Joan of Arc Music is built to champion the creative and financial rights of music creators and storytellers; offering artist development, label services, publishing, management, TV and film production, and next generation technologies.
Honoring the roots of storytelling.
We’re not here to follow trends and classic industry models. We’re here to rebuild what matters. Joan of Arc Music is rooted in a different philosophy, one that puts people, community and passion first. Take a closer look at what sets us apart.
Cindy Mabe has spent her career elevating artists, expanding the reach of Nashville’s biggest labels, and breaking new ground at every level of the industry. Few executives have had as great an impact on country music. Now, she brings that same passion and expertise to her own venture. Explore her story to learn more about the experience and roots that lead her to Joan of Arc Music.
Every story has its beginning. Learn what inspired the creation and vision of Joan of Arc Music.
As far back as I can remember, I have felt the presence of country music in my life. An invisible spiritual force; it could speak directly to my soul the same way a Bible verse or a hymn would. When I was a kid, my dad had an old reel-to-reel recorder that he got in Vietnam, and he played reels of Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard on it. There behind his closed door, I could feel the music speaking to and healing him after serving in the war.
I was 5. Even before I knew what they were singing about, I recognized the way music changes people, helps them. Born on generational land in a small town in the middle of North Carolina, it was my parents, brother and sister with my grandparents, uncles and aunts all living on miles of tobacco fields, farmland and what we called “the wild woods,” where we could run free. We didn’t have a lot of money or opportunities, but that was the perfect place to understand who I really am.
As kids, we had chores, and I’d always offer to clean the kitchen because that’s where the radio was. That radio was how I met The Judds, Alabama, Dolly, Randy Travis, Reba and the Georges, Jones and Strait. Their songs spoke of the life I was living, the places I went. They saw me.
It wasn’t until the University of North Carolina where I realized country music had been calling to me. I didn’t play an instrument, sing, or write, but I knew I was meant to work with this force of life and truth. In 1993, I left my family and everyone I knew, and I moved to Nashville, where the stories happened.
Immediately, it felt like home. The ‘90s were the boom of modern country. The city was electric. Outside of my parents, the community of country music that had raised me through songs now nurtured the woman I was becoming. Heads of labels, superstar artists and peers who championed me let me ask questions and they would introduce me to the next person who would help me. They gave me a real foundation to learn from, teaching me the business, the art form, its roots and the reasons to carry that history forward.
And those people continued to pour into me, always making me a better human and advocate for country music. What I believed, they reinforced: it’s not chart share or position, not cold hard facts, but how lives shift when the music speaks truth to their experience, honors their triumphs and balms their hurts.
For those like me, who know Barbara Mandrell’s “I Was Country (When Country Wasn’t Cool),” they know that this music is a cyclical genre, but consistently, absolutely a piece of American culture. The fans, like the little girl I was in the kitchen, know it too, and don’t care about what’s hot in a moment. This is a deeper connection. It’s multi-generational. Country music links to the past, present and future to continue to reflect the lifestyle, culture, stories and songs that have come before and set the bar.
It is in how it connects that the next generation will be drawn to Nashville and to country music. They will dig into the richness of this music and inspire the people who hear their music.
Cindy Mabe is one of Music Row’s most respected music executives and distinguished marketers. A trailblazer throughout her career, she became Nashville’s highest ranking woman label executive when she was appointed UMGN President in 2014. She made history again in 2023 by becoming the first woman to serve as Chair & CEO of a Nashville-based major label group. During her tenure at UMG Nashville, the label group which included Capitol Records Nashville, EMI Records Nashville, MCA Nashville, and Mercury Nashville, Mabe helped guide and grow the careers of some of country music’s biggest stars including Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Jordan Davis, Mickey Guyton, Sam Hunt, Alan Jackson, Parker McCollum, Reba McEntire, Kacey Musgraves, Jon Pardi, Chris Stapleton, George Strait, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Brothers Osborne, and Little Big Town, among countless others.
Also, during her tenure at UMGN, Mabe launched a new comedy-centered imprint in 2023, Capitol Comedy Nashville, with Grammy-recognized flagship comedian Nate Bargatze. That same year, Mabe unveiled Silver Wings Records, a distribution and independent artist services arm of the label group, and Sing Me Back Home Productions, a TV and Film production company. Sing Me Back Home executive produced the NBC special Toby Keith American Icon which was the highest rated live special on NBC for 2024.
Mabe joined UMGN in 2012 as Senior Vice President, Marketing responsible for leading marketing across Capitol Records Nashville, EMI Records Nashville, MCA Nashville, and Mercury Nashville and UMG Nashville’s expanded suite of country labels following its acquisition of EMI. Prior to that, Mabe spent five years at Capitol Records Nashville, where she held the position of SVP, Marketing and played an integral role in the long-term creative and commercial success of the label that saw it named Billboard magazine’s “Country Label of the Year” consecutively for seven years from 2005 – 2012.
A North Carolina native, Mabe attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated from Belmont University in Nashville with a B.S. in Business Administration. She began her music career as promotions coordinator at RCA Nashville, before shifting to sales and then artist marketing and development, during which time she worked with artists including Clint Black, Martina McBride, and Alabama. She later served as Senior Director, Marketing and Artist Development at Arista Records Nashville from 1999-2007 working with the likes of Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Brooks & Dunn, and Diamond Rio before joining Capitol Records Nashville in 2007.
Mabe’s dedication and tremendous work for her artists and her countless contributions to the music community have earned the industry leader multiple awards and honors including the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum Award, the SOURCE Hall of Fame Award, and recognition by Save The Music Foundation. Mabe was named as one of Billboard’s Women in Music 2015-2024 and landed on Billboard’s Country Power Players list every year since its inception in 2015 including earning 2019’s Billboard Country Power Players Executive of the Year. Mabe also serves on the Country Music Hall of Fame board. Mabe is also the recent recipient of “The First Responders Children’s Foundation Corporate Hero Award.” Her ongoing commitment to philanthropic leadership led to the creation of the Joan of Arc Music Preservation Foundation, dedicated to protecting the timeless legacy of Country music while championing its continued evolution. Defining JOA’s ethos from day one, every project across its ecosystem supports the Foundation through charitable initiatives that benefit the Country music community.
