If you’ve found yourself digging around on the Omnivore Recordings website, you’re most likely a friend of ours too. We may not have had the chance to meet in person yet, but you’re definitely one of us. Like us, you care about music. You care about discovering new music (even if it’s from the past), you care about preserving music, and most likely, you dig turning your friends on to music too. Well, that pretty much sums it up for us here at Omnivore as well. Next time you’re digging around in a pile of vinyl or a stack of CDs, it might just be one of us lurking over your shoulder to see what you’ve found.
CHERYL PAWELSKI
Three-time Grammy-nominated producer, Cheryl Pawelski has, for the past twenty years, been entrusted with preserving, curating and championing some of music’s greatest legacies. Before Omnivore she held posts as VP of A&R at Rhino Entertainment and VP of Catalog Development at Concord Music Group. Prior to those gigs, she spent twelve years at EMI/Capitol Records and consulted to many other labels and iTunes as well. She has produced or overseen hundreds of recordings, reissues and boxed sets for a diverse array of artists including: Aretha Franklin, The Beach Boys, The Band, Big Star, Miles Davis, Rod Stewart, Otis Redding, Bette Midler, Willie Nelson, Warren Zevon, Chicago, The Staple Singers, Stephen Stills, Richard Thompson, John Coltrane and many more. Her soundtrack work has included Fiddler On The Roof, Raging Bull, Woodstock, Juno, Up In The Air, and Shutter Island. She is currently serving as Vice President of the Board of Governors for the Los Angeles Chapter of The Recording Academy. Her vast archival record and memorabilia collection yielded an exhibit at Experience Music Project in Seattle, WA, Spaced Out! The Final Frontier In Album Covers. It opened August, 2009 and also traveled to The Museum at Bethel Woods in 2011. The exhibit featured 117 space-themed albums released between the 1940s and 1969. She is proud that when she was fresh out of school, she decided to leave her first “serious” job to work at a record store.
The Band reissues and the boxed set, A Musical History, the Big Star boxed set, Keep An Eye On The Sky; Aretha Franklin & King Curtis boxed set, Don’t Fight The Feeling: The Complete Live At Fillmore West; Judy Henske 2-CD anthology, Big Judy: How Far This Music Goes; and Fred Neil, The Many Sides Of Fred Neil.
PROJECTS WITH ACCOLADES:
Grammy nominations for the boxed sets, Rockin’ Bones: 1950s Punk & Rockabilly, Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur’s Farm, and Where The Action Is!: 1965-1968 Los Angeles Nuggets.
FAVORITE RARITIES IN YOUR COLLECTION:
Promo of Springsteen’s Born To Run with the Ralph Steadman “script” cover, inserts and test pressing. That one’s pretty rare. Some other favorites are some really great Third Man Records rarities (I’ve paid close attention from the beginning), a very extensive collection of Fairport Convention/Richard Thompson/Sandy Denny records, posters, 45s, etc., my “space” album art collection, which generated the exhibit for Experience Music Project in Seattle, and a real neon Big Star. That’s some of it, but ask me again tomorrow.
GREG ALLEN
As a graphic designer and photographer, Greg Allen has been active in the Los Angeles music scene for more than three decades, he has photographed artists such as XTC, Ray Charles, Ringo Starr, Social Distortion, Steve Earle, k.d. lang, Jellyfish, Richard Thompson and Lucinda Williams, for clients including Virgin, Epic, MCA, Warner Bros., IRS, and Rough Trade Records. He has also served as art director on numerous projects for Rhino, Concord, Warner UK, and Vanguard, among others. He has designed box sets for John Coltrane, Gram Parsons, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, and Alice Cooper, as well as coffee-table books (Creem: America’s Only Rock & Roll Magazine, The Stooges: The Authorized & Illustrated Story), soundtracks (Sex And The City, Hairspray, A Christmas Story, and Ivanhoe), and catalog reissues for artists such as Elvis Costello, Fleetwood Mac, Yes, and The Stooges. With an eye for detail and a vast knowledge of musical styles and eras, Allen has an eclectic design repertoire that encompasses classic album repackaging and new projects alike. Allen has served two terms on the Board of Governors for the Los Angeles Chapter of The Recording Academy. Omnivore is grateful to whomever first gave this guy a camera.
Boxed sets for Rhino Handmade: Tiny Tim, God Bless Tiny Tim: The Complete Reprise Studio Masters… And More; Allen Sherman, My Son, The Box; and Little Richard’s King Of Rock And Roll: The Complete Reprise Recordings. Reissue of albums by House Of Freaks, Monkey On A Chain Gang and Tantillia; and producing the reissue of Code Blue’s eponymous album.
ALBUM COVERS YOU MIGHT KNOW THAT GREG SHOT:
Lucinda Williams, Lucinda Williams (Rough Trade); George Benson, Songs & Stories (Concord); B-Sharp Jazz Quartet, Searchin’ For Tha One (Mama Foundation); and the back cover of Social Distortion, Social Distortion (Epic).
FAVORITE RARITIES IN YOUR COLLECTION:
A nearly-complete collection of McCartney 7″ releases spanning the globe (there’s more than you’d think), including some really strange Thai jukebox EPs and test pressings. A UK 7″ pressing of XTC’s “Science Friction.” Withdrawn before its scheduled release date, this record is reportedly worth $17,000 and I’d like to meet the person willing to spend that kind of money on a 45. Pete Townshend’s I Am, Happy Birthday, and With Love records for Meher Baba. And must mention the beautifully packaged double LP+CD of Massive Attack’s Heligoland.
BRAD ROSENBERGER
Prior to joining the Omnivore team, he was most recently Senior Vice President, Catalog Development & Marketing for Warner/Chappell Music based in Los Angeles. During his 20+ years at the award-winning music publishing arm of the Warner Music Group, Rosenberger also served in a number of key positions, including Senior Vice President, Head of Strategic Marketing/Catalog Development and Senior Vice President, Film & Television. In addition to his managerial and administrative duties, Rosenberger was instrumental in placing key Warner/Chappell copyrights in numerous award-winning and highly successful motion pictures, including Almost Famous, Lost In Translation, Magnolia, Good Will Hunting, Moulin Rouge, Sleepless In Seattle, and The Departed. Prior to joining Warner/Chappell in 1990, Rosenberger was Director, Film & Television for Jobete Music, the music publishing division of Motown Records. While there, Rosenberger placed numerous Jobete copyrights in highly successful television series, such as The Wonder Years, Murphy Brown, and China Beach. Rosenberger started his career in 1980 as a Production Coordinator/Song Finder for renowned record producer Richard Perry. While working for Perry, he worked on a variety of multi-platinum projects, including albums by the Pointer Sisters, Barbra Streisand, Patti LaBelle and the award-winning We Are The World album. Currently, Rosenberger is producing The Drummer, a biopic on the life of The Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson and CBGB, a movie based on the legendary NYC club.
As production coordinator for famed record producer Richard Perry, the first session I ever contracted was the Pointer Sisters’ “I’m So Excited.” As a music publisher at Warner/Chappell Music, I helped place the music of Led Zeppelin in my favorite movie of all time, Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous. Also at Warner/Chappell, I signed the music publishing catalogs of Robert Lamm and Dennis Wilson.
PROJECTS WITH ACCOLADES:
Partnered songwriter Allee Willis with composer Michael Skloff to write the lyrics for the theme song to the NBC-TV show Friends (“I’ll Be There For You”), and pitched Brian Wilson unfinished songs by George and Ira Gershwin which resulted in two new songs recorded by Brian for his Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin album. And conceptualized American Idol’s Tribute To Frank Sinatra for Fox.
FAVORITE RARITIES IN YOUR COLLECTION:
The Beatles “Butcher Cover” in stereo, “Surfin’ Down The Swanee River” by the Honeys with picture sleeve; Prince’s The Black Album on white vinyl; the Phil Spector Spectacular; Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” promo 45 with picture sleeve; and promo record stand up for The Beach Boys’ Smiley Smile.
DUTCH CRAMBLITT
For the past #@*%! years, Dutch has worked with and sold some of the most interesting and successful acts in music. Before joining Omnivore, he worked as VP of Sales for Nettwerk Entertainment, Rhino Entertainment and held various sales roles at WEA Distribution. Prior to that run of gigs, he held sales positions at Hollywood Records, EMI, SBK and Capitol. This guy’s got some rockin’ experience to draw upon—and that’s why he’s with Omnivore now! Like all great record folk, Dutch started out on retail record store floors, and worked his way up to purchasing for a one stop, developing a keen insight into what people actually like to buy when it comes to music. Way out in the deserts of Arizona he helped Zia Records get off the ground and worked at the legendary Ircles Records to boot.
Poison’s Look What The Cat Dragged In, Vanilla Ice “Ice Ice Baby,” and releases by Wilson Phillips, Arrested Development, Slaughter, SheDaisy, Rascal Flatts, Aaron Tippin, the Jersey Boys cast album, the George Harrison all-star concert tribute album Concert For George, Eric Clapton’s Crossroads DVDs, Led Zeppelin’s Mothership, Frank Sinatra’s Nothing But The Best, and the Grateful Dead’s From The Cradle.
PROJECTS WITH ACCOLADES:
Dutch sold scores of projects that earned Gold and Platinum certifications. He helped create the plan to get The Doors Best Of The Doors certified Diamond (sales level of 10 million!) and he was responsible for sales on Rhino’s only number one album ever, the soundtrack to Juno.
FAVORITE RARITIES IN YOUR COLLECTION:
A promotional 6-CD compilation called, Mo’s Songs of all the hits released during the tenure of Mo Ostin at Warner Bros., a promotional 4-track 12″ of songs from the film Renaldo And Clara, and the promotional package for U2′s Pop which is a CD inside a mirror disco ball!