Songwriting Seminar

Kim Albritton is an author, music executive, and entrepreneur from Charlotte, North Carolina, by way of Nashville. She earned a B.S. in Music Business and Marketing from Middle Tennessee State University in 2013 and began her career in music as an artist and tour manager. In 2017, Kim moved to Valencia, Spain, to attend Berklee College of Music's graduate program, earning a Master of Arts in Global Entertainment and Music Business. A classically trained clarinetist, Kim transitioned into music publishing and copyright at Universal Music Publishing Group in Franklin, Tennessee. In 2019, she moved to Los Angeles and worked as a copyright data analyst for Music Reports. While in LA, Kim wrote and directed her first short film, Happy Hour, which won a Bronze Award at the LA Independent Shorts Film Festival, sparking her interest in sync licensing and music supervision. Kim relocated to Nashville in 2020 and began working as a copyright and mechanical licensing associate at Concord Music. Currently, she is licensing manager at ClearBox Rights in Brentwood, Tennessee.

John Barker is the founder, President & CEO of ClearBox Rights, LLC, an independent IP rights managements company, based in Nashville. He also founded ICG (Integrated Copyright Group) in 1990. Before co-founding ICG, John was General Manager of Publishing and Copyrights for The Benson Company (1985-1989) and A&R Director for Word Records (1983-1985). He has worked with a wide variety of clients, including the catalogs of Marty Robbins, Roy Orbison, Brad Paisley, Ray Stevens, Craig Wiseman, Kenny Loggins, Paul Overstreet, Garth Brooks, Jerry Chesnut, Mr. (Fred) Rogers, Bill Monroe, John Anderson, Loretta Lynn, Allen Shamblin, Amy Grant, Don Schlitz, Songwriters Guild of America, Albert E. Brumley & Sons, Seals & Crofts, and many others. He is past President and current board member of the Copyright Society of the South, a member of CMA, NARAS, Leadership Music 2012, ACM, Copyright Society of the U.S.A., and AIMP. In 2014, John co-organized IPAC (Interested Parties Advancing Copyright) to provide comments to the Music License Study, and frequently participates in U.S. Copyright Office studies. John has led copyright administration companies representing over a thousand publishing catalogs for over 30 years. He has designed and overseen the building of three copyright administration software platforms and is continuously working to enhance systems to provide greater efficiency and transparency related to licensing and royalty processing.

Cameron Bedell is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter and producer. As an artist, he was featured on Season 14 of American Idol and has gone viral with multiple cover songs, such as “Issues” by Julia Michaels and “Earned It” by The Weekend. As a songwriter, Bedell has written songs for artists such as Chris Lane, Jimmie Allen, Lauren Alaina, Dylan Scott, Hailey Whitters, Nate Smith, Breland, Nelly and many more. He recently penned his first No. 1 song with Jimmie Allen’s single “Down Home” on Country Radio. Bedell recently broke the top 50 with a song called “I’m In Love” by newcomer Hailey Whitters. As a producer, Bedell struck magic with hot new female artist Tiera Kennedy, whose most recent project “Rooted” was released and currently streaming on all platforms.

A Mercer University School of Music graduate, Steve Ivey has written, recorded, and produced music around the globe for a wide variety of music artists, music for film and television, and music for corporations. He has written and produced music in various languages including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese that is sold in 21 countries. As a multi-instrumentalist (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, piano, keyboards, mandolin, dobro, banjo, harmonica, percussion) and vocalist/harmony vocals, Ivey has produced/recorded/mixed over 325 albums, thousands of songs and the list continues to grow. Artists he has worked with include Dolly Parton, Oakridge Boys, Bill Anderson, Vince Gill, Crystal Gayle, Ricky Skaggs, and Willie Nelson. He is a two-time Emmy® Award-winner, a four-time GRAMMY® Award nominee and a six-time Dove Award nominee or winner. His works have topped Billboard charts 17 times.

Born in Nashville and raised in South Mississippi, Jason Nix grew up on a blend of his musical father’s Bluegrass and his mother’s love of Motown while introducing his own passion for Classic Rock into the mix. It’s no surprise then that his return to Music City just after high school led to the creation of a sound all his own, driven by his strengths as both a guitar player and a lyricist. More than 17 years later, he has established himself as an award-winning, in-demand songwriter and earning cuts on GRAMMY®-nominated records with artists ranging from Keb’ Mo’, Vince Gill, and Darius Rucker to Lainey Wilson, including the ACM Song of the Year “Things A Man Oughta Know” and Billboard’s Top 25 songs of the year (2024) with “Hang Tight Honey.”

Maggie Renfroe Reeves is a 24-year-old singer-songwriter from Macon. Since 2017 she has called Nashville home, where she attended Belmont University. She has a soulful sound with a modern twist. She’s a free spirit with an authentic connection to her audience. Performing throughout the Southeast, Maggie has had the pleasure of opening for Jason Aldean, Chuck Leavell of the Rolling Stones, Scotty McCreery, Randell Bramlett, Bear Rinehart from Need to Breathe, Hunter Hayes, Matt Powell, and David Cook.