PANEL - Nashville in Action: Supporting Artists, Venues, and the Creative Community
Featuring leaders across advocacy, business strategy, and state-level development, this conversation highlights how Nashville-based organizations are working together to support creatives at every stage. Expect insights into collaboration, challenges, and the evolving needs of the city’s music community.
Featured Speakers:
Chris Cobb, President, Bonafide Live / President, NIVA TN / Founder, Music Venue Alliance Nashville / Co-Founder, D Tour
Chris Cobb’s parents knew at a young age he was destined to follow a path in music. As a child he could be found listening to his father’s vast record collection. Pink Floyd’s, A Momentary Lapse of Reason was one of his early favorites.
Fast forward.... it was no surprise when Chris decided to attend Belmont University and major in music business. Before finishing college, Chris was organizing and promoting concerts. Chris had found a viable path for doing what he loved most - live music. Talent buying, concert promotion and concert production became the staples of his early career in the music industry.
For over 20 years Chris has found a way to surround himself and others with live music. Whether he was hanging show posters with his first company, Golden Squid; or founding and operating the music venues, Marathon Music Works (Nashville), The Truman (Kansas City MO), and The Signal (Chattanooga). It has been with the same passion and excitement as the first time he heard that Pink Floyd album on his dad’s record player.
Chris currently books Nashville’s Live on the Green Music Festival, Chattanooga’s Riverbend Festival and promotes concerts independently in Nashville. He co-founded D Tour, which is reimagining touring, and continues to be a fierce advocate for the independent live music ecosystem by serving as President of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) South Central Chapter, and Music Venue Alliance Nashville.
Chris is still an avid concert goer however his favorite rock stars these days are his 14 year old son, Bob Dylan Cobb; wife, Telisha Cobb and rescued 70 pound black Lab, Nikki. Aside from music, Chris enjoys absolute silence in the woods and his 1974 VW Beetle.
Jimmy Wheeler, Director of Business Development, Tennessee Entertainment Commission
Jimmy Wheeler is a native Nashvillian and a seasoned veteran of the music industry. After attending the University of Tennessee, he began his music business career in Nashville as a field marketing representative for Sony Music. His work with the company took him to Atlanta and Minneapolis before returning home in 1995, where he continued building his career for the next several decades.
Over his 30-year tenure with Sony, Jimmy held roles in sales, marketing, radio promotion, and distribution. After leaving Sony in 2019, he spent two years in artist management before joining the Tennessee Entertainment Commission as Director of Business Development in April of 2023. Jimmy resides in Franklin, Tennessee with his wife, Molly. They have two grown children and five grandchildren.
Moderator:
Jamie Kent, Founder, Backstage Strategies and The BAM Group
Jamie Kent has emerged as a key voice fighting for independent venues and artists across Tennessee. As a triple threat artist, lobbyist, and founder of a communications agency, Kent's work has helped drive campaigns to pass multiple pieces of legislation at both the state and local level. Most recently, Kent helped lead the charge on legislation to establish Tennessee's Live Music Fund, on behalf of the National Independent Venue Association and Music Venue Alliance Nashville. He was also instrumental in creating the Metropolis Park & Play Program, a new public/private partnership that creates free parking for Nashville’s musicians. In 2024, his company also helped spearhead communications, creative, and coalition building for the Greater Nashville Music Census, which set a new national record for participation. In recent years, Kent also helped produce a Mayoral Forum for Arts & Entertainment in Nashville, and led a campaign of creatives working to eliminate smoking inside music venues, passing both statewide and local legislation to do so in Nashville.
Additionally, Kent serves as Policy Chair for the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville and Board Chair for Musicians for a Smokefree TN. He was recently named a ‘40 Under 40’ by Nashville Business Journal, dubbed one of Nashville’s ‘Most Fascinating People’ by Nashville Lifestyles Magazine, and graduated in class of 2025 for the esteemed Leadership Music program.
Prior to launching Backstage Strategies and The BAM Group, Kent spent years on the road as an independent artist sharing stages with Reba, Huey Lewis & The News, and The Doobie Bros. His songs have been heard across major network television, and his 2016 album All American Mutt, debuted at #16 on the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart.
