CMA Songwriters Series is coming to the U.K. and Ireland for the first time with special performances in February 2012 scheduled for London, Belfast, and Dublin, CMA Chief Executive Officer Steve Moore announced today. The international tour will be known as CMA & BMI Present the CMA Songwriter Series.

“The CMA Songwriter Series began in 2005 in New York and has expanded to cities across the United States including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, and Washington D.C.,” Moore said. “The popularity of our music overseas and the appreciation the audience in the U.K. has for our songwriters made this a good fit and an opportune time to travel the series abroad. And it is terrific to have BMI as a partner in this exciting initiative.”

The CMA Songwriters Series showcases the best of Nashville’s mega-hit songwriters and songwriter artists. The series features successful songwriters and artists from Nashville, who line up on stage and, with guitar in-hand, take turns telling the stories behind their hit songs and performing them in the raw as originally written.

Songwriters participating in the CMA & BMI Present the CMA Songwriter Series include Country Music Hall of Fame member Bill Anderson, former CMA Male Vocalist of the Year Clint Black, and host Bob DiPiero.

“I think it’s great,” Anderson said of the Series traveling to the U.K. and Ireland. “I’ve toured there several times as an artist, and have always been amazed at the fans’ depth of knowledge concerning Country Music. This will be my first time appearing as a writer. I have a feeling that I’ll find great interest in how the songs are created, as well as performed.”

Anderson, who has appeared at CMA Songwriter Series events in New York City, said he doesn’t plan on changing the winning formula of telling stories and singing songs.

Anderson admits that the musical connections between the U.S. and U.K. are closer than they appear – especially between the bluegrass roots of the format and traditional Celtic sounds.

“Put on a Bill Monroe record, close your eyes, and you can feel yourself being transported back to an earlier time in Ireland and Scotland,” he said. “Those folks dug the wells from which our music sprang.”

Black said it is a completely different experience for the audience to not only hear a hit song performed by the songwriter, but to also get the interesting or funny stories behind a song you know and love.

“It’s as close to sitting around with a bunch of songwriters as you can get without sitting around with a bunch of songwriters,” he said.

The CMA & BMI Present the CMA Songwriter Series in the U.K. and Ireland takes place Feb. 22-25. Details will be announced soon. For updates and information, visit www.CMAsongwriterseries.com.

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