Red Light Management Coran Capshaw

Posted onOctober 27, 2011 - 7:37 pm by Admin | 0 Comments

As first tipped by MusicRow last week, Red Light Management has officially announced the hiring of longtime music business pro Tracy Gershon. She joins the Nashville office where she will continue to co-manage Big Machine recording artist Ella Mae Bowen, and Erin Enderlin, as well as manage the writing interests of Grammy-winning artist and songwriter Rodney Crowell. She will also take an active role handling A&R for the Red Light roster.

Gershon was most recently a Sr. VP at Warner Chappell Music, and has held executive posts at EMI and Sony Music publishing, Sony Records and Warner Bros. records.

“Returning to management makes perfect sense for me,” says Gershon.  “I moved to Nashville from Los Angeles in 1988 and managed several artists. For the past two decades, I have worked as an A&R executive at both record labels and publishing companies. This experience, along with the vision and resources of [Red Light head] Coran Capshaw, make the transition to Red Light an exciting foundation for which to build my clientele.”

The management firm’s Nashville roster includes Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Alabama, Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, The Lunabelles, Jennette McCurdy, Kip Moore, Jon Pardi, Tammy Wynette estate, Third Day and Kerrie Roberts.

Gershon can be reached at:
124 12th Ave. S., 6th Floor
Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 279-3784, tracy.gershon@redlightmanagement.com

Red Light Management has offices in Charlottesville, Denver, Los Angeles, Nashville, and New York.

It wasn’t his last. WYSP ownership wanted to launch the same format in New York. “We don’t want to hire anyone in New York because we don’t want the word to get out,” DiDia was told, “so go up there and figure it out and get the music ready.” K-Rock’s 1985 premiere occurred on the night of Live Aid. DiDia was supposed to come back to Philadelphia. Instead, he became K-Rock’s music director, fulfilling his dream of working in New York radio.

In New York, DiDia called an old friend. “I wanted to let you know, I just started K-Rock,” he told Sam Lit. “Thanks for telling me I’d never work in radio.”

DiDia stayed at K-Rock until 1988, when he headed west to Geffen Records. “At the time, radio was becoming more formatted,” DiDia explains. “I wanted to stay closer to the music. I had bunch of record guy friends who were calling me to play their records.” As head of rock promotion, DiDia switched sides—literally—which was an adjustment. “You go from your phone ringing off the hook to being the one having to generate those calls.”

Also part of the Geffen family was Rick Rubin, whose new label, Def American, had a distribution deal there. Thanks to DiDia’s good judgment, K-Rock was the first radio station anywhere to play the Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party),” which Rubin co-wrote and produced. The mock revolutionary anthem ended up a top 10 hit and put the Beasties on their iconic path.

Later, Rubin sought out DiDia at a convention and thanked him. In California, he hired DiDia as Def American’s general manager.

“At the time it was a risk for me,” DiDia says. “On one hand, David Geffen was telling me I should never leave his company. We were the hottest record company. We had Guns N’ Roses and Aerosmith and Whitesnake [at their heights]. Rick, I don’t know. We really got along. He had a small, cool little operation. He had a little band called Mr. Crowe’s Garden that turned into the Black Crowes that I championed along the way. I took a leap of faith with him.” DiDia wound up working at the company, renamed American Recordings, for seven years.

DiDia then headed to Disney’s Hollywood Records, enticed by the opportunity to get “to get inside a big company like that and learn.” Unfortunately, this was before the synergistic ka-ching days of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers, when Hollywood was positioning itself as a rock label. DiDia then served as general manager at Capitol Records, where he supported popular bands such as Radiohead and Coldplay. Office politics and corporate downsizing made DiDia expendable there, but Rubin, freshly appointed as Sony’s “music czar,” made him Columbia Records’ general manager.

“That didn’t work,” DiDia says. “Rick battled and banged heads with the corporate types at Sony. Rick was more of an artist than an executive, let’s put it that way.”

There was a short stint at Island Records, but by then DiDia knew a career change was required. “The artist management side is the center and the power of the music business now, with the crumbling of the labels,” he says. “Artists’ income is mainly in touring now, and the artist manager participates in every facet of the artist’s career.” But the job also utilizes his talents. “He will kill for the artists,” Rubin says of DiDia. “He won’t take ‘no’ for an answer when the artists’ best interests are at stake, and he’s driven by love and belief in great music.”

At the Bonaroo Music Festival, DiDia ran into Red Light Management’s founder, Coran Capshaw, and convinced Capshaw to hire him. DiDia started last October.

“A label gig, I could do in my sleep,” says DiDia. “It was exciting and I loved it and I’d never exchange anything I did. I’d never look back and say, ‘I wish I would have done this.’ I’m fortunate because I’m literally learning new things every day. I’m working with different types of artists. I’m meeting producers and learning about vocal coaches and all kinds of things I never knew about. And then there’s the whole touring angle.”

Since joining Red Light Management, DiDia has signed American Idol darlings Pia Toscano, Haley Reinhart, and James Durbin as well as Grammy-nominated chanteuse Corrine Bailey Rae. A good reputation and innumerable connections have eased the transition.The new endeavor also covers old territory. “For me, I just try to follow my gut and find and nurture artists and music that I love,” he says.

“When you’re on the label side, you don’t really deal with the artist directly,” DiDia adds. “You deal with management and there’s always an agenda. On this side, your agenda is the artist’s agenda. All you can do is tell them the truth, which most artists don’t hear often…I think the best thing to do is to let them focus on their music, and I take care of everything else.”

He admits that making the switch to a family-run company is a tough one, but says, “I’m figuring it out,” adding that the biggest names in artist management have decades of experience. Rubin thinks DiDia will be just fine. “He will do great in anything he does,” Rubin says. “He always has.”

DiDia still isn’t in the music industry because of luck. “Passion and taste,” Rubin explains. “He knows the real thing when he hears it.” At TCNJ, DiDia was so floored after seeing Peter Frampton in concert—long before Frampton Comes Alive sold millions and hijacked the airwaves—he raved nonstop about the shaggy-haired guitarist on WTSR. More than 30 years later, not much has changed.

“The music,” DiDia says, “still needs to give me goose bumps.”

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