In a long-anticipated shake-up, the Arista Nashville label will be folded into BMG Entertainment's RCA Label Group-Nashville on July 1. The move puts about two dozen Arista Nashville employees out of work and leaves seven of the label's acts--BR5-49, Lee Roy Parnell, Robert Earl Keen, BlackHawk, Jeff Black, Clint Daniels and Bering Strait--without a label.

Former Arista Nashville artists Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Brad Paisley, Diamond Rio, Pam Tillis, Phil Vassar, Shannon Brown and Carolyn Dawn Johnson will move to the RLG roster. About 15 former Arista Nashville employees will join RLG.

According to a statement issued by RLG, the reorganization gives RLG's roster--which also encompasses sister labels RCA and BNA--a total of 23 artists. RLG is overseen by company chairman Joe Galante.

Singer-songwriters Robert Earl Keen and Jeff Black were on the now-extinct Arista Austin label, which specialized in alternative country music. According to the Nashville Tennessean, Clint Daniels recorded one album for Arista Nashville, which was never released.

Arista Nashville became a likely consolidation target after company president Tim DuBois--who had headed the company since its 1989 inception--announced last December his plans to leave the company to launch a new label for Gaylord Entertainment. (Around the same time, the battle that eventually led to the replacement of Arista founder Clive Davis with Antonio "LA" Reid was heating up.)