TEST PRESSING 5/6/1976 Don Nix, Geo Harrison, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, MORE

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WHO IS DON GRAHAM ???

Promo guru Don Graham heads Progressive Music Marketing and specializes in radio promotion of Adult Standard Radio.

PROGRESSIVE MUSIC MARKETING

ADULT STANDARD RADIO

THE FORMAT (INCLUDING, "EASY LISTENING", "NOSTALGIA", AND "BIG BAND") HAS EVOLVED TO A HIGHLY EFFICIENT WAY TO ACHEIVE MEANINGFUL AIRPLAY AND SALES. DELIVERING A CONSTANT SHARE OF THE 25-45 DEMOGRAPHIC, IT IS ALWAYS ARBITRON RATED IN THE TOP 5 (35-64 DEMO) IN 32 OF THE TOP 50 MARKETS AND 56 OF THE TOP 100.

OUR CURRENT SERVICE OF 191 INCLUDES CONSULTANTS, NETWORK SYNDICATIONS, PROGRAM SUPPLIERS AND PRODUCTION SERVICES.

 
IN WEEKLY PHONE, FAX AND EMAIL CONTACTS WE SECURE AND CONFIRM NATIONAL SPECIFIC AIRPLAY. ADDITIONALLY, ARTIST INTERVIEWS, CONTEST AND TOUR SUPPORT, ARE PART OF OUR NATIONAL DAILY EFFORT.  WE PRIDE OURSELVES ON OUR REPORE WITH ADULT STANDARD RADIO AND CERTAIN RECORD LABELS.

THE ADULT STANDARDS RADIO FORMAT INCLUDES MATERIAL FROM VETERAN PERFORMERS LIKE STEVE TYRELL, ROD STEWART, ANDREA BOCELLI, MICHAEL FEINSTEIN, DIANA KRALL, DAVE KOZ, REGIS PHILBIN, MICHAEL BUBLE', BARRY MANILOW, NATALIE COLE, QUEEN LATIFAH, RAY CHARLES, ELLA FITZGERALD, BOBBY DARIN, KENNY G, JOHN PIZZARELLI, PLUS NUMEROUS BIG BAND AND SOUNDTRACK RELEASES.

A HOT STATISTIC! ONE OF THE NATIONAL NETWORKS WE WORK WITH HAS 216 STATIONS (37 IN TOP 50 MARKETS), AND DELIVERS A LISTENING AUDIENCE OF MORE THAN 8 MILLION.  (8,104,700)
 

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"National Promotion Man of the Year" - The Gavin Report (3)

"National Promotion Man of the Year" - Billboard (2)

Here is info on Don Graham's stellar career:

Record Supply Distributor - San Francisco
Worked with Russ Solomon and Don Ayers

(One Stop operation selling to Retailers)

Opened first Tower Records (Sacramento, CA)

Warner Bros Records, Inc 

Promotion Manager - Western Division
Worked with Joe Smith and Mo Ostin

Covered 11 western states, established weekly promotional contact with Radio, Tip sheet publications, Independent Distribution Sales and Programming staff.
Communicated daily with Programmers, music directors and air talent

A&M Records, Inc 

VP/Director of National Promotion
Worked with Herb Alpert, Jerry Moss, Bob Fead

Established promotional team and Artists Relations Dept.

Took artists on promotional stops (Radio, TV, Newspaper etc)

Good personal rapport with Artists, Managers and Agents on behalf of A&M Records.

Don also help executive management positions with Blue Thumb Records, United Artists Records, Midget Productions and Cream Records. In 1980 Don established Don Graham Productions, offering him the selectivity of working with artists, publishers and people with whom he prefers to associate. Projects to date have successfully included placing and signing talent with certain labels, establishing a tight

 network of certain key radio stations and the opportunity to screen demos and maters frequently submitted to me for evaluation.

WHO IS DON NIX???

A native of Memphis, Nix attended Messick High School, where he acquired a broad taste in music... you could find records from blues greats such as Freddie King and Sonny Boy Williamson alongside the Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra records in his collection. He first started playing guitar but picked up the saxophone for his first real band.

The Mar-Keys were "a high school band" formed by Messick High School students. Along with Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, Wayne Jackson, Andrew Love, Charlie Freeman, Packy Axton and others, they recorded "Last Night", an instrumental record intended for local radio that became an international hit in 1961, establishing the foundation of Stax Records. The group had follow up hits "The Morning After" and "Popeye Stroll".

They toured the world (with acts such as the Yardbirds, Ike and Tina Turner, Sam the Sham, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, etc.) and backed up various other Stax artists (Carla and Rufus Thomas, William Bell, etc.) onstage and in the studio.

The band eventually broke up following a rowdy appearance on American Bandstand (Packy Axton arrived at the studio taping less than sober and the entire band gave Dick Clark the "finger" afterwards) with Cropper and Dunn joining Booker T. and the MG's, and Wayne Jackson forming the Memphis Horns with Andrew Love. Other members of the original group included renown session guitarist Charlie Freeman and Jerry Lee "Smoochie" Smith.

After years of touring with the Mar-Keys, Nix was tired of the travel and uninterested with the show business aspect of playing onstage. He found his niche creating and directing music production behind the scenes.

He played the part of backup musician to tracks cut at Stax studios (including William Bell's huge hit You Don't Miss Your Water and eventually wore the hat of record company exec, overseeing the day to day operations of Stax's rock themed subsidiary label Enterprise.

Nix honed his production skills at Stax, John Fry's Ardent Studios, and at Leon Russell and Denny Cordell's Shelter label, producing artists such as Albert King, Delaney and Bonnie, Joe Cocker, Sid Selvidge and Tracy Nelson.

Despite his reluctance to ever beome a front man or stage performer, Nix released brilliant (but underrated) solo albums on Shelter and Enterprise, such as Living By The Days and Hobos, Heroes, and Street Corner Clowns. Well worth the listen, Nix used the finest musicians and vocalists from Memphis (Larry Raspberry, Jeannie Greene, etc.), Muscle Shoals, and the crowd at Shelter, known as the Shelter People (Claudia Lennear, Kathi McDonald, Chris Blackwell, Carl Radle, Don Preston, etc.) as players.

Nix's most notable project during this period was producing childhood hero Freddie King at the famous Chess Studios in Chicago. Leon Russell and Duck Dunn played on the session which produced a hit record for King, a song penned by Nix entitled "Goin' Down" , which has become somewhat of a standard jam tune with bar bands and rock stars alike. It has been covered by Deep Purple, Pearl Jam, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Mick Jagger, Maggie Bell with Stone the Crows and many others.

Jeff Beck covered "Goin Down" on his 1972 Jeff Beck Group album on Epic, and the next year Nix produced his colaboration with ex- Vanilla Fudge members Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice titled Beck, Bogart, and Appice.

Despite his reluctance to go back on the road, it was a necessity for Nix to tour and promote his solo albums. He formed the Alabama State Troupers around the premise of recreating an old time traveling music show.

Nix teamed with singer Jeannie Greene and guitarist Lonnie Mack, and they hit the road to promote their individual solo albums, backed by the finest musicians from Muscle Shoals and Memphis.

The group included Wayne Perkins and Tippy Armstrong on guitar, Clayton Ivey on piano, organist Ken Woodley, Bob Wray on bass, Ken Woodley on keyoards, drummers Tarp Tarrant (from Jerry Lee Lewis's band) and Fred Proudly (formely of the Hot Dogs), and the "Mt. Zion choir" with singers Marilyn Greene, Brenda Patterson, Mary "Bouche" Anderson, Carolyn "Pepper" Watkins and Marianne "Tweety" Watkins along with bodyguard/bouncer/cook "Sweet Emily" Smith. The band was a rock and roll version of a big tent revival.

They played shows up and down the west coast (most were simucast on local FM radio), and charged "plain folk prices" (usually $1 or $1.50). The tour was a wild success but ran into trouble when Lonnie Mack unexpectedly pulled out after the first few shows.

Nix turned to an old friend from Memphis, legendary Beale street bluesman Walter "Furry" Lewis for help. Lewis fought his fear of flying and caught the first plane west to join the tour.

The presence of a true authentic bluesman meshed with the younger players onstage was new and unexpected to the early 70's rock audiences, but they were remarkably well received. Lewis continued until the tour ended, and the next year Elecktra released the album The Alabama State Troupers/Road Show.

This two disc live recording is out of print, but is still considered a "must hear" for all Memphis music collectors and listeners.

One notable career event was her collaboration with George Harrison and many others in the production of the Concerts for Bangladesh - a pair of star-studded benefit concerts held at Madison Square Garden.

Harrison asked Nix to assemble a "soul choir" for the show (Claudia Lennear, Marlin and Jeannie Greene, etc.) and later told Nix that he should join the singers onstage. Though reluctant, Nix explains that "you don't say 'no' to a Beatle."

Apple intended to release a three disc album with a film to document the event,but the world class film team that Harrison commissioned to record the concerts were prevented from filming the shows ("right at the last minute" according to Nix) due to union regulations. A crew of Madison Square Garden union hacks apparently more familiar with sporting events actually filmed the concerts.