Page 29 - ION Indie Magazine MarchApril 2024

JC: Many times, when asked why I didn't have a record deal, I wondered the same thing.
I had the chance to ask a label that question once as I was sitting in their office with a
scout. The first thing he asked me was my age and I asked,’ ‘How old do you think I am?’
He guessed me about 10 years younger than I am and was surprised when I told him the
truth. He asked me a lot of questions about who owned my catalog and if I was signed
to any management and who handled my bookings and merchandising. When the
answers all came back to me, he then told me they weren't interested and after I begged
him to know why, this is what he said: ‘Labels are looking for ‘ground beef.’ They want
young artists that don't have anything and don't own anything. They prefer it if you've
never written before and don't know how the process works because ideally, they'd like
to set you up with their writers so they own your publishing and then have you record
with their studios so they own your masters and you would owe them back costs of all
recording that they will recoup when you tour, and ultimately you'd release under their
label...as long as they didn't have anything they thought would be more popular than you.
Then you'd hit the tour that they book with their agents, and you'd just get a percentage
AFTER expenses were recouped, which means you could tour all year and maybe get
paid a little at the end if it sold well. If you did okay and it seemed promising, they would
maybe give you another chance, and maybe kick you to the curb. But when you get
kicked to the curb, you're still not free. You still owe them for back expenses, and if you
sign with another label, they have to take care of that before you can continue. Now
you're double in debt again. But for me...I already owned everything, which means they
would have to offer me something right out of the gate for me to accept the offer because
I'm not gonna give up my publishing, my merchandising, or my product without a price.
They won't invest in that with no guarantees. That's why I would never be signed.’ He
said it was like being a steak in a world where they were looking for ground beef to cook
the way they wanted and if they threw it away at the end, it didn't cost them much. I
picked up my purse and walked out the door and realized I wasn't in that bad of shape
after all.

TB: You moved from Sturgis, South Dakota, to Nashville, in 2003. How big of an
impact has that move been for you?

JC: Dude, it was like a different world completely. I grew up on a cattle ranch and now
I’m in the middle of a giant music city. The one thing I can give Nashville is that when I
moved there, it still community was (and pretty much still is) a tight knit machine that can
move information across a channel faster than any radio station. I met lots of people and
I listened to them and learned from them. I took their advice on things to stay away from
and it saved me some time.

TB: You have released seven albums so far over your career. As you look back
over those seven albums, what stands out about them to you?

JC: I guess the thing that stands out the most is that I did it without any help. And what I
mean by that is that I had to financially plan it, hire the engineers, write the songs (luckily
with some great co-writers in the beginning that trained me), pay everyone, plan the
photoshoots, pay the graphic artists to design everything, enter the information online
and make sure everything was ready to go (registered, trademarked, coded, etc.), and
then book the tours, drive the bus, play the show, pay the band, book the hotels...well,
you get it. It’s a lot. But I had some help along the way here and there and between that
and the encouragement of the bandmates I had throughout the years, I made it to where
I am now. Not much has changed in that I’m still doing all of that stuff, but it seems more
like a well-oiled machine these days rather than a frantic fight for your life.

TB: How have you grown as a musician and as a writer over those seven albums?