The Shockoe Records roster: Weldon Hill, Elizabeth Wise, Rodney Stith, Jameson Price of Høly River, Chance Fischer and Laney Sullivan of Høly River (Photo by Dave Parrish)
Singer-songwriter Elizabeth Wise didn’t know what to do next. In January of last year, she pondered the fate of her latest album, “Reckless Sophistication,” after her marketing manager dropped out. She paused to text her agent, the PBS television producer Craig Martin (co-host of “The Good Road”). Over the next several months, Wise’s challenge evolved into Shockoe Records.
Turn the Page
A cofounder of In Your Ear studios, Carlos Chafin was the producer for “Reckless Sophistication.” Martin and Wise met with him to determine how to advance her work.
A vast gulf separates working midrange artists from radio airplay hitmakers. Streaming services offer little compensation, leaving few options for recording artists.
“You can play live and sell merch,” Chafin says. “But that’s it.” Five years ago, Chafin inaugurated Shockoe Sessions as an invitational meet-and-mix event that featured live music at In Your Ear. When the pandemic hit, those gatherings turned into a series of hourlong concerts on the web. In June, Shockoe Sessions hit the 100th episode mark.
“We saw a hundred bands,” says Shockoe Sessions host Reese Williams. “We saw them for two solid years with amazing original content, not cover bands, not people who were doing it on weekends, but dedicated professionals and all of them good — all struggling, working part time, working full time, having kids, doing music part time, spending all their money on a recording session then hitting this wall. You can’t watch this anymore without doing something about it. So we’re sitting here saying, ‘How do we get this music out there?’ ”
Chafin had an answer.
“When the three of us were talking, Carlos said that if we’re going to do all this work for marketing Elizabeth’s record, this isn’t worth the trouble over one person,” Wise recalls. “We might as well put this thing together and add other artists.”
There’s Something Happening Here
Into this mix entered a relative newcomer to Richmond who is no stranger to making things happen: Queon “Q” Marti, a Brooklyn native who worked on films by Martin Scorsese and Joel Schumacher and started Carter Magazine, a publication with the motto “Where History Meets Hip-Hop” that earlier this year celebrated its 11th anniversary.
A February event for Carter was held at the Common House and tied into a Shockoe Sessions event featuring the hip-hop stylings of Chance Fischer and the classic soul of Rodney Stith. Q observed the proceedings and concluded that the energy he sensed should power something larger. What, he didn’t then know.
That soon changed.
Martin, Q and Chafin met for drinks at The Daily in Carytown. “And I went off on one my rants,” Chafin says, addressing the sorry state of the music industry. “And the two of them looked at me and said, ‘Why don’t you shut up and do something about it? You know the talent, and you have the technology.’ ” Chafin laughs as he recalls his reply: “I said, ‘Because I’m not going to do it by myself.’ And then they unintelligently raised their hands and said, ‘We’ll help you.’ ”
I Am a Rock
Meetings commenced, involving 20 to 25 interested parties ranging from entertainment lawyer Ashley S. Brooks to Plan 9 Records founder Jim Bland. The three initiators agreed that they needed to form a legal entity. They needed a name.
“I’m all about ‘The Good Road’, ‘good’ this and that,” Craig Martin says. “I thought, ‘Good Music.’ ”
“But Kanye West already has that,” Q notes, chuckling.
“And then Q’s the one who said, ‘Shockoe Records,’ ” Chafin recalls.
I’m Not Like Everybody Else
“I’ve not seen anything like it,” says Weldon Hill, a Richmond native and veteran jazz pianist, composer and educator who’s one of the five founding artists for Shockoe Records. “It’s a legitimate partnership. We’ve been waiting for something like this for a long time.”
Shockoe Records is intended as a catalyst for artists with an established audience. It isn’t about managing or starting careers — not yet. At Shockoe, artists are responsible for producing their recordings, and then the label matches the amount spent with promotions and other services. The performer retains the publishing rights to their music, but if they need assistance in that area, Shockoe Records will help for a standard 10% fee.
“When we have the product in hand, and soon as it’s paid off, we split 50/50 with the artist,” Chafin says. “That way, the artist makes money, and they recoup their production costs, and we’re equal partners in making the mechanism work. If it goes crazy, we profit — if it doesn’t, we don’t lose anything.”
A principle of Shockoe Records is that once that recording investment is paid off, the artists are in control of how much assistance they desire. And if they attract attention from a major label, then Shockoe Records worked.
Ready to Go
Jameson Price, half of the duo with Laney Sullivan that forms Høly River, describes how they’ve self-managed for over a decade. “We value our autonomy and control over our communications and career, but it’s difficult to excel at every aspect of music management, and we hope to work with Shockoe Records in the places that we feel we could grow.”
Album releases are cued up and demonstrate the variety of the roster. First, there’s Wise’s blues-inflected “Reckless Sophistication,” with a vinyl release scheduled for October. Next up are the soul sounds of Rodney Stith and later, music from the reflective, dynamic and nature-conscious Høly River. On the way are releases featuring the swaggering and inventive hip-hop of Fischer and the vigorous jazz of Hill.
“We talk about the ‘Richmond sound,’ ” Fischer says, “but it’s not one thing, it’s a spectrum. You’ll have some artists from here, once they get signed, they move to [Washington] D.C. or New York or L.A., and Richmond disappears from their bios. But this is our place, and we’re coming from here.”
Big Gig Guide
Sept. 13
Pop/soul band Lake Street Dive, a Richmond favorite, plays Virginia Credit Union Live at 7:30 p.m. $32.50-$67.50. vaculive.com
Sept. 17
R&B/pop trio Boyz II Men bring their smooth and soulful sound to Meadow Event Park at 6 p.m. $39-$99. afterhoursconcertseries.com
Sept. 24
The Richmond Symphony presents Steve Hackman’s Brahms X Radiohead, a clash of the sonics mixing the orchestral with sounds from Radiohead’s seminal “OK Computer” album and the First Symphony of Brahms, at the Dominion Energy Center for the Performing Arts at 8 p.m. $11-$85. richmondsymphony.com
Oct. 4
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame members ZZ Top bring their blend of blues and rock to the Altria Theater. $55-$299.50. altriatheater.com
Oct. 22
Virginia-based rapper Pusha T, known for his cold delivery of rhymes about illegal pharmaceutical distribution, comes to Brown’s Island at 7:30 p.m. $36.50-$46.50. thebroadberry.com
Nov. 17
Country icon Crystal Gale, known for her hit “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue,” comes to the Beacon Theater in Hopewell. $47-$52. thebeacontheatreva.com
Nov. 27
The Grammy-nominated duo known as Black Violin brings their artistic merger of classical music and hip-hop to The National at 7:30 p.m. $40-$75. thenationalva.com
