Crosstown Arts presents An Evening with Clay Mills and Marty Dodson

1350 Concourse Avenue,Memphis TN 38104

11 September, 2021

Description

An evening with hit songwriters Clay Mills and Marty Dodson in The Green Room at Crosstown Arts with an opening performance by SoundScape. Clay Mills, a ten-time ASCAP award-winning songwriter and producer, grew up surrounded by music in the Blues-rich Mississippi Delta. Over the course of his songwriting career, Mills has penned Number 1 hits for Darius Rucker (“Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It”), Diamond Rio ("Beautiful Mess"), and Kimberley Locke ("Fall”) while collecting Grammy nominations for “Beautiful Mess” and Trisha Yearwood’s “Heaven, Heartache, and the Power of Love.” In April 2014, Mills inked a new publishing deal with veteran publisher Mike Sebastian and Given Music. Excited about working with Mike, who is a "song guy" and proven hit publisher with an eye on the future, Clay says, "I don't like looking backwards as much as I like to look forward to the next idea, the next song. That gets me jumping up off the bed and going each morning!” Clay began playing at clubs in rock and country bands by age 13. When he was 19, he moved to the New York City where he wrote, programmed tracks, created beats for rap and hip hop artists, and sang on major TV commercials, including commercials Red Lobster and the Armed Forces. In the late 90s, Clay started co-writing with a New York actor who was an aspiring country artist, Ken Meeker. Ken introduced Clay to Nashville producer Mark Bright, who flew to New York to watch him perform for a crowd of 500 people. Impressed, Mark signed Clay to a publishing deal with EMI Music. Since moving to Nashville, Clay has had over 75 major artist cuts, three Number 1 hits, six Top 5 singles, and 12 Top 40 singles. His love of all types of music shows in the diverse list of artists who sing his songs: Babyface, Lady Antebellum, Easton Corbin, Reba, Bill Gaither, Lone Star, Darius Rucker, Trisha Yearwood, Clay Walker, Kimberly Locke, and Joe Nichols. Clay’s latest string of singles, co-written with country superstar and groundbreaker Darius Rucker, include the song that introduced Darius to the world of country music: “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It.” More hit singles, “History in the Making” and “I Got Nothin’,” soon followed. Mills believes strongly in songwriters and their value to the world. He has served on the NSAI board and lobbied Congress on behalf of creators and copyrights. In 2012, Clay co-founded SongTown, a 6,000-plus group of aspiring songwriters. He is personally involved in helping members advance their craft and make connections in the music industry. ----- Marty Dodson was born in Apple Valley, California, and moved around for several years until his family settled in Nashville, TN. Growing up, he was intimidated by the sheer number of people coming to Nashville to become singers or songwriters. So, he went to college and earned a degree in psychology. After working ten years as a youth minister, Marty decided to change careers. Trouble was, he didn’t know what he wanted to be when he grew up. He fumbled around for several years, doing odd jobs and trying to decide on a direction for his life. Finally, a book he read helped him realize that what he REALLY wanted to be was a songwriter. He had run into Gordon Payne, a member of the Crickets, while working one of his odd jobs. Gordon helped him re-write one of his songs and demo it in a Nashville studio. Marty was hooked. He threw caution to the wind, quit the other jobs, and began writing full-time. Nine #1 songs and more than 125 cuts later, Marty has become one of the most accomplished writers in Nashville with notable hit singles such as "Fire It Up” by Joe Cocker, “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven” by Kenny Chesney, and “Must Be Doin’ Somethin’ Right” and “Let Me Down Easy” by Billy Currington. His songs have been recorded by numerous other artists, including Blake Shelton, George Strait, Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, The Plain White T’s, The Oak Ridge Boys, Don Williams, Johnny Reid, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Big &Rich. Marty’s self-professed “greatest achievement” in his songwriting career to date was knocking artist Psy (“Gangnam Style”) out of the #1 spot in South Korea and winning “Song of the Year” honors for South Korea and all of Asia with his song “Bounce” recorded by Cho Yong Pil. Marty currently resides in Nashville with his wife Candy. He is a partner and co-founder of SongTown.com and is a writer for Sail Away Music. Crosstown Arts is a contemporary arts organization dedicated to further cultivating the creative community in Memphis. We provide resources and create opportunities and experiences to inspire, support, and connect a diverse range of creative people, projects, and audiences. The spaces and programs we manage integrate varying components of exhibition, performance, production, education, and retail.  We welcome anyone in the community to join any of our events or projects, regardless of prior experience or expertise with creative interests.