Warner Brothers Nashville is restructuring its operations to maximize opportunities for Warner Music's Christian music artists to reach mainstream audiences.
Under the new structure, label president Jim Ed Norman will oversee all of Warner Bros. Records' Nashville-based recorded music operations including the Word Label Group, which comprises the record labels of leading Christian music company Word Entertainment. Malcolm Mimms will continue to serve as president and COO of Word Entertainment and will be given the additional title of COO Warner Bros. Nashville.
Word and Warner Bros. Nashville will continue to operate as separate entities, but under the new structure, the Word Label Group will be able to draw upon both the resources of Warner Bros. Records' Nashville operations as well as the expertise of Norman, one of Nashville's most respected music executives. Additionally, Warner Bros. Nashville will benefit from Mimms' extensive background in both artist relations and business development.
'O Brother' Producers Get Label Deal
NEW YORK (AP) — The surprise success of the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack has led to a record label deal for its producer, T Bone Burnett, and Joel and Ethan Coen, the makers of the film.
Columbia Records will distribute the new label, DMZ Records. Its first release will be from 75-year-old country singer Ralph Stanley, who won a Grammy Award this year for his "O Death" track on the "O Brother" soundtrack. The disc will be released June 11.
"O Brother, Where Art Thou?" won five Grammys, including album of the year, and producer of the year honors for Burnett. The disc of bluegrass, gospel and traditional country songs has sold more than 4.6 million copies.
However, Burnett said the record label won't simply churn out music in the style of "O Brother."
"We're not going to concentrate solely on traditional American music. We're going to do music that is good, music that will become traditional American music," he said in a statement Tuesday.
The new label's board of advisers will include Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Bono and the Coen brothers.
