Mark Montgomery

09/11/2026

Gratitude for Remy, a great dog. A guardian. A troublemaker. A comfort. A present being. A trusted companion. A force. A protector. A teacher. A muse. A big brother. Unconditional love embodied. A man in a dog suit. A confidant. A rock. Rest well old man, your work here is done. ❤️🐶

09/09/2026

06/03/2026

life. moves. forward.

05/19/2026

The final installment of this year's AMIR spring semester is in and it's a doozy! Mike Dungan is a legend in this business. Read on!

Before algorithms, there were people like Mike Dungan.

People who trusted taste.

People who broke records by sheer force of belief.

People who built careers on reputation and instinct instead of dashboards and data.

This one is less about nostalgia than it is about what gets lost when art becomes volume.

New AMIR story: The Last Record Man.

Mike Dungan spent forty years inside the highest levels of the music business, trusting instinct over consensus and watching the entire system reinvent itself in real time.

05/12/2026

Hot off the A Minor in Reality presses! Bart Herbison never planned to become one of the most influential advocates for songwriters in America. A kid from Cottage Grove, Tennessee who started in local radio ended up spending three decades fighting in Washington to change how creators get paid. This is the story of persistence, policy, and the quiet battles most people never see behind the music business.

How persistence—not power—reshaped the economics of songwriting.

04/21/2026

One of my fav's of all time, Beth Nielsen Chapman never chased the industry. She followed the work. From a childhood in constant motion to writing through grief and helping others find their voice, her career is built on one thing: staying close to the truth inside the song. From your friends A Minor in Reality!

Loss, movement, and a lifetime of listening shaped Beth Nielsen Chapman’s quiet, enduring career...

04/14/2026

Hot off the A Minor in Reality presses! He had number one hits. Then he walked away from songwriting. Not because he had to—but because he understood the long game. John Ozier’s story is about discipline, timing, and knowing when to trade what you love for what lasts.

He built a career where creativity meets capital—and refused to choose between them.

04/07/2026

Rejected. Re-routed. Reinvented. From political ads to C-SPAN to running the CMA, Sarah Trahern built a career the same way she leads—by understanding the system, betting on people, and moving when it’s time. The path wasn’t clean. That’s the point.

Sarah Trahern is one of my favorite people, so much wisdom, and - our feature this week on A Minor in Reality!

A career built in motion—how instinct, timing, and relationships shaped the leader behind the CMA