COLUMBIA, BURNETT AND COEN BROTHERS ENTER DMZ
The success of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? ST has led the filmmakers behind the movie and the album’s producer into a joint venture label deal with Columbia Records. The first release from T Bone Burnett and Joel and Ethan Coen’s new label, DMZ Records, will be a new studio album from Ralph Stanley on June 11. Stanley won a Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "O Death" on the O Brother ST.
Former Lost Highway/Mercury Records Nashville VP Sales, Marketing and Promotion John Grady and New West Records founder Cameron Strang have been named Co-Presidents. The imprint’s Board of Advisers will include Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Bono and filmmakers Callie Khouri, Sam Shepherd, Wim Wenders, the Coens and the guy behind Dude, Where’s My Car?
Said Burnett: "We're not going to concentrate solely on traditional American music. We're going to do music that is good, music that will become traditional American music. And if that doesn’t work we’ll just call it ‘O Brother Records’ to cash in."
He added that DMZ is "going to be doing quite a few soundtracks. If you're able to put an image with the music, it becomes very powerful. There's something that we learned from Buena Vista Social Club and O Brother, Where Art Thou?: the movie theater is a really good radio, a great broadcast medium. Radio, on the other hand, is not so good at broadcasting movies."
