Manitoba Music
Meet the Mentors: Jason McCoy, Jill Snell, Karen Kosowski, Marghie Evans, Rebecca Szymkow
We're teaming up with our friends at Manitoba Country Music Association for a day of connecting and learning for the country music community. On November 9, the Manitoba Country Music Meeting will cover the topic of Live Performance Strategies and discussing the narrative between the DIY Artist vs. The Team, including tips, advice, and real examples from industry professionals operating in various roles within country music.
As a 25 year veteran of the entertainment industry, and two time CCMA Male Vocalist of the Year, Jason McCoy appears to be the king of reinvention. Growing up in the small town of Minesing Ontario, Jason admired the well-rounded artistry of classic entertainers Roger Miller, Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell. Jason set out at the age of 19 to follow his own path to stardom , racking up multiple CCMA and CMA awards along with a Gold album and CMA Global Artist Award (Nashville CMA). As creator and front man of the best selling band in Canadian country music history, The Road Hammers, Jason took on the country rock genre and guided the band to unprecedented success throughout Canada and the United States.
Jill Snell spent the first 15 years of her music career working for multi-nationals (Island, A&M, BMG) and then moved into the indie phase of her career co-founding The Orange Record Label followed by her own companies Angeline Entertainment which morphed into Road Angel Entertainment in 2008 and the new Jayward Artist Group in 2019 in partnership with Tebey and through The Orchard and Sony Music. Throughout her career Jill has worked in multiple genres of music from hip hop and pop to singer/songwriter to rock specializing in both international and artist development (with a specialty in country music) for dozens of Canadian artists (including Avril Lavigne, Prairie Oyster, Michelle Wright, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Paul Brandt, Dean Brody and many more). On the management side, Jill manages country artist Tebey and Quebec-based newcomer Matt Lang. Jill served for more than a decade on the CCMA Board of Directors and has chaired various CARAS/JUNO Music Advisory committees for almost 20 years.
Karen Kosowski is a versatile writer/producer based in Nashville. She recently celebrated her first #1 song in Canada with Tim Hicks’ “What A Song Should Do”, and her first Canadian Gold certification for Brett Kissel’s Top 10 single “Anthem”. She produced and wrote Mickey Guyton’s “Hold On” for the movie “Breakthrough” and her catalogue features an array of Top 10 and 20 singles in both pop and country radio formats, a Canadian Billboard AC Top 5, and a US Top 40. Her varied influences, formal musical training, traditional songwriting background, multi-instrumentalist abilities, and two decades of producing, programming and engineering skills make her a virtual swiss army knife in both the writing room and recording studio.
An expert in the rights clearance field, especially for audio-visual and new media and experienced music publishing executive, Marghie Evans is partner at Do Write Music in Nashville. She sits on the boards of Leadership Music and the Copyright Society of the South and consults with Fair Trade Music International. Do Write Music has been in business for over 10 years, and represents various songwriters including Janis Ian, Delbert McClinton, Robin Zander (Cheap Trick), Victoria Shaw, Bobby Pinson, Old Crow Medicine Show and Matthan Minster (Cage the Elephant). Their catalogue includes hits for Toby Keith, Trace Adkins, Blake Shelton, and Christina Aguilera. Do Write Music was winner of 2018 Music Row song of the year “Most People Are Good”, recorded by Luke Bryant on behalf of their client, songwriter Ed Hill.
Rebecca Szymkow is an agent at Paquin Artists Agency. Rebecca combined her Arts and Cultural Management background with her passion of live music into a burgeoning career. Having been with the company for over five years, Rebecca specializes in artist development for the agency, and has begun building her career as an agent with artists including Mariel Buckley, Bad Animal, Little Miss Higgins, and Sebastian Gaskin. Paquin Artists Agency has a diverse roster of over 200+ renowned artists spanning across all genres.