Curb Records sues Tim McGraw -- again

Curb Records is making a federal case out of its beef with country star Tim McGraw, moving its 2-year-old complaint in state court in Tennessee to the federal level in arguing that he breached his contract with Curb and signing in 2011 with Big Machine Records.

Curb’s suit alleges copyright infringement and breach of contract, Billboard reports. The case began in 2011 with a disagreement between McGraw and Curb over his album “Emotional Traffic,” which he said completed his contractual commitment to Curb, the label for whom he’d recorded for the previous 20 years.

A Big Machine spokesman said Tuesday that the label would have no comment on the latest development in the court action.

Curb argued that some of the recordings included on “Emotional Traffic” were recorded too early to meet the terms of his contract regarding new material. McGraw countered that the label had intentionally delayed release of the album to keep him under contract.

State rulings in Tennessee prevented Curb from obtaining an injunction against McGraw moving to another label, which cleared the way for him to sign with Big Machine, the label that’s also home to Taylor Swift and which released McGraw’s “Two Lanes of Freedom” album in February.

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