Category: Blog

Join Me for a “Fireside Chat” with the Leading Minds in Tech and Digital Music / Media

Kelli Richards April 14, 2011

I’m pleased to share with all of you that my weekly “All Access Radio” Show has developed a strong and loyal following!  Over 15,000 downloads in only a few short weeks.

I’ve also been graced with some of the top digital visionaries and leading voices in the music and technology industries, including Ty Roberts, Ian Rogers, and Tom Silverman (among others).  That list continues in the upcoming weeks.  I hope you’ll be able to tune in as I interview Media Futurist Gerd Leonhard; the President of Rafelson Media (and well known songwriter) Peter Rafelson; and entertainment technology visionary (and one of the sharpest minds in digital music) Jim Griffin.

Here’s the schedule and some background on each:

Gerd Leonhard – Monday 4/11 – 5pm Pacific Time

Gerd Leonhard is a media futurist, writer, keynote speaker and strategist with 25 years in the tech and entertainment industries in all major markets. Leonhard’s focus is on new technologies in content and media and technological convergence.  You can listen online at https://bit.ly/GerdLeonhard or you can simply call in and listen over your phone (626) 696-8608.

Leonhard’s work focuses on digital content, media, telecom, marketing and communications. He was the Co-Founder and CEO of SONIFIC and in 2010 Gerd Leonhard established The Futures Agency. The Futures Agency offers think-tank and training events, workshops and executive seminars, keynote speeches and advisory services to leading companies in the telecom, media, advertising and tech industries.

Peter Rafelson – Monday 4/18 – 5pm Pacific Time

Peter Rafelson is the President of Rafelson Media, which produces and consults for new technology and media companies – with a client list that includes industry giants like Microsoft, Apple and Toshiba. Peter is a well known writer and musician, working with music greats like Jackson Browne and Elton John. He’s written many successful songs, including Madonna’s # 1 “Open Your Heart” (27 million sold) and top 10 singles for Stevie Nicks and Jane Wiedlin of the GoGo’s. In addition to scoring and composing, he has acted in over 10 feature films, including FAME. You can listen online at https://bit.ly/PeterRafelson or you can simply call in and listen over your phone (626) 696-8608.

Peter is currently signing and producing artists for his own label, RM Records and developing projects for the film, TV. Peter recently traveled to Southeast Asia on a diplomatic mission to develop business relations for the entertainment industry. He is currently a staff producer for 2K/Virgin Records, an EMI record label.

Jim Griffin – Monday 4/25 – 5pm Pacific

Jim Griffin is an entertainment technology visionary and one of the sharpest minds in digital music. Griffin is the Managing Director of OneHouse, a company dedicated to the future of music and entertainment delivery.

Jim Griffin is focused on accelerating the pace of scholarly research thru collaborative tools and open access to knowledge. He started and runs Choruss LLC, incubated by Warner Music Group, and successfully led the team that built a new model for sound recordings: Sharing music with flat-fee access to unlimited downloads for students.

He also ran the tech dept at Geffen Records for 5 years (distributing the first full-length commercial song on-line, by Aerosmith). He is often a keynote speaker or moderator (Internet Summit, Giga Conference, Comdex, CES, Webnoize…) and lectures at business schools (Harvard, USC, UCLA, Berkeley). He also serves as an expert witness in digital entertainment. You can listen online at https://bit.ly/Jim-Griffin or you can simply call in and listen over your phone (626) 696-8608.

So please join me each week as I host an intimate “fireside chat” with some of the leading minds in technology and digital music and media.  You can find my entire library of recordings at https://allaccessgroup.com/articles-and-resources/blog-talk-radio as well as some personal interviews where I share about my own experiences over a twenty plus career in music and tech.  See you there!

Kelli Richards, CEO, The All Access Group, LLC

 

Making a Mark at Digital Hollywood Spring

Kelli Richards April 8, 2011

I’m very excited to share with everyone that I will be moderating a panel session at Digital Hollywood Spring at the Ritz Carlton in Marina Del Rey on Wednesday May 4th.  Here are the details on my panel, and some more information on the event itself.

Music Apps for SmartPhones, Tablets & Social Media is one of the hottest issues and opportunities in the digital arena right now, and I’m excited to have an amazing panel of experts to lead in that discussion.

My panel:

Wed. May 4th from 2:15 PM – 3:30 PM
Track III:  Music Apps for SmartPhones, Tablets & Social Media – Reaching Millions – Monetization

Panel Members include:

Larry Miller, founder – Chairman, ROBA Interactive
Michael Schneider,CEO, Mobile Roadie
Les Borsai, founder, Gridmob
KamranV, CyKiK
Timo Poijärvi, co-founder, Hitlantis
John Rudolph, CEO, Bug Music
Nik Miskov, VP of Business Development, CamUp
Robert (Leo) Rodgers, Sr. VP & Label Liaison, Bungalo Records

The entire event runs from May 2 through 5 and is jam-packed with a schedule of in-depth discussions and networking focusing on the top business issues impacting technology in entertainment today.  The Summit’s unique environment enables attendees to engage, debate and refine the latest tech developments in the entertainment marketplace. With an unprecedented group of opinion leaders, the summit will focus on how companies can capitalize on innovations in technology and is a “must-attend” event for individuals and companies working at the intersection of content, technology and entertainment.  *Attendees will be free to move from conference room to conference room during the day.

If anyone has any questions or wants to make arrangements to connect with me, please reach out directly by email at info@AllAccessGroup.com

Kelli Richards, President & CEO of The All Access Group, LLC
BIG VISIONS * BIG CONNECTIONS * BIG RESULTS

Author of the forthcoming book:
“You Say You Want a Revolution:  An Artist’s Manifesto
for Success in the Digital Age” (due out 11.11.11)

Co-Author of  “The Art of Digital Music”

Jeff Brandstetter – Thought Leader in Digital Music and Entertainment

Kelli Richards April 2, 2011

To hear the entire interview, please visit https://allaccessgroup.com/articles-and-resources/blog-talk-radio.

Jeff Brandstetter is a digital music and entertainment lawyer with over 20 years of experience in film, TV, music, literary, new media and entertainment financing matters. He is also the co-author of the highly acclaimed book “The Music Business Explained in Plain English.” He appears frequently as a speaker and moderator on entertainment law matters and is also the Co-Founder and CEO of IndiePlaya, a revolutionary online film distribution platform optimizing the marketing and distribution of independent films.

Kelli Richards: Jeff, what do you think the future of distribution is going to look like in say, five years, and how much of an impact do you think on-demand digital distribution will have on media?

Jeff Brandstetter: It’s interesting that you’re asking me this question. As you know, eleven years ago I was asked this exact same question on a panel about the future of the music industry. I think people tend to accelerate adoption faster in their minds than it actually occurs. I think the reality is that we well see physical product around for a while, and there will still be revenue around physical product for a long time… I think what the landscape will look like in 5 years is that content creators will fast become the hub. Right now everybody is chasing the distribution outlets du jour… because they see the largest numbers in terms of traffic going in that direction…. Indie content providers don’t need huge numbers of their own content to recoup their production budget, and that’s what they should be most interested in. Where are they going to maximize their revenues? As long as they’re passing their content along to 3rd parties, and essentially giving them all of the rights, wholesale, to distribute it and buying into that sell of, “You know, you’re a content provider. Don’t worry your pretty little head about this. We’ll take care of the marketing, promo and distribution. You just focus on making more content.” As long as they buy into that, there’s no rational reason to believe that the outcome is going to be any different than it’s been up until now – which is that the vast majority of them aren’t going to make any money.”

Kelli: I don’t want to live in the way back machine, but that was one of the main impetuses, as you’ll recall, for Todd Rundgren and I crafting Patronet fifteen years ago. The goal was to really encourage artists and other content creators to take the reins and go direct to their fans with their brands – and to see themselves as a brand and, frankly, to model 80 / 20 where they were making the majority of the money – to a smaller audience perhaps, but with fewer middle men.

Jeff Brandstetter: No doubt about it, it was a good model

Kelli: So, Jeff, how important is buzz? Do you think it’s vital to a label that an artist has a social media platform and following – or is having a great sound still the number one driver to getting signed?

Jeff Brandstetter: I think the two go hand in hand. I want to believe that, on the audio side, having a great sound – or a great product whatever vertical you’re talking about – is still then number one driver. Now if you’re talking about getting signed – getting picked up by a major label – you’re talking about the distinct minority of artists who get picked up by a major. But when it comes to social media, disintermediation is happening on the promo side, but it’s not happening in the terms of the monetization. What I mean by that is just because you’re able to promote your brand using social networking doesn’t mean that you, as the artist, are actually reaping the lion’s share of the benefit of that.

Kelli: Unless of course the only way somebody can buy your CD – or one of the ways – is through your website, where the vast majority of the proceeds are going directly into the artist’s pocket, I think most fans would want that to happen. Given the choice, I think if they knew that they could support the artist by buying direct, more would. And that’s why it’s important for an artist to sell their music and to collect email addresses on their website, in addition to having a social media platform to promote from.

Jeff Brandstetter: That’s exactly right.

You can catch Kelli’s show every Monday at 5pm PST. https://BlogTalkRadio.com/AllAccessRadio.

 

Kelli Richards, CEO, The All Access Group, LLC

An Interview with Dave Kusek, of the Berklee School of Music, and the Co-Author of “The Future of Music”

Kelli Richards March 23, 2011

I recently interviewed Dave Kusek, of the Berklee School of Music, and the Co-Author of “The Future of Music.” Dave Kusek is a digital music executive and is responsible for helping to create the market for digital music as an entity, and in 1980 he founded the first music software company, Passport Designs, which made it possible for musicians to record and produce their music at home with its award-winning software.

The Future of Music is a best-selling music business book, and wildly popular among industry executives and musicians themselves. Dave Kusek also provides advisory services to the music and media industries via Digital Cowboys. He is a co-developer of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) industry standard that opened up electronic music to millions of people. His efforts, along with others, set the stage for the multi-billion dollar digital music market that exists today.

He created a hugely successful online music school berkleemusic.com for the prestigious Berklee College of Music. Berkleemusic has become the world’s largest music school teaching over 15,000 students a year globally.  Kusek has written for or been featured in the NY Times, Boston Globe, Billboard, Wired, Associated Press, MTV, CNBC, Forbes, NBC-TV, Nightly Business Report, NPR, Financial Times, and is a featured speaker at Midem, Digital Music Forum, NAMM, AES, IEBA, MacWorld, Comdex, Digital Hollywood and has been a featured guest on radio and television stations around the world.

 

Here’s a brief synopsis of our discussion… you can hear the entire recording at:  https://allaccessgroup.com/articles-and-resources/blog-talk-radio/all-access-radio-interviews/

 

Kelli: Dave, talk about the future of Digital music if you would. With the role of labels changing almost daily, where do you think the industry is headed?

 

Dave Kusek: I have been working in the music industry all my life. I was one of the first to capitalize on the commercial potential of computers and music and have been having lots of fun in this space ever since. We’re missing a new format.  There’s no new format to monetize, and without that, I think it’s going to be very difficult making music.  Without that new format, I think that business might just go away.  There’s no real indicator that recorded music in any form is going to turn up in any way or become a revenue generator in the next five years.  If we had a new format that was valuable enough and hard enough to come by, then recorded music might come back.  But it may just be that recorded music was an anomaly in time.  Something you could make money at for 70 or 80 or even a hundred years at its end, but only for that moment in time.

 

Kelli: What role do you think direct-to-fan distribution is going to play going forward?Talk about how you think this could create what you’ve called a middle class of musicians, and in that context, what do you think will happen to the big labels, as a result.

Dave Kusek: I do believe the opportunity to make music is there for anyone who wants to do it – and anyone who wants to try and turn that activity into money or a living has an opportunity to do it.  it’s always been difficult, but I think there are tools today to promote and distribute your music and communicate with your fans that are so beyond what we could even think about five or ten years ago.  But if you have a good team around yourself, you can make a good living being an artist.  Good being a relative term.  It’s very difficult to go and make $25 million dollars – but it’s not that hard to make $50 grand or $150 grand depending on how big your team is.  … I think there’s a lot of opportunity – more than ever – for people to make a living in music.

 

If you build a good team around yourself – a business person, a marketing person, someone who understands the web, who understands mobile, who understands cell phone communication, how to build a community, how to build an audience, you can do pretty well.

 

Kelli: You seem to be very active on social media – what role do you see that playing for artists as time goes by?

Dave Kusek: I think it’s a great way to distribute your music and to distribute information about yourself and what you’re up to.  To communicate directly with people if you have the time for that and you have set up a structure that allows that to happen.  It’s a way to connect on a local level with people far more easily than any other way to do that.  Again, direct marketing techniques applied in the modern era.  I mean, I could find everyone in the Chicago area if I go there.  Either Meetup or have a meet & greet, or come to my show, or tell your friends, or have a contest, or whatever.

 

I think the difficult part is doing it all yourself.  As an artist, you should be focused on making music, writing great songs, practicing, playing with other people  – you should have your brother, your cousin, a friend, someone you hire working on the website, focused on the social.  It’s so hard to do it all yourself.

 

Kelli: Oh yeah, that goes back to the discussion about picking the right team members around you. You’ve got to have somebody focused on that around you.  To your point, artists make music. You really need to have some help I think.  With all the things an artist needs to be focused on. But I think we both agree that there really needs to be a presence on social media – that’s really driving a lot of activity and traffic for an artist.

 

Dave Kusek: And it’s so hard to measure the impact sometimes.

 

Kelli: And yet may artists do.   That’s how they fill their shows.  They route their tours and reaching out to their fans directly.  People tell their friends, and you’ve got a full house when you show up out in Minnesota!

 

 

To hear the entire Q&A with Dave Kusek, go to:  https://allaccessgroup.com/articles-and-resources/blog-talk-radio/all-access-radio-interviews/

 

Duran Duran – All You Need is Now

Kelli Richards March 18, 2011

One of my favorite parts of being on the cutting edge of the music industry is watching the innovators cut through the effluent in life’s tides and rise above the noise. That is precisely what Duran Duran has done with their newest release, “All You Need is Now.” The release date ironically falls on the thirtieth anniversary of the band’s first release, “Planet Earth,” released to enormous fandemonium in 1981. “All You Need is Now” was produced by Grammy Award winner Mark Ronson, who has worked with Amy Winehouse, The Kaiser Chiefs, Lily Allen and others. Ronson himself called this album, “The follow up to Rio that never was.” (A big relief for all of us who rocked our way through Rio and simply waited for the next move.)

This is the band’s 13th album and all four original members of Duran Duran – John Taylor, Roger Taylor, Nick Rhodes and Simon Le Bon – have joined to recreate the original upbeat sound that made them famous and sold over 80 million records during their three-decade career, With the collaboration with Ronson strongly in place, the band went on to bring in longtime friend, Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters and R&B/neo-soul superstar Kelis, with Owen Pallett of Grammy Award winning “Arcade Fire” to do the album’s string arrangements.

Never one to overlook the visuals, the band engaged up-and-coming British visual artist, Clunie Reid, for the artwork and packaging. Clunie’s work is very well known and has been shown at the Saatchi Gallery and the New Museum in New York.

Highly collaborative and innovative, Duran Duran has spent thirty years fusing pop music with art, fashion and technology, bringing music videos from a marketing tool in the 80’s to one of the music industry’s most valued creative assets.

From a distribution perspective, Duran Duran seems to be one band that really understands how important it is to have an engaged fan base. Their website is as much fan homage to their fans as it is a platform and a staging area for their work. For a mere $35 a year, fans are treated to VIP ticket packages, presale events, and meet & greets, as well as direct communication with band members and exclusive video, photo and written content. Each fan also gets to build their own personal fan site – including fan blogs, journals, photos, etc. They’re also able to participate in fan-to-fan forums and private messaging. Basically, Duran Duran has brilliantly built an army of brand advocates to support their every move. Something all bands should emulate in today’s online world.

The group looks as great as ever, and while they’ve evolved their sound to a more contemporary state, hints of their roots are evident and laced throughout several of the tracks on this new CD. “Blame the Machines” is a fun, uptempo, electro-pop track. “The Man Who Stole a Leopard” is a stunning track that diehard fans will relish. “Leave a Light On” recalls the power of their earlier ballad “Save a Prayer.” And “Girl Panic1” will get fans out on the dance floor celebrating like it’s new year’s eve. Hey, why not?

Kelli Richards, CEO, The All Access Group, LLC

An Intimate Q&A with Tom Silverman, CEO of Tommy Boy Entertainment

Kelli Richards March 10, 2011

Tom Silverman, CEO of Tommy Boy Entertainment and the Force Behind the New Music Seminar Speaks with Kelli about where the Music Industry is Headed.

Here are a few excerpts of my interview with Tom Silverman on my All Access Radio Show. To hear the entire interview, please visit my website at https://allaccessgroup.com.

 

Kelli:  Tom, where do you see the future of music and artistic control of content heading?

Tom: Artistic control. Wow. I don’t like to use the word control when I’m talking about artistic. I think the problem with the business right now is it’s based on control. The old music business was based on control. And you know, we’re starting to build a new music business that’s based on different values altogether … The old business really was based on power and control and coercion… all that “nice” stuff, and the new business really is based on cooperation, community, connection and collaboration.  It’s a much different paradigm.

 

Kelli:  Tom, why do you think traditional labels are so afraid to hire new artists and how do you think a new artist can succeed despite these roadblocks?

Tom:  … Whenever you have a consolidated business or industry, they become risk averse.  The more companies roll up and consolidate, the less risk they take.  That’s true in any business. The labels would rather be conservative … it costs a million dollars to roll the dice every time you sign a new artist.  It’s at least a million dollars in America even to see what you have.  They’re saying,’ let’s sign less artists and let’s spend less money on those few artists that we do sign them, in marketing, and then let’s do 360 deals with them so we have a bigger return’

 

Kelli:  And some artists, the smart ones, aren’t signing those kinds of deals, right?

 

. … If you want to be signed in the early part of your career, when you don’t have any hits yet and no history, you’re going to have to do a 360 deal – or you’re not doing a deal – that’s just the way it is – unless you go with a small independent.

Kelli:  How should a new artist succeed, if in fact, they don’t get signed by a label?

Tom: Okay, a lot of what we’re talking about now is New Music Seminar curriculum.  An artist has to do it themselves anyway at the beginning – there’s almost no artist being signed off of just hearing a tape or CD.  That’s just not happening any more.  They have to have some action – some story – some heat.  They have to bring heat to the table before anyone cares about them.  Before a booking agent cares about them, before a manager cares about them, before a label cares about them.  Think about a label as an investor. If you’re a venture capitalist, you have to have some reason to sign the deal. It’s about managing risk and reward.  We can’t get caught up in the emotions of music. It’s just a business reality.

 

One of the things we’re trying to do is to create a new business reality, an alternative to this. One which would please the artist in the long run, make money for the investor in a five or ten to 1 return on a hit, so that more money can flow back into the business and more artists get signed and more artists have an opportunity to break through. Not that you can’t break through on your own, but I have to say, I’ve done some research … in 2008, there were only 1500 artists that sold over 10,000 albums that year.  There were only 200 new artists that had never done it before, and that includes Lady Gaga.  So let’s use that number.  I like to call it the obscurity level – when an artist breaks 10,000 albums, they’re in the game. So out of those 200, 192 were actually on independent labels; only 8 were doing it themselves.

 

Kelli:  Tom, you relaunched New Music Seminar a couple of years ago (and I’m thrilled to be part of it this year, by the way). Share with the audience more about New Music Seminar.  What’s behind it?

 

Tom: … Our message is a very specific one.  The record business is dying.  It’s sinking.  There’s nothing that’s going to happen that’s going to change that.  But there will still be a music business. We just don’t know what it will be, and the purpose of the New Music Seminar is to build the next music business, hopefully a profitable and sustainable music business.  So we’re convening the architects and designers of the next music business. I mean, everyone knows how bad the record business is right now, and for the last ten years they’ve known it.  We don’t waste a lot of time talking about that, because talking about a bad situation doesn’t change it. We want to be constructive. We’re not trying to fix a broken boat. We’re trying to build a new boat. It seems like other conferences talk about how do you bail water out of this boat to slow the sinking. Do we bail to the left or to the right?

 

Kelli:  Yes, this is all about solutions and hope and a design for what comes next.

 

 

 

You can catch my show every Monday at 5pm PST.  https://BlogTalkRadio.com/AllAccessRadio.

 

Kelli Richards, CEO, The All Access Group, LLC

Hot Stuff from Hot Caramel – Excerpts from my Interview with Irene Cara

Kelli Richards March 8, 2011

Being able to support great artists and entrepreneurs as they break away from past successes in their lives and embark on the new is one of life’s biggest highs for me.  Few performers have had the amazing success and influence of Irene Cara – I had the chance to interview Irene recently and to hear about her new group, “Hot Caramel.”  The direction Irene Cara’s sound and life has taken is deeply inspiring.  Just to remind everyone about Irene’s lifetime of successes, as an actress, Irene received the Image Award for Best Actress for her work with Diahann Carroll in the NBC Movie of the Week, Sisters.  She also received an NAACP Image Award Nomination for her portrayal of Myrlie Evers in the PBS movie on Civil Rights Leader Medger Evers “For Us the Living.”

For Flashdance alone Irene won 5 major awards, including Top Female Vocalist-Pop Singles and Pop Single of the Year. As a songwriter her talent earned her an Academy Award, 2 Grammys, a Golden Globe and a Peoples Choice Award for Flashdance. She was also the first African American female to win an Academy Award since Hattie McDaniel in 1939, plus the first Hispanic female since Rita Moreno and the first bi-racial female ever to win in any category – pre-dating Halle Berry by nearly 20 years.

Here are a few excerpts from our interview.  You can hear the entire Q&A at https://allaccessgroup.com/articles-and-resources/blog-talk-radio.

Kelli Richards: “You know, Irene, there’s just so much to say about the amazing career you’ve enjoyed.  Your list of awards is long and impressive. If you’re able to choose just one or two, what have been the most shining moments in your career that you’ve been most proud of?

Irene Cara: “I think this new phase is really the most important thing to me now. I mean, I don’t like to look backwards.  I like to live in the present and look forward – to look toward the future.  I started in the industry as a child … and I did a lot of work as a 5 year old, 6 year old, 8 year old, 11 year old.  You know, I did Electric Company when I was a child.  I did my first movie at fourteen, a highly acclaimed, pretty much is considered an African-American classic called “Sparkle.” At the time that was unique, because that was during the whole black exploitation genre of films.  There were very few films about people of color.

 

Of course, Roots was iconic classic television series that started the whole miniseries genre.  I played Alex Haley’s mother as a young girl.  I started my entire career as a child and then into my teens.  And then, you know, Fame and Flashdance were pretty much the end of an era for me.  Pretty much the highlight of a 20 year career for me…

So now, this is the stage where I consider the beginning of my adult career.  It really embodies who I truly am as an artist.

 

… I’ve been a working artist since childhood, and this is the first time where I’m now free to express myself as an adult artist the way I see myself … not fulfilling someone else’s vision of what that is.

 


To learn more about Hot Caramel’s new double CD, visit https://irenecara.com/cdbook3.html

Kelli Richards, CEO, The All Access Group, LLC

Gregg Allman – Somehow You’re Still on the Run

Kelli Richards March 1, 2011

Gregg Allman has always been a guy who colors outside the lines, in my opinion. There’s no question that The Allman Brothers Band has serious staying power. Probably best known for “Sweet Melissa,” Allman is a bluesy, jam-band pioneer who practically invented Southern Rock. As most followers of Allman Brothers music probably know, Gregg has had a long career that began with he and his brother playing together when they were only in high school. They followed what is now an almost a non-existent route to success – they were signed by a label.  Although the sound of the album they produced was definitely not what they wanted, it did begin a lifelong, winding success story for Gregg.  (Sadly, his brother passed away in 1973.)

Allman would tell you himself that he’s been way up in his life, and he’s definitely been down.  Last year the 63-year old musician had a liver transplant AND a new album in the works.  Released just a few weeks ago, “Low Country Blues” was produced by T Bone Burnett. In it, Allman covers music from some of the music that most influenced his own life and voice – from Muddy Waters and BB King, to Buddy Guy and Magic Sam.  Low Country Blues is definitely one of those “up” moments in Gregg Allman’s remarkable body of work.  It’s rich with passion and implies a deep understanding of those highs and lows that life throws at all of us.

It was T Bone Burnett who brought Allman the initial idea of a cover album. Said Allman in a recent interview, “He told me some guy gave him a hard drive, it has 10,000 obscure blues songs… He says, ‘I’m gonna pick out twenty of ‘em and send ‘em to ya and you tell me what you think.’ He said, ‘They’re old, like Billie Holliday old, and when you listen to ‘em, I want you to think about us gettin’ in there and about bringin’ ‘em up to today.’” The recording process was amazingly easy and electrifying, said Allman in his easy southern drawl, “If it works right, it all turns real magic, and that’s what happened this time, more so I think than anything I’ve ever recorded. We got 15 masters in 11 days; let me tell ya, they just went Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!”

Pop is the right word – the album definitely has chops.  It has a unique, deep bluesy sound, easily recognized as pure Allman, and backed by a troupe of A-listers in the music world.  In addition to Burnett and Allman, Doyle Bramhall II also played on guitar. The rhythm section was comprised of upright bassist Dennis Crouch and drummer Jay Bellerose, and the lineup included a brass section led by trumpeter Darrell Leonard (whose resume extends al the way back to his work with Gregg’s late brother, Duane Allman). Finally, the sounds of Night Tripper, Mac “Dr. John” Rebennack, completed the pack on piano. (Rebennack co-wrote “Let This Be A Lesson To Ya’” with Gregg on The Gregg Allman Band’s 1977 classic, Playin’ Up A Storm.)  To add to the overall collaborative effort, the album’s one original composition, “Just Another Rider” was even co-written with longtime ABB guitarist Warren Haynes.

A gypsy at heart, Gregg Allman is both a traditionalist and a non-traditionalist.  He is eager to get out and tour the new songs, kicking off in New York on March 10th at the historic Beacon Theatre and then winding his way around the east coast and then through Europe – landing back on this continent late in September with two dates in Canada.  You can find his entire tour schedule at https://bit.ly/GreggAllmanTour and definitely pick up the album – at under twelve bucks; it’s a million-dollar participation in the voice of a true American music giant. https://amzn.to/GreggAllmanAlbum

 

“Places you been, things that you done, and somehow you’re still on the run,” Allman sings on the original song “Just Another Rider.”  I think we’re all glad that this guy is still out there on the run, entertaining and inspiring the rest of us to do the same.

Kelli Richards, CEO, The All Access Group, LLC

Remembering John Lennon – 30 Years Later

Kelli Richards December 9, 2010

Like much of the world, I’ve spent the last week thinking about John Lennon and the anniversary of his death on December 8th.  It’s honestly hard to believe that thirty years have passed since he was taken from us in a single moment’s insanity.  In fact, most of the time, it’s hard to believe that John’s really gone at all.  His was far more than the voice of a generation – it was often the voice of our hearts and our conscience.

And as unimaginable as it is to hold space for the thirty years of unspoken words and unwritten songs, what I truly cannot get away from this week is the rest of John.  As great a man as he was, and as truly generous a soul – especially to his fellow musicians – for two men out there, John Lennon wasn’t a Beatle – or an icon – he was simply Dad.

I met Julian Lennon for the first time several years ago.  I was struck with how gracious he was and how engaging – how much he reminded me of his father and how strongly he had aligned with his Dad’s passion for peace and conservation.  But I was also captured by the deep sadness he seemed to bear, just under that gracious surface.  I remember sharing with Julian how sorry I was for his loss – and recognizing how he had lost his dad, twice really.  It was a deeply heartfelt conversation and a genuine connection.  In a career filled with world=renowned musicians and many celebrity relationships – it is one that has stayed with me at a core level.

Julian has his own voice of course.  His new album “Everything Changes” should be out by next year, and in October he helped his mom, Cynthia Lennon, publicize the John Lennon Peace Monument in Liverpool. And Sean has found his own path as well, now co-leading a band with his musician / model girlfriend, Charlotte Kemp Muhl (Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger.)

But all successes aside, it’s still Julian I think of often – and Sean.  How the thread of their lives with their dad, John Lennon, was forever cut short by something so senseless and beyond comprehension. I have always been struck by how much Julian looks and sounds like his father – in the way that only fathers and sons can.  In fact, one of my career aspirations has always been to create a benefit concert with Julian and Paul McCartney around John Lennon’s music.  To use the talents I have to honor how much was left unsaid, by one of the people who most deserved to hear it – his son.  Julian embodies his own gifts and talents along with his father’s.

I suppose that is really my attempt to make sense of these things – this loss – to find some deeper meaning.  To find some thread of understanding that will provide some peace – for Julian and for the rest of us. To knit a golden thread through time and space and recapture one of the greatest voices of humanity, and to simply risk listening and hearing what we MIGHT some day achieve – if we would only imagine.  John’s greatest gifts were surely his music and  his wish for peace and love which inspired and sparked a generation.  And we are truly fortunate that his legacy and grace endures and burns most brightly in Sean and Julian.

Kelli Richards, CEO, The All Access Group, LLC
“Connecting the Dots Between Entertainment and Technology”
https://allaccessgroup.com

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