© 1996 Billboard
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Bruce:
"It's sort of the nature for a company of (Columbia's) size that they're geared toward people with megahits. Whereas a company like Ryko is obviously used to dealing with people that don't get big hits. I'm not a hit-type artist. Once in a while we get lucky, and something leaks through, but that's not an aspect of what I do that can be counted on. So, obviously, if these guys can promote the records in a way that gets them to an audience around the sort of
standard mechanisms, then that's going to work better for us."
Don Rose (President and co-founder of Ryko):
"When we heard that Bruce was moving on from Sony, we jumped on it and made it our business
to seduce Bruce because we saw an opportunity to marry his audience with the kinds of things we do really well. We view Bruce as a triple threat-- similar to Richard Thompson-- meaning singer, songwriter, and guitarist; someone who is exemplary at (being) all three. We do well maximizing the potential of artists like that with a core following and a lot of credibility. We're less trend-driven and more appropriately scaled to help focus a lot of attention."
... Rose also plans to spread the gospel according to Cockburn through the Internet. "He's had a fan-run (World-Wide) Web site for years [ed: actually, many sites!], and we're very web-oriented from a marketing standpoint these days," says Rose. "His people tend to be Web friendly and involved from both a political and creative standpoint."
Cockburn's fans come to the artist from a variety of perspectives. Many are attracted to his outspoken left-of-center political values, his liberal expression of Christian spirituality, his noteworthy instrumental prowess, his literate songwriting, or his artistic integrity. There's something for all these people on The Charity of Night.
Musically, Cockburn has returned to the more acoustic, jazz-driven direction of previous successes like 1978's Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws and 1983's Stealing Fire...
"(The music) is always dictated by the content of the songs," says Cockburn. "I got those wordy songs with a lot of what registers to me as a dark intensity to them, and they wanted to be treated in this particular way. But the real difference is the band. Rob Wasserman on bass, Gary Burton on vibes, and Gary Craig on drums; that brought a whole different intensity to things and allowed me to approach my own performances in a different way. We felt that vibes were the right instrument to have as a foil to me, and there's no better vibe player than Gary Burton."
Jill Christiansen, director of marketing at Rykodisc, says that a radio edit of "Night Train" will be the first emphasis track with a video aimed at VH-1. Not surprisingly, Ryko is aiming the release at the catch-all triple-A market...
"In recognition of the title of the album, 'The Charity of Night,' and in recognition of Bruce's continued support of various causes throughout his career," says Christiansen, "we're going to donate $5 per (Broadcast Data Systems) spin (of 'Night Train') for the first two weeks to the U.S. Campaign to Ban Land Mines.
We don't take anything for granted, or assume that anything is an automatic, but we feel so strongly about this record, and people's reaction to it."
But Rose acknowledges that for an artist like Cockburn, radio is only a small part of the puzzle. "We look to build this record agressively at radio, but our marketing palette is much broader," he says. "It's artists like Bruce, who've managed to maintain their viability outside the machinations of the music industry, that are going to have enduring appeal. We've always been long-term thinkers; we're very proud to be associated with Bruce and believe it's one of the things that is going to help us navigate the uncharted waters that the business is facing right now."
"There's a difference between the way a company works when they're used to working with middle-of-the-raod artists who have hits," says Cockburn, "and those who are used to working in the underground. I'm more comfortable in the underground."