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- By Terry Pace and Robert Palmer
- Nov 16, 2002
Jeff Lanham rarely stops moving. Lanham wasn’t sure what he would find when he rolled into the area five months ago with a truckload of personal possessions and a business plan that taps into the Muscle Shoals music industry.
A native of Sacramento, Calif., Lanham has been in the music business most of his life. He has been involved in artist management and staging concerts. Now, he’s striking out on his own with Jeff Lanham Presents, an artist-management and concert-promotion company.
Though born and raised on the West Coast, Lanham has spent time in the South and always wanted to come back. An enthusiastic hunter and fisherman, he decided to move to the Shoals on the advice of his friend, rock ‘n’ roll songwriter Bobby Whitlock.
“I spent a lot of time in Memphis, and I had been to Muscle Shoals a couple of times in the past,” Lanham said. “I got to a point in my life where I wanted to make a move, and Bobby said, ‘Why don’t you come to the Shoals?’ The place has everything I love – great hunting and fishing and a lot of great music.”
Whitlock moved to Tuscumbia a year ago. He has recorded with Eric Clapton (“Layla”) and George Harrison (“My Sweet Lord”) and co-wrote some of the early 1970s’ best-known hits, including Derek and the Dominos “Tell the Truth.”
Lanham said moving to Muscle Shoals feels like the right move for him. Taking a cue from one of his heroes, the late concert promoter Bill Graham, he has formed his company with an office at the historic 3614 Jackson Highway Studio.
“With most of what I’ve done in the music business, I’ve managed to be in the right place at the right time with some pretty decent ideas,” he said. “I’ve had some ideas rolling around in my head that I wanted to try make happen. This seemed like the right place at the right time.”
Artist management, concert promotion and booking are Lanham’s three areas of emphasis. He already is talking to artists for management contracts. He is also courting jazz artists Ken Watters of Huntsville and Anthony PapaMichael of Atlanta, along with guitarist Kat Dyson, who has worked with Prince and is touring with Cyndi Lauper.
“I’m interested in trying some new and exciting things – some unorthodox things,” Lanham said. “I’m not putting any limits on it. I’m looking for acts in this region, but I’ll sign somebody in Germany if I decide I want to work with them.”
Lanham, who worked with legendary artist-manager Robert Fitzpatrick in California for four years, said managers and artists must have a special bond in order for the relationship to be mutually beneficial.
“Chemistry between the artist and management is critical,” Lanham said. “I’m not going to sign anybody who I think I can’t help and do something with.
“With my management contracts, I like to position myself so that my client and I have at least a year to make the noise we need to make,” he said. “But I’ll offer any act an out at any time. If it’s not gelling, they can go at any time.”
Lanham keeps a copy of Graham’s biography, “My Life Inside Rock and Out,” on his office bookshelf. Graham began promoting concerts in California in the 1960s, opening the legendary Fillmore auditoriums in San Francisco and New York. He also was closely associated the Grateful Dead’s live shows.
“Bill Graham did it best — he invented it,” Lanham said of Graham’s legendary live shows. “I spent my childhood studying it, figuring out how to do it.
“With Graham, the magic was always there – every single time.”
Lanham said he plans to stage a major concert in the Shoals early next year. He recently approached the Tuscumbia City Council about staging concerts in Spring Park.
Surrounded by telephones, computers and a fax machine in his small office, Lanham said he and his business partner, Autumn Mott, sometimes kick back at night and absorb the ambience of 3614 Jackson Highway, owned by Noel Webster. The building, which Webster has renovated as an analogue recording studio, was the home of the original Muscle Shoals Sound Studios.
“Everybody in the business knows and loves this building. I sit here at night and think about it sometimes,” he said. “Some great records came out of here, and those records won’t die because they are so great.”
Muscle Shoals is not the bustling
recording center it once was, but the industry is still alive and kicking. FAME Recording Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studios are still busy with songwriting, publishing and cutting sessions. The Pro-Duce Section, a new production and development company formed by Mac McAnally, Gary Baker and Walt Aldridge, has a contract with Universal Nashville. Lanham said the activity in the studios is ripe for expansion.
“Muscle Shoals is alive and well, but we are going to have to go out and get it,” he said. “A lot of us come from the old school – we don’t want to do the Britney Spears thing. We want to do real music here.
“I’m not a music Nazi; I don’t fault Britney Spears or anyone who’s doing well in this business,” he said. “But there is a whole new breed in this business, and we’ve got to figure out how they do business.”
Lanham said he wants to find alternative outlets for the rock, soul and rhythm and blues artists he grew up listening to. He said those artists are still making great music.
Lanham said he will encourage the artists he signs to record in Muscle Shoals.
Terry Pace can be reached at 740-5741 or terry.pace@times-daily.com.
Robert Palmer can be reached at 740-5734 or robert.palmer@-timesdaily.com.
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