24
May
2005
Lon Bozarth would seem to have a lot of talents, with his extensive background in the live-music scene of Austin, Texas. Being gentle, politic, and modest aren't among them. Neither is making small plans. In those ways, Bozarth is a stereotypical Texan - straight-talking and thinking big.
Bozarth has only been the president and CEO of the River Music Experience (RME) for three months, yet he's already making a splash - by laying out an ambitious agenda, developing a buzz-worthy August festival, and thumbing his nose at what many would consider proper procedures.
On the latter item, Bozarth is unapologetic. He hired his twin sons' band (Groovin' Ground) to play the new River Roots Live festival, as well as their production company, Outcasters, to handle the event's technical elements. Bozarth also hired the Butler Bros., an advertising agency from his former Austin stomping grounds, to handle the event's branding and marketing.
It looks like nepotism, but Bozarth said he needed to find familiar collaborators he knew could handle the job. "I don't really care what it looks like," Bozarth said. "I had a job to do."
Certainly, the festival boasts an impressive lineup. The event will be held in Davenport's LeClaire Park on August 19 and 20. The Friday schedule features Rick Derringer and Edgar & Johnny Winter, while Saturday's features an eclectic mix culminating with the legendary Little Feat. Over two days, you can catch home-grown rock and roll (Jim the Mule), an Iowa folk legend (Greg Brown), progressive bluegrass (Split Lip Rayfield), a county and rock "guitar demon" (Junior Brown), and one of the Midwest's top jam bands (Umphrey's McGee).
The festival's goals are myriad: to more effectively brand the River Music Experience, to embody its transition from a museum to an entertainment facility, and to draw people from outside the Quad Cities to the area.
"The RME needed kind of a bell cow, something we could wrap our brand around," Bozarth said. The festival will feature the "leading edge of roots music," he said, "illustrating where roots music is going."
The festival (http://www.riverrootslive.com) will feature camping, and two-day passes are selling for $35. Bozarth hopes to draw people from the 21- to 40-year-old range, particularly those from outside the immediate area.
In talking about the event, Bozarth displayed some of his casual cockiness, claiming that this festival will quickly outdraw long-established events such as the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival. "I'd be happy with the attendance the blues festival has this year," he said. His attendance target this year is between 10,000 and 15,000 people, but, he promised, this year's event was constrained by his lead time. "This is a spit in the ocean," he said.
Frank Klipsch, the incoming board chair for the RME, said that he's been impressed with Bozarth's ability to take the festival from the concept stage to execution. The president/CEO's live-music background and "music-business savvy" also helped recruit bands to the festival, he said.
Overall, Bozarth has a simple message for the Quad Cities: Think bigger. That can be seen in his River Music Experience agenda. The director said he came into the River Music Experience job with four tasks:
• The creation of an annual festival;
• The development of the River Music Experience's basement;
• Re-tooling the museum's second floor; and
• Development of a 500- to 600-seat theatre outside of the current RME facility to host a live show and touring acts.
That first item is well on its way to be accomplished, but getting the other three done will require one key ingredient that so far is missing: money.
The basement space will feature a club with a speakeasy feel, modeled after the Saxon Pub in Austin. The club is meant to be "very band-friendly," Bozarth said, featuring a green room and a stage with curtains. The room should hold roughly 150 people, and will feature live music four to five nights a week. The club will showcase local bands, but it will also bring in touring acts with ticket prices in the $10 to $15 range.
The target - albeit the "very wide-eyed, optimistic goal," Bozarth said - is to have the club open in time for the August festival.
The basement will also feature seven rooms - ranging from less than 200 square feet to as many as 400 square feet - that will be used for band rehearsals, lectures, recitals, and classes. While the layout plans for the basement are finished, details about the programming have yet to be worked out. "I expect most of this to be free," Bozarth said. The rooms are "going to be available very cheap."
Bozarth won't talk about the specifics of the basement financing. "I don't have enough money to finish," he said. "I can basically build it one room at a time." How much will it cost? "More than I have," he said. "A lot more."
Klipsch said the RME has roughly $250,000 right now for the development of the performance space, but that the board doesn't yet have final build-out costs.
As for new exhibits on the second floor of the RME, Klipsch said he expects those will at least partly be funded by sponsorships. A new venue would be undertaken much later, he said, when the facility is able to "grow out of a position of strength."
Bozarth envisions a second floor that is more immersive and more efficiently uses the space. Beyond that, he will say little. "I'm working on a concept for the second floor that hopefully I'll be able to talk about in a few months," he said. In the short term, he's brining in the traveling exhibit Austin City Limits: 30 Years of History & Music in conjunction with the August festival. It features 160 large-format photographs as well as a pair of documentary films and an interactive kiosk with clips from the show.
By far the most ambitious element of Bozarth's plan is his goal of a separate 500- to 600-seat RME venue. "It's more than just a wish. It's a must-have," he said. "For there to be a music scene in the Quad Cities, there has to be a viable venue that size. That's a huge omission from this market."
Bozarth's challenge is to be able to generate the money necessary for the projects he wants. The ultimate target is to make the RME self-supporting. "The days of living hand-to-mouth on donations are done," he said.
But the money to expand the RME needs to come from somewhere. "The RME owns a $7-million asset," Bozarth said. "We can borrow against this building."
Klipsch said that subject has never come up at board meetings, and added that he would be hesitant to support sending the RME into debt with a mortgage on its facility.
As for Bozarth's decision to hire family members, Klipsch was diplomatic. "We do not have a policy that would exclude him from doing that," he said, adding that the businesses run by Bozarth's family were known to the board when it hired its new CEO.
Still, he said, the decision might generate additional scrutiny. "It heightens our interest to ensure it [the job the company was hired to do] is done properly," he said.
Bozarth asks people to judge him based on results, not decorum. And the main result is getting the RME on its own financial feet. "I'm a retail guy," he said. "I am here to make money."
Bozarth has only been the president and CEO of the River Music Experience (RME) for three months, yet he's already making a splash - by laying out an ambitious agenda, developing a buzz-worthy August festival, and thumbing his nose at what many would consider proper procedures.
On the latter item, Bozarth is unapologetic. He hired his twin sons' band (Groovin' Ground) to play the new River Roots Live festival, as well as their production company, Outcasters, to handle the event's technical elements. Bozarth also hired the Butler Bros., an advertising agency from his former Austin stomping grounds, to handle the event's branding and marketing.
It looks like nepotism, but Bozarth said he needed to find familiar collaborators he knew could handle the job. "I don't really care what it looks like," Bozarth said. "I had a job to do."
Certainly, the festival boasts an impressive lineup. The event will be held in Davenport's LeClaire Park on August 19 and 20. The Friday schedule features Rick Derringer and Edgar & Johnny Winter, while Saturday's features an eclectic mix culminating with the legendary Little Feat. Over two days, you can catch home-grown rock and roll (Jim the Mule), an Iowa folk legend (Greg Brown), progressive bluegrass (Split Lip Rayfield), a county and rock "guitar demon" (Junior Brown), and one of the Midwest's top jam bands (Umphrey's McGee).
The festival's goals are myriad: to more effectively brand the River Music Experience, to embody its transition from a museum to an entertainment facility, and to draw people from outside the Quad Cities to the area.
"The RME needed kind of a bell cow, something we could wrap our brand around," Bozarth said. The festival will feature the "leading edge of roots music," he said, "illustrating where roots music is going."
The festival (http://www.riverrootslive.com) will feature camping, and two-day passes are selling for $35. Bozarth hopes to draw people from the 21- to 40-year-old range, particularly those from outside the immediate area.
In talking about the event, Bozarth displayed some of his casual cockiness, claiming that this festival will quickly outdraw long-established events such as the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival. "I'd be happy with the attendance the blues festival has this year," he said. His attendance target this year is between 10,000 and 15,000 people, but, he promised, this year's event was constrained by his lead time. "This is a spit in the ocean," he said.
Frank Klipsch, the incoming board chair for the RME, said that he's been impressed with Bozarth's ability to take the festival from the concept stage to execution. The president/CEO's live-music background and "music-business savvy" also helped recruit bands to the festival, he said.
Overall, Bozarth has a simple message for the Quad Cities: Think bigger. That can be seen in his River Music Experience agenda. The director said he came into the River Music Experience job with four tasks:
• The creation of an annual festival;
• The development of the River Music Experience's basement;
• Re-tooling the museum's second floor; and
• Development of a 500- to 600-seat theatre outside of the current RME facility to host a live show and touring acts.
That first item is well on its way to be accomplished, but getting the other three done will require one key ingredient that so far is missing: money.
The basement space will feature a club with a speakeasy feel, modeled after the Saxon Pub in Austin. The club is meant to be "very band-friendly," Bozarth said, featuring a green room and a stage with curtains. The room should hold roughly 150 people, and will feature live music four to five nights a week. The club will showcase local bands, but it will also bring in touring acts with ticket prices in the $10 to $15 range.
The target - albeit the "very wide-eyed, optimistic goal," Bozarth said - is to have the club open in time for the August festival.
The basement will also feature seven rooms - ranging from less than 200 square feet to as many as 400 square feet - that will be used for band rehearsals, lectures, recitals, and classes. While the layout plans for the basement are finished, details about the programming have yet to be worked out. "I expect most of this to be free," Bozarth said. The rooms are "going to be available very cheap."
Bozarth won't talk about the specifics of the basement financing. "I don't have enough money to finish," he said. "I can basically build it one room at a time." How much will it cost? "More than I have," he said. "A lot more."
Klipsch said the RME has roughly $250,000 right now for the development of the performance space, but that the board doesn't yet have final build-out costs.
As for new exhibits on the second floor of the RME, Klipsch said he expects those will at least partly be funded by sponsorships. A new venue would be undertaken much later, he said, when the facility is able to "grow out of a position of strength."
Bozarth envisions a second floor that is more immersive and more efficiently uses the space. Beyond that, he will say little. "I'm working on a concept for the second floor that hopefully I'll be able to talk about in a few months," he said. In the short term, he's brining in the traveling exhibit Austin City Limits: 30 Years of History & Music in conjunction with the August festival. It features 160 large-format photographs as well as a pair of documentary films and an interactive kiosk with clips from the show.
By far the most ambitious element of Bozarth's plan is his goal of a separate 500- to 600-seat RME venue. "It's more than just a wish. It's a must-have," he said. "For there to be a music scene in the Quad Cities, there has to be a viable venue that size. That's a huge omission from this market."
Bozarth's challenge is to be able to generate the money necessary for the projects he wants. The ultimate target is to make the RME self-supporting. "The days of living hand-to-mouth on donations are done," he said.
But the money to expand the RME needs to come from somewhere. "The RME owns a $7-million asset," Bozarth said. "We can borrow against this building."
Klipsch said that subject has never come up at board meetings, and added that he would be hesitant to support sending the RME into debt with a mortgage on its facility.
As for Bozarth's decision to hire family members, Klipsch was diplomatic. "We do not have a policy that would exclude him from doing that," he said, adding that the businesses run by Bozarth's family were known to the board when it hired its new CEO.
Still, he said, the decision might generate additional scrutiny. "It heightens our interest to ensure it [the job the company was hired to do] is done properly," he said.
Bozarth asks people to judge him based on results, not decorum. And the main result is getting the RME on its own financial feet. "I'm a retail guy," he said. "I am here to make money."
