Tom Dean—The Atlantic Years (sort of)

JH: First of all Tom, it's so great to hear thatyou're back on your feet and performing again afteryour terrible car crash last year. We'll talk moreabout the details of that dark day a little later.Let's start with the bright spots in your long careerin music. Virtually all performers dream of gettingthat elusive "major label" record deal. You've beenthere and done that with your twenty-plus year bandcollaboration with Alana MacDonald and Herb Ludwig,Devonsquare. What led up to your deal with Atlantic Records back in 1988 and what was it like to be courted and personally signed by the legendary co-founder of Atlantic, Ahmet Ertegun?

TD: In 1984 we made our first record "Devon2" with our own money, hoping to use it as a demo to get a record deal. We added songs that we didn't feel great about but thought they would be commercial (big mistake). Not even a nibble on this record but lots of airplay locally and fans bought them likehotcakes.

In 1985 we self-produced our second record "Night Sail." By now we had a pretty good idea of who we were musically and the record showed it. A good record but still no record deal. It's now 1987 and we are resigned to the fact that we will have to be our own record company. The next record we made "Walking On Ice" was written and produced with only one thing in mind. Just make a record we would want to hear. No other agendas except the best we can do. No one was going to sign us so what the hell. We released this record in October 1987 and promoted it ourselves. We were pretty good at self-promotion by now. We also hired an independent record promoter. Two months after the release of this CD (our first on the compact disc format) we charted in Gavin on the AC charts. No small feat for three folkies from Portland, Maine.

In early December, only two months after releasing this new recording, we got a call from two people from NYC informing us that Atlantic Records CEO Ahmet Ertegun loves the band and wants to sign us to his label immediately! Two weeks later we were in his office signing on the dotted line. What a hoot. We were walking on air for a month. To have the man who startedAtlantic records and signed everyone from Eric Clapton to Crosby Stills & Nash and Led Zeppelin want to pick up our new CD and release it on Atlantic was a dream come true. We had no idea what we were in for in the next 5 years.

JH:From "Walking On Ice" (maybe thin) to "walking on air" with one of the biggest record companies in the world! What a classic "indie" success story. So, you get signed to Atlantic. What happened next?

TD: Atlantic released "Walking On Ice" in the same form we released it 6 months earlier, only this release now had worldwide distribution. Their promotion department had barely a clue how to promote a folk/rock act. Actually they were more interested in our next record that we had yet to make (they actually said so on two occasions) than the one being released. A video was made for the song "Walking On Ice" and it aired on VH1. Other than that, not much was done.

JH: Did you have management in place?

TD: No. That was a big mistake on our part. The two people who pitched "Walking On Ice" to Ahmet became our managers through default. We didn't have a clue how important having a well-respected manager was.

JH: Did you tour?

TD: Yes, but the management team in place for us should have gotten us hooked up with a booking agency but didn't. We just carried on as before, booking ourselves in coffeehouses and small concerts.

JH: Did Atlantic give you tour support? What was their commitment to getting radio airplay for you? (And, how much clout does a co-founder of a label actually exercise with regard to day to day roster activity?)

TD: For "Walking On Ice" we received no tour support. Radio airplay was minimal because they really weren't interested in the market that this CD was intended for. AAA radio was brand new at the time and Atlantic was a huge company with very little interest in small radio stations. Ahmet didn't really participate in the day to day, although that would change drastically on our next CD, "Bye Bye Route 66," which they insisted we start writing for immediately. This is where the story really gets interesting.

JH: "Route 66" is a great record, in my opinion. It was the first record you made under contract with Atlantic, correct? How involved was A&R, or anyone at Atlantic, in choosing the material and musical direction for that record?

TD: "Bye Bye Route 66" was the second record released on Atlantic but the first to be recorded under contract. The input came from all directions when making this record. Ahmet himself was suggesting songs to us written by other writers. He was also picking and choosing from the material we were writing at the time. Doug Morris (president of Atlantic) also had a hand in this process. Both these men were very musical and were coming to these meetings with the big picture in mind. I had total respect for them both. As far as the musical direction, many people were lobbying us very subtly to go in certain directions. We stuck to our own vision for the most part in this area, although it wasn't easy.

This went on for about a year as we demo-ed new songs and I made trips to Nashville to co-write with some of the hot guys down there. We came to agreement on nine songs and I got a call one night from Ahmet saying he thought we should just do a nine song CD. I told him I was opposed to that idea and to please give us another two weeks to write a few more songs. He agreed and the Squares got together the next day and began to write the last song on the CD. I thought this nine song idea was a slap in the face after all the work we had done and interpreted it as a vote of no-confidence. We were determined to give them a great single. Three days later we had a new song already recorded as a demo titled "If You Could See Me Now."

Janice Roeg, now one-half of our management team, met Ahmet at the airport to play him this song in his car. He loved it and gave us a budget to record it as the 10th song. It wasn't a very big budget mind you. The last thing we recorded was Alana's violin parts and we ran out of studio time. Our producer called Ahmet and asked for another few hours to finish the song and he refused to give it to us. We now had 20 minutes to record what would normally take two to three hours of violin parts. It didn't exactly make us feel like we were on the A-team.

JH: You went to Nashville during this period and wrote a song with one of the Eagles original members, Bernie Leadon, didn¹t you?

TD: My first trip to Nashville was to write with Bernie Leadon. This was the first co-write I had ever done outside of Devonsquare. To make things a little more nerve racking, it was to write with a former member of the Eagles. We ended up writing a song together titled "Diamond Days" which wound up being a cut on "Bye Bye Route 66."

JH: Your first non-band co-write ever was with a former member of one of the world's biggest selling acts! Amazing! How did that come about, did Atlantic make that contact for you? Was it difficult to come up with a song under those circumstances?

TD: One of our former managers who was from Nashville set this trip up for me. He new Bernie and the folks at Warner/Chappell Publishing and thought it would be a great opportunity for me. Bernie and I spent two days together and wrote the song "Diamond Days." I was very nervous and feeling a little out of my element about this co-write. Our first day together was sort of a bust in that neither of us was all that excited about the other's song ideas. At the end of the first day I asked if I could copy a bunch of his song titles from a notebook that he kept. He agreed and I went back to my room thinking there was no way I was going to spend another day like that first one. I immediately fell asleep and woke at four in the morning in a panic. I got out all the song titles I borrowed from Bernie and proceeded to write the song "Diamond Days" using some titles as lead lines in the verses. By the time I showed up for that day's writing session I had this song almost finished. He wrote a bridge for it and off we went. This was a great lesson in how to write a song out of desperation. I don't recommend this technique however.

JH: You mentioned that by the time you were wrappingup recording for "Bye Bye Route 66" you felt thatDevonsquare was no longer on Atlantic's "A-Team." Wasthat the end of the deal, so to speak? Did they "dropyou" after release of that record?

TD: Actually, except for Ahmet's enthusiasm, we never felt Atlantic had a lot of faith in Devonsquare. I felt the promotion department really didn't know how to promote this band. In the first two weeks following the release of "Bye Bye Route 66" I realized I was right. The single "If You Could See Me Now" was released to 40 radio stations as a test marketing. 37 of the 40 stations had top phones on this song for those two weeks. By "top phones" I mean people calling to request the song or find out about the band. I believe Atlantic's promotional department was caught with their pants down. They had little or no promotion plan in place. For the next two months they tried to play catch up but never were able to cash in on the initial momentum. For the next two years we wrote songs for another Atlantic record but never captured their interest again. In a way I can't blame them. We were now writing songs in tribute to the Beat Poetry movement of the 1950's. We agreed to part ways in 1994.

JH: I know you¹re still doing a lot of shows with Devonsquare but you¹ve also made quite a name for yourself as a solo artist. Tell me about your latest effort, "Your Own Backyard." Local (Northeast) radio has really taken to the record. What other feedback have you gotten? Which cuts are getting attention?

TD: During the sessions for "Industrial Twilight" (Devonsquare's 5th CD to be released independently) I realized that the songs I was writing didn't have a place in such a concept CD as this. Two of them did make it on the record but I was now looking for a way to release them. My good friend George Wardwell and I had been collaborating now for two or three years and had written quite a few really fine songs. George is a great lyricist. Having the opportunity to work with such a great writer is inspiring. Sometimes he sends a lyric that just floors me. When the lyrics are that good the song almost writes itself. (Alright enough about him, back to me.)

In 1997, to the chagrin of the other two band members, I started a solo project in NYC with Peter Gallway co-producing. We used some of the most in-demand musicians in town. Some I picked and some Peter chose. The recording sessions flowed like a river. We were done rehearsing and basic tracking in four days. For these sessions I recorded my acoustic and vocal live with the band on all tracks saving much overdub time and in the process getting a great feel on everything.

When this record was done I spent about six months shopping it to large and small labels in the US and Europe. Came really close to getting a deal but "almost only counts in..." well, you know. In April of 1999 I released this record myself using all the radio contacts and experience I had gathered in the past with Devonsquare. The response to this CD was terrific. The largest broadcast station in the Northeast, WHOM, started playing "Love Is Always Gonna Look Just Like You" three times a day. They continued this airplay for 18 months. By the time the summer of '99 was half over, I had this CD playing on 30 or more stations in the US plus 10 or so in Europe. The print reviews were all glowing.

JH: I think my favorite cut on the CD is "On TheRoad." It's just an incredibly poignant lyric andmelody that immediately touches and speaks to any ofus who've been out there (and alone)... and whohasn't? Last year the road extracted a physical tollfrom you that almost took your life. You were on yourway to a gig, like thousands of times before, what happened?

TD: I think the words in your question "a thousand times before" hold part of the answer to why my accident occurred. A large percentage of a musician's life is usually spent traveling. Most of it is done by car. I believe it was the number of miles I travel every year that put me in a high-risk category. In other words "my number was up." Well, almost. I'm still here to talk about it.

I was on my way to a performance last September 8th on a two-lane country road when an oncoming car passed on a hill in a no passing zone. There was no time or room to get out of the way, and I was hit head on at 60 to 70 MPH. Luckily I had my seat belt on because my car flipped over at least six times sending all the contents of the car out into the woods, including my 30 year old Martin guitar. I spent six months recuperating from my injuries but the guitar had nary a scratch. In fact it was still in tune. I'm seriously thinking of traveling inside my guitar case from now on! Anyway, It's a humbling experience to come so close to death. In a way it makes you more alive. My appreciation for simplicity has grown as well as my ability to appreciate the things I have. I look forward to writing, performing and recording for as long as possible. It's all I've ever really done or wanted to do.

JH: Well, your family, friends and fans were sure relieved to find out that not only were you going to survive, that your ability to make and perform great music would survive too. Before I let you go, what¹s next on your agenda? A new record in the works?

TD: I am very enthusiastic about my ability to play the guitar and sing as well as ever. I value this more than I ever would have had I not gone through what I went through. I have been writing songs for a new solo project and will start this project today as a matter of fact. This will be this first CD I've ever done as a simple acoustic project. You see I have this thing with simplicity lately. Maybe in a year I'll want to record a CD with the production values of Queen. Probably not though.

I also have a CD in the works with my good friend Tom Yoder who has played fiddle and mandolin for me in live shows the last six years or so. This should be a lot of fun. Lots of cover tunes that I've rearranged and played with Tom over the years.

As a producer I have two projects to start in the next month. One that I'm very excited about is Joyce Andersen. She's a singer/songwriter from Southern NH who sings like Maria Muldaur meets Bessie Smith and plays fiddle like crazy.

So that's what I'm up to these days. Pretty busy actually. And of course I'll see you next year at the annual New England Songwriter's Festival.

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Update, March 6th 2006: Tom Dean's life and career have continued to take difficult turns in the road. The year after Tom's near-fatal car crash, his long-time Devonsquare bandmate Alana MacDonald was herself nearly killed in a car accident. She has almost fully recovered as of this writing. Tragically, the third member of the very popular New England Folk Trio, Herb Ludwig, died last year in Maine while undergoing heart surgery. He was 58 years old.

Tom continues to write and produce stellar acoustic-inspired tracks. His latest release, Pennies, has also received great critical notice.

"[Tom Dean is] simply one of the finest singer-songwriter-musicians, walking this planet today. This has to be one of the best independent albums to come out this year..."
—Independent Songwriter Web-Magazine

"If you make your own record and sell it out of the back of your car, if you sell 5,000 records, you've probably made your money back. At a place like this, 5,000 records is a CATASTROPHE!"
—Jimmy Bralower, Atlantic Records

Get Your Own Backyard