Arista Austin -- in Nashville

While it may come as a surprise to many in the local music industry, Radney Foster's new See What You Want to See marks the return of Arista Austin. In the fall of 1998, most of the major label imprint's staff was let go and the local offices were vacated. Rather than closing up for good, however, current senior director of artist development Scott Robinson says Arista Austin merely underwent a "restructuring."

"There was never any discussion of shutting the label down," explains Robinson, who used to manage Little Sister, now Sister 7. "But we've kept it kind of low-profile because in the past there was a lot of press on the label itself. Part of our philosophy now is not to raise our flag. Let the music speak for itself and let certain events speak for themselves."

Robinson claims that changes in the label involve getting back to Arista Austin's original philosophy and vision of what it was supposed to be when it was conceived at the midpoint of this decade. According to Robinson, that involves "developing a roots rock, left-of-center, critically acclaimed, artist-driven label, versus coming out of the chute as a mainstream pop and rock label.

"That was the original vision of Tim Dubois, the president of Arista Nashville. Dubois has always had a love for Texas. He lived in Austin for a while and he's always loved it -- the music scene, the vibe there, and he always wanted to be part of that. We had kind of gotten away from that."

The future of the resuscitated label looks bright at the present time if it can maintain the success it has had with Robert Earl Keen's last album, which was his his best selling yet.

"Our objective," states Robinson, "is to create a home for artists who are not mainstream country and who are not mainstream rock. The parameters can be pretty broad. We have a Townes Van Zandt album that we're putting out in June, and we've just signed the Cowboy Junkies, which is very exciting for us and is just perfect and beautiful for Austin." -- J.C.