation of U.S. and International copyright law.

 

Country most added prime mover