May 15, 2004
Compendia Grows 'JamGrass' Audience

By Jim Bessman

The success of progressive bluegrass and jam-band acts and the Appalachian folk-based "Cold Mountain" soundtrack has inspired Nashville indie Compendia Records.

The label is pursuing new marketing opportunities with three genre-bending, budget-conscious album projects, all produced by acoustic music maven Bil VornDick.

"JamGrass-A Phish Tribute" came out in March. A similar tribute to Dave Matthews Band is tentatively scheduled for July.

In between comes "Return to Cold Mountain." The May 25 release extends the "Cold Mountain" soundtrack model with vintage songs that fit the film's Civil War-era, rural Southern setting. These include "Pretty Polly," "Old Joe Clark" and "Black Mountain Rag."

All are performed by musicians with a connection to the region. They include banjoist David Holt, singer/songwriter Jim Lauderdale and bluegrass mainstay Ralph Lewis.

"You have to be opportunistic," says Ric Pepin, Compendia Music Group VP/GM. He is the A&R force behind the VornDick projects. "There's been a rebirth of interest in bluegrass-type sounds, and we have to take advantage of economies of scale in marketing."

Pepin points to Compendia's recent signing of rootsy jam band Leftover Salmon, whose self-titled label debut came out in March.

"Leftover Salmon's music has a lot of bluegrass elements in it, and we saw an opportunity to derive some sales from the 'JamGrass' release by co-marketing with Leftover Salmon," Pepin says.

The similarly styled releases are being jointly advertised in a print campaign "to spread the cost of the ad and get two sales instead of one," Pepin says.

Another goal is to "sell product without necessarily [having] radio airplay," as with the Phish tribute.

"There are a lot of rabid fans who will buy anything by or about Phish, which generates automatic bin sharing," Pepin says.

COTTAGE INDUSTRY

The concept of progressive bluegrass artist tributes is not new. CMH Records, for one, created a veritable cottage industry with its Pickin' On . . . series of instrumental treatments. Subjects of recent CMH tributes include Trace Adkins and Sheryl Crow.

What is new, according to Pepin, is the Compendia projects' inclusion of vocals and their emphasis on high-quality recording.

"Bil's an engineer with his own studio, who gets great players and records that sound really good," Pepin says. "He produces stuff in tune and on time and on budget."

For VornDick, a prolific bluegrass engineer for such acts as Alison Krauss and New Grass Revival, the Compendia projects have been "way too much fun."

"In the case of 'JamGrass,' I wanted to get together my 'freight train' of drummer Bob Mater and bassist Mark Fain and then get some young, aggressive players-and a vocalist no one's heard of [Travis Stinson of Nashville's Volunteer String Band]-and put an extreme front end to bluegrass that college kids could party to," VornDick says.

"It's kind of like the old New Grass stuff, tying rock'n'roll and bluegrass together while choosing songs that people already knew."

VornDick tested his creation successfully at Vanderbilt University's radio station, WRVU Nashville.

"I brought the album and some of the musicians over, and they played it and said it was really cool."

The Phish album is getting airplay during specialty jam-band radio programming. Among those playing it is Scottie Robertson, music director of the three-station Allegheny Mountain Radio community network, based in Dunmore, W. Va.

"With more and more festivals adding bluegrass to the lineups and the increase of young, hip players on the
circuit like Salmon, the music is just being recognized in the mainstream and the labels are attempting to get a piece," Robertson says.

"I don't believe all rock material lends itself to interpretation through bluegrass, but much of the new song presentations have won over a lot of traditional bluegrass listeners and have certainly energized many new players," Robertson adds.

Guitarist Larry Keel, who appears on "Return to Cold Mountain" along with his vocalist wife, Jenny, lauds
VornDick's idea of "getting bluegrass to a completely different audience."

Looking ahead to the Dave Matthews tribute, he adds, "A lot of the real young kids would love bluegrass if they gave it a little chance, because they love jam bands like Leftover Salmon-which is sort of bluegrassy."

Pepin cites the success of young bluegrass act Nickel Creek and its "Smoothie Song" at triple-A radio, where Compendia will play key Phish and Dave Matthews "JamGrass" tracks.

The label also plans a push to public radio and college formats.

Regarding "Return to Cold Mountain," Pepin believes the original soundtrack stimulated demand for music from the film's era and location. Additionally, the album's artists "have a lot of star power," he says.

He sees great promotional potential, indicating upcoming efforts to secure roots music airplay as well as "lifestyle marketing" to Civil War re-enactment groups, related Web sites and bluegrass festivals.

VornDick adds: "We want to help these artists in the area to get more widely known so that they can go out and play folk festivals and the performing-arts centers throughout North America."

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