LAST CALL
WHY YOU SHOULD RECORD AN ALBUM BY JOHN BOHLINGER
What do you call a person who sells 100,000 CDs
independently? A millionaire.
Regrettably, I don’t know how
they do that, but I imagine it
involves clever marketing, hard
work, and lots of luck. That
said, if you’re a musician who
wants to advance your career,
cutting your own album might
help get you to the next level,
though big sales are rarely the
biggest benefit. Here’s the story
of the CD I cut a few months
ago—and the happy results.
When my wife, Megan
Mullins, broke up with her
record company a few months
ago, we saw it as an opportunity
rather than an end. Without
a label saying she needs to
wait—“Let’s wait until the radio
playlist has opened up” or “Let’s
try another producer” or “Let’s
hold off until the country music
radio seminar next year“—she
could finally get a CD out there.
First we looked through
songs in our catalogs to find the
best contenders. Songs selected,
we enlisted Megan’s brother
Marcus to give the project a
fun, band vibe, and then immediately began recording in my
living room with my small Pro
Tools rig, playing live to drum
loops. One week later we had
12 songs recorded and mixed,
and remixed, and remixed
again, and again.
Next we did a goofball
photo shoot in our foyer using
a consumer-grade camera taped
to a tripod. The pictures looked
pretty cheesy until the three of
us began jacking with them on
Photoshop. We did not know
what we were doing—just
pushed buttons until it looked
like an Andy Warhol painting.
We then came up with a
band name that seemed to go
with the music and images: The
Tennessee Hot Damns—named
for our state of residence and
the nasty cinnamon-spiked
booze that fueled some of our
recording sessions. After deter-
mining the band name was
not being used, we claimed it
with a Facebook page, You Tube
channel, ReverbNation page,
Twitter account, and a website
through WordPress.
The Tennessee Hot Damns began as art for art’s sake, but our DIY
attitude has helped us garner label offers and other opportunities. For
ideas on ways to promote your own projects, check out our Facebook
page and You Tube channel.
is about promotion more than
sales. Sell what you can to offset
cost, but be ready to give most
of them away—that’s how you
advance your career.
Give your CD to anybody
who may help you advance
your career!
Give it to venue bookers.
Having your own CD will get
you work (if it’s well done).
Venues need to hear you before
they hire you. This makes you
look like a pro.
Give it to people who
work in the film, television,
or music industry. I sent
our CD to Dave Bennett and
William Shockley, the team
who produced Megan’s last label
video for the CMT and GAC
networks. William loved one
of our songs and added it to
the soundtrack of ThriftStore
Cowboy, a film currently in
production with an incredible
cast and a soundtrack with
Kix Brooks, Travis Tritt, Tracy
Lawrence, and others. More
important than the money from
the soundtrack, an endorsement
like this legitimizes our work.
Give it to other artists who
may cut your songs. They
may ask you to open shows
for them or give you glowing
tweets. Megan plays in Jamie
Lynn Spears’ band (Britney’s
talented little sister). Jamie
Lynn tweeted that she loves
Megan’s CD. Some of her
quarter-million twitter follow-
ers became Hot Damn follow-
ers. This doesn’t translate into
money, but promotion eventu-
ally can become income.
JOHN BOHLINGER
John Bohlinger is a
Nashville multi-instrumentalist best known for his
work in television. He led
the band for all six seasons of NBC’s hit program
Nashville Star, as well as the 2011, 2010,
and 2009 CMT Music Awards and many
specials for GAC, PBS, CMT, USA, and
HDTV. Watch him perform on You Tube,
and check out his new band the Tennessee
Hot Damns on Facebook and i Tunes.
176 PREMIER GUITAR FEBRUARY 2012
premierguitar.com
