Driving LDS Music to Market:
Softening Some of the Hard Realities?
by Ron Simpson
Utah songwriter, advocate and general manager, Tantara Records
“Hey Ron, you should hear this too. There’s someone I want you to meet.” Jeff Simpson, owner of Excel, brother of singer/songwriter Greg, and apparently not related to my Simpson line, has included me in the expansive wave of his arm. It’s showcase night at the LDS Booksellers’ Association convention, and I am about to meet Julie.
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Thanks to the recent broadcasts and rebroadcasts of the Pearl Awards, Mormons in at least part of the US get a once-a-year glimpse into the business community that creates and markets LDS-oriented music. Individual artists and music-related companies are invited to join the Faith-centered Music Association (FCMA), that bestows and promotes the now-televised Pearl Awards. Tantara Records (www.tantararecords.com), where I focus my music-business energy, is at the classical edge of the LDS music mix within the FCMA.
Another important professional organization that works to promote the organized retailing of Mormon books and music is the LDS Booksellers Association (LDSBA). Its members include corporate and independent retailers on one side, and wholesalers-firms and individual entrepreneurs who make music, book, and specialty products for the LDS buyer-on the other.
LDSBA puts on an annual convention-a trade show-that looks like countless other events operating in the commercial background of almost every category of goods we buy. The convention floor features promotional booths (no surprise), and no matter how many of these trade shows one may have attended, or how familiar with Church-related commerce one may feel, seeing such a teeming city of LDS products under one huge roof is an unforgettable experience.
In the evenings various presentations of new and favorite music are offered. This year Tantara Records has been invited to present a concert video in surround sound as part of a relaxed midweek showcase along with live appearances from the likes of Enoch Train, David Tolk, Paul Cardall, Kenneth Cope, etc., and with Michael Webb as the host. Tyler Castleton is here, accompanying several artists at the piano. As always, these events provide a chance to greet old friends and fellow troubadours from the creative community, as well as to take care of the business of the day: connecting or reconnecting with store owners and managers, and fine tuning one’s network of friends from the business community of publishers, distributors, and other record labels.
As the music of the showcase ends, my first agenda item is personal: catching up on news with Clive Romney of Enoch Train, with whom I’ve shared so many musical adventures and written so many songs. And then it’s time to move through the room, greeting as many old and new friends as time allows, and introducing my new colleague, Tantara operations manager, Ben Fales, as I go.
I reach the back of the room just in time to be included in Jeff Simpson’s introduction of Julie to a small group of friends.
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“Julie and her husband operate a Christian bookstore in Independence, Missouri, and they’re kind of a rare breed, willing to present any LDS product they like alongside their regular mainstream Christian things,” Jeff is saying.
The charming Julie Gatron, we learn, is a member of the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), and what sets her apart is that she and her husband, Michael, are among the few who are willing to stand up and affirm their acceptance of the Book of Mormon, even as their church distances itself from it. Their bold business name is “Tree of Life Books.”
After we have talked awhile and goodbyes have been said, I climb into my car with several thoughts competing for attention: first, what a cool thing Jeff Simpson has done, meeting Julie at the Gospel Music Association convention and then inviting her to attend LDSBA and hosting her. That’s like hands of friendship stretched across an often-tense international border.
Second, next time I’m in Independence, I’m thinking I’ll stop in at Tree of Life Books. Maybe, I’ll even write an article about this and try to encourage Meridian readers in the St. Louis-Independence area to drop in. Let’s see if we can spot the product they’ve bought from Excel Music and others in the LDSBA community, and if we buy some, then Julie and Michael Gatron might be motivated to keep on ordering.
And a final thought. Many of us who are today’s artists, producers, and songwriters entered the inspirational music arena at the beginnings of our careers through the door marked LDS, thinking there would be a chance to crossover into the broader Christian market, and that all we’d have to do is make good, sincere music, and it would be widely embraced. Discovering the formidable politics of the interfaith issues, we sooner or later gave up the dream. (Successful crossover, interestingly, was achieved to a degree by Sen. Orrin Hatch and Janice Kapp Perry, who employed some remarkably effective stratagems in the producing and marketing of some of their partnership projects.)
But tonight that elusive dream seems to belong to Jeff Simpson and Julie Gatron.
Thanks Jeff, thanks Julie, for renewing our sense that a cooperative marketplace might be an eventual possibility after all.
2002 Meridian Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
