Old Souls
By Lisa Collins, senior music editor, GospelMusicChannel.com
Malaco Records is getting competitive, expanding its once staunchly traditional gospel reach to include the latest release from BeBe and CeCe Winans. The single, “Close To You,” released May 12, was the number-one most added track at gospel radio and the third most added single at Urban AC. The full album is due in August, and the company, known for its repertoire of contemporary southern rhythm and blues, soul and gospel, and their “As Seen On TV” direct response campaigns, will be pulling out all the stops.
“As a label, we are traditional, but from a distribution standpoint, we deal in all types of music – be it hip hop, R&B, or more contemporary gospel – through our Memphis-based company, Select-O-Hits,” reports D.A. Williams, executive director of the gospel music division.
At the end of last year, Malaco started a new urban division which will be led by Lionel Ridenour, and has already secured label deals with Heavy D, Ludy and Rasheda.
“BeBe and CeCe wanted to participate in how their record was marketed and dsitribtued, so the traditional label deal wasn’t what we were looking for,” says manager Ron Gilyard. “You have this brand [BeBe and CeCe] that historically knew how to make its own records and they wanted a partner. Out of the blue, Lionel Ridenour hit me up on Facebook and said 'call me, I want to talk about BeBe and CeCe.'"
“Every time they started talking about the things that they wanted to see in a deal, I kept thinking about Lionel [and Malaco],” Gilyard continues.
Already midway in negotiations with another label, the duo sat down with Ridenour and then-Malaco owner, Tommy Couch.
“Everything they said that they would do, they have done and more. They’ve been the ideal partner thus far. I don’t think anyone else would have given this deal. They were in a position where they really wanted to gamble on themselves and Malaco is trying to turn a corner and look like more than where the big church choirs go.”
The label had already made some strategic financial choices.
“A lot of the major labels are trying to downsize to a point where they can be profitable,” explains Williams. “We were lean to start with which put us in a position to add on to a model that has been solid for 40 years.
Even though the landscape changed over the last ten years with the emergence of Zomba, EMI Gospel, we've been able to maintain our presence as one of the top three music groups because of the longstanding appeal of our artists and because we've played it close to the cuff.”
Current releases include Men of Standard Greatest Hits (due June 2), Maurette Brown-Clark’s The Dream – which spent over a year in the top ten, and a Rev. Timothy Wright compilation dubbed The Godfather of Gospel. Artists currently signed to the label include the Caravans, Dorothy Norwood, the Georgia Mass Choir, Luther Barnes and the Mississippi Mass Choir, who are set to record again next month.
Also represented by the Jackson-based record company is a newly established quartet label. “When we got into this business we were the king of quartet music and that's something we're going to continue,” says Williams. “We started the new label to specialize in that and to feature a lot of new up-and-comers.
“Even though mainstream radio hasn't embraced the genre, these groups still sing in front of 3,000 to 5,000 each weekend making them more than viable.”
And while it may be back to square one on the quartet front, the label dubbed by some as "The Last Soul Company" is gearing up for the digital age.
“We're doing extremely well on iTunes and we're getting into the ring tone business. We probably have the most diverse selection of gospel material – everything from James Cleveland to Maurette Brown-Clark.”
Through The Fire
Another trial-by-fire testimony is igniting sales and rocketing Chicago-based, Bishop Larry Trotter to a top ten debut on Billboard’s Top Gospel Albums Chart. The two-disc CD I Still Believe, released June 2, is Trotter’s personal story of faith recounting a tumultuous period of poor health, a failing marriage and struggling church.
