An instrumental Eminem for infants
mental recordings for infants and was introduced for parents who hate “kids’ music” but don’t want to expose their daughter to Queens of the Stone Age’s blistering “Better Living Through Chemistry” just yet.
The Pickin’ On brand, which injected muchneeded profits into the business at a crucial moment, has fiddled with bluegrass in a similar fashion, recording tight instrumental renditions of music originally released by dozens of acts, including the Beatles, Taylor Swift, Beck, the Cure and Wilco.
CMH pays its bills through the numerous instrumental brands and an array of studio albums from legacy acts including Kool Keith, Wanda Jackson and Violent Femmes. Its heavy metal imprint Dwell has issued records by bands such as Behemoth, Stormcrow and Hail Hornet. Business overall is down about 55% since its peak a decade ago, but it remains profitable because of creative diversification.
It does so with about two dozen employees, including longtime CMH exec Lisa Roth, who happens to be rock singer David Lee Roth’s sister.
Like the Blue Man Group or Menudo, Vitamin Records’ Vitamin String Quartet is a brand first and foremost, and since its creation it has issued hundreds of recordings. Earlier this month its version of another Radiohead song, “Motion Picture Soundtrack,” played during a key scene in HBO’s hit series “Westworld.”
In the second-floor loft space overlooking South Los Angeles, the Quartet working out “True Love Waits” included four string players — cellist Derek Stein; violinist Rachel Grace; bassist Thomas Lea, and violinist Hiro Goto — whose session work has appeared on projects by artists including Britney Spears, Usher, Harry Partch, Josh Groban, Juanes and Yo-Yo Ma.
Sitting in a semicircle, the quartet moved through the parts for the Radiohead song under the guidance of longtime Vitamin String Quartet arranger and conductor Jim McMillen. He’s responsible for notating and arranging Vitamin String Quartet’s versions, which it sells commercially as sheet music.
The professorial McMillen can extrapolate in great detail on the ways in which superstar rock band 21 Pilots’ music is more sophisticated than it might first appear, and he can compare it with hits from decades before.
Also wandering the room was Leo Flynn II, who flies in from New Jersey about once a month for sessions. A Berklee School of Music grad, Flynn oversees the Vitamin String Quartet brand and, along with a few others, produces and arranges recent Rockabye titles.
Flynn and his peers love debating the merits of would-be projects. The central concern? “Would this be exciting to hear this done on strings?” Flynn said.
The strings that birthed CMH were twangier.
After imigrating to Nashville in the early 1960s, Martin Haerle quickly scored a job at Starday Records, whose roster over the years included Willie Nelson, George Jones and Minnie Pearl. Most famously, Starday issued singing trucker Red Sovine’s on-the-road anthem, “Teddy Bear.”
Country music was his dad’s obsession, Haerle said at his office in Silver Lake, and he stood out amid the Tennesseans. “He’s got this encyclopedic knowledge of American country music, he has a German accent. He was very charming — and he knew his stuff.”
Martin Haerle and the family eventually moved west. He founded CMH in 1975 and worked at the label over the next 15 years. In 1990, he had a heart attack during a hike with his son. David ran for help, but it was too late.
Then a rising 24-year-old talent agent at ICM, David inherited a bluegrass label with two employees located in the middle of hipster central and, for reasons only known to him, quit ICM for CMH. He set about trying to make money as a California label selling mostly bluegrass music. A stack of bills and an overdrawn checking account welcomed him.
In the vaults, though, was a catalog of classic bluegrass and country music waiting to be exploited, and the son set about reissuing CMH records from its old roster, including music by Lester Flatt & the Nashville Grass, the Osborne Brothers, Grandpa Jones and Merle Travis. Within a few years, things started turning around enough that Haerle and his then-wife were able to buy a new car. Two decades later, Haerle still drives it.
The notion of reinterpreting popular music for different genres was initiated when CMH mined its catalog for a themed collection called “Pickin’ on the Movies.” “Pickin’ on the Beatles” followed, as did a similar tribute to the Eagles. The brand blew up when Deadheads fell for “Pickin’ on the Grateful Dead.” The company’s best sellers have been able to reach the high five figures. A concept was born. It was Lisa Roth’s idea to tap into the baby market, and the Rockabye imprint just celebrated its 10th anniversary with a party mix of infantilized versions of Daft Punk, Michael Jackson and LCD Soundsystem songs. An offshoot imprint called “Hushabye Baby” adds gentle twang into the mix.
Roth pitched Rockabye Baby! to Haerle as a music series for babies, she said during a recent conversation at CMH’s offices. “Something with a little irony or humor. Something I’d be excited to give as a gift.”
The series has fun with the notion of kids’ music, coupling playful melodies with wink-wink irony. Who knows, maybe an infant’s favorite track will be a Rockabye Baby rendition of the Smith’s “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.”
“That’s the fun part,” said Roth. “We put out Eminem, which was something I wanted. I mean, the guy is reviled by some people, but to me he is the ultimate example of irony.”
Without having to worry about lyrics, it doesn’t matter that Eminem’s “Stan” involves a kidnapping.
Among the other bonuses of the business model, said Haerle, is that a different sort of creativity is at play, one that’s not reliant on the whims of rock stars.
In-house designers make the CD jackets, playful insert booklets, LP covers and an infant clothing line, and in-house producers oversee the creation of the music.
Plus, added Haerle with a laugh, “there’s not an artist to be upset with us that we’re not marketing their album correctly.”