#cagleandnash say go ahead and scan it we dare you http://ow.ly/5EZZU
Repost: Time to Make Some NOISE!
Posted: July 10, 2011 in American Pop Culture, Bruce McKagan, Music Industry, Muzak, New MusicTags: Charlotte Music Scene, Music Camp, Muzak Heart & Soul, Winthrop Univ.
Posted by Roberta Keener on 7/08/11 • Categorized as New
On Sunday, July 10th, sixteen musically gifted high school students from across the US pull into Charlotte for 10 days of music related experiences they will never, ever forget. NOISE! is a summer camp that takes music education to the next level by giving talented teens an innovative and unique opportunity to gain first-hand experience inside the music industry. Students will rub elbows and work directly with songwriters, arrangers, producers, sound engineers, studio musicians, audio architects, label execs, radio programmers, music celebs and educators. NOISE! is life altering for these teens, not to mention mind-bending and dream-inspiring!
NOISE! has been on tour the last 10 years, previously held in NY, LA, Atlanta and Nashville. This year Muzak brings it home to the Charlotte area so their 500 Home Office employees can see and hear first hand the impact NOISE! camp has on the kids.
On the last night of NOISE! camp, July 19, these musically gifted students will perform the annual talent show to hundreds, live in Muzak’s City Center. This highly anticipated showcase of talent, called NOISE! Live, will also be streamed live for all who won’t be able to attend the show in person.
Check to see if one of this year’s NOISE! students might be from your town:
Hannah Cook (Belleville, IL)
Sierra Gant (Spring, TX)
Maggie Thorn (Bloomingfield, MO)
Jordy Searcy (Fairhope, AL)
Joneka Percentie (Charlotte, NC)
Drew McDaniel (Phoenix, AZ)
Willie Griswold (Orlando, FL)
John Hargett (Charlotte, NC)
Sarah Kelli Fleming (Wilmington, NC)
Andrew Stevenson (Doswell, VA)
Filip Skrzesinski (Carpenterville, IL)
Madison Early (Charlotte, NC)
Julia Pettiecord (Yardley, PA)
Brendan Carchidi (Holliston, MA)
Leigh Vargo (Mentor, OH)
Lee Landess (Charlotte, NC)
All sixteen students have been granted scholarships to NOISE! 2011 by the Muzak Heart & Soul Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to supporting music education.
This year we are working hard to allow friends, family and supporters to be part of the action:
Read daily blog posts and regular updates on the Muzak Heart & Soul Foundation Facebook page, follow us on Twitter using #NOISE11 and watch NOISE! Live on the Foundation’s Livestream site: http://www.livestream.com/muzakheartsoul
Posted: May 21, 2011 in Cagle & Nash, Music Discoveries, New Music, Uncategorized, Uptempo
Tags: Blues, Cagle & Nash, Greg Cagle, Jon Thornton, Red Herring Redux, Rick Nash
It’s Been a Long Time!
CAGLE & NASH eNEWS
Spring 2011
It’s been a long time since we checked in with everyone and a lot has been happening over the past few months. We’ll give you the short & skinny of it in the lines and spaces below.
Cagle & Nash Released Greg’s solo project “Red Herring Redux”
Those of you who have been keeping a scorecard know that RHR (or the Green Album we like to call it), is the fourth Cagle & Nash produced project in just over two years. Some say prolific but we just say OK as long as it ain’t horrific!
This one has got tunes on it like Back on the River, Years Later, Walkin’, Spendin’ Money and eight other solid offerings. What you hear in this release is plenty of just pure blues and blues rock/alt rock with strong playing coming out of every single instrument. Of course it helps that Cagle himself is covering lead vocals background vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass and even sax on at least most of these compositions. Nash lends a hand on horn parts on a few of the tracks.
Been getting some international airplay on RHR from our usual loyal fans over in Europe and even in Greece and Japan. We’ve done a mini-blitz if you will to a couple hundred broadcast stations here in the US and any of four or five tracks should be going into some sort of rotation in the next week or so. Keep an ear open – request it if you dare.
Here are our faves or at least the faves we think should be faves.
The hyperlinks will take you directly to our SoundCloud page (no waiting!)
Let us hear your thoughts. Be one of the first ten people to review Red Herring Redux on iTunes and you will receive the entire Cagle & Nash catalog. Just send us a link to your review and your snail mail address in an email.
Side Projects – Cagle (The Other Side of the Ampersand)
Cagle continues his several side projects. (HaHa Understatement:).
First and foremost the Robyn Springer partnership. By now everyone knows Robyn from her contributions to most of the Cagle & Nash releases. The Ritz-Carlton of Downtown Charlotte booked her one night for their showplace lounge and the response was pretty damned amazing. So for the past couple of years Robyn Springer (accompanied by Greg Cagle) has been the primary entertainment in the Ritz Lobby Lounge on just about any Friday or Saturday evening !And yes it free.
Speaking of Robyn there is a recording project in the works being co-produced by Robyn and Greg that you will want to keep an eye out for. You’ll hear three Cagle & Nash songs on here but with an OMG fantastic interpretation! The mixes so far are sounding fine fine fine.
Another Cagle & project is Greg’s tentatively titled Next To Nowhere Country CD. Not sure what direction we’ll go yet with the public release of this but suffice to say we think the material is so strong that it should get release to the public by some means or another. Do I hear Nashville Roadtrip?
Just in case you don’t get a chance to purchase this outright, here is a sneak peek at a couple of three kickass tunes to give you the gist of the grit that it packs
The hyperlinks will take you directly to our SoundCloud page (no waiting)
But wait there’s another side project as well. A very interesting collab between Greg and his son Matt Cagle. We’ll share a couple of those but these are no where near finished so try not to pre-judge (aka be haters) .
The hyperlinks will take you directly to our SoundCloud page (PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THESE TRACKS)
B B B B
That stands for Bad Boys Blues Band. Ray Alexander put this vision together and this powerhouse of Charlotte vets gets to gig together at least once a month. Cagle on lead vocals, Rick Lee Keys and vocals, Tim Gordon, Tony “Tree” Hayes, Jon Thornton and the one and only Ray Alexander with Yelverton, Suddrith and Allen. Nash has said this band is as tight as delivering Tower of Power tunes as well as TOP themselves. Horn Section is a Million dollars !
Side Projects – Nash (The Other Side of the Ampersand)
Nash Spreading Himself The Appropriate Amount of Thin.
His regular day gig keeps Nash pretty busy but it has it’s benefits. Lately involved in producing a syndicated radio show and working with the likes of The Grammy Museum, The RIAA (The Grammys) as part of a huge musical past of 20,000 un-released tracks over three decades of some of the great artist musicians of the times in all genres.
The Churchill-Nash Records area of business is full on these days. Nash’s working laboriously to spread the word of all of the current Cagle & Nash projects including the rock project and the country project (call me) as well as the continued development of the fanbase and the most important task of getting every Music Supervisor and Production House on board with the entire Cagle & Nash catalog which will be approaching 100 songs before you know it ! (fingers crossed AND more below).
So If you think your favorite broadcast DJ or mobile DJ has not gotten the latest and greatest be sure to let us know or better yet let him know where to find us via ReverbNation. Let’s make this music viral !
Cagle & Nash Side Projects – Both Sides of the Amersand)
Yes indeed another Cagle & Nash project is in the works (as we type). We’re as excited as teenaged schoolgirls to take the mothership to the next level if you know what I mean. Don’t let us scare you though – expect the unexpected – expect Cagle & Nash. Maybe lots of instrumental stuff? Maybe Soul? Maybe funky, Maybe Smooth, Maybe Rufffffff) Definitely Raw J
To assist in our writing endeavors, we’ve taken to actually appearing together in the same room at the same time and with the sole purpose of making music in public. There we said it Cagle & Nash – The Live Version is in the works. We do an occasional Thursday night over at our friend Jeff McNeice’s place DLW but we’re keeping that on the down-lo until e can work in more Cagle & Nash songs in some sort of acoustic duo arrangement. Until then just call us two guys playing jazz standards for the love of it in some really nice wine bar that you should be checking out ASAP>
OK So Lets Review – Here’s What’s New !
- Robyn Springer Live NOW at the Ritz
- New Side projects (Country, Rock and Robyn)
- Grammy Spottings and Radioland
- BBBB
- Cagle & Nash New CD – what’s It Gonna Be?
- Cagle & Nash Live ! (Almost)
FIND US HERE
What’s This About Undiscovered Treasures & the Grammys?
Posted: March 13, 2011 in American Pop Culture, Bruce McKagan, Master Recordings, Music Discoveries, UncategorizedTags: Folkways Records, Grammys, Grammys Museum, Smithsonian
Here is a re-post from my friend Bruce McKagan’s blog. Pay close attention to what he mentions about the Grammys Museum and the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress !
The Golden Age of Radio…Thanks to Muzak
Posted by Roberta Keener on 3/10/11 • Categorized as New
Associated Program Services Album
As you’ve read and heard in several of my latest blogs, Muzak’s early days were all about recording the industry’s best. These recordings were perfect for building their main product offering, which was music for business. However, once radio stations heard about this, they wanted in on the action. You see, back in the ‘30s and ‘40s radio would not and could not legally broadcast recordings sold to the public. If they wanted to feature music, they would book musicians into their studios and broadcast them live, which was an expensive and restrictive proposition. Muzak’s electronic transcription recordings where produced exclusively for broadcast, making them a great option and a hot commodity for radio stations across the country in those early days of radio.
By the late ‘30s Muzak’s “Associated Programming Services” (APS) began to develop their own “library services” (e.g., programming) for syndication and broadcast networks. Each week stations would receive one or two new 16” discs with 4 to 6 recordings per side for their library. Associated subscribers accumulated a library of thousands of tracks in different genres such as big band, jazz, opera, hillbilly, musicals, Negro gospel, classical, popular vocals, and lots of novelty recordings. Because of the popularity of these recordings, Muzak came to be known as the “hit makers”.
Associated also provided their radio customers with what were known as production aids. These were recordings in the form of jingles, bumpers, station breaks and IDs, announcements, musical interludes and introductions. Subscribers could literally produce their own radio shows by programming production aids along with musical tracks and local DJ voice-overs. This proved to be a highly profitable investment in a world hungry for novelty and fresh content over broadcast radio.
Muzak continued to supply content to radio stations across America all through the Golden Age of Radio (‘30s, ‘40s and early ‘50s – before TV caught on), after which time we boxed these masters up and hid them in storage for over 60 years. No wonder the Grammy Museum, Library of Congress and Smithsonian are so excited about helping us uncover these American pop culture treasures. As a matter of fact, I think that’s Bob from the Grammys calling right now. Excuse me for a second…
Contributed by Bruce McKagan
Repost from: Bruce McKagan’s Blog
Posted: March 8, 2011 in Archives, Ben Selvin, Bruce McKagan, Master Recordings, Music Industry, MuzakMuzak’s First Big Dream
It’s always been amazing to me that a company like Muzak would open up shop for the first time during the depths of the Great Depression. Was Muzak’s inventor, Gen. George Squier, a visionary or just a wild dreamer? By 1934, the year Muzak was founded, the Great Depression had forced the GNP to drop by 30%, 13 million jobs were lost and unemployment had risen to almost 38%. This sure didn’t seem like a good time to start a business; especially one that produced a non-essential product like music…. right
What’s important to understand is that during these hard times music delivered not only escape from the realities of the depression, but hope. Musicals, storytellers, spirituals, big band, hillbilly music, opera and novelty songs were the medicine of the day. Even though the common American was going without many of their basic necessities, radio and phonograph sales were dramatically on the rise.
So I guess George was a visionary after all! He figured out an innovative way to distribute music to thousands of consumers and businesses by the mid ‘30s. Ben Selvin, Muzak’s first VP of Programming, was the guy who produced recordings that captured the heart and desires of the American people during the depression. Recordings by the likes of the Dorsey Brothers, the original Riders of the Purple Sage, the Deep River Boys, the Green Brothers, Fats Waller, Jan Pearce and thousands of incredible artists who performed in the ‘30s and ‘40s. This was the music that entertained and gave hope to a nation in the depths of the Great Depression. The rest is history and Muzak was in the middle of it all.
Contributed by Bruce McKagan
Repost: The First Hillbilly Heart-Throb
Posted: February 23, 2011 in Archives, Ben Selvin, Bruce McKagan, Master Recordings, Music Discoveries, MuzakTags: Ben Selvin, Frank Luther, Muzak, Shoes, Slippers, Transcription, Zoyra Layman
The First Hillbilly Heart-Throb
Originally Posted on www.muzakblog.com by Roberta Keener on 2/23/11 •
Frank Luther
When Ben Selvin, Muzak’s executive producer in the ‘30s and ‘40s, called on bands and musicians to record for Muzak, he seemed impartial to their musical styles or genres. He booked big bands, jazz, gospel, opera and everything in between. On November 23, 1934, Ben invited his friend Frank Luther into his Muzak studio to record a few tunes. Frank Luther had a trio with his wife, Zora Layman, and baritone Leonard Stokes. They were the first featured act on the NBC radio series, “Hillbilly Heart-Throbs” at the time of this recording. Frank is recognized along with the Carter family and Carson Robison as pioneers of country western music.
Frank’s trio was often found in Muzak studios because of his warm and engaging approach to music. “Oh Dem Golden Slippers” is a great example of Frank’s rural American style. This Frank Luther tune is one of 20,000 Muzak recordings from the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s that has never been released to the public and hasn’t been heard in over 60 years. We are in the painstaking process of digitizing this immense library. Over the next few weeks we plan to spoon feed you some of these historic nuggets. Have fun listening to and sharing these pop culture treasures with your friends. I sure am.
Here is a LINK to the original post where you will be able to listen to a sample of Mr. Luther’s work. Well worth the listen
New CD Release – Red Herring Redux – Greg Cagle
Posted: February 13, 2011 in New Music, Record Labels, UptempoTags: Alt Rock, B.B. king, Blues, Brand Partnership, Cagle & Nash, Churchill-Nash Records, Digital Distribution, Eddie Money, Greg Cagle, Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Music, Red Herring Redux, Rick Nash, Rick Springfield, Robert Cray, Steve Perry
Red Herring Redux - Greg Cagle (produced by Cagle & Nash)
Feb. 12, 2011 – Just released – the long awaited Greg Cagle solo CD Project – Red Herring Redux. The CD is in the production plant and the full list of 12 songs is now available on iTunes.
This is a pleasant departure from the previous two Cagle & Nash produced releases. Here we have a nice blues album. But not the old sad slow depressing blues. This is upbeat and up tempo blues with a tinge of blues and alt. rock swirled in!
Be Sure to Check Out:
Walkin’ – something that often times solves a lot of life’s problems. Just keep on walking.
She Musta Laid a Spell on Me – We’ve all been in this place – trying to search for that elusive ?
Spendin’ Money – Very timely for most of us right now. Enough said !
Years Later – Tom Petty you might want to record this one !
Leave Me With the Blues – leave me with the blues but I’m dancing them away !
Track Personnel:
Greg Cagle – Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar, Bkgd. Vocals, Sax, Bass, Piano, Organ
Rick Nash – Trumpet & Flugelhorn
James Brown – Alto Sax
Robyn Springer – Bkgd Vocals
David Rhyne – Bass, Drums, Percussion, Organ, Piano
Joe Miers – Bass
David Floyd – Organ
Matt Cagle – Percussion
Dave Zeltner – Piano
Engineered by – David Rhyne @Traffic Sounds Studio
Produced By – Cagle & Nash
All Songs Copyright – Greg Cagle
Published by: Grelloyd Music Publishing / Ricksquared (Music Publishing)
Full Red Herring Redux Track Listing
1. Walkin’ [5:43]
2. She Musta Laid a Spell on Me [4:50]
3. Plenty Enough [4:44]
4. Everything Is Better [5:06]
5. Spendin’ Money [4:38]
6. Back on the River [4:55]
7. If You Don’t know Right From Wrong [5:16]
8. Once Upon a Dark & Lonely Night [4:51]
9. Introduce the Band [5:25]
10. Years Later [4:32]
11. Leave Me With the Blues [4:00]
12. Doo Wop & Soda Pop [3:24]
Check Out Greg Cagle and Cagle & Nash Here
Inventing a Business Model (repost from”Blogging The Archives”)
Posted: January 26, 2011 in Archives, Bruce McKagan, Music Industry, Muzak, Record LabelsTags: 1930's, Blogging the Archives. Muzak, elevator music, Elevators, George Squier, Music Business, Radio Stations
Inventing a Business Model
Posted by Brittany Lyke on 1/25/11 • Categorized as Blogging the Archives, New
By the 1920’s, the administration of music rights had become a major business. The American Society of Composers, Artists, and Publishers (ASCAP) was founded, serving as a member-owned organization to fight for fair compensation when recorded work was publicly performed.
While radio stations could license programming for personal performance, they could not track where music was being played and take responsibility for its licensing. Muzak’s business model, however, was ideal for this task. Because every Muzak receiver could be uniquely identified, it was easy for Muzak to track who was using their service and what the service was being used for.
In the late 1930’s Muzak moved to New York City and began to cater to the hotel and restaurant market in such famed venues as the Chambord, the Stork Club, and the Waldorf Astoria. Audio would subsequently be sent to clubs through leased telephone lines. Speakers would be hidden amongst large plants, thereby making the music seem to come out of nowhere and lending the name “potted palm” music. With the disappearance of any visible means of sound production, Muzak exceeded the gramophone’s capacity to make sound autonomous. In delivering programming to the workplace, Muzak soothed the minds of employees, enhancing their productivity while eliminating the distractions caused by commercials, scripted programs, and other verbal content.
Sending music to the workplace was in keeping with the vision that General George Squier had left for the company. As Chief Signal Officer of the US Army Signal Corps, Gen. Squier used music to increase the productivity of his secretaries. Afterward, he investigated ways that music could recapture the benefits of pre-industrial song, in order to soothe the nerves of employees while increasing their output. The idea of using music to improve an environment was not uncommon by the 1930s, when dentists employed music to augment or even replace anesthetic. Even though a compliment to the power of music, I wouldn’t try this at home!
Muzak soon proved effective in locations beyond the office or factory floor. As skyscrapers reached ever taller in North American cities, building owners employed Muzak to calm anxious elevator riders; quickly earning its programs the name “elevator music.”
Contributed by Bruce McKagan
Not The Muzak You Thought (repost from www.muzakblog.com)
Posted: January 9, 2011 in American Pop Culture, Archives, Ben Selvin, Bruce McKagan, Master Recordings, Music Discoveries, Music Industry, MuzakTags: American Pop Culture, AMP, Ben Selvin, Blogging the Archives, broadcasting, elevator music, Galli Sisters, licensing, music transcription, Soundtrack
Posted by Brittany Lyke on 1/06/11 • Categorized as Blogging the Archives, New
I’ve spent the last few posts getting you up to speed on the Muzak recording sessions held in our Manhattan during the late 1930’s. But why did Muzak need to record so much music… and in so many genres? Wasn’t Muzak primarily into instrumental versions of traditional songs? You know, “elevator music” versions of classic melodies?
Well, in the early years of Muzak, our business model was much different than you might think. Starting in 1934, Muzak’s business model was created not only to offer high quality music to businesses, but also to homes. Muzak’s means of distributing music was via telephone lines (the broadband cable of its day) offering customers clearer and more consistent reception than by the less reliable radio. And, since radio stations could not broadcast records sold to the public (due to licensing restrictions) most of the music was performed live, which had its own quality issues.
So just imagine: Muzak’s transcription recordings were high quality soundtracks by exquisite musicians and arrangers, broadcasted via state-of-the-art telephonic technology. And Muzak’s library was building by leaps and bounds on a weekly basis. With such high quality content delivered by a high quality signal, businesses and residences were lining up to get their subscription.
After only a few short years, it became extremely apparent that there was an additional revenue opportunity for Muzak. In 1935 Muzak corporate introduced Associated Program Service (AMP). This new business arm offered Muzak’s transcription library to radio stations, giving broadcasters a viable option for more cost effective and quality music programming. Radio stations across the country immediately began to sign up for the service. AMP provided a healthy revenue stream for Muzak for nearly two decades.
All of this meant that executive producer Ben Selvin’s task was clear – record lots and lots of music for Muzak’s library: a variety of artists, playing all kinds of musical styles for a multitude of business models and a broad listening audience. And that he did – nearly 8,000 recordings in his 13 years at Muzak (1934-1947). No person and no company has produced more quality recordings by top artists than Ben Selvin and Muzak in the 1930s and 40s.
Elevator music? Not even close. Muzak captured the soundtrack of American Pop Culture and we’ve got thousands of master recordings in our archives to prove it!
I’ll be back in just a few days. See ya then.
Contributed by Bruce McKagan
1934: The First Year (repost from Muzak Archives Blog)
Posted: December 27, 2010 in Archives, Arrangers, Bruce McKagan, Master Recordings, Music Discoveries, Muzak, New Music, Record Labels1934: The First Year
So off into the world of Muzak archives we go, to our earliest recording sessions. We know the names of nearly all of the musicians and the songs they recorded on specific dates thanks we call our ‘Blue Books’. These books are filled with session charts or stage reports that document the date, band leader, number of musicians, studio, engineer, master number, composer, publisher, and titles recorded at each Muzak session.
Our earliest stage reports from 1934 lack some of the information registered in later sessions, but they still give us an unprecedented look into the past. A picture of one of the very first stage reports is captured at left.
Our records show that one of the first Muzak recording sessions featured a touring Italian brass band called the ‘National Fascist Militia Band’. Yes folks, this was just prior to WWII and the band was Mussolini’s own Italian marching band, with their American tour scheduled in mid 1934. The tour’s slogan was “Uniting the Hearts of Italy and America”. Turns out that Mussolini also booked his band in Nazi Germany. During the National Fascist Militia Band’s one and only American tour in the summer of ’34, Carnegie Hall was one of their first stops, followed by a visit to Muzak’s sound studio in Manhattan.
At this session Muzak’s producer Ben Selvin, recorded over 25 songs and marches, including: To Arms (Fascist Anthem), Royal Italian March, the Meistersinger Overture, the William Tell Overture and the Star Spangled Banner (ironic). I’m not sure how often these recordings were played after the war began, but they sure made a power musical statement as part of Muzak’s initial library. After hearing these recordings, current producer and Muzak digitizing expert Joe Carter concludes that they are true masterpieces performed by exquisite musicians.
In 1934 we also recorded the likes of the Metropolitan Opera, Joe Venuti’s Orchestra (renowned jazz violinists, featuring vocalist Louie Prima in “Confessing”, found on our 75th website), Harold Kemp and his Orchestra (first “sweet” dance band), Frank Luther Quintet (legendary Hilly Billy band leader), Edwin Franco Goldman Band (renowned military band that played for over 90 years), the St. Bartholomew Choir, and the Harry Salter Orchestra (played with Gene Krupa, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw and Jack Teagarden). All in all during 1934, over 250 tracks in 7 different music genres were recorded by Muzak’s producer extraordinaire, Ben Selvin. Not bad for a company in their first year of operation.
We are currently digitizing many of these tracks from Muzak’s 1934 archive and are excited to give you a taste over the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
Contributed by Bruce McKagan
