CMA Songwriters Series Presented By U.S. Bank Announces Albuquerque Performance

The Country Music Association's acclaimed CMA Songwriters Series Presented by
U.S. Bank has announced a performance in Albuquerque at KiMo Theatre Tuesday, Oct. 15 featuring Lauren Alaina, Erin Enderlin, Sierra Hull and Luke Laird. The series hosts an intimate round of performances with some of Country Music's top songwriters taking turns sharing the stories behind their hit songs and performing them as originally written. Tickets for the performance are $15 and go on sale Friday, Sept. 20 at 11:00 AM/CT (10:00 AM/MT) through the KiMo Theatre website and CMA Songwriters Series website. $1 of each ticket sold will benefit the CMA Foundation, CMA's philanthropic arm, which is committed to investing in high quality music education programs for all students in the United States.

While in Albuquerque, the CMA Foundation and U.S. Bank will visit Albuquerque High School to meet with music students and host an exciting interactive workshop focused on the craft of songwriting. The visit is part of U.S. Bank's Community Possible giving and engagement platform and its Places to Play partnership with the CMA Foundation. This partnership has forged a $250,000 grant, a portion of which will benefit Albuquerque Public School's musical instrument repair facility and support music students for many years to come.

The Oct. 15 CMA Songwriters Series Presented by U.S. Bank show will also include a special performance by a student songwriter from Albuquerque High School.

The CMA Foundation and U.S. Bank will visit two additional cities this year - including Minneapolis and Portland - to provide deserving programs with much needed music education enrichment.

Lauren Alaina
Platinum-selling Country star Lauren Alaina's critically-acclaimed sophomore album, Road Less Traveled, landed on multiple "Best Of" lists including Billboard, Rolling Stone and Amazon, and it became the top-streamed female Country album release of 2017. Praised as "full of life lessons and uplift" (PEOPLE), the collection of 12 songs all written by the young star includes her first No. 1 smash, "Road Less Traveled," the Top 25 hit "Doin' Fine" and the deeply personal and inspiring, "Three." The Georgia native's latest, "Ladies in the '90s," is a fun, upbeat song that pays homage to an era and the artists who helped define her youth and cultivate her love for music and song. The "sassy Southerner with killer pipes" (PARADE) has shared the stage with superstars including Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Alan Jackson, Martina McBride and Carrie Underwood. She recently wrapped the 2019 Friends and Heroes Tour with Blake Shelton and will embark on her first headlining That Girl Was Me Tour in January. Following the release of Road Less Traveled, she has received multiple nominations for the CMA Awards, ACM Awards, CMT Music Awards, Teen Choice Awards, Radio Disney Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards, including taking home last year's ACM New Female Vocalist of the Year award and CMT Collaborative Video of the Year award for "What Ifs," the 4x Platinum-selling No. 1 hit with childhood friend, Kane Brown. She is one of CMT's Next Women of Country and received her first CMT Music Award for Breakthrough Video of the Year with her No. 1 hit "Road Less Traveled." Read more at LaurenAlainaOfficial.com.

Erin Enderlin
Enderlin's acclaimed 2017 record Whiskeytown Crier cemented her as a literary songwriter and superb vocal stylist with a knack for sharply drawn--and often sad--characters. Named a member of the 2018 CMT Next Women of Country class and recipient of the Arkansas Country Music Awards Songwriter and Album of the Year trophies, she has surged to the forefront of new artists rooted in the genre's rich history. Enderlin is also a go-to writer for stars looking for heavyweight Country with classic panache-- Luke Bryan's "You Don't Know Jack," Alan Jackson's "Monday Morning Church," Lee Ann Womack's "Last Call" and a host of other songs recorded by Whisperin' Bill Anderson, Terri Clark, Joey + Rory, Reba McEntire, Randy Travis and more are all Enderlin-penned. Her latest album Faulkner County was co-produced by Jim "Moose Brown" and Jamey Johnson and features guest appearances by Ronnie Bowman, Dillon Carmichael, Terri Clark, Vince Gill, Cody Jinks and Alison Krauss. Rolling Stone said of the lead track, "This is the stuff of Country classics." It will be released through Blaster Records/Black Crow Productions Nov. 1.

Sierra Hull
Recognized from age 11 as a virtuoso mandolin-player, Sierra Hull has been astonishing audiences and fellow-musicians alike. Now a seasoned touring musician, Hull has delivered her most inspired, accomplished and mature recorded work to date. With instrumentation comprised largely of mandolin, bass, and vocals, her fourth album Weighted Mind, was produced by Béla Fleck with special harmony vocal guests Rhiannon Giddens, Alison Krauss and Abigail Washburn adding to the luster. This work earned her first Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album in 2017. She's also a six-time International Bluegrass Music Association Awards winner, earning accolades in categories including Recorded Event of the Year and Mandolin Player of the Year. The Bluegrass Heritage Foundation presented Hull with the Bluegrass Star Award in 2013 for doing an exemplary job of advancing traditional bluegrass music.

Luke Laird
Two-time Grammy award winner Luke Laird is one of Country and pop's most sought-after songwriters. Twenty-three Billboard No. 1 hits, two Billboard No. 1 singles as a producer, 49 radio singles--27 of which have hit the Top 5--and more than 125 album cuts fill his catalog. In three separate years, every single released that Laird wrote peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard charts. He earned ACM Songwriter of the Year honors in 2015 and was named BMI Songwriter of the Year in 2012. Since 2011 he's tallied six CMA Triple Play Awards for penning three or more No. 1 songs within a 12-month period. He co-produced Kacey Musgraves' 2013 debut album, Same Trailer Different Park, which garnered Grammy honors for Best Country Album and an ACM Album of the Year win. In 2015, he returned to the studio with Musgraves to co-produce her triumphant sophomore release, Pageant Material. Most recently, Laird earned his second Grammy for Best Country Song with Musgraves' "Space Cowboy" in 2019. Today, Laird writes for and co-owns Nashville-based publishing and management company Creative Nation with his wife, Beth.

About CMA Songwriters Series
Currently in its 15th season, CMA Songwriters Series has presented more than 100 shows in cities including Austin, Belfast, Chicago, Dublin, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Park City (at the Sundance ASCAP Music Café), Phoenix, Toronto and Washington, D.C. at the renowned Library of Congress and John F. Kennedy Center. Artists and songwriters who have participated in the series include Jessi Alexander, Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, Brandy Clark, Luke Combs, Tom Douglas, Brett Eldredge, Miranda Lambert, Hillary Lindsey, Little Big Town, Shane McAnally, Lori McKenna, Kacey Musgraves, Tim Nichols, Liz Rose, Darius Rucker, Carrie Underwood, Craig Wiseman, Chris Young and more.

About U.S. Bank
U.S. Bancorp, with 74,000 employees and $482 billion in assets as of June 30, 2019, is the parent company of U.S. Bank, the fifth-largest commercial bank in the United States. The Minneapolis-based bank blends its relationship teams, branches and ATM network with mobile and online tools that allow customers to bank how, when and where they prefer. U.S. Bank is committed to serving its millions of retail, business, wealth management, payment, commercial and corporate, and investment services customers across the country and around the world as a trusted financial partner, a commitment recognized by the Ethisphere Institute naming the bank a 2019 World's Most Ethical Company. Visit U.S. Bank at www.usbank.com or follow on social media to stay up to date with company news.

Test and expand your Broadway knowledge with our new game - The Broadway Match-Up! How well do you know your Broadway casting trivia?	Play the Daily Game, explore current shows, and delve into past decades like the 2000s, 80s, and the Golden Age. Challenge your friends and see where you rank!
How well do you know your Tony Awards history? Take our never-ending quiz of nominations and winner history and challenge your friends.	Can you beat your friends? Play today’s daily Broadway word game, featuring a new theatrically inspired word or phrase every day!