The Lost Highway workplace in Nashville’s vibrant Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood is a piece in progress. The kitchen space, which dominates the middle of the bottom ground house, is up and operating, however most of the cubicles within the open space are nonetheless lined with unpacked packing containers, and the web solely operates on one aspect of the big communal room.
But the impediments aren’t stopping anybody from getting their jobs achieved. On this present day in early March, the workspace, which the label moved into in January, is buzzing with staffers occupying smaller workplaces and convention rooms, the lounge and kitchen bar stools. After all, there’s work to be achieved, together with organising Grammy-winning famous person Kacey Musgraves’ new album, Middle of Nowhere, which comes out May 1.
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Robert Knotts, who runs Lost Highway with fellow co-head/govt vp Jake Gear, calls Musgraves “a North Star for what we’re trying to do. I think this job would become a lot more difficult without somebody like her leading the way,” he says within the pair’s first interview since Interscope Geffen A&M (IGA) introduced the revival of the imprint last April. “Why she is so perfect with what we’re doing is because of her unwavering commitment to her creative output,” Knotts continues. “There is no compromise in the best way possible. If we can work with artists like that, then we’re doing our job.”
Musgraves was the primary artist signed to the reinvigorated label, which was becoming since she was the final act inked to its unique incarnation, a culture-moving imprint began in 2000 by then Universal Music Group Nashville chairman Luke Lewis that shut down in 2012 following Lewis’ retirement.
Almost instantly upon its bow, the label, which took its identify from the Leon Payne-penned tune made well-known by Hank Williams in 1949, grew to become a industrial and important touchstone by releasing music from legends like Willie Nelson and Elvis Costello and revered acts together with Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, Drive-By Truckers, Hayes Carll and Mary Gauthier, a lot of whom had been outdoors of the mainstream industrial nation mildew. The label additionally signed a younger Musgraves in 2011, but it surely was absorbed into Mercury Nashville earlier than her debut, Same Trailer, Different Park, got here out in 2013.
Musgraves celebrated her return to the label by releasing a canopy of Williams’ “Lost Highway” final April. (Since the primary Lost Highway went away, she had launched her music by means of Mercury Nashville after which Interscope.)
“We have been working with Kacey for almost five years. Lost Highway was important to her when signing her first record deal because of what the company stood for,” John Janick, chairman & CEO of Interscope Capitol and IGA, tells Billboard. “She loved the idea of being the first artist signed to the new Lost Highway. She’s exactly the type of artist that we want to be on Lost Highway.”
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Reinvigorating Lost Highway offers IGA one other imprint that aligns with its aesthetic and offers it with a Nashville outpost at a time when many of the coastal labels have established a presence in Music City.
“Culturally, Lost Highway was a home to creative artists who paved their own path, regardless of what everyone else was doing. The roster was filled with great artists who marched to the beat of their own drum. That’s exactly what Interscope has been about for the last 30 years. So, the Lost Highway [and] Interscope connection starts there,” Janick says. “Beyond that, Lost Highway plugs into Interscope in a super seamless way. It’s a model we’ve had some great success with. Interscope Capitol Miami, our Latin division, operates the same way. We have specialists who work on Lost Highway projects every day, but they can tap into the larger team for resources and expertise — creative, marketing, publicity and more.”
Gear was most lately vp of A&R at UMG Nashville (now MCA), the place he signed and developed Tucker Wetmore and labored with such artists as Vincent Mason, Parker McCollum, Jordan Davis and Dierks Bentley. He additionally spent greater than a dozen years as a music publishing govt, together with partnering with Grammy-winning songwriter Hillary Lindsey and Concord Music to launch Hang Your Hat Music, which he stays a accomplice in, however doesn’t actively take part in on a day-to-day foundation.
Knotts moved to Nashville in 2013 from Georgia, beginning at Thirty Tigers as an intern. There, he rose to senior vp of artist and label companies, working with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Sturgill Simpson and Turnpike Troubadours, in addition to some acts who had been on Lost Highway, together with Lucinda Williams.
Knotts met Gear by means of a university buddy of Gear’s who additionally labored at Thirty Tigers. They grew to become such shut mates that Knotts officiated Gear’s marriage ceremony to nation artist Hailey Whitters in 2022. However, Janick picked them individually after which paired them to run Lost Highway.
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“I knew Jake from working with him on Vincent Mason as well as his work with Hillary Lindsey. He is a highly creative person and a great A&R, who also has great relationships,” Janick says. “I was introduced to Robert as someone that could be great to be a part of running the company. I was very impressed with Robert and built a strong relationship quickly. I thought the two of them running the company together was a good pairing and the two of them being close friends was an added benefit because of their strong relationship.”
After they accepted the roles, one of many preliminary strikes Gear and Knotts made was to go to Lewis in Charleston, S.C., the place he now lives. “One of the first things we wanted to check off the to-do list was go spend time with Luke,” Gear says. “And understand his point of view in starting this.”
“I’m more than proud that Lost Highway’s legacy was strong enough to warrant a rebirth, spawned by John Janick,” Lewis tells Billboard of the label’s revival, which launched Brandi Carlile’s Returning to Myself in October as its first official launch. “Twenty-five years after the initial launch the times have obviously changed. Guitar-driven singer/songwriters have found a revived marketplace for their work, and many are thriving, so the timing of a relaunch of the label seems fitting right now. Brandi Carlile and Kacey are perfect artists to lead the new venture, and hopefully more quality like that will follow. I wish the new venture well.”
For Gear, Lost Highway held nearly a legendary place in his thoughts. Growing up in Iowa, “Lost Highway was a gateway for me through the alternative backdoor of country music,” he says. After shifting to Nashville, as a writer he’d go to Universal Music Group Nashville’s workplaces to plug songs. “I remember sitting in [A&R executive] Stephanie [Wright’s] office [around] 2017 and she had a vinyl of [revered 2001 Lost Highway release] Whiskey Town’s Pneumonia on the floor,” he says. “I’d [ask], ‘How come you guys aren’t relaunching Lost Highway?’ It’s a body of work and a brand that represented something. Almost 10 years before I even knew this was in my cards, it was something I cared about and hoped somebody would bring back.”
To now be on the helm isn’t a place Gear or Knotts takes frivolously, and so they see the throughline between the previous and current. “The songwriting has always been the focus,” Gear says, however he hesitates to model Lost Highway a singer/songwriter label due to the connotation of a stripped-down manufacturing. Instead, it’s extra of the renegade inventive spirit they hope to duplicate from the primary iteration. “That’s what the beauty of the original home of Lost Highway was,” Knotts says. “Every single one of those artists were wholly themselves and they had something to say. It’s not about genre or format.”
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Following the label’s launch of a number of Grammy winner Carlile’s Returning to Myself, the album scored some notable chart wins, debuting at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and on the high of Billboard’s Americana/Folk Albums and Top Rock & Alternative Albums charts.
“We hit the ground running, learning how our team would work best with the Interscope team in L.A.,” Knotts says. Key amongst Lost Highway’s dozen staffers are vp of promoting Casey Thomas and vp of promotion Luke Jensen.
The label then targeted on the 25th anniversary of one of many unique Lost Highway’s first releases, the T Bone Burnett-produced, Grammy-winning soundtrack for O Brother Where Art Thou, which went on to promote greater than 8 million copies. As a part of a year-long celebration, Lost Highway launched a particular gold vinyl gatefold version on Feb. 20. On Feb. 28, a celebration on the Grand Ole Opry curated by Burnett recreated the album from begin to end with artists who appeared on the unique recording, amongst them Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Emmylou Harris and Chris Thomas King, in addition to a brand new technology together with Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle. “This was a pretty massive moment for us to shine a light on everything that Lost Highway had been built around,” Knotts says. (The new Lost Highway controls the unique Lost Highway catalog, which Gear estimates is between 150 and 200 titles).
Like Lewis, Burnett serves as a religious forefather. While he has no official title, Burnett is anticipated to collaborate on quite a few Lost Highway tasks and Knotts stresses Burnett can “absolutely” convey acts to the label: “He’s been amazing to just get to learn from and hear from.”
In addition to Musgraves and Carlile, the label can be residence to Americana outfit Flatland Calvary, who launched Work of Heart on March 27 and whose single, “Never Comin’ Back,” is climbing Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart. Also on the roster are Cigarettes@Sunset, who lately launched an EP, Possum Rock, and Meels, a rootsy artist from Mill Valley, Calif., who put out her Across the Raccoon Strait EP in January and has toured with Margo Price and Carter Faith. Rounding out the rising roster is 2019 American Idol finalist, smoky-voiced Laci Kaye Booth.
One method the brand new iteration of Lost Highway differs from the outdated is that streaming is now the dominant type of consumption, however Gear says the label will nonetheless take tasks to terrestrial radio when applicable, because it “can be a massive amplifier of something that should already be in motion.” Also, given the large musical spectrum of its artists, Lost Highway will work acts not simply at mainstream nation, however industrial Triple A, Americana and different applicable codecs. “It’s up to us to work with [the artists] on what their vision is and then find the right format,” Knotts provides.
With nation music and its offshoots surging all over the world, Lost Highway has IGA’s world groups at its disposal. “Those international teams are on every call that we’re on,” Knotts says. “They’re part of the planning, the strategy. It’s very seamless.”
Though their tenure at Lost Highway has simply begun, Gear already has a purpose in thoughts: creating a brand new chapter for the label with a secure of artists so creatively impactful that “20 years later, somebody wants to call me when I’m retired and come talk to me like we talked to Luke and T Bone.”
