The Managers Corner – Wendy Kale

by Chris Daniels

I’ve managed my own band since the 1980s and despite the amazing change in technology, success in the music business is built around four tried and true elements: great music, really hard work and timing (often mistaken for luck). The other key element is getting the help you need to make that luck happen. These days that help is everywhere. The book I wrote for my UCD class on artist management is called “DIY: You’re Not in it Alone” and that is exactly what you need to understand.

This month’s column is dedicated to one of those people who proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the DIY artist is not in it alone. Her name was Wendy Kale and she died last week at the young age of 58. She wrote about music for the Colorado Daily covering “up and coming”Colorado artists along with touring bands that came throughBoulder. She was directly responsible for an amazing list of young artists getting their first “ink” in a major paper. They include Big Head Todd, The Samples, Hazel Miller, Rob Drabkin, Rebecca Folsom, Chris Daniels and an almost unending list of others. She also gave first-timeColorado reviews to legendary artists like Dave Mathews and John Mayer doing their first sparsely attended shows at the Fox. So many owe so much to Wendy and all the press and media writers who give young bands their first shot at reaching a larger audience. And Wendy was one of the best. As one of the participants at her Memorial Concert held at the Fox inBoulder on Wednesday, August 24 said, “…every day she came into work like her first time writing a story, excited about some new band, diving headfirst into an article that she knew might help them get noticed.”

And this is where the DIY artist really must understand how important it is to give these good people your time, your story and really go out of your way to keep them abreast of your achievements. In a new digital entertainment world with no filters, where any musician can record a song with their home computer and get it on iTunes or Facebook, it is the writers and critiques covering and loving music who let a larger audience know if you’ve really got something worth listening to.

One of the reasons I write for the Colorado Music Buzz is because I truly love the fact that this paper and its writers go out of their way to discover and promote new and developing talent like Wendy did for years. That is a remarkable thing. One example: a student group (which will remain nameless) from one of my classes at UCD put out a great new album and the Music Buzz writers were so knocked out by the music that the band wound up on the Buzz cover. Another, supposedly ‘hip’Front Rangepaper, never gave them the time of day. And yes, Wendy wrote about them too. And the Buzz cover story helped the band get local radio airplay and now even interest from a major management company.

And that is my point … in the new digital world DIY artists must get out there make it happen for themselves. And “music lovers” in the local press like Wendy and Torch and Keith and others are there for you if you will make the effort. Nothing makes a press pack look better, or an EPK look more impressive than a great review from a writer or critique that found something exceptional about your music. Yes, they all get too many requests to come to gigs and review CDs but the ones who really care about music in Colorado will get to your gig and your CD, especially if you have the tenacity and follow up to get them involved.

Thanks Wendy, you gave so many so much simply by following your passion for music.

Category: The Post