On The Map (Country Airplay Monitor-March16, 2001)
At the recent country radio seminar in Nashville, MArk McGuinn’s “Mrs. Steven Rudy” easily earned
“buzz record” status, as it was mentioned by attendees at nearly every session resulting in an increase of 454
spins this week.
VFR Records director of national promotion Nancy Tunuck and her newly hired team of regionals were
there in force to hear the kudos and be seen in their black VFR jackets. “Ifelt like I was at my wedding,”
says Tunick of CRS, “Everytime I stopped, people wpuld line up to talk to me. I was shaking hands and
taking business cards. It’s exciting to be at CRS when people are motivated and positive about the music.
(IT’s So) much more exciting to be actually involved with the record that was sort of the cornerstone of it.”
McGuinn and the label team were also visable thanks to a giant Ford Expedition limousine bearing
McGuinn;s likeness that shuttered attendees to other label events on Thursday and Friday nights while
McGuinn and two other musicians performed in the vehicle. (McGuinn estimates that he sang “Mrs Steven
Rudy 40 to 50 times in those two nights.)
The limo, as well as the CRS talk, only served to bring further attention to a record that already had a
compelling story behind it. “Mrs Steven Rudy” currently at No. 21 on the Country Airplay Chart, faced
three obsticles: It’s on a brand-new label, that label is also independent, and it’s by an unknown artist.
Tunick says each of those challenges is being met and overcome. “The new-label issue was a question of
awareness, and building the regional team was incredibly helpful,” she says. “We were out there working
(VFR progressive country act) Trent Summat & the New Rob Mob with just myself and one other person
and....had good sales success and started to build a low-level reputation. In December, when we started to
put on a regional team, the awareness obviously greatly increased. I was very careful to hire people who
were experienced and had relationships. We’re a small label, and I don’t have a national, so I need people
who could just hit the ground running...I built a dream team as far as I’m concerned. I have stars. That is so
rare.”
The Team comprises radio and records vetrans Suzanne Alexander, Johnny Mitchell, J.R. Hughes, Jon
Conlon, and Greg Edwards.
“When the music went out, and everyone started reacting to ‘Mrs Steven Rudy,’ the comments equally
were, ‘You have a tremendous record’ and ‘You have a great team.’ That helped overcome the obsticle of
being a new label quickly,” says Tunick.
The new-artist issue is quickly being overcome by McGuinn himself, thanks to the freshness and originality
of his banjo and drum loop-laden music. McGuinn says his vision for the album project included that kind
of instrumentation because “that just happens to be the particular musical experiment I was into at the time I
was making the record. It may be glockenspeil and pan flute on the next record..” he jokes. “I’ll keep
experimenting ‘til I find something people hate.”
While “we were suprised by the speed and excitement” of the record’s success, Tunic says, “we believe that
we have a superstar artist and an album that has a lot of hits on it. We believe in it so strongly the we put
out a regional team, and we went to mainstreem country radio. The only reason we would ever do that is if
we believed it would be succesful, because we’re not out there dabbling. We’re not in the business of
putitng out three or four artists and being happy that one of them works.”
As for the indie-label issue, Tunick says that while VFR hass been hailed as a poster child for indie-label
suceess, “I’d rater be the poster child for great music.”
“the whole indie/major thing is a big issue,” she says. “I consider a major label any label that has a major
national distribution. We’re distributed by RED, which has tremendous market share. They Distributed
‘Who Let The Dogs Out.’ Our distribution is as intense as any ‘major’ label. So there is a big
differencebetween what our indie label is about and what some other indie labels are about. We released a
Commercial single on Mark McGuinn, and Wal-Mart bought 50,000 pieces, so we’re in every store that you
could possibly buy product.
“I love the image of an independent label breaking through with a new artist, and I love the tohught that
smaller independent labels will have success and that independent artists will have succes, but I also want to
make sure that everybody knows that we have the ability to support this record.
“I don’t want to make it sound like I’m distancing myself from independent labels, but I don’t like labels for
anyone,” she adds. “Whatever size label you have..our main goal is to provide great music and have people
react to it. I’m all about mission and vision, and when I took this job I could feel the mission here, and it
was that we wanted to be able to provide an opportunity for exposure and distribution to great music.
“radio, for programming reasons, has the same vision in reverse. They need great music for their ratings
and their listeners, and that’s what they’re all aobut. So In some ways, we’re not always on the same page,
but without a doubt we’re on the same page that they want music that creates reaction and emotion and
passion, and we want to provide that. That’s the joy of working at a record company.
“Smaller labels, whatever they are independent or major, have more flexibility and oftentimes will take
more risks, because they see what’s going to differentiate them from everybody else,” says Tunick. “VFR
managing director and co-founder) Paul Lucks likes to say if we have Chad Brock, and Warner Bros. has
Chad Brock, they win every time, because they are more established and have the equity of Warner behind
them. If we have Mark McGuinn, then we have a calling card. I’m just a big believer in music that creates
reaction. That’s the cornerstone of any promotion plan.”
Initially, the label --with input from programmers--had chosen “That’s a Plan “ as the first single, and a
video had been shot and single spresse dofr that song. Neither the single nor the album were to have been
shipped in the first quarter. But when KPLX(The Wolf) in Dallas, quickly followed by KBEQ(Q104)
Kansas City, began spinning “Mrs Steven Rudy” off a sampler sent by VF, the label completely changed its
plans.
“the wonderful and empowering thing about this story wsa that I spoke with the regionals that morning and
talked about the idea of switching the single,” Tunick says. “then I spoke with Paul Lucks, and because we
are a lable that only reports to itself, we changed the single that day and didn’t have to go through any kind
of approval process. That was an exciting way to do it.”
Now, Tunick says, “I’m watching this momentum and continually adjusitng my predictions for when we’ll
be top 10, top five and no. 1 because it’s just moving so quickly.”
Copyright 2001 Billboard.