Tag: Madjack Records

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Music Music Blog

Bailey Bigger to Headline Cooper-Young Festival

Bailey Bigger (Photo: Bethany Reid Visuals)

The 2022 Evolve Bank & Trust Cooper Young Festival, slated for Saturday, September 17th from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., has announced its musical lineup.

The headliner will be Bailey Bigger, backed by a band featuring Mark Stuart (bass guitar), Wyly Bigger (keyboards) and Danny Banks (drums).

Growing up in small town — Marion, Arkansas, just outside of Memphis, Tennessee — Bigger began writing and performing seriously in Memphis at the age of 14. It’s been quite a journey from that to Bigger’s debut full length album, Coyote Red, released by Madjack Records in March and featured in the Memphis Flyer‘s music column at the time.

At the time, we wrote of her strong-yet-delicate singing and evocative songwriting, with echoes of Joan Baez and similar artists. Bigger noted that when producing the album, Mark Stuart told her, “I think this record’s about you showing who you are, in a genuine, down-to-earth way.” It’s not to be missed. Visit baileybigger.com to learn more and find tour dates near you. 

Here is the complete music lineup for the 2022 Cooper Young Festival:

Memphis Grizzlies Stage
12:30 pm             Joy Dog – Danny & Joyce Green
1:30 pm               Rachel Maxann
2:30 pm               The Delta Project
3:30 pm               Jay Jones
4:30 pm               Generation Gap

Evolve Bank & Trust Stage
11:15 am             SoundBox
12:15 pm             Rodrick Duran
1:15 pm               Elevation
2:15 pm               The City Fathers
3:15 pm               Chinese Connection Dub Embassy
4:15 pm               Carlos Guitarlos
5:15 pm               Headliner – Bailey Bigger

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Music Music Features

Bigger Sounds: Coyote Red

PHOTO: BETHANY REID VISUALS Bailey Bigger

Bailey Bigger is on solid footing now, and that’s a good thing. While some music fans hope their favorite artist will never get too comfortable, feeling that great art comes only from suffering, Bigger is here to show that the opposite is true. Her new album on Madjack, Coyote Red, is an object lesson in being secure enough to open up in one’s art and, thus, reveal something truer than ever. 

We last spoke with her upon the release of her 2020 EP, Let’s Call It Love (Big Legal Mess), and it was no accident that we characterized those songs as “confronting trauma.” Even then, her strong alto, evoking a classic era of strong female singers like Joan Baez, was in full effect, as was her ability to turn a phrase and a melody. Now, with the imminent release of her first full-length album, those qualities are more apparent than ever, with the added bonus of “blood harmonies” — that almost inseparable harmony some singing siblings share — with her brother, Wyly Bigger, who also contributes piano. She recently touched base with the Flyer to fill us in on what’s changed.

Memphis Flyer: It feels like a lot has changed since your last release.Bailey Bigger: That was released in December of 2020, and I guess we all have gone through a transformation since then. I think Let’s Call It Love was more centered on that first breakthrough, of saying enough is enough with certain aspects of your life and deciding you want to change the way it’s going. With this record, I don’t think I’ve written anything that has felt more like me. I feel like I settled into myself in these last two years, more than I ever have, and that reflects in this album. 

It’s a little more of an honest look into who I am, without all of these ordeals and setbacks fogging my mind and my heart. I’ve found myself again, but in a new form, where I can still bring back those parts of my innocence and my childhood. I’m settling into my own shoes and finding that inner joy again. I think everyone around me was feeling that simultaneously.

“Everyone” meaning the band and producer Mark Edgar Stuart?
Yeah. Mark and I have become really good friends, and I think him taking the reins really set the tone for it immediately. We had the same vision. And all the musicians he got to play on it, and Kevin Houston engineering, just set the energy for the record immediately and kind of made it this little paradise of friends. That sounds so cheesy, but it was just so fun and real and raw. I think the experience we had is captured in the music because it was really emotional, and everyone who was there experienced the same thing, which was pretty powerful.

What was Mark’s approach as a producer?
He was very hands-off. And I think we equally trusted each other. We both knew we had the same vision. So we trusted each other’s calls. He wanted it to come off as personal, as these songs of mine are, so he stepped back in all the right places. But he helped me pick out the songs, and he actually supported a lot of songs that I was down on. That gave me confidence to create what this is. I don’t think I would have chosen half the songs on the album if it wasn’t for his encouragement. He brought that outsider’s perspective.

There’s a song called “Wyly,” which is about my brother, obviously. It was a song I wrote for him in 10 minutes one night, when I was really emotional. I was kind of down on it, because I thought, “It’s one of those songs that I just spit out, that’s not refined enough.” Mark was the one who said, “No, no, no, this is the gold right here. You can’t recreate something that’s that raw.” He said, “I think this record’s about you showing who you are, in a genuine, down-to-earth way.”
Bailey Bigger and band will play a free record release show on Friday, April 1st, at Hernando’s Hide-A-Way, 8 p.m.

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Music Music Features

Jed Zimmerman: Bringing It All Back Home to Memphis

Jed Zimmerman channels his Memphis roots in his album, Below the Blooms. (Photo: Jamie Harmon)

Jed Zimmerman may be the most Memphis Texan you’ll ever meet. Or is he the most Texas Memphian? Living in the Fort Worth area, he’s clearly a Texan now, but this is one native son of Memphis who hasn’t forgotten his roots. It’s more apparent than ever on his new album on the local Madjack label, Below the Blooms, wherein our hero journeys back to the land of his birth to record his songs with players steeped in the Memphis sound.

That was the goal from the outset, when Zimmerman called on his old friend Mark Edgar Stuart to produce the project. A core band was assembled at Delta-Sonic Sound that included Stuart, Danny Banks, Al Gamble, and Will Sexton (another Texas/Tennessee border jumper). Other odd players, like myself, were recruited to toss in a few chords, and, to hear Zimmerman describe it, it was a bit of a dream team.

“It’s almost like a little Wrecking Crew, this group,” he says. “I just wanted that authentic thing. With you Memphis guys, man, I was like, ‘Let it do its thing, man!’ There was nothing to think about here. I wanted to make a record with you guys, the way you guys feel it right when you hear it. There was no pre-planning. Let’s just get these guys together and let them interpret it the way they want to interpret it.”

Zimmerman typically plays solo guitar in the classic troubadour style, but with the Memphis band, he found himself rethinking the arrangements. “I don’t need my name in the credits, like ‘Jed on guitar,’” he says. “I might try a guitar overdub. Well, maybe Jed’s inadequate, all right? And sometimes it just didn’t need it! And I was fine with that. It’s big boy music. There’s so much beautiful space on this record that we didn’t need a lot of mandolins or guitar strumming. The breathing is important.”

Case in point, the opening track, with nary an acoustic strum to be heard. “Oh my God, them birds are chirpin’!” Zimmerman sings. Okay, is this a nature lover’s song? “Oh my God, look at all the light!” Hmm, he doesn’t sound too thrilled about it. “Doin’ time for the crime of … murder.” Wait, what? And then comes the song title and punch line, all rolled into one: “I killed a day, last night.” As remorseful morning-after looks at tying one on go, it’s a gem. That craftsmanship is typical of the entire album, and Zimmerman’s approach generally. Not surprisingly, his craftsmanship has roots in Memphis as well.

As he recalls, after graduating from Germantown High School, “I was 19 or something, living in Eads, Tennessee, and that’s when Cory Branan was starting to blow up. I’d hear the Pawtuckets, Jimmy Davis and the Riverbluff Clan — Jimmy’s like a brother to me. And then there was Mark Stuart. I’d play songwriter showcases at the Flying Saucer. Mark Stuart heard me and drove all the way out to Eads, and we sat on the front porch. He really thought I had something.”

Encouraged, Zimmerman moved to Midtown, ultimately reuniting with his high school sweetheart, Kelley Mickwee, to form a musical duo that lasted for years. That’s when a turning point came. “I was playing a Jed and Kelley gig when Keith Sykes walked in, and my knees started shaking! I was already a fan. We had a beer, and he liked the songs. So he ended up producing two Jed and Kelley records. He’s the ultimate songwriter. I have such respect for him and his comedic genius.”

Today, having long parted ways with Mickwee, he’s still honing the craft exemplified by songsmiths like Sykes, and, Memphis Wrecking Crew or not, the new album lives and dies by Zimmerman’s pithy writing and unaffected delivery. “I’ve worked really hard on my songs,” he says. “A lot of people have this notion of ‘You gotta write a song every day if you wanna be this or that.’ But I pore over my stuff. I’ll fill up half a notebook on just a line or two. Because I don’t see the point in turning in a homework assignment or finishing a song just to say that you’ve finished a song. When I finish it, I’d like to sing it for the rest of my life.”

Jed Zimmerman, Mark Edgar Stuart, and special guests will play a record release show at The Green Room at Crosstown Arts on Friday, October 15, 7:30 p.m. $10.

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Music Record Reviews

Jack Of All Tunes: Graham Winchester’s Eclectic Pop

It took a few weeks, but after a lengthy search, I was able to find one Memphian who’d never heard of Graham Winchester or the many bands in which he plays (Jack Oblivian & the Sheiks, the MD’s, the Turnstyles, and, every once in a while, the Tennessee Screamers, to name but a few). Everyone else knows him as one of the hardest working players on the local scene, an indefatigable presence on social media, and an all around nice guy. Yet, perhaps because he plays in so many noteworthy bands, not as many are familiar with his solo work. 

That could change with his most recent releases, especially the single released on Madjack Records this March, “I’ll Be the One” b/w “People.” Unlike the raunch ‘n’ roll purveyed by Jack Oblivian, this solo release is unabashedly happy-go-lucky pop. The A-side, for example, certainly sounds like an A-side, and could make for a potential hit if this was the 60s or the 80s. (Or maybe now, what do I know?)

The tradition of power pop in this city is a rich one, even if it’s sometimes overshadowed by the blues, soul, and rock ‘n’ roll. Winchester’s bouncy take on a declaration of love would fit right in on an album by Good Question, the group started by local pop-meister Van Duren in the early 80s. Giving it that extra 80s shimmer are some tasty synth licks that are nestled in the guitar-driven track. 

The flipside mixes a slower bounce with a trace of poignancy, as Winchester croons about humanity in a more wistful manner, like a cross between Herman’s Hermits and the Kinks. The warmer, more traditional sounds of piano and organ dominate this one, in keeping with its earlier touchstones, and in a way it’s more affecting than the A-side. The extra touch of vulnerability draws you in.

Winchester is nothing if not prolific, and there are more recent releases to be heard as well. While the aforementioned tracks are on a physical release, the new tracks on Bandcamp are clearly post-coronavirus, solo excursions on acoustic guitar. Both “Fortune Favors the Bold” and “I’ll Be Sad With You” go a long way in demonstrating Winchester’s eclecticism, exuding a mellow folk melancholy that is especially cathartic in these quarantined days. “Fortune” is especially moving, a portrait of a spurned lover blindsided by rejection and striving to make sense of it all. Musically, it’s more venturesome as well, dipping into some fascinating dissonance in the coda that adds further shadows to the mood.

Winchester has been ahead of the live-streaming curve since shelter-in-place began, and that may be the perfect place to hear these songs in the context of his wide-ranging songwriting chops. As an everyman singer with a restless imagination, there’s no telling where he’s headed next.

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Music Music Features

Graham Winchester: ‘Round the Clock Rocker

Maybe there’s a Memphian out there who doesn’t know Graham Winchester, 31, the musical mainstay who drums for more than half a dozen bands, guides tours at Sun Studio, and has hosted a number of tribute benefit concerts, like 2016’s Memphis Does Bowie: Benefit for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Oh, and that’s all when he’s not home with his wife, parenting two toddlers.

Winchester, whose groups dabble in bluegrass, punk, rock-and-roll, soul, and other genres, may not be the hardest-working musician in Memphis, but he certainly makes a case for himself as such. This spring, that hard work pays off, as the drumming dad hosts a songwriter series at Bar DKDC and releases two (two!) records — a self-titled solo 45 out on Madjack Records (with a release concert at Bar DKDC Friday, March 13th), and a full-length LP by Turnstyles, the duo of Winchester and multi-instrumentalist Seth Moody, out on Black and Wyatt Records in April.

Graham Winchester

So how did Winchester get behind the drum kit for so many Memphis groups? He started early, when he was 10 years old. “When I started playing drums, I had to play pots and pans for at least a year,” Winchester remembers, explaining that his parents wanted to make sure he was invested before buying a drum set. “I don’t blame them. If you buy your kid drums, is it going to be annoying for two weeks and then collect dust?”

Before long, though, Winchester switched his pots and pans for a snare and toms, and he even began hosting band practices at his house. “My parents were cool enough to tolerate that.” His band mates would leave their instruments at Winchester’s house between practices, and while they were away, Winchester would play — anything he could get his musical mitts on. That gave the fledgling musician early experience with other instruments, which would serve him well years later when he began writing his own songs. Before that, though, Winchester had to get his first taste of the stage.

“I started playing in clubs in Memphis when I was 13,” Winchester laughs, remembering getting his cheeks pinched during ladies’ nights on the old Highland Strip. Because not all parents are as willing to let their kid learn to play an instrument without a volume knob, drummers are always in demand. “I’m probably the youngest person in just about every band I’m in,” Winchester says. “So there’s a lot of older experience shaping my playing.”

All those years, Winchester was getting a front-row seat in the class of songcraft, which, in turn, only increased his cachet in local circles. “If I’m singing and drumming, live or in the studio, I can pack a punch where I want to,” he says. “I can bring out that energy.”

That energy will be in high demand this spring, as Winchester juggles his Wednesday-night songwriter series at Bar DKDC with a series of record releases, from this Friday’s solo 45 release to Turnstyles’ Cut You Off at The Cove in April. Turnstyles’ debut was recorded in Moody’s basement in a single night. “We did 12 songs, with the vocals,” Winchester says. “We cut from 7 p.m. to 5 in the morning and got a whole record done in one night, Please Please Me Beatles-style.”

Whether Winchester’s ability to run on minimal sleep is thanks to his time playing late-night shows in the Memphis bar scene or helping out with the kids at home is anyone’s guess, but he finds inspiration whenever and wherever he can. “The kids really inspire me, and they make me want to go out and work, just in the most basic way, to bring home money to support them. I want them to have a great future,” Winchester says. “And their personalities inspire me. They remind me of the purest form of art, just the fun side of it.” Winchester laughs before adding, “And I try to sleep when I can.”

Graham Winchester releases his album at Bar DKDC on Friday, March 13th, 7:30 p.m. Winchester hosts his Songwriter Series at Bar DKDC, Wednesdays, through March 25th.

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Music Music Blog

Madjack Records: 20 Years of Homespun Magic

Pawtuckets

In the early ’90s Mark Edgar Stuart, then a college student on an orchestra scholarship, picked up a copy of the Flyer, read an ad, and joined a band. “I was reading the Memphis Flyer one day, and there was an ad in the classifieds, ‘bass player wanted,’” Stuart says. “I never in a million years would I have answered a bass player wanted ad, except it said ‘influences — the Band and Blue Mountain.’” Stuart, who had expected to see a list of cheesy metal bands, says his interest was piqued. The ’90s alt-country movement hadn’t really gotten off the ground yet, but Blue Mountain was making some waves in Oxford — and of course Stuart knew the Band. “I called the number” Stuart says. “I wasn’t even interested in being in a band. It’s just one of those serendipitous things.” Thus began the career of the Pawtuckets, who will reunite after 18 years this Saturday to headline the Madjack Records 20th anniversary concert at Railgarten.

The beginnings of the Pawtuckets are relevant (beyond providing proof of the merits of regularly checking out the Flyer) because the Pawtuckets, and Stuart, are inextricably tied to the history of Madjack Records.

“Around 1998, with our second record, [Rest of Our Days], we decided to start a record label,” Stuart says. “It didn’t really mean much at the time. … It was just a vehicle to put out the Pawtuckets record.” With Stuart on bass and Kevin Cubbins handling guitar and pedal steel duties, the Pawtuckets were helmed by the dual songwriting talents of guitarist Mark McKinney and pianist/guitarist Andy Grooms. Percussion was handled by a rotating cast of drummers. “McKinney had a dog named Madison, and Andy Grooms had a dog named Jackpot,” Stuart remembers. “So we said let’s just name the label Madjack after the two dogs.”

Jamie Harmon

Mark Edgar Stuart

Though Stuart confesses to being more interested, at the time, in playing bass and drinking beer than in business, he says McKinney had bigger ideas and took a more serious interest in Madjack. Before too long, Madjack had signed Cory Branan and Lucero, a band the Pawtuckets often shared bills with. Co-owner Ronny Russell joined the Madjack scene to help McKinney with the business side of things. Says Stuart, “It just sprouted wings after that.”
Joshua Black-Wilkins

Cory Branan

Eventually the Pawtuckets disbanded, but Madjack soldiered on. The label continued to grow and to represent Memphis talent, through the CD boom, after the advent of the downloadable mp3, into the age of online streaming. “We definitely had to evolve,” Russell says. And still Madjack has signed Memphis artists like James and the Ultrasounds, Susan Marshall, and Jana Misener, up to and including Stuart’s recently released third album, Mad at Love, recorded in part at Scott Bomar’s Electraphonic Recording studio in Memphis and in part with Bruce Watson of Fat Possum in Mississippi.

Susan Marshall

 Stuart, who began his Memphis music career playing upright bass in an orchestra pit, has transformed again in the past few years with the growth of an unexpected singer/songwriter career. “I just started the singer/songwriter thing about six years ago,” Stuart says. “Up until that point I was just a bass player. I played for the Pawtuckets and Cory [Branan], Alvin Youngblood Hart, and just whoever needed a bass player,” Stuart says, listing an impressive curriculum vitae. He adds two more Memphis heavy hitters: Jack Oblivian and John Paul Keith.

“If you’d told me 10 years ago I’d be doing what I’m doing now, I would have told you you were crazy,” Stuart says. “Then in about 2011, I got cancer and lost my dad and it just inspired me to try to do something different.” Stuart says he felt like he had something to write about and a more mature viewpoint to bring to his craft. Around this time, with his 2013 debut solo LP, Blues for Lou, Stuart first pinged my radar. I remember hearing “Remote Control” on the radio, and pulling over to the side of the road to listen. I imagine I’m not the only one who’s been so affected by Stuart’s powerful songwriting. Stuart will perform his solo material at the anniversary show in two sets — a full band set and a stripped-down songwriter set — as well as joining Jana Misener and Krista Wroten-Combest and the Pawtuckets on bass. 

James & the Ultrasounds

“I never thought [the Pawtuckets] would get back together, but this seemed like the perfect moment,” Stuart says of the Pawtuckets reunion show set to close out the festivities at the Madjack anniversary shindig Saturday. “We haven’t played together since 2000, and we haven’t played with the original drummer since 1998, so it has been 20 years since we played with the original lineup.” With the Pawtuckets reunion concert and brand-new and soon-to-be-released albums from several of the artists in the Madjack arsenal, the anniversary show should present a mix of old and new sounds from the Memphis label.

Madjack Records celebrates 20 years at Railgarten Saturday, October 20th, at 1 p.m. Free.

Lineup:
Wampus Cats – Outdoor Stage – 1:00 – 2:00p
Jed Zimmerman – Outdoor Stage – 2:00 – 2:45p
Corduroy & the Cottonwoods – Pong Bar – 2:45 – 3:30p
Keith Sykes – Outdoor Stage – 3:00 – 3:45p
Delta Joe Sanders – Pong Bar – 3:45 – 4:30p
Mark Edgar Stuart (solo) – Outdoor Stage – 4:00 – 4:45p
Rob Jungklas – Pong Bar – 4:45 – 5:30p
James & the Ultrasounds – Outdoor Stage – 5:00 – 5:45p
Eric & Andy – Pong Bar – 5:45 – 6:30p
Susan Marshall – Outdoor Stage – 6:00 – 6:45p
TN Boltsmokers – Pong Bar – 6:30 – 7:15p
McKenna Bray – Outdoor Stage – 6:45 – 7:30p
Mark Edgar Stuart (band) – Pong Bar – 7:45 – 8:45p
Jana & Krista of Memphis Dawls – Outdoor Stage – 8:00 – 8:45p
Cory Branan – Outdoor Stage – 9:00 – 10:00p
Pawtuckets – Pong Bar – 10:00 – 11:00p

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Corduroy and the Cottonwoods

They call it twangy Monday, but Tuesday’s just as bad.

This week’s Music Video Monday features a choogler from Corduroy and the Cottonwoods. They released a full-length on Madjack Records last Friday, and today they make their MVM debut with “Smoking Gun”. Get some!

Smoking Gun (Official Video) by Corduroy and the Cottonwoods on VEVO.

Music Video Monday: Corduroy and the Cottonwoods

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com

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Music Music Blog

Brandon Taylor’s “Radio Ghost” Record Release Show

Brandon Taylor.

The first time I met Brandon Taylor was down in the Delta at the caretaker’s lodge flanked alongside the Baby Doll House near Benoit. Wiry, curly-haired, and soft-spoken, he was visiting river-man Matthew Burdine, who happened to be watching the property for a few days. The two of them wore cowboy hats and toothy necklaces and discussed Neal Cassidy and Jack Kerouac the way Civil War buffs might trade information about the battle of Shiloh or Gettysburg.

In his debut album, Radio Ghost, Taylor runs the gamut of Americana styles with pedal steel, and Dylan inspired ballads to Deep South crooning and bluegrass. I had a chance to catch up with him to talk about his new album.

Brandon recalls being in fifth grade trying the smorgasbord of musical instruments for a sort of aptitude test for the school band.

“Their recommendation was for clarinet, but I was dead set on playing drums. I never liked to read music or anything like that—I always just wanted to play what I wanted to play.”

As time went by, he realized that most American music was played in 4/4 time and his curiosity drifted towards melody, inspiring him to pick up the guitar.

“The Christmas I got a drum set, my brother got a Sears guitar. He just never learned how to play it, so one summer when I was twelve, I dragged it out from under his bed and started Googling guitar chords.”

On the intro track, “Need a Fix,” Brandon belts out, “Don’t trust the government.” He explained that this was inspired by Edward Snowden. He recalls family members at Thanksgiving talking about how unpatriotic Snowden was to come forward about the extent of NSA surveillance.

“It’s unpatriotic to come forward and say ‘your government is lying to you’?” Taylor asked.

“In that song, it evolved into, well, what else is wrong? We’re always on our phones—we’re more connected than ever, but less connected than ever.”

The album- which was produced by Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell- will be released on Mad Jack Records and features a who’s who of regional musicians. Taylor recorded live duets with Shannon McNally, has Cody Dickinson backing him on drums in “Memphis in the Summer-time,” and Luther Dickinson playing electric guitar on multiple tracks including “Baby Blue” – which sounds like a song straight off of Exile on Main Street.

The album release of Radio Ghost will feature several opening acts including Kelley Anderson and DJ Andrew McCalla, and of course a live performance by Brandon Taylor and friends. The event will run from 9pm to 12am on Friday, December 9th at Studio 688.

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Cover Feature News

In a Groove!

CREDIT: Josh Miller

AudioGraphic Masterworks (AGMW) began in 1997 as a project of Brandon Seavers and his partner, Mark Yoshida. The company was located on Summer Avenue in a 500-square-foot office, where Yoshida and Seavers would first begin their journey into multi-media productions. Seavers and Yoshida were the only employees.

The company later relocated to Midtown, before building its current facility in Bartlett, in 2008.

Through the years, AGMW developed a strong relationship with Oxford, Mississippi-based label Fat Possum Records (the Black Keys, Wavves, Iggy and the Stooges), manufacturing most of the label’s CDs for more than a decade. At the end of 2013, Fat Possum manager Bruce Watson approached Seavers about what he knew about pressing vinyl records. Vinyl sales were booming, and Watson needed a place close to home to produce his records.

“If you know anything about the vinyl industry, you know that it takes forever to get anything done,” Seavers said.

“The industry has grown to the point where it takes four to six months to get a record pressed and shipped back to you.”

Watson knew this all too well. In 2013, Fat Possum had thousands of Modest Mouse records held in customs in the Czech Republic, costing the label thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

“We had gone through places like United Records in Nashville and Pirates Press, but we couldn’t wait six months for a record anymore, especially since we took on the Modest Mouse catalog and the Hi Records stuff,” Watson said.

“We already knew Mark and Brandon had manufacturing experience, and they were seeing the CD side of things going downhill, so this provided a new opportunity for them as well.”

Vinyl record-making machinery isn’t exactly the type of stuff you find on eBay. Most record presses are nearly 50 years old and are powered by steam. With vinyl’s increasing popularity among audiophiles and music fans, those in possession of a pressing machine know the kind of power they hold.

A few months into their search, Seavers and Watson got lucky. They learned about an old pressing plant in Brooklyn that had shut down — most of the equipment still intact and being stored in New Jersey. They contacted the owner, who said he would only sell if the buyer bought everything, down to the last bolt.

“We started looking for the equipment at the end of 2013, and by the spring of 2014 we were buying this whole pressing plant,” Seavers said. “My wife had a baby in late 2013, so my head was exploding with all this stuff going on. I remember Bruce calling me, and my response was just like, ‘Wow, really? You want to do this now?'”

“We didn’t ever think we would find the equipment in one place, and the guy who owned all this stuff before us looked at it all like it was his pet. He wanted all the parts to go to one family, and he wanted to make sure it was going to people who would take care of it. He was very involved from the beginning.”

The equipment arrived at the AGMW warehouse in May 2014, 10 steam-powered machines total. The Memphis Record Pressing team spent the next six months setting up their first machine, rebuilding valves, and nearly rewiring the entire thing. Anything susceptible to malfunction was replaced before the machine was used.

“You’re looking at 40- to 50-year-old machines. You put power and steam and pressure on those things, and something is bound to pop,” Seavers said.

“No one really knows what’s going to happen until you fire them up.”

Josh Miller

A worker at Memphis Record Pressing inspects a record before sending it to the listening station

The Vinyl Guru

When you’re dealing with machines that have been around for nearly half a century, finding the right mechanic can be just as hard as finding the machine for him to work on. Record Products for America is the only company in the country that supplies replacement parts for a record press, and when they can’t accommodate, Memphis Record Pressing has to have their parts custom-made. But what about everyday malfunctions that arise when working with these ancient machines?

Enter Donny Eastland, affectionately known as the “Vinyl Guru.” Eastland worked for Southern Machine and Tool Corp (SMT) in the late 1970s, a Nashville-based company that manufactured some of the machines that Memphis Record Pressing uses. In addition to building record presses at SMT, Eastland installed them and got them up and running in pressing plants all over the world.

Seavers said that after a long search, he was able to track down Eastland — who is in his 60s and nearing retirement — and ask him if he would be interested in making records again.

“Donny was the [potential] deal-breaker. We knew that if we couldn’t get an experienced mechanic that we’d never get this off the ground,” Seavers said.

“It took a little bit of persistence to get Donny on board, but he agreed to commute from Nashville to work for us and to teach all of our mechanics everything he knows.”

With Eastland on board, Memphis Record Pressing is able to run an average of three record presses a day. They are capable of pressing records at 120, 130, and 180 grams. Even with the Vinyl Guru at the helm, Watson said everyone is still learning as they go.

“We were pretty naive going into this. Nothing about it has been easy, and everything has cost twice as much as we thought it would,” Watson said. “I don’t think we were so naive as to think this whole thing would be easy, but it’s been a lot more difficult than we imagined.”

Josh Miller

Three of the Hamilton Machines at Memphis Record Pressing

A New Press in Town

Since entering the vinyl business, Seavers has doubled his work staff, going from 13 employees to more than 30 — two shifts of workers, whose jobs range from listening to and inspecting each record for flaws to shrink-wrapping and packaging records for FedEx to pick up. Everything is done in-house; even the drop cards (a card inside each record that features a download code) are printed at AGMW.

“The guys that are making these records are artists. It’s definitely an art form because there are so many things that can go wrong during this process,” Seavers said.

“Each job in the process is important. There are people who do nothing but listen to each record and make sure there are no audible mistakes. Then there are our assembly guys, maintenance techs, shipping managers, and customer service representatives. There’s a lot going on in this small workspace.”

Most of the orders Memphis Record Pressing takes on are from Fat Possum and Sony RED, a subsidiary of Sony Records that represents more than 60 independent labels. Between the demands of those two entities, Memphis Record Pressing stays busy, turning out thousands of records a day. Seavers said they aren’t currently taking on any new clients.

“We don’t want to do what the other plants have done, which is to take on more work than what they are actually capable of doing,” Seavers said. “Your quality drops, your reputation drops, and you lose your ability to turn things out quickly. Since the word got out that we bought the equipment, we get calls every single day from people all around the world wanting to send us work, because they can’t get it done anywhere else.”

Seavers said they are hoping to take on new orders by late summer, but the labels they have worked with in the past and local labels such as Goner Records and Madjack Records will still take priority.

Josh Miller

After a record is pressed, the excess must be trimmed before moving on to the inspection station

Let the Fat Possum Eat

While Sony RED might be keeping the press operators busy at Memphis Record Pressing, Fat Possum Records has also reaped the benefits of having a pressing plant at their disposal. Watson said that Fat Possum moved 300,000 vinyl units last year and that he hopes to be able to move at least 600,000 units this year. In addition to being able to double the company’s vinyl sales, Watson said the pressing plant helps attract bands to his label.

“It’s definitely a selling point when we are trying to sign a band. Everyone is so into vinyl now that it’s become a part of the record deal when we work with someone,” Watson said.

“It’s nice to be able to tell a band that we have our own pressing plant and they wont have to worry about delay. There are so many releases now, where the album comes out, and then the vinyl comes out two months later. That kills a release. Unless you’re a huge act, you have one shot at your release date. That first week is so important because that’s when you usually sell the most records; that’s when the limited editions come out and you start registering on sound scans. If you have to wait two and a half months for your vinyl, you’ve lost all of your momentum on that release.”

Courtesy of Memphis Record Pressing

A stack of finished LP’s awaits inspection

The Vinyl Ripple Effect

Fat Possum isn’t the only local label to benefit from Memphis Record Pressing. Goner and Madjack have also tapped Memphis Record Pressing to churn out their releases; meaning local bands of all kinds are also getting in on the action. Madjack recording artist James Godwin said he remembered hearing about a pressing plant coming to Memphis, but he wasn’t sure when and if the rumors would come true.

“I remember hearing about it and thinking that it could end up helping out a lot of local musicians, but to be honest, I thought it was one of those things that might end up happening 10 years from now,” Godwin said.

After cutting Bad To Be Here, Godwin’s first full-length as James and the Ultrasounds, Madjack expressed interest in signing the band and releasing the album on vinyl. According to Godwin, Madjack first contacted United Record Pressing in Nashville and was told that it would be months before the record came out.

“I was planning on touring around the release, and I had the dates already booked. I was told we wouldn’t even have my records when we got back from the tour,” Godwin said.

Instead, Madjack Records worked up a deal with Memphis Record Pressing, and the single was done in a month. Godwin called Memphis Record Pressing “one of the last missing pieces of the puzzle” for Memphis music.

“I think it’s really important to have a local pressing plant in Memphis. When you go on the road and take a box of CDs with you, chances are you’re coming home with that box of CDs. If you have vinyl on the merch table, people buy it, because they know it’s limited,” Godwin said.

“There are also a lot of things that can go wrong in the process of making a record. I’ve looked at the forms you have to fill out at United, and I remember thinking, ‘Man, I’m not trying to get a job here. I just want a record put out.’ Having something this close to home really makes a difference, it makes you feel more connected to what’s going on with your music.”

Goner Records has already had two singles (“Giorgio Murderer” and “Aquarian Blood”) and an LP (a repress of Nobunny’s First Blood) manufactured at Memphis Record Pressing, with a Nots single and a reissue of a Reatards album currently in production. The Midtown label has had a deal with AGMW regarding the production of its CDs for some time, so it made sense to label co-owner Zac Ives to let Seavers handle the label’s vinyl needs as well.

“The biggest deal is that those guys are really good with managing projects. If you give them a date that you need to have something done by, they do everything they can to make it happen. That’s just not the case with everyone else,” Ives said.

With less wait time in between record releases, Ives said that the label isn’t locked into a certain process dictated by the pressing plant.

“We can go out and listen to a test press and approve it and it’s ready to go, instead of waiting for a test press in the mail. You’ve also got more input on what you’re listening to. The overall hands-on experience is a major improvement from what we’re used to dealing with.”

Goner still has ties with United Record Pressing, where most of the record jackets and labels from their earlier releases remain. But even with the relationship between Goner and United, Ives said the more releases they can give to Memphis Record Pressing, the better it is for all parties involved.

“Anything that we can do [at Goner] to help other local businesses stay afloat, we want to do,” Ives said.

“The local music industry used to be one of the biggest things in Memphis, and now it’s slowly building back up again. The pressing plant makes the local music infrastructure more complete, and I think everyone from show-goers, to local PR people, to the venues where bands play will feel the ripple effect.”

Categories
Music Music Features

New Records from Memphis’ Madjack

CREDIT: John Shaw

Memphis artists are showing up in all sorts of cool places. After a 23-year absence, the Replacements hosted their first hometown show last weekend in Minneapolis. The music press and the Twittersphere were all-ears. Memphis meta-alt favorites Lucero were the opening act. On another front, Memphian Cory Branan has his guns loaded with a new record attracting attention in everything from Rolling Stone to Noisey. Lucero and Branan have in common Madjack Records. While Lucero and Branan have moved to other labels, Madjack continues to foster the careers of several people from Memphis’ ponderous talent pool. This year, Madjack will release albums on the Memphis Dawls, Mark Edgar Stuart, and James and the Ultrasounds.

“It was just a coincidence that it all came together,” Madjack partner Ronny Russell says of the trio of new releases. “We did that a couple of years ago too with three records on Kait Lawson, Mark [Stuart], and John Kilzer. They all came at the same time. Usually, we let the creative side dictate the timing of it. It seems to come in phases. It happened back in the day with the Pawtuckets, Lucero, and Cory Branan. Those happened right in a row.”

Mark McKinney started the label to market his band the Pawtuckets, a regional success that released three albums in the early 2000s. At that time, Russell had been working with engineer Jeff Powell, who produced Memphis Dawls’ Rooted in the Bone, to be released this month.

“Jeff Powell and I hooked up on a band called the River Bluff Clan in the late 1990s. They came to me. I was a friend of theirs from high school. They came to me on the business side, for some advice on how to make a record. The Pawtuckets used to come see the River Bluff Clan when they were really young. I met them in the Poplar Lounge and other places. I got to know Mark McKinney. Mark was putting out the Pawtuckets records through Madjack.”

It didn’t take long for people to notice Lucero. Madjack released their self-titled debut in 2001.

“When it came time to put out Lucero, he wanted a business partner and some of that kind of help. He

came to me, and we wound up striking up a partnership in Madjack. We just heard music that was really good. And we were learning how to get records out in a good way. When we saw Cory at the Hi-Tone, he was in the same boat; didn’t know where to turn. So we all just jumped in it together and went forward. Then we had some luck. First of all, the people were very talented, as you know. Pawtuckets were very good and did well in town. Lucero might be the hardest working bunch of guys I’ve ever met in my life. Then Cory is a unique songwriter.”

Output slowed in the middle 2000s, but Madjack released albums by Rob Jungklas, Susan Marshall, Keith Sykes, and others. But it was Mark Stuart, the bassist for the Pawtuckets’ original act, who got things moving for this latest round.

“Even my partner Mark, who was in the Pawtuckets with him, you could have knocked us over with a feather when he started writing,” Russell says of Stuart. “We’ve known him for years. The quality of it was unbelievably good. Mark can tell you himself, he had some life experiences that made him more contemplative. He played with Cory on Letterman. He was the bass player on that. He’s a dear friend. And with material this good, it’s a no-brainer to put it out.”

That album, last year’s Blues for Lou, dealt movingly with Stuart’s 2011 battles with cancer and grief. Jeff Powell produced that record, and it touched a nerve in anyone who heard it. Stuart, having experimented with songs, began exploring the process of making records. His second solo record is due in early 2015. Stuart played bass for basically everybody and left a lot of folks without their low end when he started playing a guitar and singing. Enter Memphian James Godwin.

“At the time I didn’t really have a band and was picking up bass gigs,” Godwin says. “That’s when I really started tinkering around with my own songs, recording stuff on four-track, and playing it for friends. I just kept building on it over the years. When Mark started doing his solo thing, I started doing a lot more bass gigs with John Paul [Keith]. So there was a group of musicians helping each other out. It’s kinda nice.”

Godwin is another bassist-turned-songwriter who leads James and the Ultrasounds. Their debut full-length Bad To Be Here is due on Madjack in December. Bad To Be Here is Mark Stuart’s first record as a producer. The Ultrasounds come from a different place than the alt-country landscape of Madjack’s earlier catalog. The record veers through references to Abbey Road, punk rhythmic fervor, and some damn fine shouting. Jungklas’ 2013 The Spirit and the Spine also demonstrates an open-mindedness or perhaps adaptability in McKinney and Russell’s approach.

Memphis Dawls’ Rooted to the Bone comes out in Memphis on September 26th and nationally in November. The sound centers on the harmonies, both vocal and instrumental, among members Holly Cole, Jana Misener, and Krista Wroten Combest. The latter two work as string arrangers and performers on cello and violin. Engineer Powell lets Cole’s vocal lead the way and gives it just enough support from well-written parts. The sounds of each song are cherry picked from a range of country-inspired sounds, creating a rich entanglement of voices, strings, and other instruments, notably the Hammond organ.

Russell enjoys seeing the roster diversify and helping artists develop their careers.

“Jeff kept talking about how the blend of their voices is unique,” Russell says of the Dawls. “We got to listening to it, and it evolved over time. They felt like Madjack was a good fit. They knew that we could bring some resources to the table. We’re not Warner Brothers or anything. We can help with press promotions and radio promotions. To me, even though they are a completely different style of music, they are similar to Lucero in the sense that they work. It really helps us on the label side if someone is out traveling and touring.”

Asked if it was difficult watching his early talent shine at other labels, Russell remains passionate about watching his friends succeed.

“I’m actually going to dinner with Cory tonight. You talk about an incubator label. I’ve always described it as AA or AAA baseball. The major labels these days seldom sign someone off the street without any track record at all. If we just like it — and these people are so talented and creative — we try to help them and put it out. If they move on, more power to them. We’re their biggest cheerleaders. That’s what we do.