http://money.cnn.com/gallery/smallbusiness/2013/03/13/musician-ceos.fortune/index.htmlYesterday CNN's website associated with Fortune and Money magazines put up a story profiling five musicians who are going it the independent way. The five are Elliott Murphy (who was really one of the pioneers in making a career outside of the big labels - it helped that he was mighty big in France), Sloan Wainwright (Rufus's sister, Loudon's daughter), Willie Nile, Marshall Crenshaw...and Van Dyke.
Of these five, Van Dyke was about the last one to go the indie path - as recently as about four or five years ago, in interviews, he was still irritated that he couldn't get signed to Nonesuch Records. And he hasn't gone completely down the one-man show road, as shown by his inking a deal with Bella Union Records. (This may have to do with his strong dislike of compact discs....he probably ain't too happy with the notion of filling his guest bedroom with boxes of 'em.)
But although the article is short and just mentions Smile in passing, it's still worth a look.