Success
and failure will always be subjective terms, but when it comes to album sales by Austin’s
“Class of ’96,” it’s tough not to figure the “Austin Curse” has struck again.
After all, there was quite the air of hope last January surrounding the
imminent release of a dozen new albums by local artists on major labels or
major independents. Spoon, Fastball, Prescott Curlywolf, Ugly Americans,
Storyville, and Alejandro Escovedo all were releasing label debuts, and
expectations for their success was high. Sincola, readying the release of a
second album for Caroline, also seemed like a good candidate for “Most Likely
to Succeed” honors.
Eleven months down the road, however, this year’s freshman class doesn’t seem
to have fared well in the “real world”: Sincola, Prescott Curlywolf, and
Escovedo have all parted ways with their labels, while Fastball awaits word on
their future with Hollywood Records. Others, such as Spoon and the
out-of-left-field Craig Ross, remain on good terms with their labels despite
having sold painfully small amounts of albums (2,100 and 1,000 respectively),
and only the Ugly Americans (6,000) and Storyville (27,000) seem able to lay
claim to modest sales success in ’96. So what happened?
Well, first, forget the “Austin Curse.” Local managers and their artists say
the “Austin Curse” has become less a concept than a clich�. To begin
with, it must be good news for the overall health of the local scene when
major-label A&R reps made investments in over a dozen Austin acts in 1995.
Secondly, nearly all artists mentioned fulfilled their half of the bargain and
delivered good or great albums. Why didn’t they sell? Good question. Certainly,
each act has their own story, and while they’re sticking to it, perhaps the
better query would be, `Why should they sell?’ Nothing else did.
According to Soundscan, the company whose sales figures drive the
Billboard charts, only .05% of the 26,000 records released nationally in
1995 sold over 250,000 units. In that light, say local managers, Austin artists
aren’t that different from any given cross-section of national hopefuls that
are having labels throw their releases against the record store racks to see if
they stick. Besides, in a year that saw albums by R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Green Day,
Hootie & the Blowfish, and Stone Temple Pilots sell 60% less than their
previous releases, is it really fair to expect locals like Spoon and Prescott
Curlywolf to have gold or platinum albums (sales of 500,000 and one million
respectively)? And when you compare the label and artist expectations to the
sales outcomes, couldn’t some of the perceived failures be nominal successes
and some of the assumed successes be failures?
Not surprisingly, the answer depends on who’s being asked. “It’s all a
crapshoot, nobody really knows,” is Craig Ross’ fortune-cookie assessment of
any artist’s given chance out in the marketplace. While Ross’ sentiments were
echoed more than once by local artists and managers contemplating the year’s
outcome, “ask me in four months” came up just as frequently. For some, those
four months may be just enough time to see if a new push has panned out,
because typically, the music industry sets its budgets for the upcoming year in
November, and virtually stops all promotion of non-holiday albums between
Thanksgiving and mid-January.
This wait-and-see attitude is especially applicable to Ross’ Dead Spy
Report on MCA and Doyle Bramhall II’s eponymous debut on Geffen. Until now
neither album has recorded more than a blip with Soundscan, yet both are slated
to receive major promotional support in the new year — with the latter album
getting a virtually unheard of “re-release” in January. For Spoon, the Ugly
Americans, Storyville, and even Eric Johnson, radio attention will likely
control the fate of their end-of-the-year efforts, with a new single from each
pushing for airplay between mid-November and early 1997.
And therein, it seems, lies the key to the individual stories from the “Class
of ’96” — radio. Almost every one of the acts or managers interviewed for this
story concede that success in the marketplace hinges on radio support. “Radio
attention gets the label fired up,” says Mark Bliesener, the Ugly Americans’
manager. “To get the label machinery into gear, you have to have radio.”
Tuned In or Out?
Nobody can testify to the power of radio better than the Butthole Surfers.After 15 years and 12 albums, the Surfers went into 1996 with an average but
diehard touring fan base and a scrapbook of press clippings that went well
beyond what their album sales might have indicated. Their first album for
Capitol, 1993’s Independent Worm Saloon, had sold in the low six-figure
range and spawned one moderately successful alternative radio hit, “Who Was in
My Room Last Night.” Still, no one anticipated “Pepper.”
Given a concentrated — and reportedly expensive — radio campaign by the
label, “Pepper” became an instant hit on alternative radio, spawning reams of
national press and pushing Electric Larryland into the ranks of a
certified gold album. That sources at Capitol quietly concede the follow-up
single, “TV Star,” as being more or less of a wash — with a third single and
more touring next year being the album’s last hope — does not matter;
Electric Larryland was an unqualified success.
But was “Pepper” merely a novelty hit — just another Weird Al Yankovic
send-up waiting to happen? Radio research seems to indicate yes. While the song
had initial youth appeal that made it a request sensation, surveys also found
the song a high burnout track for adults, who weren’t nearly as amused hearing
it over and over. Meanwhile, longtime fans used the Internet to say they
believed the Surfers had sold out with “Pepper” and could now survive touring
without their faces in the audience. Although radio play pushed
Larryland into the gold, sluggish ticket sales on a costly nationwide
run of theatres proved one hit might not be enough to convince new fans to
spend $20 on the show.
Even after mid-tour downsizing cut back on tour staff and room size, reports
from the road indicated venues were thinning for the band after fans satisfied
themselves with a set from the co-headlining Toadies. Last month’s news that
frontman Gibby Haynes had punctured his eardrum, thus canceling a reported
swing of radio package shows (for stations that had played “Pepper” but were
perhaps slow to add “TV Star”) seemed to confirm this, as on-line pundits such
as Microsoft Music Central questioned the eardrum alibi, saying it sounded more
like some “twisted excuse for that ever-suspicious `road-weariness’ thing.”
After repeated attempts, neither the band, management, nor the label would
comment for this story.
But if there’s a lesson to be learned from the Surfers’ saga, it’s that
singles can not only make or break an album, they can sometimes do both. So
far, Storyville can be seen as being caught somewhere in the middle of this
conundrum. Traditionally, the AOR (album-oriented rock) radio stations
Storyville targeted for their Atlantic/Code Blue debut, Piece of Your
Soul, have been more predictable with their attention than their
alternative counterparts. Therefore, says Storyville manager Mark Proct, the
key for new artists is to introduce the band with an initial single, then
follow-up with the presumed hit.
“It’s part of a long-term, conservative plan,” says Proct of “Good Day for the
Blues,” Storyville’s debut single, which hit AOR and Triple A (album adult
alternative) radio back in June and is still current at nearly 60 stations.
“It’s just now falling off, which is an amazing amount of time. A typical
single lasts eight to 10 weeks, but we’ve built in different places and
different times. Honestly, it’s almost a ridiculous amount of time for a single
to be out there.”
Despite modest sales for the album, Proct says that he and the label are
enthused about its selling 1,400 to 1,500 albums a week without a second
single. As such, the key becomes concentrating their attention on that mythical
second single, “Solid Ground,” due in January. “The first time, our radio was
real spread out,” says Proct. “WNEW in New York added it just last month, so
New York sales have gone way up. Boulder and Denver came in early, so sales are
a little flat. But now that all the markets have had time to listen to the
first single, and in many cases see the band live, our goal now becomes to
coordinate the second single so it builds and capitalizes on the momentum.
We’ll know that only a couple weeks into it.”
Set ‘Em Up
But what if there’s no set-up at all? If Fastball hadn’t mailed copies home, their Make Your Mamma Proud debut may not have even reached their mothers — let alone made them proud.
Perhaps because other Hollywood acts such as Super 8, Van Gogh’s Daughter, and
the Suicide Machines failed to attract significant radio attention after fuller
promotional pushes, Fastball’s debut plainly got lost in the Disney-operated
machinery. And while the label still maintains they’re interested in breaking
the album to alternative radio next year, 1996 saw the band touring without so
much as one radio single to support. “We’re stuck in the spin cycle,” says the
group’s guitarist, Miles Zuniga. “They apparently still want to promote the
record, but I’m doubtful they’ll spend a lot of money doing it.”
Part of the problem, say the radio programmers, may have been the failure of
other pop/punk outfits like Green Day to follow up their 1995 radio successes.
And by the time Fastball hit the shelves in May, Everclear had clearly filled
that small radio void. Oddly enough, says Zuniga, the answer to the band’s
radio blackout may come through a track Fastball contributed to Hollywood’s
upcoming Loungepalooza album — a collection of big names like P.J.
Harvey covering classic lounge/swing material.
“I don’t think they would have had us do the track if they didn’t want to hang
onto us,” opines Zuniga, who downplays rumors that the track could be the
album’s single, but adds that the band’s share of the mechanical publishing
royalties might tide them over between records. “I think it showed them we have
a lot of potential musically, and we’re not just this one-trick pony that plays
fast rock & roll.”
Similarly, Geffen may have been impressed by the potential of Doyle
Bramhall II. Although the label and the A.O.R. market they planned to
target may have been ready for a guitar-based debut from the former Arc Angel,
Bramhall’s solo debut was more about subtle soul and funk. “It’s a hard album
to capture and take straight to one format,” concludes Proct. So, after an
initial pre-release push to Triple-A radio failed, Geffen, Proct, and Bramhall
agreed to regroup and push the album’s promotion back to next year. “Because we
didn’t catch fire immediately, it made more sense to reassemble everything in
January than it did to fight all the holiday blockbuster releases,” says Proct,
who recently severed his ties with Bramhall. “It’ll basically be a re-release
of the record, which gives everyone a little time to figure out what to do with
it.”
A gameplan for Eric Johnson and his new Venus Isle may also
take some time to figure out. Unlike Bramhall, Johnson’s album is more or less
a straightforward guitar affair. After a five-year downtime, the difference,
says Johnson’s label and management, is not in the artist, but in the radio
climate.
With sales nearing 85,000 in just three months, Capitol’s vice president of
marketing, Denise Skinner, says the new album’s sales are already slightly
ahead of where the nearly platinum Ah Via Musicom was during the same
timeframe. Unlike the previous album, however, which spawned three bonafide AOR
hits, some radio experts say it’s uncertain whether Venus Isle can have
the same radio impact. The roadblock, admits Johnson’s manager Joe Priesnitz,
is that not only has the AOR market splintered with Triple A, it’s also
fragmented into the “Mainstream,” “Modern,” “Active,” and “Rock” charts. “None
of that was there the first time out,” says Priesnitz. “So we went in knowing
this was going to be a slower build.”
The first part of that build, says Priesnitz, was re-establishing Johnson’s
profile with the G3 tour, which paired the local axe god with fellow
guitar superstars Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. According to the plan, Johnson
would stop by new radio outlets along the touring route, promoting the album
and its initial single “Pavilion” in a low-pressure environment. “It was a way
to refresh everybody’s memory and get Eric a large audience on the first tour,”
explains Priesnitz.
That G3 audience, admits Skinner, was primarily the A.O.R. rock
audience that only needed a reminder that Johnson’s album exists, however. The
new challenge, she says, will be opening up Triple A avenues with “SRV,” the
album’s second single. “We’ve got quite a few tracks we can expose to Triple
A,” says Skinner, who’s also hoping for a video and a run of late-night
television appearances in the new year. “That’s why it’s so important to
remember we’re not even halfway through the marketing of this record. And with
Triple A, we can not only reach the people who may have graduated to it from
AOR, we can also expose Eric to a wider variety of listeners than just what
rock radio attracts.”
Perhaps because of its wider audience, Triple A also seems to be attracting
and concentrating on a wider variety of artists. During their long local
incubation, the Ugly Americans seemed poised for attention from A.O.R. or even
alternative radio. In fact, locally, both KLBJ and 101X played tracks from
Stereophonic Spanish Fly before its release. But earlier this summer,
Capricorn’s radio promotion team opted instead to concentrate primarily on
Triple A for the album’s first single and surprisingly scored a Top Ten,
Triple-A hit with the upbeat “Vulcan Death Grip.”
Meanwhile, the band toured constantly, adding radio-sponsored festivals to
their summer itinerary and visiting radio stations with a three-piece acoustic
squad ready for on-air appearances. As a result, Capricorn’s already pushing
the follow-up single, “You Turn Me On,” across the board — to Top 40, AOR,
alternative, and AAA. And in another sign of support, the typically video-shy
Capricorn also fronted $50,000 for a video with which to go courting MTV and
VH1. “Getting the video budget can be chalked directly up to the Triple-A radio
success of “Vulcan,” says Bliesener. “Last time out, it was wait and see.”
The More Things Change…
The Ugly Americans getting a video budget not only indicates Capricorn’scommitment to breaking Stereophonic Spanish Fly, it also underlines the
unpredictably cyclical nature of the music business. Just last year, things
looked grim when Giant Records dropped the band after recording a big-budget
debut (produced by Hootie & the Blowfish guru Don Gehman) and distributing
pre-release promotional copies to press, radio, and retail. The last-minute
label shake-up, which brought in controversial Sony veteran Missy Worth to
re-establish the label’s identity, began with Worth asking the Ugly Americans
to leave the label.
Five months later, after the band had seriously contemplated breaking up,
Giant somewhat begrudgingly freed the band to take the album to Capricorn.
Initially, Capricorn appeared only interested in getting the already recorded
album cheaply, promising only a nominal investment in promotion and tour
support. Yet by the time Stereophonic Spanish Fly hit stores, Mercury
had bought Capricorn and had suddenly made breaking 311, Cake, and the Ugly
Americans a priority. Why? Because in the music industry you’re only as good as
your latest deal, and new Mercury president Danny Goldberg made it no secret
that he’d felt compelled to prove that his investment in Capricorn could work.
“Both sides of the deal are pitching in to prove a lot to each other,” says
Bliesener of the Mercury/Capricorn marriage. “311 was the first release under
Mercury and we were the second, so our timing couldn’t have been better.
Clearly, having access to the whole Mercury team is important, and far more
than we ever expected.”
Prescott Curlywolf, on the other hand, a band signed to Mercury proper, didn’t
fare quite as well from the Mercury/Capricorn union. As attention shifted
towards the Capricorn acts and Mercury found radio success with the
Refreshments, the focus on Prescott’s 6ix Ways to Sunday rapidly
diminished. And while college radio initially responded well to three or four
tracks from the album, Mercury told the band they’d have to wait until August
for the release of a single to commercial radio. By September, though, Mercury
had already begun with less-than-confident promises for a January 1997 push.
“After we’d made our record, we found out the hard way Mercury’s new
philosophy in artist development was to take bands from smaller labels, spend
money, and take credit,” says Prescott’s Ron Byrd. “We were a label priority
until 311 and Cake started getting the attention. And with all the changes, our
people at the label started dropping like flies, including the head of
Alternative Promotion.”
By November, it had become clear that the label’s idea of alternative
promotion for Prescott Curlywolf was to not promote them at all. Later that
month, Mercury delivered the final blow — firing Prescott’s A&R
representative Ruth Richards. “It wasn’t a gasoline enema, but it hasn’t been
totally pleasant either,” says Byrd now, while the band tries to find a way out
of the Mercury deal and concentrate instead on a new batch of demos. “It was a
great experience in that we got cash to make an album we liked and did a little
touring. But while our record got released, in a lot of way it never really
was.”
While Sincola entered 1996 with one Caroline release under their belts —
’95’s What the Nothinghead Said — a changing label identity, trouble at
radio, and a new A&R team may have combined to put them in a similar state
of confusion as Prescott Curlywolf. “We thought it was just a matter of
building on to what we accomplished with the first record,” says Sincola
drummer Terri Lord. “But they had very high anticipation for us turning into
the next Garbage or Hole. After they heard the record, they still very much saw
that happening.”
Prior to the release of Crash Landing in Teen Heaven, the news that
Sincola’s A&R representative and product manager, Brian Long, had been
promoted to director of A&R looked like a positive sign that the new album
was to become a priority — as did a set of marketing plans Caroline executives
flew into Austin to unveil to the band. But soon after the recording, say
Caroline insiders, it became apparent Long was no longer in a position of
day-to-day power. Not surprisingly, then, it was just before the album’s
release that Long left the label altogether to take an A&R post at Geffen.
“I don’t think they meant to change the gameplan on us,” says Lord, “but it’s
the oldest stereotype: a change-up at the label hurting the band.”
Worst of all, Long’s departure coincided with label president Keith Wood’s
decision to push Caroline towards something more of a major-label approach,
resulting in some housecleaning, a new talent search, and higher radio goals.
The latter, say radio experts, may not have been possible during the life of
Sincola’s album, primarily because Caroline had only two people working radio
and spent marginal budgets on the independent radio promoter necessary to
seduce large alternative stations.
“Ultimately, they were disappointed by their own expectations and the lack of
radio success,” says Lord. Yet before Caroline released the band from their
contact in October, Sincola had already made minor waves at college radio:
first with “One Hit Wonder,” and next with the rushed follow-up, “Rundown.” And
while the band didn’t get to tour as much as they had originally planned, Lord
says she believes that college radio interest combined with a new demo and
tours with the Butthole Surfers and Joan Jett may be enough to attract a new
round of major-label interest. “We’re actually in a good position,” she says,
“because with an album still left on Caroline we just wouldn’t have been as
attractive to a major.”
False Believers?
What happens if everything seems to fall into place — label commitment,radio, press, and touring — and you still don’t sell records? If you’re
Alejandro Escovedo you begin shopping for a new deal. Last month, the longtime
Austin singer-songwriter and the Massachusetts-based Rykodisc confirmed that
they had parted ways — sort of. While Escovedo chose not to accept less money
in a renegotiated deal with the label that released his With These Hands album earlier this year, both parties announced that his glam-rock side
project, Buick MacKane, would remain on the label.
In fact, Escovedo says he’s dedicating the majority of 1997 to touring in
support of the band’s debut, The Pawnshop Years (due in stores February
25). As for his solo career, Escovedo says he’s genuinely surprised that a slew
of positive press, Triple A radio play, network television appearances, and a
recent high-profile tour with Son Volt wasn’t enough to satisfy a label known
industry-wide for its long-term commitment to artist development.
“We had great expectations together,” says Escovedo. “I thought I’d gone with
a label that would support me over a long haul. Part of the attraction was that
it was a five-album deal. I felt they understood what it would take to build
and nurture a career.”
Jeff Rougvie, Rykodisc’s president of A&R, says Rykodisc, too, was out to
build Escovedo a career, until they saw they were losing too much money.
“Everyone really believed in Alejandro, so when we signed him we took a step
beyond what our usual signings amount to,” he says. “We knew it was going to be
a larger investment than what we usually do, but we believed in him and that’s
what it took to do the deal.”
From there, say both sides, it begins to get confusing. Without question,
Triple A radio embraced “Put You Down,” better than any previous single
Escovedo had released through local indie Watermelon. And with resulting
appearances on NPR’s Fresh Air and World Cafe, a two-page spread
in Rolling Stone, and a musical guest slot on Conan O’Brien’s show,
Escovedo says he began to see the fruits of his labor. “With the Rolling
Stone story and the positive press and radio reactions to my live show, I
felt we’d made serious in-roads at raising my profile to another level,” says
Escovedo. ” And I toured my ass off — 40,000 miles in a van with seven people.
We’d play 21 days in a row sometimes and do every single promotion, in-store,
and radio gig we could find. Some days we’d be doing double- and
triple-headers. I simply did everything I possibly could.”
And while Rougvie concedes that Escovedo did indeed do everything possible to
help his own cause, he says the sales just didn’t justify the big advance.
“What was remarkable, for instance, about the Rolling Stone thing was
just the lack of impact it had,” says Rougvie. “Nobody dropped the ball, and I
don’t think either side didn’t do what they needed to, but we had
figured out how much we expected to sell when we set a marketing budget. We
exceeded that budget and just didn’t come up with the sales we were looking
for.”
As such, Rykodisc offered a new and somewhat lower deal when it came time to
renew Escovedo’s option and that’s when they lost their true believer. “We
didn’t want to lose him,” says Rougvie, “but we were so far from where we need
to be that we had to do something. He felt it was a step back.” Actually,
Escovedo says he saw signs of Rykodisc’s dwindling efforts before they actually
approached him with the renegotiated offer. “After just six months, they
started asking for new songs. I thought in that stage of the game it was pretty
ridiculous. I wasn’t thinking about writing. I wanted to be on the road to work
on supporting this record.”
By the time Rykodisc declined to support a European tour previously arranged
by management for October, Escovedo says he saw the handwriting on the wall.
“What they offered me wasn’t that bad,” admits Escovedo, “but I’d rather take
my chances elsewhere. It just doesn’t make sense to be on a label that doesn’t
support your goals. And had I known they had a major-label style sales goal, I
probably wouldn’t have gone with them in the first place. For someone like me,
immediate radio play and sales isn’t going to happen. And ultimately I feel bad
because we were becoming more confident as the audiences grew more responsive
and the press grew more responsive. I just think Rykodisc grew less responsive
about building my career.”
No Pain, Career Gain
Ultimately, the success of the Class of ’96 may have come down to the bandsthat knew in advance whether “Most Likely to Succeed” status or the lower-key
“Most Personable” honor would best fit their needs and desires. So while Spoon
bypassed a slew of bidding major labels back in early 1995 — fueled by the
Telephono sessions that would become their Matador debut — the band’s
Britt Daniel still maintains they made the right decision choosing a major
independent. “We specifically didn’t sign with a major to avoid the Nada Surf
thing — hoping one wave of 14-year-olds buys the record,” says Daniel. “We
knew we’d be cool with working hard and I think we’ve proven now that it wasn’t
about a credibility move.”
It certainly wasn’t a move towards sales either. While Daniel says he and
Matador share an interest in a longer-term sales plan, that may not be the way
it started. Daniel opted for a one-album deal, which, at least on paper, could
always leave the band the opportunity to take their next album to the majors.
“It was never our intention to do one record and jump to the majors,” says
Daniel, who had seriously entertained offers from Geffen prior to signing with
Matador. “We just wanted to make sure we sold enough records that everyone
would be happy and like the relationship.” But what if the labels once
interested in the Telephono demos now look at sales and back off? “I
suppose some of the labels interested initially could be discouraged by the
sales, but that’s not the kind of labels we’d be interested in working with
anyway.”
And although college and alternative radio’s support of Spoon’s first single,
“Not Turning Off,” was merely average, Matador faithfully followed it up in
November with a second single, “Plastic Mylar.” Daniel had originally planned
to add a set of B-sides to that second single until Matador suggested releasing
an EP. Consequently, the five-song, John Croslin-produced Soft Effects is now due for a January release. “It’s just an EP for an EP’s sake. We wanted
to get more stuff out because we had more stuff ready,” says Daniel. “They’re
looking at it as a way to keep promoting Telephono. They don’t make a
lot of money off EPs, but in the overall gameplan, it’s great because we
planned on working Telephono for a year and have decided to move forward
together on this. They did their part, and we’ve done ours.”
Ultimately, says Daniel, Spoon has found a home without the high pressure of
sales hanging over their heads. “They’re totally passionate,” he says, “and
that’s why they have their reputation, because they only work with artists
they’re totally into. And anytime a label’s totally supportive, letting you
record and tour, it’s got to feel like a success.”
Craig Ross also says he feels like a success, although he admits he
understands why those who look only at his sales might think otherwise. Since
its June release, Dead Spy Report has moved just under 1,000 copies;
lack of a radio single and the fact that MCA fired most of its field
representatives while Ross toured explains a lot. And yet, while MCA has earned
the industry title of the “Musician’s Cemetery of America” over the years, Ross
maintains the label is surprisingly dedicated to allowing Ross to keep making
records — in spite of sales.
“They love the record and just want me to keep making them,” says Ross. “I
don’t think they were expecting it to sell, and I know I wasn’t either. Before
its release, we sat down and discussed how little I was interested in a big
hype factor and a huge promotional push. Honestly, I don’t think I’m ready for
that. But I was ready to put a record out and start pushing towards developing
a solid recording career.”
In fact, of all the Class of ’96, Ross appears to have won “Most Likely to
Succeed” honors in that his deal is the closest one to a true development deal
— a rare prospect in what A&R reps are acknowledging as the industry’s
most blatant throw-it-against-the-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks period. Quietly,
MCA brass have hinted that Ross’ deal makes sense regardless of the sales
because it may attract other artists to the label.
As for Ross, he says he helped his cause by asking for only an average deal
financially and saving MCA a high recording budget by recording Dead Spy
Report in his own studio. “Low overhead can also mean low pressure,” says
Ross. “The emphasis was instead on creative control and the ability to make
records that I’d wanted to make. I’d much rather that if the time comes and I
get a promotional push that people can see I have a catalog — that I didn’t
just appear out of nowhere, take what I could get, and leave.”
Currently, MCA’s plans call for a January release to radio of either “Kill the
Morning” or “Shame,” with a concurrent tour. New singles and tours also await
Spoon, Storyville, the Ugly Americans, Eric Johnson, and the Butthole Surfers.
Add a batch of new records in 1997 from veteran guitarists Chris Duarte, Ian
Moore (Capricorn), and Jimmie Vaughan (Epic), plus a slate of spring debuts
from Meg Hentges (Robbins), David Garza (Atlantic), Choreboy (Triple X), Abra
Moore (Arista Texas), and Sister 7 (Arista Texas), and Ross’ assessment that
releasing albums on major labels or major indies is a “crapshoot” applies to a
whole other class of hopefuls.
Ultimately, agree this year’s class, there may be no real lesson to be learned
from their collective exploits other than that major-label deals always hinge
on the expectations — with success stories mostly lying in the rare cases
where the label’s and artist’s expectations meet. “In the grand scheme, I just
want to be able to make records and to tour,” says Ross, repeating the adopted
mantra of so many from the Class of ’96. “And I’m not sure it should be so much
about the label’s expectations as much as it should be about what the artists
themselves expect and what they’re ultimately willing to walk away happy with.”
This article appears in December 27 • 1996 and December 27 • 1996 (Cover).