graham hawthorne   aka FUNKYGH

GH's first solo record. a marriage of Senegalese Mbalax music (maybe familiar to you if you've listened to Youssou N'dour), and American Pop/funk/r+b .
Critically acclaimed as a brilliant cross-pollenation and an overall great record, we were unable to get any kind of record or distribution deal when we released it in 2002. It was still the days of the label system, and they were as cautious as ever.
One anecdote - I got a call one day from the head of Pop A+R for the Canadian branch of a major label; my favorite label at the time - the one putting out the best stuff.
He said to me, "I LOVE this record. I put it in the CD changer in the trunk of my car and I just keep listening to it over and over again. Please send me another one so I don't have to open my trunk to get it when I go into my office."

I was giddy. Here I am hoping for a small deal with some world music label, and this is the A+R head of xxxxx records blowing smoke up my ass.
So I say, "what's next then?"
him: well, I can't sign you.
me (confused): but why?!
him: well I'm POP a+r. maybe I could forward it to the World Music department.
He did, and eventually I heard from them...
"umm, the lyrics are in English. It's not really world music."
Me (thinking):  Of course the lyrics are in English dumbass. English is the language of pop music, and I'm an american. What did you expect? Lukewarm programmed tracks with some whining in an obscure tongue? and a bit of djembe and aftican guitar overdubbed to make it "world music"?
Have you heard of a record called Graceland? Won a grammy award and turned the world on it's ear a few years back. THAT'S what this record needs to be categorized with; not the current label attempts to make foreign singers popular in the west through ill conceived collaboration with clueless DJ's and producers.

After that, another major label in the states had a similar conundrum - they were thinking about releasing it as a jazz record, but the A+R guy actually told me "it's not masturbatory enough!" Amen to that.
The truth is that the major label system dropped the ball on capitalizing on the world music awareness of the 80's. If you want to read more about how, click here

If you want to order a copy of the CD, go to the store