West Side Story rejected by a record company BECAUSE IT'S A

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

I just got rejected a record company, and of course I'm disappointed, but I'm also mad. The head of A&R liked the CD and there were several other people in the company who wanted to sign me and release the CD.

But according to the person I spoke to, the reason the company ultimately rejected the recording is that the people in charge felt nobody would want to buy a CD of music played on a pedal steel guitar. They said that there is not enough interest in the instrument to justify releasing the CD.

I suppose I should be happy that the rejection wasn't personal, but I'm too busy seeing red.

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

So if it was Magic Mike and his stringed keyboard they'd release it?

Barney Y. Miller · From: Covington, GA, USA

That record company must be new because the steel guitar and pedal steel guitar for the last 55 years has contributed as much as any instrument in the success of country and other popular music world wide. I know we have had great voices over the years but without the steel guitar I really don't think it would have been as successful as it is. Mike I would buy it!!!

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

I'm sorry, yet not surprised, to hear this Mike. It once again raises the question of what is the best way to "promote" steel guitar out of the country closet. One approach, the one you're trying, is to record out-of-the-box stuff, label it as "steel guitar" and then try to make people listen to it and open their ears and minds, essentially saying to them "See!? A steel guitar can do this!"

The alternate approach, and one I'm starting to lean more toward, is to just go ahead and record the music and market it as... (ta-da!) Music! without trying to highlight what the instrumentation is. The public doesn't really give a rat's behind what the instrumentation is anyway; they either can relate to the sounds, frequencies and emotions they hear, or they can't. If we force the issue on them and say, to exaggerate the point, "I'll bet you never heard a banjo play Chopin!", the likely response will be "No, and I'm not looking forward to it, either." It may be better to market a band that happens to contain a steel guitar, or market movie soundtracks that happen to contain steel guitar, or whatever the context is, that happens to contain a steel guitar, but don't highlight the steel per se in the marketing. Just let them absorb it like medicine in their orange juice... and once they're feeling better, then maybe you can tell them after the fact that, some time ago, when they weren't paying too much attention, you slipped some steel guitar into their record collections.

Jerry Brightman, Frank Rogers and I had a few long and interesting conversations about this very topic while in Michigan this past weekend.

Just food for thought...

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The "Master of Acceptable Tone"
www.jimcohen.com

JB Arnold · From: Longmont,Co,USA (deceased)

Well, I'm sorry to hear that, because I know how long Mike worked on that project. But let's face it, a full remake of the entire cast soundtrack wouldn't sell right now, so I can see why they are nervous about an instrumental-particularly on steel. That's why all these steel CD's are self released-there's no market for anyone to make any money distributing it. That's why so many bands can't get a deal nowadays. Bottom line, if every steel enthusiast bought 2 copies, the distributor would probably still lose his shorts. It costs the label too much to get involved.

Here's the way this works now-You have a band, you press and release your own CD, and sell it at shows, online, locally, anywhere. You hustle airplay and keep records of when it plays. You keep exacting notes of how many you sell at each show and to whom. You do that twice, and when you prove to a major label that you can ship 40,000 copies on your own in arms legnth transactions(real sales), then they may let you in the door. More likely, you wind up on a regional indy label, and if you make a bigger splash there, THEN the major label buys out your deal.

But the small niche market is screwed. Unless you want to gamble your own money, these killer projects are all going to wind up on the shelf------

unless...

you talk to Wayne Yakes.

John

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Fulawka D-10 9&5
Mullen Royal Precision D-10 8 & 5
"All in all, looking back, I'd have to say the best advice anyone ever gave me was 'Hands Up, Don't Move!"
www.johnbarnold.com/pedalsteel
www.buddycage.net

Paul Graupp · From: Macon Ga USA

I know that's a bummer, Mike. But don't forget what I posted in Events last weekend.
You were probably the only steel guitarist that ever got a play on Public Radio International and maybe the last as well. So it isn't all a loss but it still is a hard pill to swallow. Still makes me mad just to consider it.

Regards, Paul

Al Marcus · From: Cedar Springs,MI USA (deceased)

I am sorry too Mike all that talent and hard work.

One way to do it is , "Dont call it a steel guitar". Dont even show a steel guitar picture.

Bill Stafford's album says "Electric Harp", Alvino Rey used to call it "His singing guitar".

Back when I used to play, I never called it a hawaiian guitar, a Steel guitar , a pedal steel guiter.

I played a console Electra-Harp and that's the way the advertising always said. When I played a nonpedal double neck, it was advertised as a "Console Grande Guitar" , which is what Gibson called it. Another way to look at it......al ")")

Jerry Brightman · From: Ohio

Jim,

Haven't I heard that somewhere before

Jerry

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

Paul, I hadn't seen your post until today. But Firebird Suite has gotten A LOT of airplay, especally in the first few months following it's release. I've had letters from as New York to Alaska from people telling me they heard it on the radio, Usually in NPR. I even have a copy of a letter from the program director of one radio station thanking the record company for sending them the CD and saying that is was in heavy rotation.

That letter says that the folks at the station were intriguiged by the thought of the music being played on a steel. It was the very fact that it is a steel album is what attracted it to them in the first place.

Likewise, the reviews the CD received in such magazines as Audio, (who I'm happy to say gave it an A-plus rating,) Guitar Player, and 20th Century Music all focused on the fact that it's a steel album, and all were highly entheusiastic about the use of the steel in a classical music context. 20th Century Music even headlined the review "Pedal Steel Stravinsky" and included a fairly accurate description of the instrument and how it's played in the review.

The pedal steel guitar is, first and foremost, a guitar, and generally speaking guitar entheusiasts have been among my biggest supporters. The company that turned me down has a large number of classical guitar CDs, and I chose them specifically because I felt that this CD would fit in very well with the kinds of things they normally release.

Too bad the owners of the company didn't see it that way.

Tomorrow I start talking to other record companys.

Don Walters · From: Saskatchewan Canada

There may be value to the approach Jim Cohen is pondering, not to be "sneaky" about what's on an album, but from the following perspective; i.e. how many people in the buying public can accurately name some or all of the instruments playing in an instrumental piece? Maybe it's more of a question of how interested the buying public is in instrumental music of any kind.

Frank Estes · From: Huntsville, AL

Hey Mike, is it possible that the owners of the record company in question, thought your CD "deeply inhaled," but did not know how to tell you in a nice way?

(Just pickin' at you over that related thread you started!)

Smiley Roberts · From: Hendersonville,Tn. 37075

How 'bout,next time,telling 'em that it's a "Manually Operated Pitch Approximator". That ought to keep 'em guessin' for a while.

(thanx Larry Dolan)

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  ~ ~


  ©¿©          ars longa,


  mm         vita brevis 


-=sr€=-

Rick Collins · From: Claremont , CA USA

...get even Mike. Set the volume on your amp half-open, the volume of your guitar wide-open, get the head of the company on the phone, and just after he says "hello", set the phone about 4 inches from the grill-cloth of your amp and with your bar on the first fret, strike the first string and create a shattering glissando by moving your bar rapidly all the way to the pickup.

...just kidding Mike.

Mike! MIKE! MIKE!...DON'T DO IT!

Rick

[This message was edited by Rick Collins on 09 April 2002 at 11:00 AM.]

John O Keeffe · From: Co Waterford Ireland

Sorry to hear that Mike I know your hopes were up when We spoke in Dallas.
Anne Marie and I were in a similar position a few years back!
The reason being We were too "American Country".
I don't think I would ever do a recording again..not here anyway.
JOHN

Allen · From: Littleton, CO USA

Mike,
It makes one wonder if they really listen to the music. Too much wasted time is spent on "type casting" and not enough on just listening and evaluating the music.
I feel for you.
Allen

P.S. Just sold 240 copies of "On Cranberry Lake", but it's tough beating down the doors. Firebird arrived........Wonderful!!!

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Allen Harry
Mullen D-10, 8 & 6
Nashville 1000

Chuck Norris · From: Mesquite, TX, USA

Morning Mike,I remember at the Dallas show talking to you a couple of times and then you just walked in and ask if I had a guitar and amp turned on and I looked around and you grabbed a steel not plugged up and started playing and said listen to these licks, that`s how you approached rock steel playing I swear you were like a little boy who had found some new cool marble`s. I haven`t slept well since, that anxiousness I remember well, I so wanted to grab a bass and jam but we were so busy.
Me and Buddy Carter were talking about it yestarday, He`s got a copy and were gonna sit down and listen to it soon.
If you want to get your music to a label and to the world, you are gonna have to get thick, thick skin just like all the singer`s and actor`s have done since the get go. There is to little new out there in all music, and the steel guitar is one instrument that has not seen it`s potential,your gonna have to make a commitment that IT WILL BE DONE.
The Police put there own money into there project and could`nt get a label, until they were so popular in Europe that a label had to take them on. How about Willie Nelson they said he couldn`t sing and yet he is a household voice everyone know`s, and I beleive it`s the honesty in there music THAT SOME COMPANY LOOKING FOR THE NEXT ELVIS just can`t see there to busy looking for pretty to hear good music.
Buy the way there are other`s on your tail, Jerry Brightman, Chuck Lettes, Johan Janson, there trying new thing`s and writting origional stuff. David Bowie once said THE FUTURE IS FOR THOSE WHO CAN SEE IT COMING, listen with your heart, don`t listen to those that won`t listen to anything new and above all think like a musician not like a steel guitarist, and above that don`t listen to me when I get on your soapbox

Good luck
Chuck Norris NFM
P.S. This won`t be your last turn down, just smile thank them for there time and SHORT SIGHTEDNESS

and remember the`ll be sorry when your the next Kenny G or Yannie or however you spell that.

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

I'm confident that Mike will find a label for that CD, simply because it's great music. But the fact that almost all of the parts are played on the same instrument makes it very unusual among classical CDs. It offends some classical purists to hear obvious studio trickery (no offense intended, Mike).

I think that a project of chamber or orchestral music that featured one pedal steel in a traditional context would have more appeal to a classical audience. A Sharon Isbin CD isn't really a "guitar CD", it's a CD of music that features the guitar. There's a difference.

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Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic) Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)

Jody Carver · From: KNIGHT OF FENDER TWEED

Mike
I have a copy of your CD which you sent me.
I think it is fine. There is an old saying
that "Ignorance Is Bliss" If that is the fact
here...The company who rejected your CD is

"Full Of Bliss"

They have tunnel vision
or "difficulty with their hearing" which many people are afflicted with nowadays. Its
too bad....but keep the faith.

People like this are everywhere. Its not unusual in these times. I know,,,,I see it every day.

[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 13 April 2002 at 02:54 PM.]

Buck Dilly · From: Branchville, NJ, USA * R.I.P.

When West Side Story comes out, many of us who have already purchased "Firebird Suite" will immediately buy it. But we are not the public at large, which tends to avoid instrumental music. Many very talented hard working artists have experienced rejection, and so, know the frustration and anger it can cause. The very best players in the world are still not household names, and never will be. I don't have to tell you about the business, you live in LA. And in LA you have an opportunity to go in the side door and have your stuff heard. I have heard some very unusual music and instruments in soundtracks of all kinds and someone with your phenomenal and unique ability could easily breach that market. There are agents that submit stuff to Movie and TV producers for their living. Your stuff should be there if it hasn't already. But, from me to you; your first album is inspiring and makes me want to be a better musician. But please remember that record companies are businesses and that's all there is to it. Anger is a red flag to get us to act, so act- and keep doing what you do so well. We, in the forum, appreciate it.

Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

Mike,

Here is another label to check out:
http://www.innovarecordings.com/

To actually sell CDs is purely conceptual to classical and new music labels. They exist as pure vanity or as a conduit for foundation grant money for the most part.
The best thing about new music and classical labels is that you get E mails from them with stock replies and pretentious judgements about what you should do with the music you care so much for.

Bob

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Buck Dilly wrote:

Dr. Hugh Jeffreys · From: Southaven, MS, USA

Hello Mike: I'm sorry to read of your rejection, as well as the dejection that goes along. I have not hear your CD, but Al Vescovo told me that it was fine--I'll certainly take his word for that, and hope to hear it sometime in the future. I had the opportunity to analyze some of Stravinski's pieces when I was in Grad. School. I especially enjoyed "The Rite of Spring." Nevertheless, your story does'nt suprise me at all. That's precisely why I chose to promote my own CD. I have heard record producers make "promises" for decades. In 1954, I made an album with a group at the Sun Studio in Memphis which was not released. About 5 years ago, a steel player on the other side of the U.S. got in touch with me through phone info. service. He said that I was identified on the album and wanted to know if I were the steel guitar player. After he described the music, I remembered very well. We used to record many nights until 2-3:a.m. The steel player sent me a copy, and I sent copies to all who played on it. The story goes that Sam Phillips sold the portfolio to a guy named Pendleton for 1 million $ who sold it to Charley Records of Sweden--the company that released it in the U.S. and elsewhere. I wrote one of the tunes and most of the charts.---And so it goes. I released my CD early this year on the WWW and to many other sources, however, I sent many copies to Retail Steel Guitar Stores that sell Steel Guitars, CD's and accessories. They ALL refused to put my CD on the shelf or market! Furthermore, I was not even given a reply, even though the U.S. Postal Service furnished a signed receipt. When I think of this and look at the Reviews that I have on my website (and more coming in every day), I see an oxymoron in the woodpile!! Anyway, hang in there Mike--don't give up. When one door slams in your face, another opens. Best, Hugh

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

Hi everybody. First I want to thank you all for all your kind words. I am now putting all other activity (except for gigs with my blues-rock band) on the back burner and making the search for a new label my number one priority. I have several good leads, and have a couple of people with far more experience than me working on my behalf. Hopefully another compnay will pick up on the CD before too long.

Meanwhile I do have copies of the CD available. I had a bunch made to send to record companies, and am selling copies to anybody who wants one to defray the cost.

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