Music & Marketing: Zappalachia - How I Accidentally Pitched All the Way to the Top

Back on June 25th, 2011 at 2:30 pm, I composed an email to a then loose acquaintance who is the husband of one of my former supervisors (whom I used to work for back when I was a "warehouse monkey" in my mid-20's.)

I was laid off at the time and furiously networking into past, present, and future in every conceivable direction for new career opportunities. I had nothing to lose and a robust inventory of innovative ideas that I had been stockpiling over the years. One such idea was of a musical nature (being I have been surrounded by music and musicians since birth.)

The email I sent that day was of a concept I had first dreamed up in the 90's after a young Belmont music student I had befriended through a job at a bagel shop in West Nashville turned me on to the musical greatness of Phish and Frank Zappa. I quickly discovered that Phish not only had great admiration for Zappa, but also could hold their own when they played bluegrass, collaborating with bluegrass luminaries like Bela Fleck and Alison Krauss. Then I thought, "what if an all-star lineup of progressive bluegrass visionaries recorded an album of acoustic FZ compositions? What would this album be called?" Then the turnkey "Zappalachia" concept hit me in the head like a ton of bricks.

The email I sent that day was to Arthur "Midget" Sloatman, an engineer in Zappa's "Utility Muffin Research Kitchen". More importantly, Arthur was also the brother of Frank's widow, former Zappa estate executrix, Gail Zappa.

The Email

"So I had this really good, extremely awesome, fantastically great idea for a music project. I don't want to play on it as I'm not really skilled enough to hold my own in this particular quadrant of the musical universe. I just have the vision for it. I humbly present to you...

ZAPPALACHIA: Rocking Team Combo of Virtuoso Bluegrass musicians playing Frank Zappa compositions featuring all acoustic instrumentation (acoustic guitar, fiddle, mandolin, dulcimer, banjo, resonator guitar / dobro, upright bass, etc.) It would be awesome to get folks on-board such as Chris Thile, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Mark O' Connor, Edgar Meyer, etc. I think you might have the Nashville connections to help pull something like this off.

I think it would open up Zappa's Universe to a whole new demographic and push Bluegrass in completely new directions. Definite Grammy material if done correctly...

Feel free to share with Z-familia. Let me know your thoughts!"

Wowee Zowee: The Completely Unexpected Response

June 25th, 2011 9:49 pm

"Hi Stephen,

Yes I do think this is funny and also a great concept. Weirdly, I spent most of today with Ring of Fire rattling around in my head. Not too far astray. I don't know if you knew but Mr. Cash and FZ were scheduled to perform that together onstage. Mr. Cash was going to be a guest onstage with FZ in concert. They had it all worked out. But then he became ill and couldn't make it. And then he was gone. But their music remains as a last word for each of them. I have to say I am a little partial to Bluegrass. For the Blue mostly. And I have been in Appalachia, in the 50's, where I got my eyes pried wide open. So this suggestion - and the name - mean a great deal to me personally. I would like to see this happen. Let me think about it for a while. Maybe a producer will appear in a magic cape that will be all he needs to put this together as a labor of love in tribute to FZ.

Kind regards,

gz
"Music is the Best!"~fz"

Sadly, this was the only communication I had with the late Gail Zappa, who recently passed away at the age of 70.

Her son Ahmet is now the Grand Wazoo of The Zappa Family Trust and this idea is squarely in their court should they ever decide to do anything with it. If they do, my eureka moment of putting together a few obvious pieces of an already interconnected puzzle and my skillful networking abilities will have brought forth fresh and exciting works of musical greatness into this world.

Farewell GZ and all the best to The Zappa Family Trust for many years to come.