Q - Is it true or just a myth that inside every music publicist is a singer/songwriter waiting to burst out?
KE - There is truth here that there are a lot of musicians who are in support jobs in the biz - perhaps even more at the A & R level, producers and those working at the record labels, but yes, some managers and publicists too. And case in point, I am a musician myself ! The good news is that having been a trained musician (college), performing and rehearsing, etc. has made me a better manager, publicist/radio promoter and career consultant since I know music and can understand first hand what the artists are talking about. I can offer more strategic advice at times because of it. (see next question) Interestingly, I do find that many publicists here in Nashville I know are not musicians, but still many jobs in the business end of music have their fair share of musicians in business roles.
Q - Why the direction of musical publicist for you?
KE - Music publicist (most often acoustic music radio promotion for me now) is only one direction that I pursue in the music business. My dream in high school was to be a concert producer starting when at 15 years old I volunteered to be on staff for my high school coffeehouse, graduated the next year to running the kitchen and then onto booking the venue in my senior year. I founded my own company in Cambridge, MA in the early 80's - Black Sheep Concert and Publications, Inc. and I became one of the first large scale (1200 seats at Harvard's Sanders Theatre) and female acoustic music promoters that I know of in the country to do a regular concert series . I also published a folk magazine called "The Black Sheep Review" whose mission was to unite the NE and Northeast Regions (this was before Folk Alliance existed) but was subscribed to all over the world. At the same time I became an agent and then manager for the legendary guitarist/artist Tony Rice, going on to manage a world music band from the UK, The 3 Mustaphas 3 - and we went to No. 1 in the Billboard World Music Charts. Over the years I've tour managed acts like Suzanne Vega and Janis Ian and Steeleye Span. I was assistant festival director for both MerleFest and The Newport Folk Festival. At MerleFest I co-founded the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest. And that's only some of what I've done and do.
But my signature work in the music industry, besides the work I did with Black Sheep in the 80's, was establishing something I call "The Career Assessment System." I've worked with hundreds of artists over the years with a groundbreaking approach to career planning that I devised before coaching was heard of. I do very tailored and strategic career planning for artists with what I call a "holistic and integrated approach." As well, many artists come to me who might just be starting to record their next CD, so we can include how to "A & R" the CD into the artists marketing plan and career plan. Usually after the CD is done the artist will hire me to do the promotion.
But back to the specifics of your question of why I do what I do (instead of being the performer in my case) is I love helping talent be heard. I made a conscious decision between performing for a living and "organizing" and felt by organizing - artist management, concert & festival production, radio promotion and publicity, etc. that I could help more people than if I were just promoting my own career. I didn't have the same drive to be the one on stage, though I love playing guitar and arranging and singing harmony as well. I have noticed that the drive to perform and write and sing your own songs to others is the separating point in order to survive staying in the business as an artist. It's a calling to be the artist. My calling was to support and promote - yet that does not diminish my own love of singing and playing.
Q - Is this is position you saw yourself in from early on like some who say they wanted to be this or that from age eight?
KE - I thought I was going to be a teacher at the age of 8 - like my parents were! It was in high school at the coffeehouse that everyone around me told me my next "career" would be as a concert producer. I decided that's where I wanted to go in my dreams.
Q - What was your major in college and why?
KE - I started off in college as a speech/theatre major with an eye toward teaching. Then within the first week of college I found I could switch my major to music. I was ecstatic and devoured all the knowledge I could, learning theory, singing classical and early music, musical comedy, jazz and of course, folk, I then booked our college coffeehouse, became President of the Guitar Club (ok, geeky but fun), attended rehearsals in NYC at the Metropolitan Opera for one of my courses and produced a ticketed major folk festival for my seniors honors project with acts like the Boys of the Lough and Hedy West (who wrote 500 Miles). I was like a kid in a candy shop in college - what an opportunity to immerse myself in the music, performing and the business at the same time. I was technically a fine arts major with a minor in voice. Amazing time in my life.
Q - If there is such a thing as a typical day for you, can you describe it?
KE - Well, I'll try to describe a typical "composite" day. If I'm just doing my normal consulting and radio promotion I have scheduled calls with artists and I have many hours of computer work for radio promotion and email that have to be fit in during the week. I work at home, try to get up and walk 4 miles when I'm in my routine - which is my "alone" time to think, sort out my day, feel energetic. I do need some non-work time in the morning before starting my day. I typically don't schedule many "lunches" and "dinners" during the week as I have lots of work to do (!) and at night I may have to continue working after an hour or two break for dinner and to relax. I will attend industry events in Nashville during the week.
When I feel tired of too much time on the computer, I may take a break, do something to distract myself - could be a small errand or cleaning or something to be able to reset my mind and then go back to work. On Monday mornings I start my week by meeting with a group of female friends at the coffeeshop - a wonderful and inspirational way to get the week going. Saturdays I'm out doing errands, things I want to do, seeing friends and Sunday is more of a house day at times, seeing friends or being out with others or catching up on work and planning for the week ahead. This being said, I also travel a lot and try to keep up with friendships with phone calls - very old fashioned, I know. Personally, I am a minimalist on Facebook, but am on it!
Q - How did you end up in Nashville?
KE - I spent 12 years in Boston/Cambridge and then ended up in the idealic Portsmouth, NH. But I wanted to relocate to a new region of the US and considered industry towns like Austin, LA, (had already worked in NYC) and Nashville - as well as other cool places like Ann Arbor. But Tennessee is a beautiful state, many of my friends that I knew in the 70's and early 80's had moved there - Mark Schatz, Bela Fleck, Suzy Bogguss and country music at the time was inventive and cutting- edge too. I loved the friendliness, the beautiful country-like atmosphere and had worked there while touring with Tony Rice, so was familiar a little familiar with the south. I moved to East Nashville, at the time a run down section of town with old houses in disrepair and fell in love with it, not ever believing it would become the "it city." I promised myself that if I didn't make it in the music business, that Nashville would still be my home. That helped me get through those first few years. I loved Tennessee.
Q - What would you recommend (training/schooling) for someone interesting in pursuing this line of work?
KE - Schooling is a huge advantage that one should take advantage of. In the late 60's and early 70's music business schools were still virtually unheard of, and remember, there was no internet, we still used encyclopedias, long-distance phone calls were more expensive and mentoring was still somewhat of a rarity. Usually women didn't do then in the music business what is easily accepted now. I learned a lot the hard way and broke into a "men's club" that is virtually unknown to most young women going into the business today. I would have been lucky to have had true "schooling" in the business end - I only learned bits and pieces of the actual business in college, though I was hungry for it and was lucky to have professors who sent me into NY to meet their friends to learn more. Take advantage of everything you can - school is the best place to learn the widest amount of skills. Don't waste a second of it. I couldn't get enough! But what I lacked in business training, I experienced in both learning and performing music. I became an entrepreneur by following my heart and my passions, with a healthy dose of both imagination and common sense.
Q - What's been the 'best' moment of your work, the work you are most proud of?
KE - Wow, so many - my highlights - having the legendary Harold Leventhal "invite" me by a handwritten note to produce Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie at Boston's Symphony Hall and saying he would be my backer. Years later calling Harold and asking him if he wanted a benefit for the Woody Guthrie Archives at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium and putting together a Woody Guthrie month there for Woody Guthrie's 90th Anniversary Celebration. Meeting Woody's first wife, first singing partner and the whole family who traveled there from all over the country. And during the finale of "This Land is Your Land" bringing them on stage one by one to sing with Arlo, Guy Clark, Janis Ian and a host of others.
In my early years in Cambridge it was standing on the stage of Harvard's Sanders Theatre and EmCeeing sold-out shows I produced- Doc [& Merle] Watson, Silly Wizard with Phil and John Cunningham, a double bill with David Bromberg and Steve Goodman together - what a night!.....; publishing my magazine and all the wonderful comments and letters we got including Pete Seeger who was one of my biggest supporters and encouragers; serving on the Sing Out! Board of Directors in the 80's with fellow directors Pete, Utah Phillips, Faith Petric, Rosalie Sorrels, Andy Spence, Michael Cooney - and of course Mark Moss...
Touring Japan first with Tony Rice, then getting to go back 25 years later with Janis Ian; booking Summer Lights and Fest De Ville - two Nashville city-wide music festivals as well as Caffe Milano and Radio Cafe and special Celtic shows at 3rd and Lindsley; managing my first artist - Geoff Bartley, whom I had booked in 1976 at my college Folk Festival and almost almost 35 years later promoting two of his CD's that went to No. 1 at Folk DJ; while emceeing on the Sanders Stage during an Alan Stivell concert, [Celtic harpist] there was a delay in Alan being ready yet I had already finished the announcements - so I asked the audience if they would be prefer "question and answer period" or Slavic Folk Music and there were many requests for the Slavic Folk Music! I asked anyone who knew the words to Shto Me A Milo (I could be spelling that wrong here) to sing with me and throughout the lovely wood theatre, you could hear maybe 20 or more people in the theatre singing with me - beautiful. Anytime I hear the thrill in an artist's voice when their CD goes to No. 1 at Folk DJ - or even in the top five or ten that I've promoted. And after consulting sessions and doing Career Assessments with artists who come to work with me, giving thanks afterwards for the work I am able to do in helping make people's lives and careers happier and more successful than when they came to me. I am fortunate to have been doing what I've been doing for almost 45 years now and still have a huge amount of enthusiasm for the future.
We thank Kari for her time.
Kari Estrin Management/Consulting
Celebrating 40 Years Working with Amazing Artists!
Acoustic Music Radio Promotion
EuroAmericana Chart Promotion
PO Box 60232 Nashville, TN 37206
615/262-0883
kari@kariestrin.com
http://www.kariestrin.com
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