{"id":15663,"date":"2018-12-25T05:30:14","date_gmt":"2018-12-25T10:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=15663"},"modified":"2020-07-22T11:51:54","modified_gmt":"2020-07-22T15:51:54","slug":"gar-ragland-combining-commerce-and-creativity-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/25\/gar-ragland-combining-commerce-and-creativity-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Gar Ragland: Combining Commerce and Creativity (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Continued from Part One<\/a><\/em>…<\/p>\n

A New Song <\/b>
\nAt the same time, parts of his past were calling him. \u201cHaving grown up in Winston-Salem, Boston was far away from home,\u201d Ragland says. His family did have roots a bit closer, with a small family farm in rural West Virginia near the New River Gorge. \u201cIt\u2019s been in the family since the 1700s,\u201d Ragland says. As he grew to adulthood, Ragland had found himself more interested in his Appalachian heritage. And while he was in Boston, his parents made the decision to renovate the Antebellum farmhouse.<\/p>\n

Ragland knew he wanted to be involved in the restoration project. He asked himself, \u201cHow can I find some music-related work that would give me an opportunity to spend time in West Virginia?\u201d The answer was found in connecting with the producers of NPR and West Virginia Public Broadcasting\u2019s Mountain Stage<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Ragland proposed an annual, nationally-promoted singer-songwriter festival done under the auspices of the program; thus was born the Mountain Stage NewSong Festival. \u201cIn 2001, some partners and I started an LLC around this, a private production company,\u201d he says. But none of his prior experience prepared him for the challenge. \u201cI had never done anything on the entrepreneurial side before,\u201d he admits. \u201cBut I was traveling down there while still taking classes, performing in Boston, raising money and doing pitches.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival drew big names like Nickel Creek along with up-and-coming talent. \u201cIt was really a celebration of the art and craft of performance and songwriting,\u201d Ragland says. Unfortunately, the annual festival was never able to turn a profit. \u201cWe had some great coverage,\u201d Ragland says. \u201cThe Washington Post<\/i> wrote about us. We were in the weekend entertainment guide, and USA Today<\/i> did a really nice feature on us.\u201d But bad weather wrecked a few festivals in a row. \u201cWe weren\u2019t well-capitalized enough to survive some of those tough early years,\u201d Ragland admits. \u201cAnd after a few years of producing the festival, doing a lot of work remotely on the ground, traveling and trying to fund raise, I wasn\u2019t really enjoying the work. So we decided to discontinue the festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot from the experience,\u201d Ragland says. \u201cFailure is part of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Newer NewSong<\/b>
\nPart of the festival had included a performance and songwriting competition. And Ragland decided to keep that part of the venture going. Now in its 16th<\/sup> year, the annual NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition is an incubator for rising talent from across the musical landscape. \u201cOver the last ten or so years, it has become an increasingly well-respected competition for emerging artists,\u201d Ragland says. \u201cLast year we had five thousand artists enter the competition. I’m continually surprised by the caliber of the artists we attract.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the last five years, the competition\u2019s final event has been at Lincoln Center in New York City. A partnership with performing rights organization ASCAP means that each year\u2019s winner gets \u201ca coveted performance slot at the Sundance Film Festival\u2019s music showcase,\u201d Ragland says. \u201cSo I get to go out there every January or February. It\u2019s wonderful to bring these unknown artists that I\u2019m working with out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another part of the prize package is a fully-funded six song EP produced and recorded at Echo Mountain Recording in Asheville, a sponsor of the competition. 2014\u2019s winner, the duo Max Hatt\/Edda Glass was the first to take advantage of the studio package. \u201cThere are other competitions out there that are like, \u2018We\u2019ll give you $10,000 worth of studio gear,\u2019\u201d Ragland says. But we structure things in a way that tries to give artists some meaningful, high-credibility performance opportunities. I\u2019d like to think that\u2019s what the program is all about: career boosting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virginia-based roots musician Crys Matthews was the winner of the 2017 NewSong competition; she just completed an Echo Mountain session in July, with Ragland producing. Like all previous winners, her submitted recording gained the judges\u2019 approval, but winning the NewSong competition requires much more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a very limited number of spots to perform in the finals,\u201d Ragland explains. \u201cSo, if there is equal level of talent and ability illustrated through the entrants\u2019 song submissions and we\u2019re trying to decide between them, then we do a much deeper dive.\u201d The judges review the artists\u2019 social media presence, booked performance schedule and other factors that indicate potential. \u201cWe approach it like this: \u2018Which of you is better suited to actually capitalize on this opportunity?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sort of on the entry-level of the music industry food chain,\u201d laughs Ragland. \u201cAnd that\u2019s really where my passion is. I love working with emerging, talented artists and helping them, in as many ways as I can, try to rise above the noise. Because that\u2019s probably as difficult now as it ever has been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ragland appreciates the challenges facing artists in today\u2019s ever-changing musical landscape. \u201cYou have to hustle so hard nowadays,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s so much unrewarded genius out there that will never be heard of, because they don\u2019t have the business acumen or the work ethic to really sit down and say, \u2018I need to spend four hours a day promoting myself.\u2019\u201d The NewSong competition aims to support and encourage those creative artists who recognize that reality.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… A New Song At the same time, parts of his past were calling him. \u201cHaving grown up in Winston-Salem, Boston was far away from home,\u201d Ragland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,3668],"tags":[237,3640],"class_list":["post-15663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-music-business","tag-asheville","tag-gar-ragland","cat-41-id","cat-3668-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15663"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19293,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15663\/revisions\/19293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}