Nashville Songplugger Sherrill Blackman is coming to town!  Sherrill is one of the best known Songpluggers in Nashville and he will be here to share his expertise. He will discuss the current market for songs in Nashville, he'll play some song demos for you to listen to and he'll be available to listen to demos and give his feedback if time permits. A fantastic opportunity for those of you wanting to pitch your songs in the Nashville market!

Founded in 1994, his sdb music group, a publishing and independent songplugging company, has secured recordings in Country, Pop, Rock, Gospel, Bluegrass, Blues, Jazz, and Polka.  Blackman is a co-founder of The Independent Pluggers Association, a three term past president of The Nashville Publishers' Network, and was named Music Row Magazine's Songplugger Of The Year in 2004, 2005, and 2006

Elizabeth Spear is creative manager at OLE. Ole is the multi-national, Canadian-owned, full-service music publisher founded by Robert Ott (former VP/GM BMGMP Canada) and Tim Laing (former radio and TV producer and finance executive). ole boasts an experienced team of over 20 industry professionals focused on acquisitions, creative development and administration worldwide. ole has offices in Toronto, Nashville, and LA.

The ole catalogue includes over twenty-five thousand songs across all genres ranging from pop, to country, to urban to rhythm & blues and soul. Over the past two years ole has completed the purchases of the Balmur, Encore, Keith Follese, Dream Warriors, Frank Myers, David Tyson, Lighthouse and Marsfilm Music and Logrythm catalogs

Billboard magazine named Walt Aldridge one of the Top Ten Country Songwriters of the year twice on the strength of such songs as Ricky Van Shelton's "I Am A Simple Man".

His song "No Getting Over Me" was named one of ASCAP's most performed country songs. "Holding Her and Loving You" was named Song of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters' Association International. The Alabama Music Hall of Fame awarded Aldridge with a star in their Walk of Fame and their Musical Creator's Award.

Tim Taylor has enjoyed a very successful career in Canadian country music both as a performer and more recently as a hit songwriter in Nashville.  His major awards include four CCMA Duo of the Year awards with Anita Perras, and three JUNO nominations as a male vocalist.

His songwriting honours include two CCMA Song of the Year Awards (One Smokey Rose and Ten Million Teardrops), CCMA Independent Song Of the Year (She’s Getting Serious), and the 2008 BCCMA Song of the Year award for Done You Wrong ( Aaron Pritchett.)

Pam Belford is a hit Nashville writer and a true industry veteran. She has had past writing deals with MCA Music & HoriPro Entertainment and with contracts at many, many more.

Her biggest claim to fame is the song, "If I Know Me", which George Strait recorded and took to #1 for 2 weeks. George Strait also recorded a song her, "Holding My Own", the title of his CD. Pam’s songs have been recorded by Rich McCready, Dean Dillon, Angela Kaset, Doug Stone & more.

Jay Riehl, born and raised in Stratford Ontario, started playing drums at the age of two  and loved the drums so much he made it his life.  Playing in bands for many years through high school  led Jay to some touring acts like Tommy Hunter, The Wilkinsons, Farmers Daughter, Deric Rettan, Julian Austin, South Mountain, John Cody Cater, the djkillers, John Landry and Jim Witter to name a few. 

In 1989 and 1990 Jay won the Canadian open Country Singing Contest out of Simcoe Ontario, which led to studios as a jingle and demo singer. With many miles under his belt and countless hours playing with studio technologies Jay entered the Ontario Institute Of Audio Recording Technology and earned his diploma in audio engineering in 1991.  After a year of teaching the course he had just completed, Jay turned to opening his own state of the art 1800 SQ foot recording studio called THESWAMP.BIZ

Jay currently is producing everything from jingles, post production, demos to radio friendly records.  Jay has 2 gold records to his credit. Always looking for something creative, Jay is highly motivated and working on his own CD as an artist and writer.  Earlier this year Jay and his music partner Allan Rodger (the djkillers) have just signed a management deal with Big Ride Managment out of Nashville (Emerson Drives Management). 

Studio Clients include: Farmers Daughter, Wilkinsons, Cynthia Dale, Paul Gross, John Landry, Run With Scissors, Stratford Shakespearean  Festival, Dayna Manning, CBC, Chris Cummings.

James Linderman is a songwriter, producer and academic associated with Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 2006 he was selected to be part of a 20 member, international, off campus, academic advisory board for Berkleemusic known as Berkleemusic Ambassadors.  As such, he advises Berklee administrators and professors on issues such as learning management systems, online course strategies, and curriculum based technologies.

In the summer of 2007 James was named Berkleemusic’s Worship Music Advisor.nIn 2004, 2005, and 2006. EOSC Alumni Association determined that James was the most widely read academic music journalist in the world with columns and articles in over 300 national and international music association publications. 

In 2006 and 2007 James had 2 top ten singles on Canadian Christian radio and in early 2008 signed a single song publishing deal with Next Number One Music Publishing in Nashville.