Posted on 09/11/2009 3:00:33 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
Rob Miller and Nan Warshaw are a couple of punk rock drummers who started Bloodshot Records... released 170 albums by artists such as Neko Case, Ryan Adams, Alejandro Escovedo and the Waco Brothers.
...pushing a style of grassroots music once dubbed “insurgent country,” but which now can be more aptly categorized as a straight-no-chaser combination of rock, blues, soul, folk and country...
Miller: I suppose one of the reasons we stuck around is that we had no intention of being an ongoing concern... If we had set it all up in a conference room instead of a bar like we did it probably would have been a lot less successful.
Miller: ...We’re making half our money digitally, but that doesn’t replace all the lost sales from physical goods, dovetailing perfectly with the worldwide economic collapse in November... sales didn’t just slow down, they stopped... I kind of keep hoping that maybe the uptick in sales of vinyl is the first sign of the pendulum swinging the other way. Maybe a whole age group of people missed out on having a tactile connection to their favorite bands, and maybe having 7,000 songs on your hard drive does not feed the soul, and vinyl is their way back. Or maybe that’s just me rearranging the chairs on the Titanic...
Miller: ...you’ll start to see a decline in smaller-town clubs, because national bands aren’t going to have the ability to make those stops anymore... Bands are selling fewer records... ticket prices for shows are going up...
"Why do you keep doing it?"
Warshaw: For the same reasons we started doing it... (bands) that move our souls, and there are still those moments of brilliance at a show...
Miller: ...And to be working with people... who were heroes of mine in my formative years...
(Excerpt) Read more at leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com ...
Interesting profile of a label that seeks talent over celebrity and discusses the state of the music sales/performance industry today.
This is just an excerpt of a much longer interview
The Bloodshot Records artist roster is practically my playlist. Ryan Adams, Alejandro Escovedo, Old 97’s, Neko Case, Graham Parker...Lots of great music coming out of there.
Same here!
Bloodshot Records is where I first learned about the Old 97’s, which has become my favorite band. Great label.
That is one helluva lineup for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Nick Lowe, Boz Scaggs, Joe Ely, Richie Havens (my very first concert, in 1971), Aimee Mann, Drive-By Truckers...a better roster than the one for this year’s Austin City Limits Festival. Enjoy!
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