Arista Nashville is an American record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....

, operated under the Sony Music Nashville

Sony Music Nashville

Sony Music Nashville is the country music branch of Sony Music Entertainment based in Nashville, Tennessee. It comprises of RCA Records Nashville, Columbia Records Nashville, Arista Nashville and BNA Records...

 division. Founded in 1989, the label specializes in country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 artists, including Alan Jackson

Alan Jackson

Alan Eugene Jackson is an American country music singer, known for blending traditional honky tonk and mainstream country sounds and penning many of his own hits. He has recorded 13 studio albums, 3 Greatest Hits albums, 2 Holiday albums, 1 Gospel album and several compilations, all on the Arista...

, Brooks & Dunn

Brooks & Dunn

Brooks & Dunn was an American country music duo consisting of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, who were both vocalists and songwriters. They were paired by record producer Tim DuBois in 1990. Before the duo's foundation, both members of the duo were solo recording artists...

, Brad Paisley

Brad Paisley

Brad Douglas Paisley is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His style crosses between traditional country music and Southern rock, and his songs are frequently laced with humor and pop culture references....

 and Carrie Underwood

Carrie Underwood

Carrie Marie Underwood is an American country singer-songwriter and actress who rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol, in 2005...

. The label previously operated three sister labels: Career Records, Arista Austin and Arista Latin. It was formerly a subsidiary of Arista Records

Arista Records

Arista was an American record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operated under the RCA Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records...

, but after the dissolution, it was not affected and remains a Sony Music label.

History

Arista Nashville was founded in 1989 by Tim DuBois

Tim DuBois

Tim DuBois is a Nashville-based music executive. He attended Oklahoma State University and received a B.A. and M.A. in Accounting. He then entered into the music business and has taken part in multiple aspects of the industry including songwriting, record labels, management, and production...

 and Clive Davis

Clive Davis

Clive Davis is an American record producer and music industry executive. He has won five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. From 1967 to 1973 he was the President of Columbia Records. He was the founder and president of Arista Records from 1975...

. Alan Jackson

Alan Jackson

Alan Eugene Jackson is an American country music singer, known for blending traditional honky tonk and mainstream country sounds and penning many of his own hits. He has recorded 13 studio albums, 3 Greatest Hits albums, 2 Holiday albums, 1 Gospel album and several compilations, all on the Arista...

 was the first artist signed to the label. Artists signed to the label within its first five years included Asleep at the Wheel

Asleep at the Wheel

Asleep at the Wheel is a American country music group that was formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, but based in Austin, Texas. Altogether, they have won nine Grammy Awards since their 1970 inception. In their career, they have released more than twenty studio albums, and have charted more than twenty...

, Exile

Exile (American band)

Exile, originally known as The Exiles, is an American band founded in Richmond, Kentucky by J.P. Pennington. They started by playing local clubs which led to touring with Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars opening shows and providing backup for major rock artists of the period.Their name was shortened...

, Rob Crosby

Rob Crosby

Robert Crosby Hoar , is an American country music artist, known professionally as Rob Crosby. Between 1990 and 1996, Rob charted eight singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. He has also recorded six studio albums, with his most recent, Catfish Baby, being released in 2007...

, Steve Wariner

Steve Wariner

Steven Noel "Steve" Wariner is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. He has released eighteen studio albums, including six on MCA Records, and three each on RCA Records, Arista Records and Capitol Records...

, Michelle Wright

Michelle Wright

Michelle Wright is a Canadian country music artist. She is one of the country's most widely recognized and awarded female country singers of the 1990s, winning the Canadian Country Music Association's Fans' Choice Award twice...

, Pam Tillis

Pam Tillis

Pamela Yvonne "Pam" Tillis is an American country music singer-songwriter and actress. She is the daughter of country music singer Mel Tillis....

, Brooks & Dunn

Brooks & Dunn

Brooks & Dunn was an American country music duo consisting of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, who were both vocalists and songwriters. They were paired by record producer Tim DuBois in 1990. Before the duo's foundation, both members of the duo were solo recording artists...

, Diamond Rio

Diamond Rio

Diamond Rio is an American Country music/Christian music band formed in 1984 in Nashville, Tennessee. Since its foundation, the group has comprised the same six members: Gene Johnson , Jimmy Olander , Brian Prout , Marty Roe , Dan Truman , and Dana Williams...

, Lee Roy Parnell

Lee Roy Parnell

Lee Roy Parnell is an American country music artist. Active since 1990, he has recorded eight studio albums, and has charted more than twenty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts...

, Radney Foster

Radney Foster

Radney Foster is an American Texas Country artist. Initially a songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee, Foster made his debut in 1986 alongside Bill Lloyd in the duo Foster & Lloyd...

, Blackhawk

Blackhawk (band)

Blackhawk is an American country music group founded in 1992 by Henry Paul , Van Stephenson , and Dave Robbins...

 and The Tractors

The Tractors

The Tractors is an American country rock band composed of a loosely associated group of musicians, headed by guitarist Steve Ripley. Under the band's original lineup, The Tractors was signed to Arista Records in 1994, releasing their self-titled debut album that year; the album went on to become...

. Brooks & Dunn remained with the label for the entirety of their career.

The label founded Arista Texas in 1993, a sub-label specializing in Texas music

Texas Music

Texas Music is a quarterly entertainment magazine published in Austin, Texas. Since its launch in January 2000, Texas Music has covered hundreds of the state’s musicians and bands, regardless of the style of music, in addition to writing about the venues and events that contribute to the state’s...

 artists. In 1997, it was split into Arista Austin, which featured Jeff Black, Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen, Junior is an American Texas Country singer-songwriter. He is popular with fans of traditional country music, folk music, college radio, and alt-country. Keen currently resides in Kerrville, Texas and maintains a ranch in Medina, Texas.-Early life:Growing up in Houston, Texas,...

 and Abra Moore

Abra Moore

Abra Moore is a folk-styled rock singer-songwriter. Her 1997 album Strangest Places included the hit "Four Leaf Clover", which received airplay in Midwest U.S. radio markets and VH1 and MTV2 rotation, and charted on the Billboard Hot 100.-Biography:Moore's parents named Abra after the heroine of...

, and a Spanish-language label called Arista Latin. Foster also moved to Arista Austin from Arista Nashville in 1997.

In 1995, Arista Nashville founded a sister label called Career Records. Parnell was transferred to this label upon its foundation, while Brett James

Brett James

Brett James Cornelius is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Signed to Career Records as a solo artist in 1995, James charted three singles and released a self-titled debut album that year...

 and Tammy Graham

Tammy Graham

-Track listing:#"I Stopped Looking" – 3:07#"Tell Me Again" – 3:23#"When the Blues and My Baby Collide" – 3:17#"More About Love" – 3:28...

 were newly signed to it. All three artists moved back to Arista Nashville when Career Records was disestablished. While Graham and James were dropped from it soon afterward, James re-signed to Arista Nashville between 2002 and 2003.

Arista Nashville, Arista Records and 19 Recordings promote and distribute recordings by American Idol

American Idol

American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...

winner Carrie Underwood

Carrie Underwood

Carrie Marie Underwood is an American country singer-songwriter and actress who rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol, in 2005...

.

In late 2009, Brad Paisley

Brad Paisley

Brad Douglas Paisley is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His style crosses between traditional country music and Southern rock, and his songs are frequently laced with humor and pop culture references....

 launched a personal label, Sea Gayle, which is distributed through Arista. The label's first signee is Jerrod Niemann

Jerrod Niemann

Jerrod Lee Niemann is an American country music artist. Active since 2001, he has recorded two independent albums. In 2006, he signed to Category 5 Records and charted with the single "I Love Women "...

.

After the dissolution of Arista Records

Arista Records

Arista was an American record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operated under the RCA Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records...

 in 2011, Arista Nashville remains Sony Music's only current label with the Arista name.

Current artists

• Brent Anderson
  Brent Anderson (singer)
  Brent Anderson is an American country music singer. He has charted on Hot Country Songs with the single "Amy's Song"....
  
  
• Adam Brand
  Adam Brand
  Adam Brand is an Australian musician who sings country music. Active since 1997, he has released seven studio albums and thirteen singles. His first three albums are all certified platinum in Australia...
  
  
• Kix Brooks
  Kix Brooks
  Leon Eric "Kix" Brooks III , is an American country music artist, best known for being one half of the duo Brooks & Dunn.-Early life:...
  
  
• Ronnie Dunn
  Ronnie Dunn
  Ronnie Gene Dunn is an American country music singer-songwriter, known for being one half of the duo Brooks & Dunn. In 2011, Dunn began working as a solo artist following the breakup of Brooks & Dunn...
  
  
• Kristen Kelly
• Jerrod Niemann
  Jerrod Niemann
  Jerrod Lee Niemann is an American country music artist. Active since 2001, he has recorded two independent albums. In 2006, he signed to Category 5 Records and charted with the single "I Love Women "...
  
  
• Brad Paisley
  Brad Paisley
  Brad Douglas Paisley is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His style crosses between traditional country music and Southern rock, and his songs are frequently laced with humor and pop culture references....
  
  
• Carrie Underwood
  Carrie Underwood
  Carrie Marie Underwood is an American country singer-songwriter and actress who rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol, in 2005...
  
  

Former artists

• Keith Anderson
  Keith Anderson
  Keith Anderson is an American country music artist. Before signing to a record deal, Anderson was one of several co-writers on "Beer Run ", a duet by Garth Brooks and George Jones, released in late 2001. Anderson was signed as a recording artist to Arista Nashville in 2004...
  
  
• Asleep at the Wheel
  Asleep at the Wheel
  Asleep at the Wheel is a American country music group that was formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, but based in Austin, Texas. Altogether, they have won nine Grammy Awards since their 1970 inception. In their career, they have released more than twenty studio albums, and have charted more than twenty...
  
  
• Sherrié Austin
  Sherrié Austin
  Sherrie Veronica Krenn is an Australian actress and singer, known professionally as Sherrié Austin. Active as a singer since her teenage years, Sherrié initially recorded as one half of the duo Colorhaus, which also featured Phil Radford...
  
  
• Blackhawk
  Blackhawk (band)
  Blackhawk is an American country music group founded in 1992 by Henry Paul , Van Stephenson , and Dave Robbins...
  
  
• BR549
• Brooks & Dunn
  Brooks & Dunn
  Brooks & Dunn was an American country music duo consisting of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, who were both vocalists and songwriters. They were paired by record producer Tim DuBois in 1990. Before the duo's foundation, both members of the duo were solo recording artists...
  
  
• Shannon Brown
  Shannon Brown (musician)
  Shannon Leigh Brown is an American country music singer from Spirit Lake, Iowa. Although she has recorded three albums on various labels, only one of these — 2006's Corn Fed — was released. In her career, she has charted four singles on the Billboard country charts, with her highest-charting...
  
  
• Deana Carter
  Deana Carter
  Deana Carter is a country music artist who broke through in 1996 with the release of debut album Did I Shave My Legs for This?, which was certified 5× Multi-Platinum in the United States for sales of over five million...
  
  
• Jason Michael Carroll
  Jason Michael Carroll
  Jason Michael Carroll is an American country music artist. After being discovered at a local talent competition in 2004, Carroll was signed to the Arista Nashville label in 2006, releasing his debut album Waitin' in the Country that year...
  
  
• Jim Collins
  Jim Collins (singer)
  Jim Collins is an American country music singer-songwriter. Between 1985 and 1998, Collins released three studio albums. He also charted seven singles on Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart...
  
  
• Kristy Lee Cook
  Kristy Lee Cook
  Kristy Lee Cook is an American country singer who was born in Seattle, Washington and was the seventh place finalist on the seventh season of American Idol. In 2005 Cook released her debut album called Devoted. In June 2008, Cook signed to 19 Recordings and Arista Nashville. She released her...
  
  
• Rob Crosby
  Rob Crosby
  Robert Crosby Hoar , is an American country music artist, known professionally as Rob Crosby. Between 1990 and 1996, Rob charted eight singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. He has also recorded six studio albums, with his most recent, Catfish Baby, being released in 2007...
  
  
• Clint Daniels
  Clint Daniels
  Clint Allen Daniels is an American country music artist. Signed to Arista Nashville in 1998, Daniels released his self-titled debut album that year and charted two singles for Daniels on the Hot Country Songs charts. In 2003, Daniels signed to Epic Records, releasing a third single but no album...
  
  
• Linda Davis
  Linda Davis
  Linda Kaye Davis is an American country music singer. Before beginning a career as a solo artist, she charted three minor country singles as one half of the duo Skip & Linda. In her solo career, Davis has recorded five major-label studio albums and more than 15 singles...
  
  
• Diamond Rio
  Diamond Rio
  Diamond Rio is an American Country music/Christian music band formed in 1984 in Nashville, Tennessee. Since its foundation, the group has comprised the same six members: Gene Johnson , Jimmy Olander , Brian Prout , Marty Roe , Dan Truman , and Dana Williams...
  
  
• Exile
  Exile (American band)
  Exile, originally known as The Exiles, is an American band founded in Richmond, Kentucky by J.P. Pennington. They started by playing local clubs which led to touring with Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars opening shows and providing backup for major rock artists of the period.Their name was shortened...
  
  
• Radney Foster
  Radney Foster
  Radney Foster is an American Texas Country artist. Initially a songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee, Foster made his debut in 1986 alongside Bill Lloyd in the duo Foster & Lloyd...
  
   (started on Arista Nashville, moved to Arista Austin)
• Tammy Graham
  Tammy Graham
  -Track listing:#"I Stopped Looking" – 3:07#"Tell Me Again" – 3:23#"When the Blues and My Baby Collide" – 3:17#"More About Love" – 3:28...
  
   (from Career Records)
• Rebecca Lynn Howard
  Rebecca Lynn Howard
  Rebecca Lynn Howard is an American country music artist. She has charted seven singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, and has released three studio albums...
  
  
• Alan Jackson
  Alan Jackson
  Alan Eugene Jackson is an American country music singer, known for blending traditional honky tonk and mainstream country sounds and penning many of his own hits. He has recorded 13 studio albums, 3 Greatest Hits albums, 2 Holiday albums, 1 Gospel album and several compilations, all on the Arista...
  
  
• Brett James
  Brett James
  Brett James Cornelius is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Signed to Career Records as a solo artist in 1995, James charted three singles and released a self-titled debut album that year...
  
   (from Career Records)
• Carolyn Dawn Johnson
  Carolyn Dawn Johnson
  Carolyn Dawn Johnson is a Canadian Juno Award winning country music singer-songwriter. Johnson first rose to fame by co-writing Chely Wright's 1999 Number One single, "Single White Female," which reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in September 1999...
  
  
• Jypsi
  Jypsi
  Jypsi is an American country music group composed of four siblings, all with the surname Rische: Amber-Dawn , Frank , Lillie Mae , and Scarlett . Signed to Arista Nashville in 2007, the group has released three singles, including "I Don't Love You Like That", which reached #38 on the U.S. country...
  
  
• Dude Mowrey
  Dude Mowrey
  -Track listing:#"Honky Tonk Song" #"It Could've Been Me" #"Cowboys Don't Cry" #"Heartbreak Train" -Track listing:#"Honky Tonk Song" (Mel Tillis, Buck Peddy)#"It Could've Been Me" (Curt Ryle, Johnny Park)#"Cowboys Don't Cry" (Jim Allison, Bob Simon, Doug Gilmore, Jeff Raymond)#"Heartbreak Train"...
  
  
• Lee Roy Parnell
  Lee Roy Parnell
  Lee Roy Parnell is an American country music artist. Active since 1990, he has recorded eight studio albums, and has charted more than twenty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts...
  
   (started on Arista Nashville, moved to Career Records)
• Pam Tillis
  Pam Tillis
  Pamela Yvonne "Pam" Tillis is an American country music singer-songwriter and actress. She is the daughter of country music singer Mel Tillis....
  
  
• The Tractors
  The Tractors
  The Tractors is an American country rock band composed of a loosely associated group of musicians, headed by guitarist Steve Ripley. Under the band's original lineup, The Tractors was signed to Arista Records in 1994, releasing their self-titled debut album that year; the album went on to become...
  
  
• Ryan Tyler
  Ryan Tyler
  Ryan Tyler is an American country music artist. Signed to the Arista Nashville label, she made her debut with the single "Run, Run, Run" on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. The song was followed by "The Last Thing She Said" in early 2004...
  
  
• Phil Vassar
  Phil Vassar
  Phil Vassar is an American country music artist. Vassar made his debut on the country music scene in the late 1990s, co-writing singles for several country artists, including Tim McGraw , Jo Dee Messina , Collin Raye , and Alan Jackson Phil Vassar (born May 28, 1964 in Lynchburg, Virginia) is an...
  
  
• Steve Wariner
  Steve Wariner
  Steven Noel "Steve" Wariner is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. He has released eighteen studio albums, including six on MCA Records, and three each on RCA Records, Arista Records and Capitol Records...
  
  
• Calvin Wiggett
  Calvin Wiggett
  Calvin Wiggett is a country music singer. Wiggett recorded one studio album for Royalty Records, 1995's Made for Each Other...
  
  
• Michelle Wright
  Michelle Wright
  Michelle Wright is a Canadian country music artist. She is one of the country's most widely recognized and awarded female country singers of the 1990s, winning the Canadian Country Music Association's Fans' Choice Award twice...
  
  

Formerly on Arista Austin

• Jeff Black
• Robert Earl Keen
  Robert Earl Keen
  Robert Earl Keen, Junior is an American Texas Country singer-songwriter. He is popular with fans of traditional country music, folk music, college radio, and alt-country. Keen currently resides in Kerrville, Texas and maintains a ranch in Medina, Texas.-Early life:Growing up in Houston, Texas,...
  
  
• Abra Moore
  Abra Moore
  Abra Moore is a folk-styled rock singer-songwriter. Her 1997 album Strangest Places included the hit "Four Leaf Clover", which received airplay in Midwest U.S. radio markets and VH1 and MTV2 rotation, and charted on the Billboard Hot 100.-Biography:Moore's parents named Abra after the heroine of...
  
  
• Sister 7
  Sister 7
  Sister 7 was an American rock band from Austin, Texas.Singer Patrice Pike met guitarist Wayne Sutton at a street festival in Dallas, Texas. After a brief stint in Austin, Sutton returned to Plano, Texas, where, in 1991, the two formed a band and began writing and rehearsing...
  
  
• Townes Van Zandt
  Townes Van Zandt
  John Townes Van Zandt , best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American Texas Country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet...
  
  

See also

• BNA Records
  BNA Records
  BNA Records, formerly known as BNA Entertainment, is a label group that shares ties with Arista Nashville and RCA Nashville from parent company Sony Music Nashville, which itself is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, BNA features country music acts on its roster...
  
  
• RCA Records Nashville
  RCA Records Nashville
  RCA Records Nashville is an American Country music record label based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is distributed by Sony Music Nashville which is part of Sony Music Entertainment. RCA Nashville recently took in some artists from Columbia Nashville which is being discontinued...
  
  
• Columbia Nashville
• Sony Music Nashville
  Sony Music Nashville
  Sony Music Nashville is the country music branch of Sony Music Entertainment based in Nashville, Tennessee. It comprises of RCA Records Nashville, Columbia Records Nashville, Arista Nashville and BNA Records...
  
  
• Arista Records
  Arista Records
  Arista was an American record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operated under the RCA Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records...
  
  

External links

• Official Website