by Georgia Steele

The Free Press

Like Athens, Geo., and the Twin Cities, Seattle has produced monster talents throughout the years. But few have landed major label representation. While this has given rise

to a small but effective underground network of independent labels and distributors that work the college and alternative radio circuits in the U.S. and abroad, most musicians are doomed to a half-life of day gigs and local nightclub performances, and to performing and releasing work on the "Potato Circuit" of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia.

An alternative to that scenario is "Seattle Rhythm and Blues - Volume 1," a compilation of 19 rhythm & blues tracks by local performers on tape and CD by Axiom, a new independent Seattle label. SR&B offers up one big, fat slice of the Seattle music scene and greater exposure for local artists. Since its May release, it has sold well and drawn steady radio and print media attention.

It is a project worthy of note for its technical accomplishments alone. In digitally re-recording masters of previous releases and garage demo tapes, some, like Isaac Scott's unique cover of "Help," were so near decomposition that metallic pieces fell from the master as they played.

The album is noteworthy, too, for the crisp new session work and the range and strength of artists contributing to so large a compilation, including Northwest legends Scott, Tom McFarland and Kathy McDonald, whose influence and work will be valued beyond their time.

Gary Peterson, who founded Axiom Records and fronted the money for SR&B, sees the project as an ongoing demonstration of the local music scene in timeless and unlimited volumes.

"Here's a scene that's developed as a result of musicians who have worked local clubs steadily and have built up good bands over the years, and as a result of the joint cover charge in Pioneer Square that gives audiences exposure to a lot of different bands and music."

That's the scene SR&B wanted to capture, Peterson said, and as the project developed, "we went for crude recordings with that feeling" over more polished cuts.

Peterson, who relocated in Seattle from Kansas City, is not bothered by the number of white blues players represented on the project.

"There is a much lower ratio of black people in the Northwest, and the dominance of white musicians is not an exclusionary thing but just the way it is here. But the blues resonates with all people."

That the blues is an experience beyond race, condition or age differences is evident when a product is marketed correctly, he says. At Tower Records' downtown store, for example, a display initially was stuck up in the back of the store over the blues section. But sales jumped when it positioned a second display by the front cash register where more people saw it, checked out the artists and recognized bands they had seen at local clubs.

From Partner to Plaintiff
But the one downside of the CD's growing success has been a falling out over proceeds of sales with one of the project's four original partners. It's an issue that goes to the heart of ethical practices and the ability of Axiom or any start-up label to survive in a business where personal associations, verbal agreements and long-term relationships play roles as important as legal contracts.

Peterson's partners include chanteuse Nora Michaels, recording engineer Chris "Zippy" Leighton and singer/entrepreneur Kathy Hart. The group met every week for eight months in each other's homes to plan, organize and produce the compilation.

While all four partners put their talent and time into the project, Peterson put up $6,000 to make it happen, with the understanding that he would make his investment money back first - through exclusive rights to sales of the

'[Kathy Hart] cut the legs out from under the promotion at a crucial time. I don't know what her reasons were.' -Axiom Records founder, Gary Peterson

tapes and CDs at music festivals and in record stores - before profits would be split among other partners and contributing artists. All four partners and 19 artists signed a legal contract agreeing to the arrangement.

What sparked the falling out was Kathy Hart's decision to cash herself out of the project by selling copies of SR&B after her performance with Seattle Women in Rhythm & Blues at the Folklife Festival. Axiom had given Hart the copies as an advance against her royalties.

Believing that Hart violated the contract, Peterson filed a small-claims suit against her. He charges Hart - who was on the Folklife staff - with misleading him into believing that festival policy permitted album sales only on Monday, the day of the big blues show, and with preventing him "from realizing the Folklife sales that this project badly needed."

"She cut the legs out from under the promotion at a crucial time," he said. "I don't know what her reasons were, but what she said was, 'I just felt I had to do something for myself.' But by her actions she effectively screwed with the success of all the other artists involved."

Ultimately, says Peterson, it's a small matter, one that has consumed too much emotional energy and one that he'll be glad to put behind him. Suing Hart is intended more to enforce his business rights than to collect the $500 in sales he says he's owed.

"If you don't enforce your contracts," Peterson said, "it sends out the message that they are worthless, and that invites others to trample on agreements with you."

For her part, Hart contends she didn't have the power to prevent Peterson from selling the album at the festival. Nor does she believe she has violated her contract with Axiom - which excludes her from selling tapes at festivals - because she sold the album after her performance.

'Follow Your Bliss,' Not Your Bank Balance
According to Hart, a performer and businessperson in the region for nearly 20 years, Peterson should concentrate less "on getting his money back" and "playing it so close to his chest" and use SR&B "more as a business card" to send to reviewers around the country and abroad.

Hart produced and promoted her own CD that way. It cost her several thousand dollars but it won her international recognition, national management and airplay in Europe.

The only reason to invest in local projects is for the exposure, she says. "It can't be for the money. You'll never make any money. It's got to be, in the words of Joseph Campbell, 'to follow your bliss.'"

While she thinks Seattle has strong visibility and the SR&B project is "really good," the chances of an artist or a project breaking out of the region and gaining wider recognition are slim, unless a larger connection is made, for instance, by hiring an A & R (artists and repertoire) person capable of hooking up Axiom Records with a national distributor or major label.

She questions where the project is headed, and if widespread interest can be generated for Northwest blues artists, the majority of whom are white, in an idiom saturated with their likes, at a time when new interest is being focused on old Delta Blues guys and other black blues originators.

No novice to the recording business, Peterson is the former manager of Brewer and Shipley ("One Toke Over the Line") and The Tubes, a former nightclub owner and operator, and someone who has taken acts from ground zero to big recording contracts with major labels. Beyond his experience, Peterson says he can turn to family and friends in the music business for help.

Right now, he says, he's doing everything himself part time, while holding down a full-time computer graphics job with Boeing. He's trying to secure national distribution for Axiom Records and would eventually like to hire someone to handle business full time.

While financing the project has left him without a financial cushion, he says he has close to a third of his money back, less than three months after SR&B's release.

"I did this project because I thought it would be fun, it seemed viable and because I love this kind of music. I know I have a great product and it will out."

[Home] [This Issue's Directory] [WFP Index] [WFP Back Issues] [E-Mail WFP]

---

Contents on this page were published in the July/August, 1993 edition of the Washington Free Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1993 WFP Collective, Inc.