Photo by Marie-Michèle Bouchard. Left to right/De gauche à droite : Brandy ZDAN, Amelie J Sampson with/avec Racquel Villagante (SOCAN), Maddison Krebs, Jake Vaadeland

SOCAN draws music-makers, industry reps to 2023 Nashville Reception

Story by Howard Druckman, with files from/avec la collaboration de Liam Russell & Racquel Villagante | September 28, 2023

It was a beautiful day to be at the L.A. Jackson rooftop bar at the Thompson Hotel in Nashville, where SOCAN hosted about 150 songwriters, singer-songwriters, artists, and industry representatives at the 2023 edition of its annual Connection Reception, on Sept. 21, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.

We took advantage of the event to present a SOCAN No. 1 Song Award to our members Gavin Slate, Todd Clark, and Travis Wood, who co-wrote the James Barker Band’s “Meet Your Mama,” which topped the Mediabase Canada Country chart on May 15, 2023. James Barker is also a co-writer, but was unable to attend.

The day before, on the red carpet of the 2023 Americana Awards, SOCAN CEO Jennifer Brown presented Allison Russell with her 2022 SOCAN Folk/Roots Award, since Russell was unable to attend the SOCAN Awards in Toronto that year. Also honouring her from SOCAN were Chief Membership Officer Jean-Christian Céré, and Creative Director Cameron Kennedy.

Among the singer-songwriters at the event were Quake Matthews and Nicole Ariana (both from Halifax, both in town for a Nashville song camp), Tebey, Jason Blaine , Sacha, Emm Gryner, Ezra Jordan, and Zoe Sky Jordan, Chad Price drove all the way from Atlanta to be at the party.

Professional songwriters attending the reception – in addition to the aforementioned Gavin Slate, Todd Clark, and Travis Wood – included Emma-Lee, Karen Kosowski, Terry Sawchuk, Kelly Archer, Victoria Banks, Eddie Schwartz, and John Capek

As for music industry representatives, a large contingent from Vector Management was there, including Nicki Loranger, who manages Allison Russell. Other attendees included Marghie Evans from Do Write Music, and entertainment and music publishing lawyer Vincent Peppe.

Attending for SOCAN – in addition to the above-mentioned Jennifer Brown, Jean-Christian Céré, and Cameron Kennedy – were Creative Executives Racquel Villagante (Los Angeles) and Liam Russell (Nashville & Los Angeles); Tessy Pokuah Paquin (Creative Programming & Partnerships Co-Ordinator); Brad Ardley (Video Editor); and Marie-Michèle Bouchard (Communications & Marketing Specialist).

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