NOISEMAKERS: NASHVILLE EDITION

In our latest roundup, we present eight more stars of tomorrow from various parts of the biz whose dedication and effort make their superiors look good.

This week's entrants will also find their faces in our latest Nashville special. And if they don't care about that (because, why should they?), we're told the pages make for excellent freezer paper when handling leftover Fourth of July meats.

Olivia Laster
Senior Director, Marketing, Sony Music Nashville

Laster led the team formulating release strategy for Kane Brown’s 2022 album, Different Man. Since then, she’s seen Brown perform as the first male country artist on the VMAs, become the first Black artist in 50 years to be nominated for ACM Entertainer of the Year and the first to singlehandedly headline Fenway Park, play after Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime, headline Stagecoach and more. She’s presently planning the release of new music by up-and-comer Georgia Webster. Laster has a red senior belt in Taekwondo. We will consider ourselves warned.

Miller Guth
Manager, Artist & Label Partnerships, Spotify

Guth has mounted album-release events for the likes of Lainey Wilson, Kacey Musgraves and Morgan Wallen, who performed on his high-school baseball field to mark the arrival of One Thing at a Time. Guth recently helped book CMA Fest’s Spotify House lineup of 75+. And he’s continuing to support Bailey Zimmerman’s debut while working on campaigns for acts including The Band CAMINO and championing independent Nashville artists via “Fresh Finds” (see Megan Moroney). Guth is a classically trained pianist. Too bad for him he wasn’t trained to avoid us, a classic mistake.

Michelle Tigard Kammerer
Head of Country Music, Amazon Music

Kammerer was proud to celebrate with her colleagues when their months of hard work paid off with the 2023 ACM Awards livestream, which reached 240 territories via Prime Video and the Amazon Music Twitch channel. She and the team are currently crafting their multifaceted Country Music Month (October) campaign. Last year Amazon’s “Country Heat” saw a 38% increase in U.S. streams, from 13b to 18b, growth Kammerer hopes to further in 2023 and beyond. This Kansas native and country music aficionada once won a citywide karaoke contest with… wait for it… a rap song.

Matt Runner
Agent, Wasserman Music

Runner cherishes the role he played in The Judds: The Final Tour, which wrapped its 2022 leg at the University of Kentucky’s Rupp Arena, where the first music banner was hung in the duo’s honor next to those dedicated to the school’s Final Four victories. Looking to the future, he’s excited about the breakout of Drake Milligan, upcoming tours by LeAnn Rimes, Colter Wall and Maggie Rose, among others, and new signings like Elliot Greer, Sam Barber and Elvie Shane. As a boy, Runner was a JCPenney catalog model. Bet he never thought he’d end up in this rag.

Jamie Younger
VP, Artist Development, Warner Music Nashville

Younger’s done burnouts in Bailey Zimmerman’s Corvette, toured Blake Shelton’s ranch, been deemed a “total badass” by Zac Brown and been fed donuts by Sheryl Crow, among other adventures. More recently, she saw Zimmerman earn his second #1 with the double-platinum “Rock and a Hard Place” and his Religiously. The Album become the biggest-streaming debut of the year and biggest-streaming country debut ever. Younger was the Americana Music Awards trophy girl her first few years in Nashville. Speaking of, we’ve got a sweet shelf of participation trophies.

Gary Keffer
Director, Strategic Marketing, UMG Nashville

Keffer was behind the recent CMA Fest Music Is Universal showcase, which presented more than a dozen artists and drew 8,500 fans over four days. It was particularly meaningful to share the accomplishment (remotely) with his father, who passed away a week later. “During our last conversation,” Keffer says, “he congratulated me on getting the green light to do it again in 2024. The next one’s for him.” Oddly enough, Keffer, who grew up in a Mennonite community where he attended a three-room schoolhouse, is featured in Darius Rucker’s “Straight to Hell” video.

Brooke Diaz
Director of Northeast Promotion, Big Machine Records

Diaz went from promoting Carly Pearce’s debut #1 (2017’s “Every Little Thing”) to celebrating her first Grammy (2021’s “Never Wanted To Be That Girl”), her fourth #1 (2023’s “What He Didn’t Do”) and her biggest radio add day (6/16’s “We Don’t Fight Anymore”). She also took Jackson Dean’s 2021 “Don’t Come Lookin’” to #1, making him, at 21, the youngest male debut artist in country history. Today, she’s focused on singles by Pearce, Dean, Tim McGraw and Brian Kelley. Diaz considers herself an introverted extrovert. We’re considered inveterate invertebrates.

Heather Vassar
VP, Marketing, EMPIRE

Vassar was thrilled when EMPIRE landed its first country #1 and platinum record, Tenille Arts’ “Somebody Like That” (2020). That it was performed, written and produced by women made it all the sweeter. She’s now preparing for Sophia Scott’s debut and new music by former college football player Don Louis and Randy Houser (who’s touring arenas with Cody Johnson). Despite the courage evinced by her appearance in our little horror show, Vassar isn’t a fan of scary movies, confiding, “I have a tough exterior, but it’s only because I’m so sensitive on the inside!”