Built around songs, for more than sixty years
Warden Music was built around songs. More than six decades later, that remains the job: protect great copyrights, help songs find new audiences, and make room for the writers building what comes next.
From catalog to company, and back to catalog
Warden Music Company Inc. is established
Warden Music Company Inc. is founded in Nashville, Tennessee, registering as a BMI-affiliated publisher. Porter Wagoner was a founding member alongside Don Warden, though by the current owner's account it was Warden who actually ran the company day to day.
Early catalog development
The catalog's foundation includes compositions by Jimmy Driftwood — songs like Battle of New Orleans and Tennessee Stud — that would go on to be recorded across generations of country and folk artists.
A Nashville figure at the center of the company
Don Warden's career runs through the Grand Ole Opry era, the Porter Wagoner Trio, and five decades as Dolly Parton's manager — the person she publicly called her "Mr. Everything." His story is central to Warden Music's history — read the fuller account on the Don Warden page.
Read the Don Warden storyPorter Wagoner and the Opry-era publishing world
Warden Music's catalog and connections sit inside the working Nashville publishing and recording world of the era — songs moving between writers, artists and studios in the way the town has always operated.
Read the Porter Wagoner storyThe catalog lives on
Warden compositions continue to find new recordings and new audiences. Charley Crockett's recording of Heartbreak Affair is a recent example of a legacy Warden song being rediscovered by a modern artist.
The next generation
Warden Music is being rebuilt as an active independent publisher — one that represents new writers and new songs alongside the legacy catalog, with the goal of being larger and more active decades from now than it is today.
We are not replacing the past. We are building on it.