News

March 15, 2024
Faren Rachels releases Demo Jail project with three new songs
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March 15, 2024
New Music Friday: Ben Rector & Hailey Whitters and more
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March 14, 2024
Kolby Cooper at 2024 CMA Fest Chevy Vibes Stage
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March 14, 2024
Payton Smith at 2024 CMA Fest Reverb Stage
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Discography

Writers

Blair Daly

Brett James

Drew Ramsy

Gordie Sampson

Kelly Archer

Ken Johnson

Kings of Leon

Michael Logen

Neil Mason

Sam & Ruby

Sainte

Paul Moak

Mickey Jack Cones

Joshua Singleton

Luke Foley

Ashley Gorley

Zach Crowell

Jerry Flowers

Anthony Olympia

Johnny McGuire

Matt Jenkins

Native Run

Bobby Huff

Jordan Walker

Staff

Chris Farren 

President / Songwriter / Producer

Songwriter/Producer Farren founded Combustion in 2001 as creative home to aspiring songwriters and artists of all genres. A two time Grammy nominated producer, CMA Award winning producer and 11 time ASCAP awards winning songwriter, Farren started an independent publishing company with a bunch of young unproven writers and no catalog, and together with his team steadily built up a catalog of hit songs that included Grammy winning  “Jesus Take the Wheel”, and signing the hit band Kings of Leon, and songwriter of the year Ashley Gorley. Farren is currently producing Jameson Rodgers for Sony Music Nashville / River House Artists. He continues to guide the creative direction and day-to-day operations of Combustion and is a board member of the ACMs, Lifting Lives and NARAS.

Chris "Falcon"
Van Belkom

Vice President

Following graduation from MTSU, Van Belkom joined Combustion in 2004 and works closely with the songwriting staff strategically managing co-writing schedules and exploiting the song catalog. As a music lover and enthusiastic supporter of the Nashville music community, Van Belkom sits on the boards of AIMP Nashville and Musicians On Call and is also a member of NARAS and The Crew Nashville.

Kelly Lyons began her career in Nashville upon graduation from Northeastern University’s MS Music Industry program. An avid music fan with a passion for the lyrics of a song, Lyons maintains the company’s catalog, handles office operations, label services and junior creative efforts.  Since joining the Combustion Music team, Kelly has been instrumental in planning the annual Hope Town Music Festival. She is a member of the Women’s Music Business Association, The Crew Nashville and Musicians On Call and enjoys participating in industry events, such as the Music Row Ladies Golf Tournament.

Blake Duncan

Director of Creative & A&R

Blake Duncan joined Combustion Music in 2021. He will assist in all things creative and help oversee Combustion’s writer and artist roster which includes Jameson Rodgers, Matthew West, Kolby Cooper and others. Blake is also part of the team of YNOT Wednesday Songwriter Spotlight, that showcases Nashville artist and songwriters.

About

Plain and simple…we help build hit songwriters. Combustion Music opened its doors in 2001 with the mission of providing a closely knit creative environment for up and coming songwriters to flourish and ultimately maximize the value of their copyrights. Twenty years and over 75 #1 hits later, we continue to follow that very same path. There is no science to art, however at Combustion, carefully nurtured and focused creative support combined with raw talent, can lead to some extremely positive results. The consistency in our staff, the longevity of our writer relationships, and the agility to adapt quickly to an ever-changing music business environment, has led, over these 20 years, to some very solid results. We pride ourselves on that consistency and longevity, as evidenced by a 17-year relationship with six-time country Songwriter of the Year, Ashley Gorley, and a 12-year run with five-time Christian Songwriter of the Year, Matthew West. Again and again, our songs and catalogs hold up over time as evidenced by our consistent growth and return, and our writers’ loyalty. Nashville is clearly at the center of country music, and while our catalog contains works from many genres, at our core we are a country music company. We work out of a house on Music Row built in the 1930’s, where music is coming out of every room….songwriters working on new compositions, and creatives listening and trying to find a suitable home for the latest demos. Music is everywhere. Nashville is a hot city, and country music is an even hotter genre…country is cool, and youthful and vibrant and playing and growing in every corner of the globe. Combustion Music stands at the forefront of companies strategically prepared to continue to capitalize on this worldwide growth.