CMH Label Group Marks 35 Years As Indie Music Pioneer & Innovator
When record business veteran Martin C. Haerle and musician Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith founded CMH Records on July 9, 1975, they wanted to create a musical home for legendary artists of country and bluegrass who were then losing their longtime slots on major label rosters. Little did they know their safe-haven for American roots pioneers would weather the changing industry landscape to become an indie powerhouse that's still going strong 35 years later.
Today, the CMH Label Group is a study in how to survive in turbulent economic times by moving in exciting new musical directions, becoming home to the hugely successful Rockabye Baby lullaby line, which weeks ago launched the label onto the Billboard 200 for the first time, and the ever-popular Vitamin String Quartet, to name a few of the label group's innovative and acclaimed lines.
Bluegrass and traditional country was the original mainstay of CMH, which boasts a catalog of some of the finest recordings by legends and hall-of-famers Lester Flatt, Merle Travis, The Osborne Brothers, Mac Wiseman, Grandpa Jones, Don Reno, Joe Maphis, and more. One of the premier roots music labels, CMH earned numerous awards and Grammy nominations. While continuing to nurture its deep musical roots, CMH has grown into a visionary label group with a diverse roster of offerings including children's music, string quartets, metal, punk, meditation music, and more.
When Martin Haerle suddenly passed away in 1990, his son David left his job as a talent agent to take the company reins, and he and the CMH team led the firm into the new millennium. One key element in broadening the company's reach was its popular and widely imitated "Pickin' On" series, which honors such artists as The Beatles, U2, Jimmy Buffet, Kenny Chesney, The Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin with bluegrass versions of their songs.
While maintaining a focus on bluegrass and country music, the label expanded its stylistic offerings to include gospel, children's and holiday music, string quartets, punk, metal and more. It's highly creative approach led to a string of successful tribute albums, compilations and themed collections. Recent acclaimed artist releases have featured David Lee Roth (on Strummin' with the Devil, a bluegrass tribute to his superstar band Van Halen with some of today's top string music instrumentalists), rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson, country singer Raul Malo, and famed fiddler Johnny Gimble (featuring guest stars as Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Vince Gill, and Garrison Keillor).
The label group's Billboard-charting and award-winning Rockabye Baby line creates instrumental lullaby renditions of rock classics by The Beatles, Queen, Bob Marley, U2, Led Zeppelin, Coldplay, Nirvana, Metallica, and more, and has won parenting awards and widespread critical attention. The rock lullaby line spawned a series of country lullabies, Hushabye Baby, which gently transforms the songs of Johnny Cash, Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts and more. Vitamin Records is home to The Vitamin String Quartet, who create string-quartet interpretations of songs by Radiohead, Coldplay, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and other classic and cutting-edge rock acts. Modern Meditations offers serene instrumental versions of songs by rock music artists that are ideal for meditation or relaxation.
CMH makes a priority of staying on top of the changing marketplace with creative solutions. As LA Weekly reports, "They're confronting the digital-download market with surprising alacrity, even as they expand their straight-to-retail operations." In a time of diminishing CD shelf space, CMH has forged non-traditional sales outlets through partnerships with Starbucks, Whole Foods, Little Marc (Marc Jacob Kids), Pottery Barn Kids, and a network of exclusive baby boutiques nationwide. A wide range of online marketing initiatives directly reach consumers using imaginative strategies to catch the attention of music buyers. Rockabye Baby and Vitamin Records' Facebook pages, websites and blogs form an online community for thousands of fans, encouraging interactive participation in the brands.
In doing so, the CMH team both honors and expands the vision of label founder Martin Haerle, who became enamored with country music after hearing it on Armed Forces Radio as a child in Stuttgart, Germany. At age 20, he moved to Nashville and landed a job with Starday Records, where he learned the record business from the ground up, rising from the mailroom to become vice president. He started CMH with Smith-writer of the million-sellers "Dueling Banjos" and "Guitar Boogie"-initially operating out of his Los Angeles garage. As LA Weekly observes, "they churned a slow but steady series of albums by out-of-fashion geniuses, like Merle Travis, Joe and Rose Lee Maphis and Grandpa Jones, carving out a corner of the market for marginalized and ignored country stars (much the way his mentor [Don] Pierce did at Starday Records in the 1960s). What seemed a noble folly gently flourished."
Today, the family-owned CMH thrives, enjoying strong sales and a broad consumer base even as the record industry shrinks. Based in Silver Lake, not far from its original garage headquarters, the team of creative professionals practices across-the-board innovative thinking and strategies that not only meet the challenges of the 21st Century, but assure that the firm will continue to flourish for another 35 years and beyond.
