Arthur Buenahora

ole Senior Creative Director Arthur Buenahora, who joined the company just a little more than a month ago, sounds like he's revving the engine and ready to roll. "I'm bringing in two writers that I'm excited about that we're going to get some paperwork done on soon. In the meantime, I'm just trying to jump into the catalog and learn about as many of the songs as I can. I've been on the other side of the desk for a while so I'm just reaching back out and getting to say hello to a lot of people that I used to play songs for. It's been fun reconnecting with them."

As Senior Creative Director Arthur's responsibilities include plugging ole's current and catalog repertoire, arranging collaborations for writers, identifying new acquisition and writer signing opportunities, as well as the development of new and upcoming talent. He's noted for not letting the grass grow under his feet.

Upon graduating from the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Communications in 1997, he headed for Music Row where he became "the night-time tape room guy" at Sony/ATV Tree. After just a couple of months, he was restless for a new challenge. "I just asked our boss Donna Hilley if she cared if I pitched the old songs. She said okay. She wasn't going to say no to anyone going out to try and exploit the catalog. She said, ‘Knock yourself out kid!' I got myself a cell phone and sort of pretended like I was a song plugger. I got kind of busy. I started getting a lot of meetings and getting songs on hold."

Actually, Arthur's being modest. He did so well, he soon joined the creative team full time and became an effective song plugger and music publisher, placing over one hundred songs over five years, resulting in ten number one singles, while developing some of country music's most promising newcomers including Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, Eric Church and a 14-year-old singer/songwriter by the name of Taylor Swift whose ole-powered Fearless album just received recognition as the most awarded country album of all time. He joined Capitol Records Nashville in 2005 as Senior Director of A&R and then became VP of A&R at Universal Records South in 2008 before joining ole last month.

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