{"id":1302854,"date":"2019-01-25T09:51:08","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T16:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1802454"},"modified":"2019-01-25T09:51:08","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T16:51:08","slug":"music-row-celebrates-jimmie-allens-best-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/music-row-celebrates-jimmie-allens-best-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Row Celebrates Jimmie Allen\u2019s \u201cBest Shot\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:ao:image:cmt.com:662735?width=1200&amp;height=675&amp;.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"\/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"byline\">by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/morrise\/\" title=\"Posts by Edward Morris\" rel=\"author\">Edward Morris<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\">7m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>Imagine a fraternity party jammed into a single minivan and you get some idea of how crowded it was Tuesday afternoon (Jan. 22) for the Jimmie Allen celebration at Nashville\u2019s The Local saloon. CMT\u2019s <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/shows\/hot-20-countdown\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hot 20 Countdown<\/a><\/em> will recap all the action on an all-new episode airing Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 26-27) at 9 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n<p>It seemed like virtually everyone who works on Music Row had converged on the popular watering hole to pay tribute to Allen and his two \u201cBest Shot\u201d co-writers, Josh London and JP Williams.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBest Shot,\u201d the first No. 1 single for all three writers, recently held the top position on Billboard\u2019s country airplay chart for two consecutive weeks.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/25ys0vc4tTI?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/25ys0vc4tTI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>As the crowd gathered, the three songwriters sat patiently on stage for a series of publicity photos with various music industry figures who had played some part in their success.<\/p>\n<p>The party was jointly sponsored by SESAC, the performance rights organization to which Allen and London belong, and BMI, which serves as Williams\u2019 home base. Hosting duties were shared jointly by SESAC\u2019s Shannan Hatch and BMI\u2019s David Preston.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMusic was always something that just spoke to him,\u201d Hatch said of London, who holds a degree in plant and soil sciences from the University of Kentucky and whose day job is landscaping. \u201cI called him, and he saved my tomato plants,\u201d she joked.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the other writers who came to Nashville for the music scene, London says he came to work there in landscaping and more or less drifted into songwriting.<\/p>\n<p>Hatch said that although Allen hails from Delaware \u2014 which she admitted is a state Southerners regard as \u201cthe North\u201d \u2014 \u201che\u2019s more rooted in country music than a lot of us here in the South.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a ray of sunshine,\u201d she continued. \u201cHe walks into a room, and he owns it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Preston took a similarly light-hearted tack when he came to the stage. \u201cIt\u2019s my birthday,\u201d he announced to muted applause. \u201cI know this is not about me, but I just thought I\u2019d throw it out there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Preston described the three songwriters who sat to his left as \u201ca bunch of underdogs who just persevered.\u201d He noted that it had been a particularly uphill battle for Williams who lost his sight when he was 10.<\/p>\n<p>But, said Preston, Williams faces his affliction with enormous support from his wife, Irene, and a great sense of humor. \u201cHe calls his publishing company \u2018Blonde Leading Blind,\u2019\u201d Preston said.<\/p>\n<p>Hatch then returned to the mic to urge the crowd to move forward and let people in who were standing outside in the cold. \u201cDo we all like each other now?\u201d she cracked as the throng readjusted.<\/p>\n<p>Jon Loba, who heads Allen\u2019s label, Stoney Creek Records, recalled \u201cfalling in love\u201d with Allen when he first saw him showcase at The Local. He said he was even more impressed with the singer as he insisted on staying true to his own music and sticking with the team that first brought him to Loba\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a firm believer you create your own opportunities and that you do that by taking risks,\u201d Allen said when it came his turn to speak.<\/p>\n<p>He fought back tears as he recited a list of people who had offered him kindness and support along the way. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long, long journey,\u201d he said. \u201cSurround yourself with people that pour into you and add to what you\u2019re doing,\u201d he advised.<\/p>\n<p>Allen recounted meeting Williams for the first time for a co-writing session and seeing that he was blind. \u201cI said I don\u2019t know if anybody told you, but I\u2019m black. So keep the black jokes to a minimum.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams sat smiling at the memory.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"description\">Edward Morris is a veteran of country music journalism. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a frequent contributor to CMT.com.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1802454\/music-row-celebrates-jimmie-allens-best-shot\/\" target=\"_blank\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Edward Morris 7m ago Imagine a fraternity party jammed into a single minivan and you get some idea of how crowded it was Tuesday afternoon (Jan. 22) for the Jimmie Allen celebration at Nashville\u2019s The Local saloon. CMT\u2019s Hot 20 Countdown will recap all the action on an all-new episode airing Saturday and Sunday [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1302854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 08:57:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1302854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1302854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1302854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1302854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}