Mailbag

Subject: Re: The Chase Rice Concert

So this is hard to type - I lost my dad to COVID, and I work in the music industry in Nashville.

I work with people from the management companies & booking agencies of Chase Rice & Chris Janson occasionally, but a huge portion of the people who I interact with daily also work with them regularly.

Please keep writing about this.
We've had a few artists speak out, but it's driving me crazy knowing that the folks who green-lit these shows aren't going to get called out by the industry here. And I have to work with all of them and pretend that that's ok.

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Subject: Benny Mardones

Bob,

I felt kicked in the stomach when I woke up to the Billboard Daily alert that Benny Mardones had died.

As an A&R guy, I signed Benny to his second deal (his first was "Thank God for Girls" at Private Stock), at Polygram, and then A&R-ed "Never Run, Never Hide" with "Into the Night."

Bill McGathy had just moved from Houston, where he had done local or regional promo for us, to take a National gig as head of Album Radio promotion in NYC. A great department that included Jerry Jaffee, Jim Del Balzo and Neil Lasher. Literally the day Bill arrived he walked into my office raving about Benny and arranged an audition for a few of us to come hear him at SIR. The audition was one of the times that an A&R guy always dreams of experiencing……an artist, a singer, pouring every drop of himself, pushing his less then stellar band to the absolute max of their talent. He stalked the stage, encouraged his band to give him more, he'd occasionally sit down at the piano….a few times he brought me to tears, and chills. On the spot I had to sign him to our label.

Making the record was not easy. We recorded in Miami with a gifted somewhat untested but meticulous producer-engineer Barry Mraz,(he had been mentored by Bruce Swedien, Quincy Jones' long time go-to engineer and had some early hits with Styx) tho not known for staying within budget or deadline. It took a long time.

I'd go to Miami every two weeks for six months of pre-production and recording…..I felt like Martin Sheen finding Brando in "Apocalypse" - reporting back to the home office on Mondays……assuring the financial guys that what we knew what we were doing, that this will pay off, just keep this going, we were almost there.

We knew we had a hit with "Into the Night" and a few other album radio tracks…..including an hilarious homage to Dick Clark.

I thought Benny would be as big a star as MeatLoaf, whose "Bat Out of Hell" had just been released. Obviously not quite the case (except in Syracuse). Very sad that he's gone.

Stu Fine

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Subject: Masks and Leadership

Hello Bob,

We have been stranded in Bangkok since March 1st. It has now been over 30 days with no locally transmitted infections (all current cases are Thais returning from abroad and they are in strict quarantine). Only 58 total deaths! As the virus developed the government turned to the medical experts. Yes, 3 months of lockdown and curfew were difficult but my home state of Massachusetts has close to 8000 deaths and over 100,000 cases. The population of Thailand is 10 times the size of Mass and Bangkok alone is larger than New York City.

When you enter any establishment you are thermo-scanned for fever and recently we phone scan a QR code for tracing. Sanitizer is abundant and social distancing markers are prevalent. Most importantly masks are required. The country will fully reopen on July 1st but we will still wear masks in public in spite of 0 infections. Thailand knows that the virus has been contained but not defeated. The operable phrase here: "We Care Together".

When we do return to Boston we plan to quarantine into the new year.

Survive well

Oedipus

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From: Daniel Roher
Subject: Thanks for your piece on my film about Robbie/The Band

Bob,

Daniel Roher here, director of Robbie Robertson's doc, Once Were Brothers. I really appreciated your thoughtful and nuanced take on my film. There was one particular sentiment, near the end, that really resonated: "...you're forced to ask yourself who you want to be. A friend of Robbie's wanted to own a bowling alley. You can't do everything in life, you're lucky if you can do one thing. What do you want to dedicate your time to?" The ability to envision life's potential is the great genius of Robbie Robertson, and it was the most significant lesson I learned while studying his life.

I was only 23 when I started working on this film, the same age Robbie was when he and the guys were in Woodstock working on their first album. I think that's part of the reason he chose me to direct his film. His perspicacity and forethought at the age of 15 allowed him to manifest a big extraordinary life for himself, and throughout the process of making the film, I found myself thinking about what I wanted to be, how I want to spend my time… I'm still trying to figure it out, but Robbie Robertson helped me ask the question.

Daniel

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From: tourswag
Subject: Re: Mailbag-Agents (and more!)

Guitar tech here

not all agents are even close the same

top: seen agents putting skirt on drum riser as the trucks were late

bottom: booked 1st 3 shows of tour 500 miles apart...in catering with crew asks, "so you guys fly to the next city? what do you do all day before the show"

not all tour mangers are the same- some don't know where the stage is
some control every aspect and are ready to jump in the truck when it goes bad ( Chris Littleton, Richard Glasgow) and still do all the staffing, budgeting and routing

same with record company, managers and...guitar techs

top tip: work with the good guys, the crap ones will out themselves

TS

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From: Matthew Walt
Subject: Re: No Two Agents Are Alike

Hello Bob. I love so many of the perspectives outlined in response to yours and Rod MacSween's missives, and none more so than Amanda Palmer's - love her! I think all are insightful, yet many of them are equal parts accurate (however conflicting) and short sighted.

From my view, it comes down to this: in an industry that refuses to draw lines let alone color between them, avoids establishing best practices, and favors the entrepreneurial/renegade spirit, roles and responsibilities are really all situational. It's about the combination of people, with complementary skill sets, working together in common cause, hustling their asses off (Hustle like you broke is my mentality), communicating effectively to approximate efficiency.

No two agents are alike. No two managers are the same. Neither are the TMs, PMs, RMs... Every team is different, just like every family. Is what it is.

My 1.5 cents. Best wishes!

MW

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From: Zach Falkow
Subject: Re: Agents

Hey Bob,

Been watching the whole back and forth on the necessity of agents, and I felt the need to throw one little observation into the mix.

I started as the dude in the band booking our shows and tours, and over the years I wound up being hired as an agent at a few middle agencies and just on my own for contract work. I've been able to land gigs at small clubs up to major US festivals, I've worked with Live Nation, AEG, Bowery, C3, countless indies, etc, and I can point to one truth I've discovered -

The only difference between the booking savvy guy in the band and an agent is an email domain.

I booked my indie pop act on the mainstage of the Preakness InFieldFest opening for Wiz Khalifa and Maroon 5 from this very gmail account. What matters is the tools, skills and connections. Tools like PollstarPro and CelebAccess and the weekly avails sheets can be passed down, skills for calculating optimal deal points/geographically sensible routing with minimal drive times/advancing/production knowledge can all be taught and learned by trial and error. And connections can absolutely be made and grown without an agent. Upon whom that responsibility falls is debatable - a manager who knows his shit, a TM who has been with the band and can easily step in, one of the guys in the band maybe. Once you learn the ins and outs of who the players are and how to get to them, it becomes a level playing field.

HOWEVER, the biggest caveat is that the agencies historically have and use the leverage of enormous acts to hold over the heads of promoters in order to sneak baby bands onto tours or festivals. The tried and true "we'll agree to x headliner for your festival or festivals and deal with your wildly aggressive radius clauses IF you put [insert unknown act here] on your 3rd stage at 2pm against a legacy hip hop act on the mainstage" move. Even if a 100% independent act were able to grow themselves to be worth 1000 tickets in every market, when they email Goldenvoice from a band account for a Coachella slot, it's them vs the heads of music at Paradigm, CAA and WME and their roster of 1000's of artists. There's no way in hell.

At the end of the day it's a game of leverage and nepotism more than it is skills in my opinion. In theory, yes, artists, TM's, managers could all learn how to route and book tours and do it completely independent of major agencies. But you're talking about dismantling a long-standing network of protocols and standard practices that, for better or worse, have dictated the live landscape for decades. Those other entities may eventually lack the bandwidth to take on live bookings, so the necessity for a dedicated party to do so is inevitable (though it could be a management company's touring dept instead of agents). Until we democratize all the information and necessary skills for all parties involved, and people other than agents step up and start taking the reins back, I don't see the status quo changing.

Zach Falkow

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From: George Gilbert
Subject: Re: Mailbag-Agents (and more!)

Bob:

Until someone creates an app that can effectively book an artist and help in career development, Agents are a necessary part of the equation who, when they are great, bring total value for the expense.

Agents used to be ahead of everyone except the most plugged in A&R in talent discovery and development but since the onset of the "metric era" most, if not all, like most of the business, are looking for a constantly moving goal-post indicator of self-development before making the commitment.

So unlike an earlier time when an agent might be involved before the label, the now inability to establish the deep ties and loyalties between the act and agent at an early stage of the artist's career is compromised by the fiscal realities of today's music industry.

As my good friend Steve Martin says "If every show made a profit I'd be a promoter"!!!

Understanding that harsh reality and having long-developed relationships with promoters is another key value component that a good agent brings to an artist (that and also not routing the tour so the drives between shows are not 800 miles a night)!!!!!

So until Artists are so self-empowered and confident enough to book themselves (no agent should lose any sleep of that happening anytime soon) the agent-artist dance continues - that is when the music starts playing live again and only the agent with the working crystal ball knows for sure when that will exactly happen (and if he had one, he'd just pick the next few powerballs and retire).

George Gilbert

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From: Alex Skolnick
Subject: Re: Country Masks

Hi Bob, Great post. Not sure if this retweet by Mr Frampton (who has reached out about my jazz guitar side - such an honor) may have helped inspire the "Wear a f**cking mask" riffing. Either way, you're right. The band I'm most known for may not be an arena/shed headliner but a consistent support act for many (including LOG, whom you mentioned) with fans who pay attention to what we say. That fact that not wearing a mask has become some bizarre badge of right wing honor is the height of idiocy, on par with "Freedom Fries." I can't keep quiet and I hope folks with much larger platforms will do likewise. If we can get just one person out there to listen to reason, not infect others around them and potentially save lives, then it's more than worth any blowback, unfollows or hate mail.

Best,
Alex Skolnick
Brooklyn

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From: Steve Palfreyman
Subject: Re: Stop With The Optimism!

Thanks for writing this. Where I live, in Melbourne Australia, my state is experiencing a second wave.

We went from a few daily confirmed cases to now over 100 a day for the last few days. The authorities and people and are panicking, and we're going back into lockdown in parts.

I read today that people are saying the USA is experiencing a second wave, with Dr Anthony Fauci dismissing this saying clearly it's still a first wave because cases never dropped enough.

It's fascinating to me to consider the only difference is perception, and as you say, how much of a risk people perceive the threat to be.

No different to perceiving the threat of cancer or climate change, our perspectives are always biased based on what we see and hear, and what we want to see and here.

In my state, these 100 cases a day is seen as a giant political failure.

No matter where any country is today, leaders are sworn in to protect the community and if deaths are occuring, it's on their hands.

Every death, is a death, regardless of the relative numbers that bias our perception of how bad things really are.

All countries need to stop playing a percentage games just because it suits them politically, and work towards a target of zero.

Somewhere along the way so many people seem to have forgotten that what's good for humanity, is also good for the economy.

Thanks, as always, for your words Bob.

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From: Joseph Weinstein
Subject: Re: Stop With The Optimism!

Yep, the colleges sure do need the cash! I was doing clinical hours at a university down in Reno for the past ten months... guess who closed before UNR? The casinos!!

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From: Elizabeth Dean
Subject: Chaos


Hey Bob -I'm about your age and graduated from Duke when you went to college to learn how to think. You couldn't major in computer science then, it was, and still is, a tool. Like majoring in the alphabet.
When they started graduating computer science majors I remember thinking, "God help us." And here we are.
Also, there isn't much science in computer science, just so you know, that's really a misnomer.
I worry that it's going to be like Oppenheimer over and over now, where these nerds are racing to build the next bomb and THEN realize what they have done.
Liz Dean

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From: David Mendel
Subject: Re: Lesbian TikTok

Hey Bob,
I work over at AWAL and last summer went over to Norway to shoot an episode of our series spaces on 'girl in red'.
Figured I'd share it with you. Feel like it really captures a lot of what you're referring to in your email.

https://youtu.be/tpxsn-90Fi8

Thanks,

David Mendel

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From: Laurence Zankowski
Subject: Re: Lesbian TikTok

You need to see "Girl in Red" and So grid on the Norwegian music theater . Open stage front and back/ use of scrims to hide and show performance to each side.
Sigrid's "Sucker Punch" is just as wild to the young fans as is Girl.
It is on YouTube. But you are late to the party. Found out about both thru a polish remix channel on YouTube.

Sigrid
https://youtu.be/3NMCz-svbn8

Girl in red/ nearly 2 years ago

https://youtu.be/R6JTyM7ZhG4

Be well
Laurence

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From: Art Fein
Subject: Re: Once Were Brothers

I caught on to R&R in Jan 1957. seeing Elvis on Ed Sullivan, his final appearance I later learned.
That die was cast very firmly.
Mom took me to a R&R show June 1957. Everlys, E Cochran, Chuck Berry others. Never looked back.
Six months later another show, but I skipped it. Not nearly as good, Bandstand had come, killing rock & roll.
(Just look at the January 1958 charts. Wait - the entirety of 1958.)
Hoping beyond reason (r&r was dead) I went to the December 1958 show.
Poni-tails, Anka, I don't fully recall, but alongside the dross was Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks.
Oh. My. Gosh. Hawks set up, Levon at the flame-decorated drums, Ronnie slinks in from the back.
Slowly, his arms rotating. Band is playing, he ducks over and gives Levon a kiss.
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS???
He sang "Ahmmm", the intro to his hit "Mary Lou."
Audience members like myself (disappointed, delirious rockers) leapt up.
He did the riff five times, then got into "Mary Lou."
He also, later, did "Red Hot."

So rock & roll did not die entirely with American Bandstand.
A few outsiders kept it going.

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Subject: Re: Stop With The Optimism!

Please keep me anonymous: but people are having concerts they are just low key about it enough to not get big press. I work in the music industry. I see it. Just this past weekend a nightclub had a large ticketed show in Cleveland. FWD Nightclub. The place was packed and no one had on a mask. Laidback Luke performed (a large national touring DJ)!

They have another national DJ act booked for this weekend too which I am told is sold out!

It's all on their Instagram page. Public knowledge.

Several other clubs in Ohio and other states continue to book and have shows. It's funny, the DJs have no posts about it besides obligatory promo posts pre-show. No videos or recaps because they know they will face heat. Same with the club. However they can't stop all the idiots in the crowd that still take videos. But make no mistake the shows are going down. I have videos from just a few days ago.

The club also had a daytime event which was as packed as their events last year, no difference, no masks, no separation, right in Cleveland Ohio.

Please keep me anonymous but I just feel like more people should know.

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Subject: Re: Workingman's Dead 50th

Bob,

A Dead Story:

After Keith Godchaux left the band in the 80's, I got a call from a friend in Boston who told me to rush on in, he was sitting around with Keith Godcheau.

Judy and I drove to South Boston where a guy with a gun answered the door and let us in. We sat up for the next 8 hours and heard Dead stories from Keith. Paradise!

Keith kept popping in and out of a bedroom. I knew nothing about heroin at the time.

In the morning we convinced Keith to come out to our studio in the country, 90 minutes from Boston, we had talked about forming a band with him and Donna and he wanted to see our grand piano. He was hesitant to leave the city for any length of time but we finally convinced him.

He came out, called Donna (I was crazy wild about the whole thing, me a young Deadhead, Donna...), stayed in the studio for part of the day and settled down when we went to sleep to stay up most of the night reading a book he found in the house, " The American Book of the Dead", a rough American version of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a guide for the afterlife.

Keith insisted on getting back to Boston first thing in the morning but he left that book half open on the pillow after he left. It was still like that when he died in a car accident 2 weeks later.

Best,

Jeffrey Bauman
Wendell, MA

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From: Stephen Cohen
Subject: Re: Workingman's Dead 50th

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the terrific post. I think you're right on target about the Dead and about the scene. I was 14 in 1969 when my older brother turned me on to the Dead. At that time their newest record was Anthem of the Sun. One day that June, just when Aoxomoxoa was released, my friends and I took the subway down to the Fillmore from the Bronx, where we lived, to see their early show. You could do that at 14 in those days; our parents had no idea what we were up to. The Dead were headlining, with Savoy Brown and Buddy Miles opening the show. The theater was so empty, the ushers asked us to move down to the front so it wouldn't look bad. There might have been 500 people there. They played a lot of material from Live Dead, which would be released a few months later. During the show, Jerry Garcia announced "Hey, we're giving a free concert in Central Park tomorrow," so of course I went and stood with 1000 or so hippies and Deadheads while they played in the bandshell. I saw my first hash pipe!

I followed them intently for a couple of years, as I developed into a musician myself, seeing them something like 25 times at the Fillmore, the Academy of Music, The Capitol in Port Chester (probably that show you're referencing), and other NY regional venues. I saw Pigpen countless times, and loved what he brought to the band. I saw them with Tom Constanten playing "prepared piano". They were sonic experimenters and they were wide-ranging music lovers. They covered songs like "The Green, Green Grass of Home" and "Dancing In the Streets". I was one of the kids who convinced our lefty, Jewish, hippie, summer camp to bring us to the Woodstock Festival. Yes, 100 or so of us went to Woodstock in yellow school buses, but they dragged us back after the first day, when the parents started flipping out and calling the camp. I didn't get to see the Dead at Woodstock, but I heard they were terrible. They could be terrible at times.

I loved Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, saw the New Riders open for them several times, saw the Allman Brothers open for them (third on the bill) at the Fillmore, and at 15 and 16 got turned on by them to country music and soul and blues and everything they covered. I am eternally grateful for that. I saw the Dead with the Allman Brothers and The Band at Watkins Glen - one of the best shows I've ever seen. But I started to get sick of the scene and stopped seeing them around 1974. It was music that interested me, not the antics of the audience and not hero worship of anyone, no matter how brilliantly Jerry and Phil could play. And I felt their playing and whole presentation had lost a lot of its verve. I was developing as a musician, playing lots of different material in lots of bands, and couldn't help but notice that almost none of the good musicians I played with had any interest in the Dead. That changed somewhat over the decades, but it was telling.

The Grateful Dead were important to me and helped me develop as a musician, but although I listen to them a bit now and then, I moved on a long, long time ago.

- Steve Cohen

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From: Jason Miles
Subject: Re: Workingman's Dead 50th

Hey Bob
I am not a big Grateful Dead fan however if we go back 53 years and the release of the first album I was definitely into the band in the early days. A little anecdote. I had been playing that first WB album in my house And my father actually kind of liked it. I was getting ready to leave with my band to do a summer at the Jewish hotels in the Catskills..It was Sunday afternoon in late June 1967 and my father came in my room and said do you want to go hear some music tonight. I was 16 years old and of course very enthusiastic when he said I'll take you to the Cafe Au Go Go Because the Grateful Dead are playing and I know you like them..My birthday was just a couple of days away so he was feeling this will be a good present. So my father took me down to the village and we had done that before as we used to always go see Paul Butterfield play there.

The original band was on stage With Pig Pen on Organ..They sounded better than their album and Jerry Garcia was really playing great that night. In the middle of the set my father gave me a little nudge and pointed with his head to look behind us. Sitting right behind me with Frank Zappa who was next-door at the Garrick theater with the Mothers. There were probably about 50 people there for that show but they were very enthusiastic and my father was really enjoying them. After the show we went out and walked upstairs to the street and there are in front of us was Jerry Garcia..He was wearing these crazy paisley pants.,I also was wearing a very cool kind of shirt that was the outfit of the times especially because I was playing in a band. We stopped for a second and my father looked at him and said "those are some crazy looking pants"

Jerry smiled and said " If you come to San Francisco I can show you the place I got them so you can get a pair for yourself" I can just never forget that moment or that night..

I saw them a number of times over the next few years including when Jeff Beck was on the show at the Fillmore East and it was Rod Stewart first performance in the US a year later.. I now appreciate how very organic and very cool that band was back then. I Thought I would share a story that had a real effect on my life with one of the bands that I was really Into..
Stay safe and wear a mask
Peace, Jason

Jason Miles

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From: Don Strasburg
Subject: RE: Workingman's Dead 50th

Great read, I think the one of many gifts I and other people learn from the Grateful Dead is how to listen to music. I am not sure I could appreciate and follow something like Cecil Taylor without the Grateful Dead. It is a musical journey with highs, lows and bumps in the road as well. The greatest peaks come from lowest lows, one can only hope we see the same for our current state of affairs. I want and hope for more people to enjoy and understand the music . I encourage everyone to check out The free app Relisten or the web version https://relisten.net/ This is for anyone who wants to explore the Live Grateful Dead and many other artists live shows. Most if not all are not available on any streaming service besides youtube. (There are over 100 live Warren Zevon shows, 700 + Smashing Pumpkins all free ). FYI if multiple versions of the show you search exist, they are all hosted under the specific show and date. The recording qualities differ so look at ratings and test to get best experience.

Enjoy

Don

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From: Steve Benjamins
Subject: I Earn $800 From Spotify

Hey Bob,

Sorry for the click-bait subject line! I wrote a post Earning $800 / Month On Spotify: https://bit.ly/38UMGGa that I wanted to send to you. Here are the major insights from the post:
• Spotify is Google and Apple Music is Bing. At least, that's what I see in my stats. I get about 177,000 plays / month— Spotify is 96% of those plays.
• Algorithmic playlists (like Discover Weekly) are enormously important. I get a consistent spike every Monday from Discover Weekly— and so do major artists like Rihanna and Coldplay.
• Songs matter, not albums. At least for algorithmic playlists! It's just like in SEO: Google indexes pages, not websites. That's why you're seeing more small artists like me releasing 12 singles throughout the year rather than an album. (This is probably not news to you though.)
• Algorithms make for looser connections. It's like that Bowie quote: "Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity." I find most people just add a song to their library and don't really explore any further. I think this is just the nature of algorithmic playlists— they lead to a high volume of listeners with a very loose connection to you as an artist.
• Being a small and obscure artist is… wonderful. No one cares enough to be a hater. Instead I get 3 or 4 DMs and emails every week saying how much they enjoy the music. It's really nice. That's all I need.

I always appreciate the newsletter and your thoughts. For people like me (indie artists, not really attached to the music industry in a formal way) your voice is always a source of confidence that things can CHANGE and that artists don't have to follow the way it's supposed to be done.

Thanks,

- Steve Benjamins
stevebenjamins.com

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From: Jeff Solima
Subject: Re: Billboard's New Chart Rules

Bob,

You are on the right track, I just don't believe you understand HOW the major record labels are manipulating the charts.

It's egregious and shocking..... and legal. The reason they want to stick with streaming is the dark underbelly of the world.

There is no way Spotify, Apple, and the rest of the streaming services don't know what's happening. They are stuck, because you aren't going to say anything to the three big companies that hold the rights to your music, and profitability.

There is not a major company that doesn't have over 26 million streamers under playlists that they own and control. 99% of them are exclusive to that company, and that's before you buy the ones you don't have, and bots.

If you are shocked about hip hop..... they are still paying off the local stations, or threatening to kill them...... imagine what they will do if it's legal.... same goes for pop, many of my record friends still laugh and brag over the things they have done.

If you tell someone what you need to see in order to support the songs, they will find a way to get them.

Our business has gone to who's the biggest cheater with the most amount of money.

If you stream 100 Million, you should be able to sell out a 18k venue....... most couldn't sell out a broom closet.

Algorithms are killing music

We have taken the gut away, and did many years ago. Research is a tool to see if what you have done is working, but if it's what you have done, it's a rear view mirror.

A car can only go so fast in reverse.

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From: Michael Patterson
Subject: Hamilton

I live in the Hollywood Hills. Most weekend nights in the summer the hills are filled with the sound of music coming from stereos and TVs. Tonight all I hear around me is Hamilton. At least five of the houses near me are watching it at full volume and they are clapping after each song.

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