Thursday, September 4, 2008

Welcome To The Vault

I have decided it was high time that I should start a blog that deals primarily with music and the music industry - my experiences, insights, thoughts and whatever else comes to mind. I hope this will be a place to get things out there for discussion, dissemination, dialogue and disagreement.

I keep myself very busy everyday inside music and the music industry. I teach in the Recording Industry Management program at Middle Tennessee State University, book over twenty super-talented artists for The Roots Agency, run a small, but profitable, record label, Larchmont Recordings (from time to time produce tracks in the studio), study the indie label business, research and write a discography and book about Gennett Records and Studio and am constantly listening to music and reading about the business and history of both music and the music industry. I hope that insight will entertain, inspire, incite and educate whoever takes the time to read this blog.

Straight from the Vault was the name of a column that I used to write (and may begin again someday) at AllAboutJazz about that months new releases of jazz and blues reissues. This weekend it also became the title of a digital only album that my partner, Joe Ferry, and I will be releasing on our little label, Larchmont Recordings, which compiles twenty recordings from 1995 through 2008 of unreleased tracks (Joe and I are in shock how much great music we had lying around from new American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi to the former student and classmate, Langhorne Slim, to ska super group, Joe Ferry & The Bg Ska Band and everything in between). It also is a great title, as most of my writings on this blog will come directly from that steel trap I call a brain, thus Straight From The Vault.

A little about me - this is from a bio that was recently released about my rejoining The Roots Agency:

From 1994-2001, Charlie was the A&R Director at Shanachie Records where he signed and/or work with artist such at The Skatalites, Duke Robillard, Anders Osborne, Sue Foley, Debbie Davies, Sara Hickman and Richard Shindell. He has produced or been apart of the production of over 100 commercially released albums, including two by the Skatalites, both of which received Grammy nominations. Currently, Charlie is an Associate Professor at Middle Tennessee State University in the Recording Industry Department and co-owns Larchmont Recordings which produced and released several albums featuring Rhonda Vincent, Regina Spektor, Melissa Ferrick, Langhorne Slim, Eileen Ivers, Stacey Earle, Randy Brecker and Joe Ferry and The Big Ska Band. In 2007, he founded The Dahan Agency, which represented Sara Hickman and Amanda Shaw. In 2001, he was an agent with The Roots Agency and from 2001-2007, was an Assistant Professor in the Music Industry Department at Oneonta State College. Recently, he and Joe Ferry co-produced over twenty albums for CMH Records which featured Dr. Lonnie Smith, Rueben Wilson, Guy Davis, David ‘Fathead’ Newman and their band ‘The Lounge Brigade’ with their takes on the music of Eminem, Ozzy Osbourne (some of which was featured on MTV’s The Osbournes, Season Two), Ani DiFranco and Sublime.

Charlie is researching and co-authoring a discography and label history on the Gennett Recording Company and Studio with T. Malcolm Rockwell (for which they have received several grants from ARSC and The Starr Gennett Foundation as well a Ford Grant), in addition to a study of modern Independent Record Companies. He serves as the new editor and reissue reviewer for the award winning jazz website, AllAboutJazz. From 2002-2007 he was the sound and scoreboard operator for the Oneonta Tigers, a Single A Affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.

He received his Bachelors degree in History from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Masters Degree in Music from Purchase College. He maintains memberships with The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, The Blues Foundation, Starr-Gennett Foundation, The Association for Recorded Sound Collections, The Jazz Journalists Association, The Folk Alliance and The Southeast Regional Folk Alliance, where he serves as the convention co-chair.

In his spare time, he is an ardent birdwatcher and a volunteer researcher for various bird population studies, obsesses over the New York Yankees and UNC Tar Heels, and enjoys spending time with his wife and two children.

I look forward to a long and fruitful dialog!

Charlie

2 comments:

Dave said...

is this a limp bizkit fansite?

Charlie said...

Nope, a Creed appreciation shrine.