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" The low-key approach to making music. "
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By Ross Gohlke
"Do I prefer a low profile? Absolutely." Ed Porter, owner and founder of Loverly Music, is looking across the table, over the beers, at my note pad of questions. Since 1993 Porter has been quietly hound-dogging an unsuspecting public with Loverly's almost-covert recordings. He's not a scheming kind of guy. He just hasn't bothered to tell anyone who didn't ask. Which is unfortunate for appreciative music lovers because Loverly produces some truly enjoyable music. Last year Loverly released a double-disk compilation of 17 singles, the first CD in what Porter hopes to be a long and distinguished line of compilations. Since then the label has released five more 45's, with ten new ones slated for release by mid-December. Non-vinyl listeners will not have to wait long to hear these records; the lot of 15 will comprise the second double disk compilation, scheduled to appear next summer. Whether from shyness, humility, fear of media meddling or a combination of all three, Porter dreads talking about himself and his label. Given his druthers, he'd prefer that I talk to other Loverly folks. So I did a little of that. Both Doug Easley, co-owner of Easley Recording where most of the label's recording takes place, and Robert Gordon, who wrote the liner notes for the first compilation and recorded one of the singles to be released this month, could do nothing but confirm my suspicion--Ed Porter is simply modest. Via an email interview Easley had this to say about Porter: "He is an enabler. He allows for some music to exist that might not exist if it weren't for Loverly. Ed likes unusual things. His label specializes in it. Where Loverly goes is unknown, where it's been is important." In a similar vein, Gordon said, "As far as I can tell Loverly is Ed Porter. He's perfectly content on the fringe. I think it's the next big thing. I've never picked a next big hit. It certainly should be, but it's not up to me to decide." Just as I thought. He is interesting enough to do a feature on. Ed Porter is not just from Memphis. He is an exemplary Memphian: a) He's been here long enough to really know the place. b) He's reflective, compassionate and rough-edged enough to appreciate the place. c) He wants to make the world a better place. d) He believes music can accomplish a) and b), and maybe even c). "I was born in Memphis, 906 Union Avenue, Baptist Hospital. Johnny Cash lived down the street from the first house I lived in. I think it was Rosanne's mother," he recalls. But in regards to record-making, being a Memphian is only one of several important characteristics for Porter. Being musically inclined is another: "I was Peter Pan in third grade. Take it from there. I started being in rock bands when I was about 14." Porter is also a recovering artist. He did time as a young man in Baltimore studying painting before overwhelming circumstances brought him home, where he eventually decided the art world wasn't for him. " I got discouraged with that whole scene. Being an artist is a very solitary road. That's one of the things I like about music is the people, the camaraderie. I can remember seven or eight years ago sitting around with a group of musicians thinking, this is a lot more fun than sitting around with artists. They're much more neurotic. Not that musicians aren't neurotic, but they're more up front and outgoing," he says. For Porter that camaraderie is essential to the recording process. "I really don't record anyone I couldn't socialize with, I'll tell you that." It's the kind of homegrown affair that could easily be mistaken for a group of outcast musicians who just need an excuse to record. True, without the driving ambition of mainstream success, Loverly attracts artists whose musical ambition is often personal, experimental and fun-loving. Some of them aren't' even "musicians." Gordon is a good example. And photographer Trey Harrison, whose Photographic Resource Center down at South Main hosted many a fine evening of live music before its recent demise, adds another single, bringing his Loverly total to two. To his credit Porter accepts the record label for what it is--a business. "Unfortunately you're not always making music. You're doing all the other stuff--writing invoices, making sure the vinyl is being made right. But I do it." If fiscal concern doesn't seem to be of primary importance to Porter's business plan, building a long-term musical legacy is. "It's not going to make money in the short run, but in the long run I see it as something that'll be like a catalog of something that happened. I've gathered it together. I'm going to do these double compilations until I run out of juice and when you see it like that, over 20 years there's 15 in a row on a shelf. That's when it's going to become something everybody has to have in their collection. 25 years from now people will say, do you have the third one. Have you heard the sixth one or the eighth one. And everybody's heirs will be able to eat out once a week." There seems to be an implicit understanding by everyone involved that the label has a higher calling than making money. According to Easley, "It's more like an art project than a 'record label'." It's about making sincere music--the ultimate charm of a label which demands no exclusive rights to its artists and whose primary editorial role is in deciding who records. Says Porter, "I'm real hands off as far as (the recording) goes. If I reach an agreement with somebody to record I consider that enough of a compliment to me. Yeah, I'm in the building, but I don't tell them what to do." Another endearing quality of Loverly is its broad definition of "sincere music." Among the 30-plus singles is the work of over 20 artists. Ages range from teenage to middle age. The label's opus covers too many musical styles to list, most of them spilling into each other. If common threads are to be found, they are freedom of expression, an appreciation for the roots of popular music and the ability to distill various influences into new music, all of which have a lot to do with where the music comes from. Porter explains, "When you start to realize the history of what's happened in Memphis, you realize this is a place where anything can happen, anything can be synthesized. It's home to a lot of people approaching things in different ways. You can be a Memphis musician and not be a slave to the blues or soul or rockabilly." If Loverly music is not enslaved to the local history it is destined to become part of it. The best Memphis music has never been a matter of following a formula but of creating music that's good enough to be appropriated by those in need of a formula. Whether Loverly ever joins the ranks of Sun, Stax and Hi as one of the Great Independent Memphis Labels is beside the point. What matters is that Loverly music is made in Memphis, a place with a legacy of independent music. Of equal importance is the fact that the artists are from Memphis. Alex Greene's infectious, horn-infused "Shakin' Crazy" may never see the top of the radio charts, but it proves Memphis can still produce a hit record. With the wah-wah guitar and orchestral keyboards of "Crack In the World," James Eddie Campbell's new single takes on a decidedly more contemporary sound than his previous Loverly outings. Once again Professor Elixir's Southern Troubadours demonstrate that original music still makes for the best party in Memphis. Their two cuts are taken from a live show recorded with the intention of releasing a CD. That release is not currently on Loverly's horizon, but at least two songs are now available on vinyl. Gordon's venture consists of jittery, jazzy, sprawling spoken word, destined to make the Beat Generation the next supremely palatable thing for younger ears and earn him a million bucks above and beyond the first million he swears was advanced by Porter. Other artists from the pack include Ross Johnson's The Young Seniors, Snake Hips, Kid Blue and New Car Smell. Taken all together, these singles sound more mature and more cohesive than the first batch. It's nice to know Loverly Music is moving forward and that Ed Porter, armed with a good ear, a sense of humor and a little help from his friends, is prepared to keep it that way.
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