I'd like to talk to you a little about Leon Russell Records. What made you de- cide to start your own record company at this time? I know you had Shelter Records in the '70's. It's a cycle thing in the music business. It ends up where there's four or five record companies responsible for all the records. And when that happens, there's so many peo- ple who don't fit the model of whatever guide- lines they use for choosing their talent. They're not young enough, or they're not country enough- you know that whole list. Suddenly there are literally thousands of artists floating around who are great, but they can't get on a record label. So then comes the resurgence of small labels like mine that go in there and try to pick up the slack, and get those people exposed that should be heard. The window of music that the music listener would like, is about to the power of four, larger than the record companies would have you believe. I think it takes too much money to take a chance on something they don't rec- ognize, which is largely everything. That's what this deal is for. To give people an oppor- tunity who deserve a platform to be heard by music listeners, because I think they're going to enjoy it as much as I do. Of course my records are going to be on there too, but that's not the primary thrust of it. We have a girl vo- calist and a guitar player who may be the best in the world. And we have the New Grass Re- vival and my son in law has a record and my son has a record. One of the components of the audience is that they like many different types of music, so we are going to put out many styles.
I read that you are working on a chil-
dren's project. It started out as a children's book. That is turning into a animated DVD. Me and the guys did the soundtrack for it. It'll be interest- ing I think. The kids might get a kick out of it.
What are the immediate future plans for you and your record company? Well, we just want to get the records out there. There is a lot of competition. I was in Tower Records yesterday, and if you don't have some sort of special placement, they don't get seen. I have arecord out called Sig- nature Songs. It is primarily piano and vo- cals. I noticed they had that sitting out with the new releases. I like that album a lot, actu- ally. That's all the old songs that I have cut, recorded with just vocals and piano, mostly. •
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