CMA Songwriters Series Presented By U.S. Bank Announces Portland Performance

Lineup Features Marcus Hummon, Lori McKenna, Lee Thomas Miller and Tenille Townes Sunday, Dec. 8 at Aladdin Theater, Tickets on Sale Friday, Nov. 1

CMA Foundation and U.S. Bank Partnership Supports Portland and Gresham, Oregon’s Centennial School District

The Country Music Association’s acclaimed CMA Songwriters Series Presented by U.S. Bank has announced a performance in Portland, OR at Aladdin Theater Sunday, Dec. 8 featuring top tunesmiths Marcus Hummon, Lori McKenna, Lee Thomas Miller and Tenille Townes. The series hosts an intimate round of performances with some of Country Music’s hottest songwriters taking turns sharing the stories behind their hit songs and performing them as originally written. Tickets for the performance are $20 (plus fees) and go on sale Friday, Nov. 1 at 12:00 PM/CT (10:00 AM/PT) through Aladdin Theater and CMAsongwritersseries.com. $1 of each ticket sold will benefit the CMA Foundation, CMA’s philanthropic arm, which is committed to investing in high quality music education programs for all students in the United States.

While in Portland, the CMA Foundation and U.S. Bank will support Centennial School District’s music program by providing drumming sets, Orff instruments, flutes, clarinets, trumpets, violins, music teacher professional development and several other school resources. The visit is part of U.S. Bank’s Community Possible giving and engagement platform and its Places to Play partnership with the CMA Foundation, an affiliation that has established a $250,000 grant benefiting select music education programs across the U.S.

This stop wraps a busy year of philanthropic initiatives with the CMA Foundation and U.S. Bank providing deserving programs across the country with much needed music education enrichment. Previous market visits this year include Albuquerque, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Nashville and Phoenix.

Marcus Hummon
Grammy winner and two-time NSAI Songwriter’s Hall of Fame nominee, Hummon has enjoyed a successful career as a songwriter, recording artist, composer, playwright and author. His songs have been recorded in many genres—pop, R&B, gospel—and most notably in Country Music, where he has written some of the genre’s most iconic songs. Hummon has received seven BMI Awards and five BMI No. 1 Awards. He’s known for Rascal Flatts’ “Bless The Broken Road” (winner of the Grammy for Best Country Song in 2005, two-time NSAI Song Of The Year Award in 2005 and 2007 and nominated for a Dove Award for Song Of The Year in 2007); Sara Evans’ “Born To Fly” (In 2001, nominated for CMA Song Of The Year and won CMA Video Of The Year); and Wynonna Judd’s “Only Love” (nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Female). Another Hummon co-written song, the Dixie Chicks’ “Ready To Run,” was Grammy-nominated Country Song Of The Year and won the Grammy for Best Country Performance By A Group Or A Duo, off the Grammy-winning Country Album Of The Year, Fly in 2000. In addition, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was nominated for a Grammy in Best Country Performance By A Group Or A Duo With Vocal for “Roll The Stone Away” co-written by Hummon. He’s had several songs featured in film, notably three songs which he wrote and produced in Disney’s “The Fox And The Hound 2”: “Friends For Life” (One Flew South), “Good Doggie No Bone” (Reba McEntire) and “We Go Together” (Little Big Town). Turning to theatre, Hummon has written six musicals and an opera. Hummon lives in Nashville with his wife and their three sons.

Lori McKenna
Home and the people who make it have captivated McKenna for years. Over the last three decades, as she became a wife and mother of five, she has also emerged as one of the most respected, prolific singer-songwriters in popular music. Her 2016 release The Bird and the Rifle netted three Grammy nominations, along with Americana Music Association nods––all firsts for McKenna as an artist. Then, she made history: In 2016, she became the first woman ever to win the CMA Awards Song of the Year trophy two years in a row thanks to co-writing Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush” and solo penning Tim McGraw’s No. 1 “Humble and Kind.” Both songs also clinched back-to-back Grammy wins for Best Country Song. In 2017, she became the ACM Awards’ first female Songwriter of the Year. The Tree, her much-anticipated eleventh studio album, was released on July 20, 2018 on CN Records via Thirty Tigers. Produced by Dave Cobb, The Tree, recently nominated for the 2019 Americana Awards Album of the Year, takes one of McKenna’s signature themes––family––and builds a tapestry of experiences she has lived and overheard, been told and dreamed up, to create a stunning ode to life’s defining relationships.

Lee Thomas Miller
A full-time songwriter based in Nashville, Miller graduated from Eastern Kentucky University where he studied classical violin, guitar, piano and voice. He was inducted into the EKU “Hall of Distinguished Alumni” in 2010. He has charted 15 years-worth of singles with, to date, seven of them reaching No 1. These songs have reached radio plays in excess of 10 million spins. Miller is a three-time Grammy award nominee and has won other major industry awards including CMA Awards Song of the Year and ACM Awards Song of the Year. He’s also won annual awards from MusicRow magazine and Nashville Songwriter’s Association International (NSAI). He has won multiple “Songs I Wish I’d Written” awards as voted on and given NSAI as well as 11 BMI awards. Miller served as President of NSAI for five years. He spent the last 15 years traveling to Washington, D.C., representing and lobbying for the rights of the American songwriter. He has testified before both houses of the U.S. Congress as well as countless meetings with Congressmen, Senators, White House cabinet members from multiple administrations, Department of Justice officials and countless bureaucrats reaching from the U.S. Chamber of Congress to the Register of Copyright. Ultimately this led to the passing of the federal Music Modernization Act in the fall of 2018, where he was present in the West Wing for the President’s signing. In 2015 Miller was presented with BMI’s inaugural “Champions” award for legislative efforts. He has also had success as a record producer, with a pair of Top 20 hits by recording artist Steve Holy, including his 2006 No. 1 album Brand New Girlfriend. Lee lives in Brentwood, TN with his wife of 27 years and their four kids.

Tenille Townes
Canadian-born and Nashville-based, Townes is “poised for a breakthrough” (Refinery29). On top of an ever-growing list of accolades that includes Amazon Music’s “2019 Artists To Watch,” The Bobby Bones Show’s “Class of 2019,” CMT’s “Next Women of Country,” CMT’s “Listen Up,” iHeartRadio’s “Artists To Watch in 2019,” iHeartCountry’s “On The Verge” artist and the inaugural class of “Opry NextStage,” Townes is currently on tour with Miranda Lambert as part of her Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars Tour and will perform select dates with Maren Morris later this fall. She has garnered widespread attention including praise from Billboard, The Tennessean, Sounds Like Nashville, The Boot and NPR Music, who declares, “…one of the most promising arrivals in mainstream Nashville’s burgeoning singer-songwriter movement.” Townes has released four tracks from her forthcoming full-length debut album, Somebody’s Daughter—which reached No. 1 on both Mediabase and Nielsen BDS Country Airplay in Canada—“White Horse,” “I Kept The Roses” and her current single, “Jersey On The Wall.” Produced by Jay Joyce, the album is set for release via Columbia Nashville.