It’s a brand new world for Bluegrass sensation Rhonda Vincent. The multi IBMA-award winner has embarked on a new career course that she is very excited about. After stints with labels such as Rebel, Giant, and for the past decade, Rounder, the singer has started her own record company, Upper Management Music. The imprint’s first release is Vincent’s new CD Taken.
Going out on your own can be somewhat of a daunting task, but Vincent told Roughstock that it is something that she feels good about. “My contract with Rounder was completed,” she says, “and I had no intentions of doing it all on my own, but I started researching the current formats and trends, and everything pointed to this. There was a lot of encouragement from friends, and we looked at the economics of it and thought, ‘This looks like a thing we should try, so that’s what we did.’ There were a lot of challenges and some sleepless nights and all in all, I am so thrilled.” The hard work recently paid off on the charts, as well. “It just became the number one Bluegrass album in the second week on Billboard,” Vincent exclaimed proudly. “It’s nice to see your hard work pay off with a number one album. I’m very excited and very appreciative of it.”
Obviously, there are a lot of differences in being an artist on a label and owning the label outright, but Vincent stresses fans won’t be able to hear any difference on Taken. “It’s pretty much the same as far as recording it,” she said. “I tell folks that it’s not that much different from picking the songs and recording. I recorded them in my own studio. I’ve done that for the last several albums. All of that process is pretty much the same. The major difference is when I would talk with a distributor, the same one I’ve worked with for years, they would ask if I needed to talk to a manager or the record company. I said ‘I don’t need to talk to anybody.’ This is something I’m doing myself. This is something I’d like to do, and this sounds great. Let’s do it. Before, there would have been a discussion between artist and label, the marketing team, the promotional team, and now it’s like ‘Ok, you’re talking to her. Let’s do it.’ It’s very liberating to be able to make those choices. It’s also very scary because we’ve done everything from every element.” The financial part of making an album threw a new wrinkle into the mix. “I think the two largest challenges, as we were doing the album---We’re writing the check, and paying for everything as we go along. Before, there was a budget from the record label. I think the biggest difference was that the label was basically a bank, and my daughter also got married during the time. I was thinking ‘Wait a minute. What’s the difference here? I haven’t had to do that for a long time. Doing the cover, I was polling people in the airport, asking them ‘What do you think of this picture? Do you like this? So, that was the greatest difference.”
As always, Taken features some of the greatest pickers in the business, and some notable guest stars. One of those is an unlikely recording partner---pop hitmaker Richard Marx, who appears on the stunning title cut. “He and I have been phone friends for a while, and have never met him in person,” she said. “I know it’s a very unlikely situation, but he called me about working on a project. That didn’t end up working out. But, I had recently just recorded a song called ‘Taken.’ I had seen him, and heard him sing for the first time on a PBS special. He was so incredibly talented that I just thought his voice matched the song so well. I called him up and he was so gracious to come and join us. I basically e-mailed him the song, and the lovely thing about technology---he heard the song in Chicago. He records it, and it’s on the album! He did an incredible job with it, and was perfect for the song.”
Though Marx and frequent collaborator Dolly Parton appears on the disc, there’s one track that has special significance to the Missouri native---“When The Bloom Is Off The Rose,” which features her daughters Sally and Tensel. “Well, that was my proudest moment. I can understand now the joy that my parents must have had having us kids sing with them. I really didn’t understand that until we were working on this song. Tears filled my eyes as I was thinking and looking at these girls that never had an interest in playing----I used to have to beg them to sing. Then, they started, and they said ‘We love this, and had a band called The Next Big Thing. I’m so proud of them, and think they did an incredible job on this song. Of course, my dad says ‘This is the best song on your album.’ I doubt that has anything to do with his daughter and granddaughters singing together,” she says with a smile.
As usual, Vincent---who usually includes a cover or two on her albums---tips her hat to a couple country classics. One, “Tonight My Baby’s Coming Home,” was a hit for Barbara Mandrell, and “Back On My Mind Again” stands as one of Ronnie Milsap’s finest moments. What made her choose to record that one?
“I was driving around Nashville,” she recalls. “We were recording, and I was driving to lunch listening to WSM. Eddie Stubbs played it. It hit me that nobody has ever played this in Bluegrass before. I started singing along with it, and thought ‘Let’s try this song.’ We automatically started singing it on stage, and I was amazed at everyone in the audience. I didn’t say the title of the song, but by the second line---everybody was singing along to this song. It’s one of those songs you never get tired of performing.”
And perform she does…..whether at a Bluegrass festival or on the high seas, you’ll find Rhonda Vincent & The Rage delivering the music to the masses. “We get ready to sail on February 20 out of Port Canaveral, Florida. I hope everyone comes sail us with us. Just go to www.bluegrasscruise.com, and we’re on the road for twenty-four straight days—home for two---out for ten. I’ve been doing some of the Country’s Family Reunion show. I just did my first Martha White TV commercial. I also have embarked on a new business for myself---I have BluegrassKaraoke.com. There will be a karaoke version of Taken, along with a bonus track of “Rocky Top.”
Being on the road and taking her music to the people is something that continues to drive her to this day. “That’s my favorite thing of all is performing live. I’m a people person. I love greeting fans after the show. I just hope to continue. I look at someone like Ralph Stanley and so many others that have toured all of their lives. I want to be Ralph when I grow up.”
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