weekly September 22, 2025, Issue 979
Remembering Brett James
Colleagues and friends share recollections of the late Brett James (Chronicle 9/18). • Combustion Music’s Chris Farren: I’ve written songs and played hundreds of rounds of golf with Brett. He was signed to my company at one point. But my fondest memories of him will be from the charity music festival we put on in the Bahamas. He’s gone every year – nobody gets paid – and I will remember him jamming onstage, drinking rum and looking like a superstar. If it’s any indication, I’ve gotten no less than 50 texts from people in the Bahamas who don’t know him as a big songwriter or how important he was here. They just know he touched their lives. He was beloved there for being who he was three days a year. That’s Chris Farren and quite a testament. Brett James • Songwriter Tim Nichols: He was as giving as he was gifted. I worked with a preschool for special needs kids called High Hopes and have been involved in a couple St. Jude events the past several years. He always jumped right in. At the last one, he was onstage talking about how important St. Jude is and how he could relate because one of his kids had an issue as a baby. He got tears in his eyes telling that story, and his willingness Tim Nichols to do those events speaks to the with Brett kind of man he was. Years ago I had a title called “The Man I Want To Be” and the line, “I want to be a good man, a do-like-I-should man.” He thought about it for a minute and said, “What if we made it a prayer?” So often with songwriting, (continued on page 7)
Wind Up Missin’ Utah: EMI’s Tucker Wetmore in Salt Lake City. Pictured (l-r) are KSOP’s Deb Turpin, KUBL’s Matt Ramone, Wetmore, KUBL’s John E. Kage, the label’s Briarman Whitfield and KSOP’s Dave Gunderson.
Big, Viral & Obsessed: September Issue From the 20th anniversary of Big Machine to a DSP deep dive and the reader-voted Power 31, Country Aircheck’s large format September issue is loaded up. Print and digital editions drop this week. Focused this year on content creators, the Power 31 had CA subscribers nominate and rank the most impactful fan-facing content creators in country music. Each is included with details on a recent bit. Coming in at No. 1, Bobby Bones and his radio show team asked each other whether they’d leave their spouse for $5 million, or even $1 million in cash … with mixed results. “That’s where it gets tough for me – the kids,” said Producer Eddie
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