Courier, an Honorable Vocation
Tax Time + One Night In Fresno + How Sparrow Records Gave Me a Gig of a Lifetime
Tax time. Who loves it?
We had accountants when I was in the thick of my empire-building phase. Grammarians take a breath. The glaring plural/singular mismatch is on purpose. I was the empire-builder. We are the couple, Andi and Charlie. Andi co-shouldered the weight of my mess-making—hence accountants.
Now we are back to the beginning and kitchen-table accounting + a little help from a CPA. It took three days of prep this year. Better than the last. After fifty years of entrepreneurial self-employment, I fantasize about whittling the mess down to a single day. Ten years from now, I imagine our daughter Molly helping her soon-to-be octogenarian parents:
“Dad, on your Visa, what is KEPmm2-Copenhagen?”
“I have no idea. Ask CHAT-Decode.”
“It says they make an app called Harmonices Mundi.”
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. It's a cosmic soundscape app that translates planetary orbits into music. I was gonna use it on my Kepler Space Symphony.”
“So, a write-off then?”
“Definitely.”
Yesterday, after filing 1099s (I was late) and stuffing the 11x17 envelope with our paperwork, I headed to the CPA's office for them to finalize my figuring. I was my own courier. The address sounded familiar—101 Winners Circle.
For a ten-year+ period, I visited this address often. It was the home of Sparrow Records, which quickly became EMI Christian Music (with Sparrow and many other labels under the banner—including the one I founded called re:think). We made a whole lot of music and history together. As the address implies, more winning than losing, more agreement than not.
For pop history buffs, EMI is the British company that brought the world The Beatles. EMI stands for Electric and Musical Industries Ltd. EMI was formed in March 1931 by the merger of the Columbia Graphophone Company and the Gramophone Company, with its "His Master's Voice" record label (you know the sitting dog logo?). We’re talking deep history—the origins of the record company.
Today, all of this is owned by Universal Music, including the label that gave the world Switchfoot and Sarah Masen (re:think). Only now, re:think has been repurposed by Universal as a distribution company, alongside their other multi-purpose “legacy” imprints and derivatives.
Parking at 101 Winners Circle, climbing the steps, and entering the lobby all felt like it could've been yesterday. I was inside for less than 15 seconds. Long enough to say, "Dropoff for _____."
Just like a real courier.
On the drive home, I thought of three people from my Sparrow, EMI, and re:think history: Peter York, Bill Hearn, and his father, Sparrow founder, Billy Ray Hearn. I owe each of them a debt of gratitude.
Peter York, Steve Rice, CP, Steven Curtis Chapman, Andraé Crouch, Michael W. Smith, Bill Hearn, Billy Ray Hearn—Most popular songs in the EMI CMG catalog, producer Jimmy Bowen’s home, August 30, 1994
I had no life plan in 1989 to get so directly involved with what was then called Contemporary Christian Music or CCM. Simply put, I needed work to support my family and the acronym came calling.
In early 1989, I began production on a record for the talented Sparrow Records artist Margaret Becker, titled Immigrant’s Daughter. That’s how I first met Peter, Bill, and Billy Ray.
This gig was a new beginning. I’d retired my previous band of great young players, formed a trio with Jimmy Abegg and Vince Ebo, and headed back to working clubs with a band made up of my peers: Roger Smith (keyboards, vocals), Aaron Smith (drums), Eric Heilman (bass), Jimmy (guitar) and Vince and I on vocals.
In late1987, Kim Buie, my A&R person at Island Records, advised me that I could not afford producer Elliot Scheiner (we’d been planning on working together). I was released to find a new label. I showcased for Atlantic Records (including Ahmet Ertegun) at the Roxy in LA. Everything looked very positive until in typical LA-fashion it didn’t.
CBS Songs, my music publisher, and attorney Fred Davis (Clive's son) had connected me with Ron Alexenburg, a former SR. VP and General Manager of Epic Records (remember Thriller by Michael Jackson? Yep). Ron had started a new Sony-backed label called Aegis. He kindly flew to Sacramento to hear the band perform at Melarkey’s, 15th & Broadway.
Ron, a classic old-school "record man," eventually passed on signing me. I was glad. We didn’t click. He did offer me some show biz advice, though: “Find yourself a seamstress to sew some sweat pads into the underarms of your shirt.” Fair enough. But what about those bridge chord changes in our encore?
After this latest career stall I was a bit directionless and depressed. But I had Margaret's record in motion and was performing. Once I had some cash in pocket I’d take another swing at a new record deal. Unlike it felt, the future wasn’t all up to me. Like the elevator says: When Light Flashes, Help Is On The Way.
On March 31st, the Light flashed. Bill and Peter came to hear the new/old band of peers play at a club in Fresno, California called The Wild Blue. Peter recently told me that Bill had tried to cancel at the last minute, saying he didn't have time. Peter held firm, telling him, "No, you can’t cancel. This is too important!.”
Peter went to bat for me. Wouldn’t be the last time.
Amy Grant's manager and A&R executive, Mike Blanton, also called me. He wanted to work with me, if for no other reason than to write a hit song for Amy—but maybe a record deal, too.
My peers and I started playing in bands as young teenagers, developing chops and showmanship. First cover bands, then mixing original songs in little by little, and finally playing only our own music (if everything went right). If we played a cover song, it was an homage to an influence.
Movement and dancing were common in our era—especially in world music, rock, funk, Latin, soul/R&B, and disco. Even during the punk and new wave movements, fans flailed, pogoed, and moshed. The music and its effect were visceral. Sweat was involved. Lots of it.
“Get up offa that thing and dance till you feel better!”
Most importantly, we played for four hours, often five if the date was 9-2PM. In the vernacular, we had one job: Bring the house down. No shoe-gazing showcase mentality for us. We had failed if the audience didn't leave knowing they'd just experienced the most incredible night of live music ever (well, at least in Fresno, that night).
We delivered one of those nights to Peter and Bill and a packed club of 200+ sweaty, swaying people. Job done. As singer Vince remarked with inimitable style, “We tore it up!”
The trio of me, Jimmy Abegg, and Vince Ebo was no different. Acoustic guitar and two vocals. A huge, energized sound anchored in people and place, powered by an Old Testament version of artistry: skill, ability, and Spirit (Exodus 31:3).
It was decided. I would sign a record deal with Sparrow, a publishing deal when my CBS Songs contract was up, and a production deal to produce and develop other artists for Sparrow and EMI. We were moving to Nashville and taking as many Californians as possible. Migration time!
Bill Hearn, Mark Ford, CP, and Peter York at CP’s first platinum record party, Fall 1991.
That was 36 years ago. One gig gave birth to a lifetime of story and song.
Thank you, Peter York, Bill Hearn, and Billy Ray Hearn. I needed work and you needed a courier.
Not a company man, but a delivery man.
I hope I delivered for you as much as you did for me. Thanks for the gig. It changed my life, our life, for the better.
All grace, all gratitude.
In memorium:
Billy Ray Hearn, born April 26, 1929, died April 15, 2015
Bill Hearn, born September 28, 1959, died December 10, 2017
If you enjoyed this story and want to explore more of my music history please avail yourself of the memoir, Roots & Rhythm: A Life in Music, on sale now at discount.
“Charlie rearranged all our lives musically when his Planet of Cyborgs vessel descended on ole Music City back in ’89. I was one of the lucky humans impacted by this landing. He is that rare class of musician who becomes the obsession of other musicians. And I’m not just referencing the novices; I’m speaking of musicians who are amongst the most skilled and decorated practitioners of the art, on this planet or any other.”
I was at that show that sweaty night at the wild blue. It could have been the night that you snuck me in because I was still under 21. Every show I saw the Charlie peacock band were amazing but the Wild Blue shows were amazing! Thank you Charlie for some amazing memories and sounds.
Sometime about 1956, 5th grade, I spent the wknd with a classmate who lived in a house near Mystic. Moved from DeQuincy, He was only at Fields, Hyatt for a short while. Our Sunday was at Good Hope Baptist church where I discovered you seeking your own Ashworth ancestry. Unforgettable. I searched the same cemetery for Jesse Gore, our old cemeteries hold ghosts whom we are connected. ( Bancroft son, FB roscoe Beauregard). 1910 I found my dad at Mystic. He was with his grandmother Blanche Sartin Cooper, of which I get the Choctaw grandfather, thus dad, Laban Alton Cooper for whom I was so named.