Bob Merlis with Memphis International recording artist Louise Hoffsten at the Polar Prize ceremonies in Stockholm last year.

Industry Profile: Bob Merlis

— By Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen

(CelebrityAccess MediaWire) Music industry veteran Bob Merlis is the principal of M.f.h. (Merlis for hire), a public relations and consulting business.

For nearly 30 years, Bob's name had been synonymous with Warner Bros. Records where, he served in various publicity-related positions and, ultimately, as senior vice president, Worldwide Corporate Communications. Bob is also co-owner of Memphis International Records, a two-year old label that has already seen one of its artists receive a Grammy Award nomination.

Following his taking early retirement from Warner Bros. in 2001, Bob started M.f.h., and has since represented a wide range of clients including John Mellencamp, Etta James, ZZ Top, Lili Haydn, ABKCO Music and Records (The Rolling Stones, Sam Cooke), John Fogerty, the Shout! Factory label, MCA Nashville (Patsy Cline), The Bridge School (Neil and Pegi Young), Consulate of Sweden/Polar Music Prize, "The Songs of The Pianist" (Universal Music Enterprises), Major Songs (Carl Sigman music publishing catalog), Julia Darling, Asleep at the Wheel and others.

After graduating from Columbia University in New York in 1969, Bob began his music industry career at Record World Magazine, where he served as assistant editor. In 1971 he joined Warner Bros. Records in New York as a press representative. Two years later he moved to Bearsville Records, assuming the post of operations manager. After a stint with RCA Records' A&R Department, Bob rejoined Warner Bros. Records in New York as senior press representative. He was named director of publicity in 1975 and relocated to the West Coast. In 1982, he was promoted to vice president / director of publicity and in 1992 became senior vice president of the department. In 1996 he was named to his final position with the label: In addition to his media relations duties, Bob acted in an A&R capacity for comedy signings bringing Robert Schimmel, Julia Sweeney, Joe Rogan, Eddie Griffin and The M.O.T. to the company.

In late 2001, Bob established Memphis International Records with David Less, a former music journalist for Rolling Stone and Downbeat and a Memphis regional promoter of concerts and festivals, who later served as executive director of The Blues Foundation and president of Gibson Records. Less heads up Memphis International's home office--down the street from Sun Records in Memphis-- and also serves as an entertainment consultant with clients ranging from Gibson Guitar Corp., ABC News, CNN, Morgan Freeman Productions, The Smithsonian Institute and Varsity Spirit Corp.

When they formed the label, Bob joked then that the initial budget "was extremely modest by conventional music standards. It's only five digits to begin with. We spend more on press kits for one Fleetwood Mac album at Warner Bros. than we anticipate spending to release six albums a year."

Both Bob and Less do A&R. Bob handles the PR and editorial, such as liner notes. Less does the physical record production, publishing clearances and business affairs. They outsource the radio promotion and work with Megaforce/Ryko on retail. Both are going to MIDEM this month to meet with their foreign distributors and to recruit new ones for territories where they are looking for representation. So far, they have partners in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden/Scandinavia, BeNeLux and Canada, and hope to nail down Japan and Australia at MIDEM.

The label's repertoire is not specific to any single genre, the principals' credo being to release "music we like." In less than two years, Memphis International has released nine albums including a Grammy nominated CD from Alvin Youngblood Hart, as well as critically lauded albums by Memphis soul legend Carla Thomas, folkloric icon Harmonica Frank Floyd, The Gypsy Hombres' Christmas collection Django Bells, a western swing set by Gene Pistilli AKA The Hoboken Saddletramp, The Redstick Ramblers currently charting album, a soul collection by Earl Thomas and Tracy Nelson's live CD recorded in a Tennessee prison. The first release this year will be by Sweden's Louise Hoffsten.

We’re going to put out an album by Rowland Salley, who is a gifted songwriter and Chris Isaak’s bass player. He also used to back Maria Muldaur for some time. We’re also working on a follow up record by the Gypsy Hombres. It will be a themed set, but I can’t divulge the theme lest somebody cop it. We’re also going to put out a collection by Booker T. Laury, a famous old Beale Street piano player also known as “Slopjar.” He died some time ago--he would be 90 this year--but my partner recorded him in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and we’re going to put out the best of those sessions plus some spoken word commentary by him on an album later this year.

Bob and Less recently debuted their Brooklyn International Records subsidiary with a doo-wop vocal album by the Mighty Echoes. They also have a comedy album project in the works for the label and will use the imprint "for stuff that that's somewhat removed from the roots skew of Memphis International," Bob says.

Bob is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominating Committee and sits on the Board of Directors of The Blues Foundation. He also has an ongoing affiliation with The Petersen Automotive Museum where he curated The Cars and Guitars of Rock 'n Roll exhibition and has served as Exhibits Development Director. He is the co-author of Heart &Soul: A Celebration of Black Music Style, 1930 to 1975, a nominee for the Ralph J. Gleason Award as Best Music Book of 1998. As an automotive journalist, he is a frequent contributor to Automobile Magazine and Details. He lives in Los Angeles and is the father of three sons, Alex, Ben, and Tim.

Why did you form a record label?
It was David Less' idea. He called and asked if I had lost money in the stock market and I told him I had. He asked if I had any fun losing it and I told him I hadn't. He then suggested a way of losing money - or maybe breaking even - that would be more fun: a label. I didn't hesitate to jump in, as David is a real music man with vision.

I had long thought of a label in which I'd have lots of input and even proposed one to Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker back in the '80's, but they really wanted me to stay on the publicity side of things at Warner Bros. so I kind of gave up the notion for the next decade and a half. David's suggestion reawakened the idea so I went for it immediately.

What kind of artists are you looking for Memphis International Records?
Ones who make music we like. That's about the extent of our A&R constraint. Of course, our skew is roots, blues and folk, but we'd do a rock band if we felt strongly about their music and had a notion of how we'd market them. We have to be realistic in terms of our resources; if we found an overt pop act that we both liked, we'd have to look into what it takes to be competitive in that realm before we jumped in. It seems one needs millions of dollars to play that game. Millions of dollars is something we don't have so we tend to stay away.

Does an artist have to have a Memphis affiliation to be on the label?
No. I chose the name because "Memphis" means credible music to most of the world. While some of our artists are based in Memphis (Alvin Youngblood Hart, Carla Thomas), others are from other parts of the planet - Gene Pistilli lives in Nashville but traces his origins to Hoboken, N.J.; Tracy Nelson lives near Nashville but has roots in Madison, Wis.; The Red Stick Ramblers are from Baton Rouge; the Gypsy Hombres are a Nashville phenomenon; Earl Thomas lives in San Diego; The Mighty Echoes are L.A.-based; Harmonica Frank didn't live in any fixed place as he was a dyed in the wool hobo; and Louise Hoffsten lives and works in Sweden--she fills the "international" bill in our label's name. By the way The Mighty Echoes are on Brooklyn International, our sister label, and none of them are from Brooklyn...but I am.

What kind of tour support does Memphis International Records provide?
We give them radio, retail and publicity support when and where we can. We outsource our radio promotion and have some good results with airplay in a number of formats: blues, AAA and Americana. We even approached Radio Disney about The Mighty Echoes because kids love them, but maybe their belly buttons aren't aligned just right for them. My office provides publicity support in terms of getting CDs out for review nationally and focusing on tour markets. We were especially successful with Alvin Youngblood Hart in this regard as he tours quite a bit and has resonance in numerous key markets. The Red Sticks are touring successfully, and we do our best to highlight their dates in the press. We're keen on getting Louise Hoffsten over here to perform and support the release of her album, which we'll release here in April. It's going to come out in Scandinavia at the end of January.

How do you feel about free downloading of music over the Internet?
It's obviously a huge issue, and we can't really quantify how we've been affected by it. One of the things we try to do is give consumers a total package, not just a good song and some filler, which may be compelling enough for them to purchase the physical CD. We underscore this with liner notes to enhance the album experience. To date, we had contributions by best-selling authors Nick Tosches (Harmonica Frank) and Robert Gordon (Alvin Youngblood Hart), recording artists including Willie Nelson (Tracy Nelson), Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top (Hart again), Linda Ronstadt (Red Sticks), Isaac Hayes (Carla Thomas) Bonnie Raitt and Marcia Ball (Louise Hoffsten), Asleep At The Wheel's Ray Benson (Gene Pistilli) plus Rock Hall of Fame President Terry Stewart (Mighty Echoes) and the legendary Jerry Wexler (Earl Thomas).

What did you learn from all your years at a major label in doing/not doing at your label?
Necessity is a mother. That is to say, we don't have the resources of a major so we have to make every release count which, these days, the majors have to pay heed to, as well, I suppose. We also don't consider a record "over" after an arbitrary point in time. If we can find new life for Gene Pistilli's album in Germany a year after it was released, we're thrilled.

While you were at Warner Bros, did you foresee the eventual rapid decline of major labels?
Not really. They seemed invincible. The fact that a media conglomerate like (AOL) Time Warner sold off its music assets would have been unthinkable in the 1990s.

What makes a good publicist?
You've got to know what you're pitching and know to whom you're pitching it to. I'm an automotive journalist on the side so I'm subject to PR pitches from publicists in that realm. It's amazing to hear their canned, scripted spiels and realize that they've never bothered to read what I write. It's basic and now with the Internet, it's pretty inexcusable. If I want to see what the take of a certain writer in the, say, The Austin American Statesman, I can just look it up online and see if there's a potential 'fit' there with what I'm promoting. Having a passion for the music and a sense of its context are also the marks of quality pr.

What was your most outrageous publicity campaign?
I don't know about "outrageous" but I was involved in the re-launch of ZZ Top that led up to the huge success of Eliminator. We just underscored the band's blues roots culminating in a wonderful "Bye Bye Birdie" kind of event in Clarksdale, Miss. and let the boogie wash over our target outlets.

I also hired the original Rent-A-Wreck lot in West L.A. for a party to celebrate Neil Young's Rust Never Sleeps film. We also flew a whole slew of journalists to Paris to see the launch of Prince's "Lovesexy" tour, and he didn't talk to any of them which shocked some of them, but I did my best to warn them that he wasn't the world's greatest conversationalist.

In the long run, is bad publicity better than no publicity?
It is, to a great extent. It's the old tree falling in the woods schtick. People are still talking about Ozzy's dove - or was it a chicken - years after the fact. Speaking of Ozzy, Asleep At The Wheel have a song called "Don't Go There" on their new album. It's about the incident in the early 1980s when Ozzy relieved himself on the Alamo and caught all kinds of Texas hell for it. It's the stuff of songworthy legends, I guess.

First concert attended
Peter, Paul & Mary opening for Martin Luther King at Westchester County Centeri in 1963 or '64.

First concert worked
From 1966-8, I was with the committee that presented entertainment at Columbia University I was involved in presenting The Byrds (Graham Parson era edition) as a result, The Barbarians of "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl" fame were the openers. I also worked on concerts by Simon and Garfunkel (Art was a grad student at Columbia), Martha and The Vandellas, The Grateful Dead during the 1968 student uprising, etc.

First industry job
Worked for Record World as "schlepper" starting in October 1969. I stayed there for two years, did their singles reviews, and became assistant editor.

Career highlights
At Record World I got to do the cover "picks," and promo people lobbied me for the shot. I met lots of great characters and had lunch with Ricky Nelson and got to meet Swamp Dogg for the first time--he's still my friend). My first tenure at Warner Bros. followed ('71-73), then to Bearsville Records (in NYC, not the town of Bearsville, N.Y.) where I was operations manager, RCA (A&R under Don Heckman), back to WB where I stayed for the next 27 years.

Career disappointment
When Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker left WB. The corporate intrigue aspect for which they had no stomach was a pox on those of us who stayed.

Greatest challenge
Dealing with the Ice T "Cop Killer" imbroglio. It was a classic first amendment defense, but there was no winning the argument when confronted by the widows of police officers. Ultimately Ice T, who, by the way, was a sweetheart to work with, left the label, but the controversy continued until rap became more or less, mainstream music. Then again, if you put out a record with a description of a policeman being shot today, there certainly would be a hue and cry.

Best business decision
Coming back to WB in '74. I owe my return to Liz Rosenberg, who lobbied for me, and I didn't even know her at the time. We're still the best of friends to this day, and she's one of the few people still at Warner Bros. from my era.

Best advice you received
From Mo Ostin when I said I might leave to be a VP at ABC Records: "What do you want to do that for? They're not going to be in the record business very much longer." He was right, and I'm glad I stayed.

Best advice to offer
For someone doing PR? Know your contacts. Read what they write. Don't pitch them from a script, it's embarrassing.

Most memorable industry experience
Hard to say. Being involved in the re-launch of ZZ Top when they came to WB was great. I'm still repping them again these days, and they're getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in this year so we must have done something right.

What friends would be surprised to learn about you
I had a soft spot for teen pop in the Debbie Gibson/Martika era.

Industry pet peeve
Meetings.

Office paraphernalia
I have decades worth of memorabilia on the walls of my office. Lots of Studebaker iconography too as I write about cars for Automobile Magazine unrelated to my music biz PR work.

If I wasn't doing this, I would be...
…selling cars.

Industry mentors
Liz Rosenberg, Bob Regher, Lenny Waronker, Mo Ostin, Gene Sculatti, Paul Fishkin, Stan Cornyn, Billie Wallington and Sid Parnes.

Bob can be reached at (323) 962-6887; e-mail: bobmerlis@bobmerlis.com

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