Round The Dial
Thursday 30 May @ 12:41:11 |
 by Tom Hallett
We wrap up our in-depth look at Texas/Cali-based indie label New West this week with some final comments from Senior VP/A&R guy Peter Jesperson, who will reveal the label’s fantastic latest signing and give us a few hints about other upcoming treats:
•Peter on the follow-up to Ohio singer/songwriter Tim Easton’s first New West release, The Truth About Us: “We started recording the next Tim Easton record, which is tentatively going to be called Black Hearted Ways, in February. The song by the same name is actually kind of a folk-rock song. He’s a great writer, and he did almost 200 shows last year. When he came home from the tour in November, it stunned me how much he had progressed. I just knew we were really gonna be in for it when we started the new record. We tried a couple of producer ideas that we just didn’t feel 100 percent about, so we decided that we were going to make the record—Tim, Cam, and I, and a great engineer. We hired John Hanlon, who’s worked with Neil Young. This is the first album I may actually have production credits on in a while, but hey, A&R is what I do, so I don’t need other credits. I’m extremely proud of my position.
“We went into the legendary Cherokee Studios right in Hollywood above Melrose Avenue, and we recorded with Jim Keltner playing drums, Hutch Hutchison, who’s from Bonnie Raitt’s band, on bass, and Jai Winding playing keyboards. And it was an amazing couple of weeks in the studio. I think we tracked 15 songs, and we’re finishing 11 or 12. We did a couple mixes with Don Smith. The melodies on this record are just %@!#$&ing amazing. Stuff that’s so insidious, that gets so under your skin, you find yourself whistling it driving down the street or humming it in the shower. It’s very original, and much poppier than TTAU. Hopefully, we’re going to get this one out in September.”
•On the follow-up to howling Texas amp-crunchers Slobberbone’s first New West release, 2000’s Everything You Thought Was Right Was Wrong Today: “Slobberbone just arrived in L.A., and we rolled tape on them last night for the first time on their new record, which we’re using Don Smith on and doing out at Rumbo, as well. They’re such great guys, fun to work with and great musicians. They love being on the road, and as a label, we couldn’t ask for more. At SXSW, they were the only artists we had who could follow up the Flatlanders—because they just tear it up—but Slobberbone can hold their own! I think they have a little bit of that old Suicide Commandos energy. Burn it down!”
•On blues/rock legend Delbert McClinton’s ongoing tour and the follow-up to his Grammy-winning album, Nothing Personal: “Delbert is still touring on that album, but he’s actually got most of a new record finished. We may get that released in the fall as well. What we’re looking at for releases towards the end of this year will possibly be Tim Easton, Slobberbone, and Delbert McClinton.”
•On Athens, Ga., singer/songwriter Randall Bramblett: “We just love his music. He used to play in a band called Sea Level. He’s done a lot of work with people like Steve Winwood and Roger Glover from Deep Purple. He’s also worked with Widespread Panic, and will be playing a bunch of dates with them this summer. He’s a little bit of a folk-y, jazzy, rock guy, a great vocalist and songwriter. We put one record out from him last summer called No More Mr. Lucky, and we’re just getting ready to release a single called “Get in Get Out” from that album. He’s got demos of new songs he’s going to send out to us, and he’s thinking of recording a new album in the next six months or so.”
•On Billy Joe Shaver, legendary country artist who, along with McClinton and the Flatlanders, provide NW with one of the most solid, respectable old-guard bases any indie label in the world could hope for: “Shaver’s on sabbatical right now. He lost his son a while back, and he had a heart attack in August and open heart surgery in February. He’s feeling better than ever now, but he’s still trying to figure out what he’s going to do. He’s still active, and came to our party at SXSW, and was excited to be there. When he saw me, he jumped up and gave me a hug and said, ‘Let me see a picture of your boy!’ So I showed him a picture of my little boy, and he just smiled and said, ‘There’s the new boss!’ I thought that was so cool.”
•And finally, Peter on New West’s magnificent new signing (drum roll, please): “When I first came to NW, Cam [Strang] said to me, ‘we should put together a wish list of people you’d like to work with.’ And I said, ‘I’d be happy to do that, but my number one choice, I’ll tell you right now, is Vic Chesnutt!’ I’ve wanted to work with Vic for 11 years, ever since I heard his first album. Basically, both Vic and I have wanted to work together for a long time, and we were never in the right place. I think we finally are. Cam and I had gone down to Athens and met with him a couple times and made an offer, and in January, he sent an e-mail saying, ‘I’d like to do a deal with New West.’ It was kind of a big week for me, it was the week our baby, Autry, was born, and I found out I was gonna sign Vic Chesnutt! It was one of the greatest weeks of my life, a real blessing. There are some details I can’t give you yet about the making of the record, but I will say we’ve got some really heavy-duty people involved.
“We actually started last Friday, and went to Sunset Sound and recorded three songs with Vic and some of the best musicians I’ve ever been in a room with. It was quite remarkable. You hope to capture a little lightning in a bottle when you go in the studio, and I think we did on Friday. We recorded in the studio where the Doors made all their records. There’s Vic singing in the isolation booth where Jim Morrison cut the vocals for “Light My Fire”—this place has tons of vibes—the Stones did parts of Exile on Main Street and Beggar’s Banquet there, and Led Zeppelin cut the song “Whole Lotta Love” there! It was pretty intense, but Vic really rose to the occasion. I would guess we’ll have that record out in January of 2003, and there’ll be some serious touring then. He’s leaving for London tomorrow to play the %@!#$&ing Royal Albert Hall! He’s just fantastic!
“New West is really a lot bigger team than just Cam and I. We’ve got Jon Gomez here in L.A., he’s our office manager and handles manufacturing. We’ve got four people in the Texas office; Jay Woods is Senior VP/General Manager, and is the marketing wiz. Michael Herst oversees retail and distribution, Lucas Van Lenten handles the Web site, among other things, and Clare Surgeson is the office assistant/tour coordinator. Our radio is taken care of by a highly respected industry veteran based in Atlanta named Jeff Cook. And we mustn’t forget Cameron’s partner in the label, advisor and all ‘round music nut, George Fontaine. Publicity is all done by Mark Pucci Media. Plus we have unquestionably the best distributor in the country, R.E.D.—they’re great, and they really love what we’re doing. We couldn’t do any of this without each and every one of those people. You know, I’ve never worked so hard in my life, and I love it. We just put out Delbert McClinton’s 27th album! We made a lot of promises to Delbert, and we heard that he told somebody, ‘You know what, everything New West told me they were going to do, they did.’ And you just can’t get a higher compliment than that. Everyday, I come in here and I just love it!”
That wraps up our look at New West Records’ latest releases and signings. In the next few installments of this series, we’ll check out Polara axeman Ed Ackerson’s stellar local indie label, Susstones, and Jack Logan and Kelly Keniepp’s Georgia-based indie label, Backburner Records. Until next time—make yer own damn news.
If you have local news/gigs/events that you’d like to see listed in this column, or you’d just like to jabber with your fingers about bomp a bomp, a wop bop a lula, or a wop bam boom, send replies to: TMygunn777@aol.com.
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