While honky-tonk soap "Nashville" welcomes a number of new cast members for its second season, two characters are giving up their spots as series regulars. TVLine confirms that Powers Boothe, who plays Lamar Wyatt, Rayna's (Connie Britton) father, will not be returning as a series regular in the second season.
Robert Ray Wisdom, who plays Deacon's (Charles Esten) sponsor Coleman, will also not return as a series regular. Instead, both characters will appear on a recurring basis. Boothe will appear in the September 25 premiere.
Three recurring cast memebers will take their place as series regulars: Chris Carmack, who plays Will, Lennon Stella, who portrays Maddie, and Lennon's sister, Maisy, who plays Daphne.
A new executive music producer has also joined the primetime soap: Buddy Miller.
TVLine reports that Miller, a Grammy-winning record producer and songwriter, has been involved with the series since its beginning. When music legend T Bone Burnett decided to step down as music producer after the season one finale, Miller easily stepped in to take his place.
"After T Bone came in to executive-music-produce, I would produce the bulk of the songs with him," Miller told TVLine.
Miller said that he wants to retain the show's musical style. "The standard was set last year for using really great songs," Miller said. "We're trying to continue that."
Miller also said that some of last season's songs were written by some pretty big names in the music biz. "We haven't commissioned songs, but last year, I'd call up a lot of friends - I'd call up Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch and Patty Griffin, Sarah Buxton and Kate York," Miller said. "T Bone called up Elvis Costello - we just kind of called people we know who are great writers, and we'd get songs from them."
One of the most well known songs from the series thus far is Scarlett (Clare Bowen) and Gunnar's (Sam Palladio) duet of "If I Didn't Know Better." Miller admitted that he was nervous about the song at first.
"I was really concerned," Miller said. "It's a difficult song to sing. John Paul White from The Civil Wars wrote it, and he has a range that goes beyond my hearing. Especially for a guy, he sings really high. I was concerned because I thought, "Well, we've got these folks coming in and they're actors, they're not singers primarily, and this is a difficult song to sing."
"So I went to their hotel the day that they got in - I was there actually when they met - and found a room to go in, a little conference room," Miller continued. "I brought a guitar and sat down for a couple of minutes and they sang, and I was completely blown away. (...) So yeah, I knew it was something really special when it was happening. We were all - Callie and everybody that was in there while they were singing - getting goosebumps. We knew it was pretty special."
Miller shared that fans can be sure to see another Scarlett and Gunnar duet in the future. Miller also revealed that series newcomer Chaley Rose, who will play Scarlett's friend Zoe, has a "beautiful voice" that is "restrained, in a good way."
"Nashville" premieres on September 25 on ABC.