The 12 months was 2000. Y2K had come and gone with no hitch. Cell telephones had been nonetheless a novelty and never but an appendage. And a decidedly analog album was taking the nation by storm.
The arrival of O Brother, The place Artwork Thou in December of that 12 months, a soundtrack that went on to promote over eight million copies and win two Grammys (together with album of the 12 months on the 2002 awards), put a little-known label referred to as Misplaced Freeway on the map. Its sound — a mix of Americana, bluegrass and Appalachian requirements — hit a chord. The corporate’s roster, which included Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, Elvis Costello and ultimately a 23-year-old newcomer named Kacey Musgraves, proved its vitality upon launch.
In some ways, Misplaced Freeway was forward of its time. It recognized profession artists that would thrive exterior of the Nashville system and gave them the liberty to discover their very own musical paths. It was as artist-friendly as a major-label imprint may very well be, thanks largely to its founder, revered music government Luke Lewis, who’d minimize his enamel working multi-platinum smashes like Shania Twain’s The Girl in Me, and likewise signed the likes of Chris Stapleton.
“Misplaced Freeway is a model and a label that I had a lot respect for, being an indie and seeing how they had been doing issues otherwise,” says John Janick, chairman of Interscope Capitol Labels Group. “It was very entrepreneurial and [went] towards the grain of what had usually been accomplished. As a fan, I’d purchased information from Misplaced Freeway and liked the story of it.”
However like so many music business tales, the label burned scorching and quick. A decade in, it confronted a brand new music ecosystem with the 2012 arrival of Spotify to the U.S. That very same 12 months, Common Music Group absorbed EMI creating an business large with a backside line. Lewis left and Musgraves moved to Mercury Nashville, leaving Misplaced Freeway dormant — till this 12 months, when it was revived below the Interscope banner.
“It tickled me to listen to it,” says Lewis of the Misplaced Freeway revival. “And significantly that Kacey was — we stayed in contact, and I’ve at all times been pleased with that one.”
And with good purpose. Musgraves was the final artist signed to Misplaced Freeway earlier than its roster was absorbed by Mercury Nashville in 2013 and went on to turn into a bonafide nation star — with an Americana bent — successful eight Grammy Awards and promoting out arenas all around the world. On the similar time, she’s moved across the Common system, joint-releasing her final two albums by MCA Nashville and Interscope (label dwelling to Billie Eilish and Woman Gaga).
Staying below the Interscope banner proved key for Musgraves as she now returns to Misplaced Freeway as its first signing.
“On this world the place there are such a lot of various levels of style, to have a house for artists who’re left of middle is critical,” Musgraves instructed THR in an unique digital cowl story saying her Misplaced Freeway signing.
Of Musgraves, says Janick: “She’s precisely the kind of artist that we might search for. We need to be one of the best at doing sort of the standard issues at report labels however at all times assume exterior the field. Every little thing I’ve ever labored on is discovering nice artists and help them in each method attainable. It’s not about shortcuts; it’s about supporting their artistry. [It shouldn’t be] ‘one thing has to occur instantly for them.’ You need folks which might be going to maneuver and form tradition versus comply with it. And he or she’s a kind of artists.”
Musgraves’ longtime supervisor Jason Owen, who labored on the authentic Misplaced Freeway and has remained shut with Lewis, introduced the concept to Janick and, whereas he doesn’t maintain an official position on the label, his ardour has helped information it to fruition. Janick appointed Robert Knotts and Jake Gear to co-head the label collectively. Knotts labored with different alt-country acts like Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson whereas working at Thirty Tigers, and Gear comes from UMG Nashville, the place he labored with artists together with Tucker Wetmore.
Luke Lewis and Jason Owen
Courtesy of Jason Owen
Misplaced Freeway’s revival comes at a time the place there are a lot of choices in the case of releasing nation music, even simply internally at UMG. Final month, the world’s largest music firm introduced a serious shift for its Nashville division because it has now rebranded because the Music Company of America, taking up UMG’s former namesake. All that’s to say nothing of smaller UMG-affiliated entities like Large Loud, dwelling to Morgan Wallen, whose music is distributed by Republic. A supply conversant in the matter tells THR that competitors was excessive inside the UMG system for the storied label, with the Republic collective excited about Misplaced Freeway as nicely.
“It was pure,” says Lewis of aligning with Interscope. “To not solid any dispersions on anyone, however Republic is structured otherwise. And Interscope has a employees that’s adept and geared up to take care of the sorts of artists the place it’s not about having a promotion employees to get them on the radio. So I really feel like Misplaced Freeway ended up in the suitable place.”
“Everyone needs to signal nice artists,” says Janick. “What we attempt to do in each style of music is be respectful of the style, but in addition not restrict artists and inform them that’s the place they need to be. I believe in case you have a look at what we’ve accomplished within the Latin house particularly, we employed nice executives in Miami and constructed a full crew that has the experience, however plug it again into what we do at Interscope and provides an artist each useful resource that they might presumably need. It’s essential to grasp the place an artist comes from.”
Authenticity is definitely on the thoughts of many Nashville music-makers. Using on the stratospheric success of Wallen, a confirmed and perennial hitmaker, and the unorthodox method of dwell phenomenon Zach Bryan, along with crossover successes like Submit Malone (whose “I Had Some Assist” that includes Wallen was one of many largest songs of 2024), the coasts are coming for nation in all its kinds.
Lewis has heard this report earlier than however he by no means imagined seeing phrases so favorable to artists, and positively not at Common. “Once I was quitting, I didn’t really feel like Common was sport to satisfy the phrases that [companies] like Thirty Tigers had been providing, or inclined to make the sort of artist-friendly offers that I assumed wanted to occur,” he says. “I by no means dreamed that inside Common we might flip the script and do an 80-20 deal within the artists’ favor.”
In reality, one of many final issues Lewis did earlier than retiring to a quieter life in South Carolina together with his spouse Lauren, a former music publicity government, was “let a bunch of artists out of their offers,” he shares. “I felt like I used to be setting folks free, somewhat than leaving them tousled. Some bought masters again and I attempted to be as righteous as I might about it as a result of I felt that I used to be bailing on them.”
A decade on, Lewis nonetheless grapples together with his exit. “You bought the mainstream nation factor, which is MAGA, and it was all dictated by nation radio, which is type of an evil stepbrother to the MAGA factor; that was one of many essential the explanation why I give up,” he reveals. “I couldn’t do this shit anymore. I didn’t perceive the viewers. And I didn’t need to. Disgrace on me? Perhaps, however I used to be having a tough time selling issues I didn’t respect.”
Within the decade since, UMG has seen a succession of label heads in Nashville. Mike Dungan ran the division from 2012 till his retirement in 2023, and his alternative Cindy Mabe left UMG again in February, with Mike Harris taking the helm as a substitute. Earlier than Mabe’s February exit, she really had soft-launched the concept of a Misplaced Freeway revival again in January, with T Bone Burnett concerned. The label launched Ringo Starr’s nation album Trying Up.
Burnett will likely be working with the Interscope-fronted Misplaced Freeway on a number of tasks, together with an anniversary version of the O Brother soundtrack.
O Brother The place Artwork Thou, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, George Clooney, 2000
Courtesy Everett Assortment
“We began Misplaced Freeway Information with the O Brother, The place Artwork Thou? Soundtrack in 2000,” Burnett mentioned in a press release. “As we had been solely ready to launch a fraction of what we had recorded at the time, I’m trying ahead to working with the Misplaced Freeway Workforce — Robert Knotts and Jake Gear, and naturally John Janick and Steve Berman, to finish the work we began 25 years in the past, and to get behind a few of the extraordinary artists that emerged, and are nonetheless rising, in this century in the deep world of American Music.”
Certainly, Burnett’s involvement, together with Musgraves’ return, actually would convey Misplaced Freeway full circle. Now if solely they’ll get a vinyl version of O Brother to the plant in time to coincide with its twenty fifth anniversary in December. “It makes me me really feel outdated,” says Lewis, remembering the frilly packaging designed for the CD and the way enterprise affairs balked on the spend. “I assumed it was going to be a kind of information for individuals who perhaps purchased one CD a 12 months, like a espresso desk sort of a CD. They mentioned we overspent by like $350,000. I used to be pondering, I’m fairly certain we’re going to interrupt even. The soundtrack grossed greater than the movie! It did like $60 to $70 million in CD gross sales … We needed to monitor down songwriters to pay them royalties — these had been folks dwelling within the mountains who by no means dreamed of such a factor.”
