NASHVILLE — Veteran acts BlackHawk, Lee Roy Parnell and cult favorite BR5-49 are among the casualties of Arista/Nashville's demise as a free-standing record label.

They and highly regarded newcomer Clint Daniels will be dropped from the roster when Arista/Nashville becomes an imprint of BMG's RCA Label Group Nashville (which includes the RCA and BNA labels) on July 1.

"I suppose this is the way of the new world, but we are dealing with the cards we were dealt," John Peets of BlackHawk's management said. "We have had foreknowledge for a while, and we have been working on the creative process."

BR5-49, whose hits include "18 Wheels" (RealAudio excerpt), was signed to the label with great fanfare in 1995 after attracting an industry groundswell from playing packed shows nightly at a downtown honky-tonk.

Arista/Austin has also been dissolved, leaving Texas troubadours Robert Earl Keen and Radney Foster without a label home as well.

Artists who survived the cut and will remain are Diamond Rio, Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, rising star Brad Paisley, Shannon Brown, singer/songwriter Phil Vassar, Pam Tillis and newcomer Carolyn Dawn Johnson.

Diamond Rio's Aug. 22 release, Stuff, will be the first album under the new umbrella. Paisley is recording a sophomore effort to be released next summer, and Tillis is finishing work on her next record.

With these changes, the RCA Label Group — now comprising RCA, BNA and Arista — boasts a hefty 23 solo artists and groups including RCA flagship act Alabama as well as Lonestar, Clint Black, Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney and Andy Griggs. RCA and BNA had already thinned out their rosters in recent months, parting ways with Jim Lauderdale, Lorrie Morgan and Jason Sellers — the latter just prior to the release of his sophomore album, which RCA issued but is not promoting.

Arista/Nashville President Tim Dubois resigned earlier this year to head the publishing and label group of Nashville's Gaylord Entertainment. He has talked about launching new country and pop labels for Gaylord later this year.

Arista/Nashville Vice President/General Manager Mike Dungan has also left and has been in talks with EMI about the possibility of replacing Pat Quigley as the head of Capitol Nashville. Quigley, who came to Nashville at Garth Brooks' behest from EMI's marketing side, has said he is talking with the company about assuming a national marketing post with EMI. Capitol Nashville's roster includes Brooks, Steve Wariner, Deana Carter and Keith Urban.

Fifteen of the 40 Arista staffers will make the transition to the RCA Label Group, and seven new employees will be hired.

RLG chairman Joe Galante was traveling and had no comment, but he has said frequently during the past few months, as the label merger loomed, that artists were expected to pull their weight commercially at the label.