Nashville is Full of Veteran Music Executives

Looking for the Right Artists

BY LAMONT PAGE

NASHVILLE- Music executive Charles Howe of Nashville-based Chomco Digital is looking for new artist who can benefit from his experience and doesn’t have a problem with the veteran being in control. Howe has been in this business for over 36 years and although he is a legend himself, he got his start collecting money at the gate for his homeboys George Clinton of Parliament and the Funkadelics.

He’s a former label owner and has worked with the Two Live Crew to Dr. Bobby Jones and his music has been sampled by West Coast giants Mac-10/ “Not a lot of people want to work with you because everybody wants to do their own thing,” Howe said. “But after an artist cuts the record, that’s all they have because they don’t know anything about distribution.”

“A lot of people have an impression about this business and their impression is not accurate at all.” And that is where the industry executive who has a string of music hits such as Side Show by Blue Magic and I’m Your Lover by Lady Jane can help.

The Plainfield, New Jersey native came to Nashville to attend Vanderbilt University on an academic scholarship. . In his own words, he hooked up with a girl at Tennessee State University, had a couple of kids and decided to stay here.

But along the way he has started his own record label, Chocolate Cholly’s, produced chart-topping songs and worked with everybody that is somebody in the disco era. Chomco, an acronym for Charles How Organization Management Company began in 1979. The first name for his company was Hotlanta Records because he wanted to be based in Atlanta. Unfortunately someone already had that name and Chocolate Cholly’s (now Chomco) was born.

“I just wanted an overall umbrella to encompass different things that I do,” Howe said recently. He added digital to the company name when he switched to an Alexis Adat, what he calls the first affordable digital recording equipment.

Howe said that piece of machinery cost $4,000 and before that it was $15,000. So now he had built up an arsenal of recording equipment and was able to impact the industry.

 When HBO filmed Attica here in Nashville at the old penitentiary, Howe got a chance to work with the film’s stars Clarence Washington III and Chattanooga-native Samuel L. Jackson.

Howe, who mostly produces now and rents out equipment, has been a heavy-hitter in the industry. So heavy, an album he recorded in the disco era is now a collector’s item and retails for $250 a copy.

“I’m just a guy in the trenches,” he said.

Chocolate Cholly’s was an independent R&B record company. Back then, you were either independent or with a major label Howe said. Nearly four decades later, Howe is still around and busy everyday.

Howe first got into the industry in 1966 when his homeboys Parliament and the Funkadelics gave a concert and he was on the door collecting money. From there he came to Vanderbilt and then he was back and forth from New York to Philadelphia producing, recording and developing talent.

His big break came when a group called Universal Robot Band (later changed to Cleer) had a record to come out and ran out of money to promote it. Howe was asked to promote it with no money and turned it into a hit.

“I thought to myself, if I can turn somebody else’s record into a hit with no money, then I can do the same for my own records. So I started my own record company.”

Howe’s hit records include Side Show by Blue Magic, Love Won’t Let Me Wait by Major Harris, and be Thankful for What You Got. For more information look Charles Howe up on the EU biz directory under Producer.