The Oasis CD Blog: Discs, Music, and More.

An astounding array of talented friends (more than 300 strong) turned up for the Oasis New York office’s grand opening last night. Thank you so much! The music was wonderful and it was great to see our friends at this event. There was lots of low-key schmoozing, and those who were here for the music and musical interaction were more involved than I’ve ever seen. The performers returned this love with a respect for the audience, knowing that they were performing for some of their best peers at this event.

I’m not kidding about this. Just one example: who’s the audience member looking so poetical below?

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He’s looking poetical because he is poetical: He’s Jack Hardy. Legendary songwriter Jack Hardy. Gracious enough to attend our event and keep the songwriters actually on the stage on their toes. This is the caliber of crowd we had.

Shanna Zell, the rapt audience member you see here, is our NYC rep and a wonderful up and coming musician herself.

The rest of this post tells the story of the concert and party. Hope you enjoy it!

—–Up first was the wonderful Jen Chapin Trio — Jen Chapin, Stephan Crump, Jamie Fox — who I had been dying to hear in person for the longest time.

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Next: Sean Altman, who also graciously emceed the event for us, and who the crowd just devoured. Even though I made you work clean, Sean.

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Next: Kenny White, who quickly had the Oasis staff in particular howling immediately by weaving his New York-centric view of the Blue Ridge into his opening number (not, perhaps, quite having fully digested his handler’s dossier on Oasis’ Virginia roots). No hard feelings, Kenny, you’ll work in this town again. I’m sure.

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And finally, Internet phenom Jonathan Coulton,

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who happily surprised many of us by proving he exists in the flesh, not just in the blogosphere, by showing up early for the soundcheck that wasn’t and staying to the not-bitter ending after midnight. Thanks to everyone! What a great night.
–Micah
Micah Solomon • President • Oasis Disc Manufacturing • www.OasisCD.com • (888)296-2747

PS: I hope you’ll be sure to come visit our New York office: 250 West 57th Street Suite #1218 (W57th and Broadway, The Fisk Building) when you have a chance! Our new local number is 212-395-9460.)

Again, thanks to: Bob W, Courtney, Steve L and tv in addition to the usual wonderful Oasis suspects. This thing wouldn’t have worked without you.

Thanks to you–it’s happened!! In the early days of Oasis, there really was no way I could realistically think that one day we’d proudly fly our flag right in the heart of New York City.

But through the years, as we’ve grown, New York’s creative community has been very supportive of Oasis, and today I am proud to announce the opening of our newest Oasis office at W. 57th & Broadway! We are proud to be sharing a suite with a great NYC-based institution, Woody Guthrie Publications. Here are the coordinates for this new Oasis office, which now joins the other Oasis offices in the Blue Ridge Mountains (Sperryville, VA), in the Washington, D.C. area (Springfield, VA), as well as our plant in South Jersey (Delair).

Oasis Disc Manufacturing
250 West 57th St.
Suite 1218
New York, NY 10107
212-395-9460
http://oasisCD.com

Shanna, our local NYC Client Advisor, is busy getting things rolling in the new office. If you have any questions or need a quote for a CD project, call our NYC office at 212-395-9460 or just stop by!

Thanks so much for making this possible–Micah

The musicians we work with at Oasis may well be the most charitable in the world! This is based on my unofficial reckoning as follows: Every time our clients fill out a survey at the end of a manufacturing project, they have the option of forgoing a very nifty Oasis Disc Manufacturing T-shirt and instead have Oasis donate the equivalent value to the Jazz Foundation of America’s Musician’s Emergency Fund (which helps musicians trying to get/stay on their feet in the continuing economic freefall wrought by hurricanes Katrina and Rita).

So far, the vast majority of Oasis clients filling out the survey have chosen the donation: 378 in just the last few months, in fact! When Wendy Oxenhorn, Executive Director of the Jazz Foundation, received the resulting donation check, she wrote the following letter, which really goes out to you – all 378 of you!

“Kindness and generosity for the elders of jazz and blues and the musicians of New Orleans and nationwide encourages not only all of us who are working together to help, but also the musicians themselves. Our ability to help is because of you, and for that we thank you.” –Wendy

FILE UNDER: OASIS CLIENTS HELPING OASIS CLIENTS

Christine Lavin – folk pioneer, founding Bitchin’ Babe,

and an Oasis CD client herself – hosts the XM Satellite Radio program Slipped Disc with producer Bill Kates. She was kind enough to send us a note recently saying that she’d be airing a generous chunk of the latest OasisAcoustic sampler CD on her show; the segment will air four times.

Tracks featured included “I Should Go” by Levi Kreis, “Ain’t So Green” by Carsie Blanton, and “The Starbucks of County Down” by long-time Oasis client Greg Trafidlo.

They also featured work by other long-time Oasis clients and friends such as Janis Ian and Grace Griffith.

Christine and Bill also discussed on the air Oasis as a manufacturer who “goes the extra mile” for independent music clients.

Thanks Chris!

–Micah

Micah Solomon

President, Oasis Disc Manufacturing

At the poolside party in Austin where the grand prize Oasis Disc Manufacturing drawing was held, the winner was none other than incredible Arts supporter Vic Heyman, who — with no personal plans to start a recording career — later that night transferred his winning entry to local Austin songbird Jenny Reynolds. (Jenny is pictured above, astounded and claiming unworthiness for Vic’s gift.)

Jenny has two upcoming CDs (studio and live) and will be applying the Oasis prize to them.

See more re. the exciting Southwest Regional Folk Alliance conference (SWRFA) and other Oasis goings-on in Austin here.

Here’s Oasis Disc Manufacturing client Jaime Michaels a few minutes ago

performing a mini-showcase in Austin, Texas, soon after the UPS truck pulled up with his brand new Oasis-pressed CD. Oasis is here in Austin participating in the annual Southwest Regional Folk Alliance (SWRFA or SWERFA, depending which way you lean), which sponsors these great little guerilla showcases for artists of all stripes.

There is nothing flashy about a Folk Alliance conference. The Fashion Police, luckily, don’t make rounds here, or they would have the whole lot of us rounded up and arrested for multiple violations. More importantly, there’s precious little snobbery here; this is as close to a level playing field as you’ll find in the music business.

The level of notoriety of the performers here ranges from not-so-much to nationally famous. At the very same time I was listening to Jaime and shooting this video clip, Grammy award-winning songwriter Jon Vezner* was performing a similar guerilla showcase literally next door, in similarly austere surroundings.

Louis Meyers, the Executive Director of the Folk Alliance and the legendary co-founder of South by Southwest, put it this way to me, earlier today: “If there’s one thing we have here,” Louis said, “It’s the songs. We may not have the flash, but we have the substance. And more and more, Nashville and LA are realizing this and are coming to these conferences looking for the hits — and licensing-friendly material — of tomorrow.”

*Vezner, in the classic “share the wealth” tradition of the Folk Alliance, in fact helps teach a new generation of songwriters at the Oasis-sponsored Songcamps run by Paul Reisler.

…I can’t give you a blanket answer for that question, obviously. But I will tell you what’s important: day job or no day job, be sure to not treat your music career as just a hobby.

A career in the music business is in some ways similar to any other bootstrapping, entrepreneurial activity. It’s acceptable, even arguably smart, to start on a small scale backed by whatever type of conventional employment you can stomach.

Yeah, yeah, I know: working your day gig can take some spring out of your step, but it may also bring you key benefits like health insurance (don’t hit the road without that one, folks!)

Still, supplemental employment is no reason to treat your music as just a hobby. To succeed in the music business on your own terms, you’ll need to run your career like a real business - beginning now. Run your part-time business just as professionally as a full-timer would.

My friend Charlie Hunter, legendary manager emeritus of Dar Williams, Richard Shindell, et. al and current proprietor of The Roots on the Rails Music Train tells this story about a recent “overnight success”:

“If you caught the heart-tugging story on Oprah (Faith Hill recently recorded a whole album of folksinger Lori McKenna’s songs), you would think that Lori was a ‘stay at home mom’ who had only played a couple local clubs before her big, big break. In reality, Lori toured for years, released several CDs that were nationally distributed, and had serious music-business connections. She never, ever treated music as just a hobby.”

I’ve written more on this subject and others in my Insider’s Guide: How to Thrive in the Music Business: Ten ideas from Micah Solomon. If you’d like a free copy (it would be my pleasure!) as well as other goodies, please click here.

–Micah

Micah Solomon

President

Oasis Disc Manufacturing

http://oasisCD.com

Sometimes, it’s best to maintain your independence. Especially now, especially in the music industry.

At a time when certain focus-grouped, demographics-driven major label artists have trouble filling events unless their record company begs, pays, or cajoles enough people to fill the seats, independent music has a real opportunity to shine.

Especially if you’re the kind of independent artist who doesn’t mind doing some good hard legwork.

I was pointedly reminded of this the other night at Puck in Doylestown PA, a hopping little music venue in this postcard-perfect town where Oasis clients Lisabeth and Maggie were having their CD release concert.

Here’s one measure of how healthy an independent act can be when it gets its one-to-one marketing right: the handful of industry invitees on the guest list couldn’t get in to the show until the club had seated all the paying customers. (Which was possible only just barely, and belatedly — the show was so popular.) The house wasn’t faux-sold-out in Hollywood “Special Industry Event” style; it was door-to-door filled with paying customers.

Are Lisabeth and Maggie nationally known? Not to my knowledge. But it was clear from that night at Puck’s that what they may lack in breadth of market they more than make up for in depth. They are favorites in their community, are involved in their community, and their community comes out to support them — and to hear their lovely music.

– Micah

Micah Solomon
President, Oasis Disc Manufacturing

Russ Solomon, the 81 year old founder of Tower Records, once the predominant recorded-music chain in the nation, is back! His new concept harkens back to the old idea of the information-rich record store: highly informed clerks in varied musical disciplines, deep inventory, intelligent layout. Everything you need for the serendipity that stopping into a record store once was.

He’s starting with just one store, R5 Records, in Sacramento (hometown of the now-defunct Tower chain), and hoping to bring the concept nationwide.

Here’s the article from his hometown paper, the Sacramento Bee:

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/213184.html

– Micah

Micah Solomon
President, Oasis Disc Manufacturing