DAR WILLIAMS SIGNS RECORD DEAL: BURNING FIELD MUSIC/RAZOR & TIE
Originally posted to: rec.music.folk December 30, 1994
Just a note to announce that on December 28 Dar Williams signed a recording
deal with independent New York label Razor &Tie. You heard it here
first!
Although major labels had been expressing interest in Dar, it was our
feeling that the world of the majors is a slippery slope indeed, and that
we would rather work with a small company and try to produce works of quality
than work with a giant corporation and try to have a hit.
Razor & Tie is owned by two guys in their early 30's, Craig Balsam and
Cliff Chenfeld, and is distributed in North America by Koch (who also distribute
High Tone, Red House, Bar None and Shanachie, among others). It currently
has a staff of about a dozen people, (their publicist, Marc Fenton, is on-line
at razrntie@aol.com) Craig & Cliff were corporate types who hated
being drones, and pooled their savings so they could start a label together
(they named it after the two bits of corporate culture they despised the
most). It started as a reissue label - with deathless classics like "The
Partridge Family Album" and compilations like "Those Funky '70's."
Not great art, but reissues provide a solid financial underpinning for running
a business! From that, they branched out to offering catalog works
by great, underrated singer/songwriters like Willie Nile, Elliott Murphy
and Jules Shear. Now they're home to Marshall Crenshaw, Graham Parker
(his new one will be the only other "new release" from the label this Spring)
and the Bottom Line's "In Their Own Words" series (the last one had people
like Richard Thompson, Lucinda Williams, Luka Bloom and Shawn Colvin...)
They truly "got" what Dar is trying to do, and the philosophical way
we want to try to do it. Dar gets to have her own label on their label.
We wanted a situation where Dar can make the records she wants to make.
We don't want to make $100,000 records - we want to make _good_ records.
In our deal, Dar maintains ownership, and has artistic control of the content
of her recordings. Razor & Tie's staff will work with Michaela
O'Brien, Dar's current publicist, on radio and publicity. Fleming/Tamulevich
will continue booking Dar exactly has she has been being booked.
Ani DiFranco has set an example for us all by remaining steadfastly
and completely independent. Andrew Calhoun's Waterbug (which has had
THE HONESTY ROOM for the last eight months or so) is providing an avenue
for independently recorded music of excellence to be heard by a wider audience.
And labels like Red House, Rounder, Flying Fish and Prime CD are all offering
good things to our community. These alternatives are a real inspiration
to what we've tried to do with Burning Field/Razor & Tie. The days
of promising singer/songwriters flocking like lemmings into the meatgrinder
of the big labels are - hopefully -coming to an end (I hope, I hope).
As Ani said, "The question is no longer 'why aren't you on a major label.'
It's 'why should you be on one?'"
Of course, this career path guarantees that Dar won't automatically
get into every chain store in the country. It'll be a struggle to ever
get her on Letterman or get a big ol' feature in Rolling Stone. That
world is owned, bought and paid for by the majors. Well, to hell with
them. What the culture of the major labels does to artists is, in balance,
destructive enough that we'd rather _earn_ whatever success we get, rather
than try to leapfrog having to pay our dues.
THE HONESTY ROOM is being issued on Razor & Tie/Burning Field February
21 (except in Philadelphia, where it has suddenly exploded -- they get it
sooner). There'll be a redesigned cover, and two new tracks, "Flinty
Kind of Woman" and "Arrival" (produced with Brooks Williams). Those
two cuts are new recordings of songs originally on Dar's "All My Heroes Are
Dead" cassette. David Seitz remixed "Alleluia" and "Traveling Again,"
adding a second guitar part by Mark Dann on both.
We're adding the two songs for the reason that Folk radio shows were
sent THE HONESTY ROOM close to a year ago, (though we've never officially
sent it to commercial radio). We'll be doing a big push to all radio
this spring, and we thought it would be nice to supply Dar's original radio
supporters with a couple of new tunes to tide them over until the new record
is ready (she's recording it this spring, for release in either early or
late fall of '95). People have asked for those songs, and Dar didn't
feel like they'd fit on a later record, so the decision was made to add them
to this one. And, anyway, a cd can accomodate up to 73 minutes of music,
so why not take advantage of the technology?
We hope everyone will run out and grab copies of the new one, but if
you're the owner of a first edition of THE HONESTY ROOM and feel like, hey,
I already coughed up enough money for this auditory experience that I shouldn't
have to fork over another 10 or 15 bucks, here's what to do. Mail me
(at Young/Hunter Mgt., PO Box 303, Chesterfield, MA 01012) the cover of your
first edition cd or cassette and a check for $7 (cd) or $5 (ctte).
That's the price we pay for copies plus a buck for postage. I'll punch
a hole in your first edition cover and send it and a copy of the new edition
to you. I don't want anybody feeling gouged.
Lastly, Dar really, really appreciates the support she's received from
the on-line community. And, as for me, I feel like I've made about
200 new friends in the last 6 months. Marc Fenton will be posting in
a couple of days to introduce himself and the label to everybody, too.
Please keep in touch with me as all this unfolds -- let me know how we can
make things better, let me know if stores don't have copies, if new singer/songwriter
shows crop up on the radio. Dar has a career, Carol and I have jobs,
and Razor & Tie has a new artist because of our common love for this
music. I'll continue to try to do my best to keep this community spirit
healthy and to help make a place for other new artists to make their mark.
You're all the greatest!
--Charlie Hunter (co-manager Dar Williams, Chris Smither, The Nields)