Jonathan Buckner, guitarist and vocalist with Chosen Road, and President of Poor Mountain Records, has announced a merger between his label and Verb Records, resulting in the creation of Merit Music Group. In addition to the two record companies, Merit encompasses three recording studios, their own music publishing outfit, and a variety of services for bands and artists, including video production, engineering, distribution and promotion.
Buckner tells us that the two labels will function as separate divisions within the new company. Poor Mountain will retain its focus on bluegrass, roots acoustic, and country music, while Verb looks after more mainstream styles.
MMG is now the home of Langley, Jonathan Buckner and Chosen Road, Nate Adams, Idletymes, Spoken For, Jessica Bolen, Corey Brooks Band, The Dominion Trio, Remington Ryde, and Kevin Pace and the Early Edition. They also manage The Bluegrass Gospel Hour with John Sentell, which is syndicated to radio stations across the US, and online.
Jonathan shared a few words about how the company came into existence.
“I am extremely excited about PMR being apart of the MMG family. MMG came about after talking with Corey Brooks and TK King, owners of Verb Records. We realized that we were on the same page as far as how we wanted to enable independent artists.
When Poor Mountain Records was started our mission was to enable independent bluegrass artists by giving them the tools they needed to get their music heard. We wanted to give independent artists a place to call home. There are many talented artists who haven’t been able to land the ‘big record’ deal. These artists deserve for their music to be heard and we want to help them do that.
Brooks and King have the same passion that everyone at PMR has. By joining forces with Merit Music Group our artists will have access to more outlets to have their music heard. Anytime we have the opportunity to get our artist’s music to a new audience we will take it, and Merit Music Group is providing that.”
Submissions from new and/or unaffiliated artists are welcomed at the MMG web site.
