Marcus K. Dowling Launches New Music Industry Podcast
After winning Academy of Country Music, Country Music Association, and International Country Music Association Awards over the past five years, renowned veteran music journalist Marcus K. Dowling has announced his latest venture, a new weekly music industry podcast titled Culture At Large.
Recorded live at Nashville’s Anzie Blue, the podcast debuts on Monday, October 13 and is the first of many exciting initiatives he’s prepared to launch.
The 30-minute podcast taping’s premiere is FREE to attend. Doors at Hillsboro Village’s Anzie Blue (2111 Belcourt Ave, Suite 101, Nashville, TN 37212) at 6:30 p.m. The podcast recording starts at 7:15 p.m.
RSVP information is available via https://cultureatlarge1anzieblue.eventbrite.com.
His first guests are Grammy-nominated, award-winning, and chart-topping songwriters Laura Veltz and Ben Johnson. They will discuss how the No. 1 songs they have co-written influence culture beyond genres.
Over the past five years, Johnson and Veltz’s songs have been streamed approximately five billion times.
Veltz had a hand in penning Dan + Shay’s “Speechless,” Maren Morris’ “The Bones,” and 11 cuts from Alabama-born pop breakout star Jessie Murph’s 2025 album Sex Hysteria. Johnson’s best known for co-crafting HARDY’s “TRUCK BED,” Jelly Roll’s “Liar,” and No. 1 country and pop hits, including BigXthaPlug and Bailey Zimmerman’s “All The Way.”
Dig deeper, and Johnson is currently one of a dozen songwriters featured on “Hitmakers,” a July-released Netflix docu-series where songs are written worldwide for superstars John Legend, Shaboozey, Usher, and K-pop favorite Lisa.
Regarding Veltz, her songwriting work was released across various genres, including Christian, country, pop, and rap, in 2025. Plus, she landed the song “You’ll Be Okay Kid” on the soundtrack of the Demi Lovato documentary “Child Star.”
About Marcus K. Dowling:
Renowned as The Tennessean’s Nashville Country Music Reporter (part of the USA Today Network) from 2021 to 2025, Marcus K. Dowling was a member of the 2025 class of Leadership Music, an Academy of Country Music-honored 2023 Country Music Association Media Achievement Award winner, the 2021 recipient of the Rolling Stone Chet Flippo Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism, plus the recipient of the 2022 Best of Gannett and National Headliner Awards.
As well, over the past two decades, he has also won global honors as a dance music, food, hip-hop journalist, and more, with his work being lauded by The Bitter Southerner, National Association of Black Journalists and Southern Foodways Alliance, plus appearing in Billboard, Rolling Stone, NPR, Vice, The FADER, VIBE, Complex, Mixmag, Bandcamp, CMT, No Depression, and more. Moreover, he has been quoted by or made appearances for the A&E Networks, Associated Press, CBS, ESPN, Hulu, NBC, The New York Times, NPR, PBS, Tribeca Film Festival, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
