Nashville, TN (December 8, 2020) – Musician/Producer/Songwriter Dave Cohen has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Spirit Music Nashville. Co-producer of eight #1 songs and session musician on over 50 #1 songs, Cohen is teaming with Spirit to bolster his songwriting career.
After moving from Calgary, Canada to Nashville, TN in 2007, Dave Cohen began his time in Nashville touring with the likes of Joe Nichols, Big & Rich, and Wynonna Judd before making the shift to session work as a studio musician in 2012. Today he has played on over 50 #1 songs and co-produced 8 #1 songs. His production credits include Morgan Wallen, Chris Lane, Dallas Smith, Jake Owen, HARDY, and more. Cohen has also collaborated with top notch producers like Joey Moi, Dann Huff, Ross Copperman, Corey Crowder, and Shane McAnally. An award-winning keyboard player, Dave was named ACM Keyboardist of the Year in 2017 and 2019 and Music Row Keyboardist of the Year in 2018 and 2020.
“Dave Cohen has been a force in the session world for a long time, and we are beyond excited to partner with him to kickstart his songwriting career. Dave is a fantastic producer, hard worker, and brings all the good vibes into every room. He’s always been a songwriter at heart and I’m thrilled he’s taken this opportunity to work with the Spirit team,” said Kara Jackson, Creative Director, Spirit Music Nashville.
“I look forward to finally getting to be creative in this new kind of way, with the songwriters and producers that I’ve spent so much time with in the studio over the years. I’m really excited to continue the success we have had together! I couldn’t think of a better, more seasoned team to help me navigate this new arm of my career than Frank, Kara and the Spirit family,” said Dave Cohen.
Since announcing the appointment of Frank Rogers to Chief Executive Officer of Spirit Music Nashville, the company has made quick impact with a multi-faceted deal with the signing of #1 hit songwriter Jonathan Singleton (including a purchase of a portion of his catalog and a pub deal for future works); the signing GRAMMY® award winning songwriter David Garcia (including a purchase of his catalog and a pub deal for future works); the signing of Music Row’s “Song of the Year” GRAMMY nominated co-writer Jeremy Bussey; the signing of a joint venture with ACM’s “Guitar Player of the Year” Derek Wells and his 2 Mix Music enterprise; as well as the signings of Bobby Hamrick, Brinley Addington, Frank Ray, and Neil Thrasher.
In September of this year, Spirit Music Group announced it had acquired a number of Tim McGraw’s master recordings and last month released the McGraw Machine Hits collection in partnership with Big Machine Label Group.
Recent #1 Country Airplay singles by the company include: Carly Pearce/Lee Brice’s “I Hope You’re Happy Now”; Maddie and Tae’s “Die From A Broken Heart”, Scotty McCreery’s “In Between”; Kenny Chesney’s “Here and Now”; Sam Hunt’s “Kinfolks”; Carrie Underwood’s “Southbound”; Chris Janson’s “Good Vibes” and Dustin Lynch’s “Ridin’ Roads”.
Other recent successes by Spirit Music Nashville include a publishing interest in Billboard’s #1 and #2 “Songs of the Decade” (“Meant To Be” via David Garcia and “Body Like a Backroad” via Zach Crowell); the top two Billboard “Albums of the Decade” (Traveller by Chris Stapleton and Montevallo by Sam Hunt); ASCAP’s Song of the Year (“Body Like a Back Road” by Sam Hunt, Zach Crowell and Josh Osborne); SESAC’s Song of the Year (“It Don’t Hurt Like It Used To” by Billy Currington); CMA Song of the Year (“Blue Ain’t Your Color” by Keith Urban) and CMA Album of the Year From a Room: Volume 1 by Chris Stapleton); and a publishing interest in ACM nominations for Song of the Year (“Whiskey & You” by Chris Stapleton); Single of the Year (“Broken Halos” by Chris Stapleton and “Drinkin’ Problem” by Midland) and Songwriter of the Year (Josh Osborne).
In 2019, Spirit Music Group executives Jon Singer and Ross Cameron formed Lyric Capital Group to take ownership of Spirit Music Group and secure a recapitalization of over $350 million. The capital raise allows Spirit to continue to build upon its already impressive legacy and community of renowned artists and songwriters. Now wholly-owned by the newly formed Lyric Capital Group, Spirit Music Group remains a strong, independent publisher.
ABOUT SPIRIT MUSIC:
Spirit Music Group, founded in 1995, is one of the world’s leading independent music publishers, owning and/or managing more than 75,000 songs spanning seven decades and every musical genre. Spirit’s portfolio consists of over 200 #1 Billboard hits and over 450 Top 10 songs.
Among its most notable songwriters and writer/artists are James Bay, John Barrett, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Big Data, Marc Bolan, T Bone Burnett, Jonny Coffer, Zach Crowell, Rami Dawod, Henry Mancini, Matt & Kim, Johnny McDaid, The Marshall Tucker Band, Graham Nash, John Newman, Rick Nowels, David Paich, Doc Pomus, Frank Rogers, Boz Scaggs, Billy Squier, Pete Townshend, Gregg Wattenberg; and the breakthrough work of newer artists including Dagny and Tim Montana.
Spirit has earned a strong reputation as an aggressive royalty administrator and a peerless promoter of its songs into film, television and advertising productions as well as a wide range of new media. In recent years, Spirit has helped transform the publisher’s role beyond royalty collection and song promotion to proactive career and legacy partnership by creating and executing marketing plans to revitalize its clients’ songs and expand their brands.
Spirit Music Group is headquartered in New York with offices in London, Los Angeles, Nashville and the Netherlands. Spirit is a portfolio company of Lyric Capital Group, led by seasoned music executives Jon Singer and Ross Cameron.
For further information about Spirit Music Group, go to www.spiritmusicgroup.com.
