Capitol Records Meeting

Hey everybody! Just wanted to let you know how the meeting at Capitol went before we hit the road for Telluride.

Capitol Records is in a high rise building that is a mile or two away from the main "Music Row" area. Several businesses share the building with Capitol, but Capitol has the entire top floor. I was there to play for Larry Willoughby, who is the Vice President of the A & R talent scout division. I needed to run to the restroom before we went to his office, and sure enough there were only two urinals, and while I was in there he came in and used the one right next to me. I wasn't going to say anything, but he said "Hi" so I said "Are you Larry?" He said, "Yes I am." I said, "Well I'm here to play some songs for you" and that's how we met.

Larry has a corner office with huge windows that look out over I-440 and south Nashville. I was actually looking down on a hawk that was soaring over the city, so we were definitely up there. We chatted a little about where I'm from, how long I've been in Nashville, etc., and he asked to hear some songs. My audience was Antoinette (my friend who set up the meeting) Sandy (the A&R coordinator) and Larry.

So I sang four songs, telling a little about each just like I would at a real show, and man it was pretty fun. My voice felt good, I felt remarkably at ease considering the circumstances, and all in all I think I got across who I am. (For better or worse.) If you're curious, I sang "Livin' in the Good Ol' Days", "The Distance Between", "Hurry Home", and "Just Like a Country Song" in that order. Larry watched intently during each song and seemed to be concentrating and taking it all in. So that's nice, to know that somebody really listened.

I also talked a little about my vision for myself as an artist, which is to do something more acoustic and more singer-songwritery than anything else out there at the moment, and in doing so to make music that can appeal to a more general mainstream audience as well as a traditional country audience. Kind of a modern day James Taylor, or a country/acoustic John Mayer. Then I told him a little about my CD, and we gave him a copy of a few songs off of it to listen to, and that was pretty much that! He didn't give much indication of what he might be thinking, just was friendly and said he would give the CD a listen.

So that's it folks! And now we're off to Telluride, where I'm going to try to win yet another guitar with "Hurry Home." When will I ever stop. I just don't know. Thank you all so much for your support and I'll keep you posted! Peace,

Zane

PS T-shirts are finally for sale on the website if you're into that. :)