Step into the homey headquarters of local independent record label Signature Sounds and it’s a little like the bullpen from WKRP in Cincinnati – a busy open area with desks, a couch for catnaps and a special office for the Big Guy (aka label founder and president Jim Olsen).
But more than that it reminds me of the ’90s job I had at a local alternative bi-weekly arts magazine, a place where the bosses, employees and interns hung out in a small space and worked together like a close-knit family.
During the day, the label’s operations center hums with an energy that’s part nose to the grindstone, part shooting the breeze. At night, the front section of the building, aka The Parlor Room, showcases live music.
And this Friday, the Parlor Room hosts the premiere of the new short-form documentary about Signature Sounds, “Behind a Good Song,” at 7:30 p.m. The screening is free and open to the public.
The record label, which started small in Olsen’s Whately basement in 1995, celebrated its 20th anniversary last November with a three-day festival at the grand Academy of Music, featuring live sets from its roster of performers. The doc captures a “day in the life” of Signature Sounds, framed by that busy Thanksgiving weekend, with backstage footage and interviews with Lake Street Dive, And the Kids, Chris Smither, Mark Erelli, Olsen and others.
The mini-movie was directed by Nemo Allen and Oskar Peacock and packs a lot into its short running time. You’re in the car zooming down the road with And the Kids as they drive to Washington, D.C., for its NPR Tiny Desk Concert, a holy grail for any musician these days. You spend quality time with the charming and chatty Smither (one of Olsen’s favorite artists), who describes the songwriting process as “having a conversation with a part of your brain that you’re not really on speaking terms with.”
Olsen shares his passion for “finding really great young new artists and helping them develop their careers,” and you get to see that in action with the ever-more-popular quartet Lake Street Dive, who once played The Rendezvous in Turners Falls for a turnout of six people. Back then the group was hoping to get signed by Signature Sounds.
They did, and an EP of cover songs launched them into the bigger leagues, eventually leading to appearances on late-night talk shows like Conan. The documentary shows the sharp-dressed band rising to the occasion – and also what the foursome did when a bigger label came calling.
“Behind a Good Song” shows the behind-the-scenes struggles of an independent record label in this Spotify age, but also the camaraderie in the Signature Sounds world. There’s a memorable scene where Olsen, Peter Hamelin (live music director of the Parlor Room) and And the Kids lug a cart of merchandise and a big unwieldy circular sign out of the office, across town and up the stairs into the Academy of Music.
They’re smiling. A little label’s work is never done.
Cellist Lori Goldston (she’s collaborated with Nirvana, David Byrne, Laura Veirs, Mirah and others) and Winterpills vocalist/songwriter/guitarist Philip Price are planning a special night of “improv instrumentation and deep-catalog mayhem” at the enchanting Dreamaway Lodge in Becket on Thursday at 8 p.m.
Goldston will play a solo cello set, Price will reach back into his gem-filled song cave and pull out some sparkling rarities and fan favorites, and they’ll work some weird musical magic together, too.
If you’ve never been to the Dreamaway Lodge before, tucked away on County Road, yes, it’s very much worth the drive. As a friend helpfully told me before my first trek to the Becket hideaway, “If you think you’re lost, you’re almost there.”
Good advice. And there’s no better place to be on a cool June night. Recommended!
Ken Maiuri can be reached at clublandcolumn@gmail.com.