The Beat: For Love Of Country

When you have snared a trophy case full of Grammy Awards in one sitting, including ones for album of the year and best new artist, it is a little hard to fly under the radar.

But that is exactly what Norah Jones and her friends are trying to do with the self-titled debut from the Little Willies, out March 7 on Milking Bull Records/EMI.

The album is a loose-limbed collection of country classics with four originals sprinkled in.

For a brief while, the Little Willies were able to keep the crowds at bay during their semi-regular gigs at New York's Living Room, a small club on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

But as word spread of the band's lineup—Jones, Lee Alexander, Richard Julian, Jim Campilongo and Dan Reiser—the lines out the door got longer and longer.

Although the band is named for its devotion to Willie Nelson, its members certainly were not beyond having a little good-natured fun with the name.

"After a while, people recognized the Little Willies name and the shows were getting too crowded, so they changed to the Well Hungarians," says Zach Hochkeppel, VP of marketing for EMI Jazz and Classics.

Following a few years of gigs, the band members decided to record the songs they had worked up, although from the start they were worried that their effort might be seen as a commercial endeavor instead of the tiny labor of love it was intended to be.

Or worse, people would think they were trying to elbow in on the traditionalist movement. "Our love for this music is authentic, but we're not people preserving the tradition. We don't want to take away from that," Julian says.

In fact, at first the group thought about an Internet-only release, "but Norah and I are signed artists [to EMI], and we didn't think it was fair to do something like that to EMI," Julian says.

He says the band and label have seen eye to eye on the low-key promotion tact ("I don't think anyone at EMI is focusing on this for the bottom line," he says), and adds, "I heard one rumor that one of the heads of EMI was happy that Norah did this record because he was happy that she got her country kick out [now] so it wouldn't be on her next record."

Hochkeppel says EMI immediately understood the quintet's concerns.

"We want to try to get it out to as many folks as possible, but we don't want people to think it's the next Norah Jones record. There might be people who bought her past two albums who don't dig this, who think she's a country artist now. As much as we think we could have a lot of fun with this and sell a lot of records, we don't want to sell Norah short in her long-term career."

There will be virtually no promotion for the project. Jones is shooting a movie, so even if she had been inclined to promote the record, her schedule will not allow it. TV appearances and tour dates are not slated. The label is counting primarily on word-of-mouth and strong reviews to drive the album.

EMI is servicing the full set to triple-A and Americana radio stations. "When you drop names like Townes Van Zandt and Kris Kristofferson, programmers get misty," Hochkeppel says, citing two songwriters whose material the Little Willies cover on the album. "We'll let the taste-makers pick a track." An interview conducted by WFUV New York DJ Rita Houston will also be available to all noncommercial stations.

Retail plans include in-store and listening-station play. The album will also be available at Starbucks starting March 14.

As Hochkeppel notes, no one in the band is adverse to the album finding its own water level, wherever that may be.

"I don't think anyone in the band or Norah would be bummed if this becomes very large," he says. "They just don't want it to be pushed out of the box." ••••