Curious to know more about the man behind to microphone? Well, you’re in for a treat. In today’s episode Bart is on the other side of the microphone as Joey interviews him. Bart tells about his career, his first songwriting session and the first demo, hold, cut and single he wrote.
Meet Bart
Hailing from the small town of Holdredge, Nebraska, Bart Allmand was born into a musical family. At a very young age Bart began to play drums and guitar, giving him the yearning to work in the music industry someday.
In 1987, Bart moved to Nashville to attend Belmont University and to obtain a job in the music industry. He began his career at 16th Avenue Records working in promotion, covering secondary markets. While at 16th Avenue Records he worked with acts like Charlie Pride and Canyon (which later became Lonestar). Because of his love of playing music, Bart formed a rock band called Asfault Jungle with several friends and played over 100 shows a year.
Soon he was hired by RCA as Mid-West Promotion Manager. He had the opportunity to work such acts as Clint Black, Alabama, Martina McBride, Restless Heart, Don Williams, Robert Ellis Orrall and K.T. Oslin.
In 1994, Bart formed 3rd Coast Entertainment, a promotion and marketing group. After three years, he was offered a great opportunity to start up Monument Records as National Director of Promotion. At Monument the highlight of his record promotion career came when he was instrumental in breaking one of country’s top acts, the Dixie Chicks. Other acts he worked with there include Yankee Grey and Jeffrey Steele. When Bart was on the road during promo tours, he continued his love of playing guitar by playing and singing harmony with his artists.
While out with Jeffrey Steele, he formed a friendship that later turned into a new career opportunity. Jeffrey encouraged Bart to pursue his lifelong dream of being a songwriter. In 2003, Bart signed his first publishing deal with Windswept Publishing/3 Ring Circus Music (Jeffrey Steele’s publishing company).
Before he signed publishing deal, Bart got his first cut with Brooks and Dunn entitled “You Can’t Take The Honky Tonk Out Of The Girl.” This was his first demo, hold, cut and single. In the winter of 2003, the song was peaked in the charts at #3 and stayed in the top five for 9 weeks.
In late 2005, his song “Brand New Girlfriend” recorded by Steve Holy started to chart. As any good record promoter would do, he made some calls to his radio buddies about his single. Before you knew it “Brand New Girlfriend” was moving up the charts. In September 2006, it hit #1, marking Bart’s first #1!
Presently, Bart writes with several current and former songwriters of the year including Bob DiPiero, Jeffrey Steele, Craig Wiseman, Al Anderson and Tim Nichols. Over the years, he’s had several cuts on major releases.
Most recently Bart has been writing with rock and country artists including the band Saving Abel, Jason Charles Miller (Godhead), Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers and Government Mule), Kyle Cook (Matchbox 20), Nathan Barlowe (Luna Halo), Jeremy Popoff (Lit), Jamey Johnson, Randy Houser, Josh Thompson, Janedear Girls, Fast Ryde and Kelleigh Bannen among others as well as top country/rock/pop producers Jon Randall (Dierks Bentley, Clint Lagerberg (Josh Kelley), Joey Moi (Nickleback), Terry McBride (Brooks & Dunn) Gordon Kennedy (Peter Frampton) & Justin Tockett (Marc Broussard).
In this episode, you’ll hear
About Bart’s 31 years in the music business
Bart tells about his first songwriting session
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