ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 23, 1996 TAG: 9605230006
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: LARRY McSHANE ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Bill Adler is not afraid to say it.
``This is definitely the commodification of poetry,'' announces Adler, one-fourth of the ownership at Mouth Almighty Records. ``It's on TV. It's on CD. There's a beautiful book. There's a home video.
``If there's no way to escape commodification in American culture, at least I'm really happy about what I'm selling.''
What Mouth Almighty's selling is ``The United States of Poetry,'' a compact disc that mingles spoken word performances by well-known performers such as Allen Ginsberg, Lou Reed and Amiri Baraka with more obscure work and a sampling of ``found poetry'' - the chants of marching soldiers, a team of cheerleaders.
``USOP'' is the first release from Mouth Almighty, a new label launched last month by Adler, fellow music industry veteran Jim Coffman, and poets Bob Holman and Sekou Sundiata.
They cut a deal with Mercury Records President Danny Goldberg to release 20 albums over the next 21/2 years - an unprecedented major label commitment to the spoken word/poetry movement.
The release of the new CD came with an unprecedented blitz of accompanying product. The CD is the soundtrack to the 21/2-hour PBS program that aired in March; a book of poetry featured in the program is also available. There's a ``USOP'' Internet site, and the PBS special is due out on home video.
Holman, a bespectacled man with a three-day growth of beard, is intrigued and amused by the whole project.
``In the midst of this high-tech communications revolution, you find this sweet thing of beauty - the poem - that was the essence of communication when Homer was (writing),'' he says with a smile.
While the city's poetry hot spots are traditionally Greenwich Village and, more recently, the Lower East Side, Mouth Almighty operates out of a third-floor office in a nondescript building two blocks off the Hudson River. The neighbors include Joe's Auto Body, Whitewall Storage and a flock of hardy pigeons.
``We don't do much business in walk-up poets,'' Coffman observes wryly.
Adler and his partners have embarked on what historically has been a suicide mission of sorts - peddling poetry to the masses. Motown founder Berry Gordy once said, ``If you called it anything but poetry, I could sell it.''
Rick Rubin, head of American Records, is a major spoken-word fan who considered financing the Mouth Almighty team. Adler recalls Rubin's parting words: ``You know what? In the entire history of the record industry, nobody's ever been able to sell this stuff.''
But the four-man crew atop the label is confident it can overcome the long-standing commercial fear of poetry.
``We're going to have to sell the genre, and not shy away from the use of the `p-word,' as Henry Rollins puts it,'' Adler says, referring to the ex-Black Flag singer turned spoken word artist. ``OK - it's poetry.''
Which doesn't mean it's not accessible, Holman stresses - although sometimes, like a favorite record, it may require more than one listening.
``There's no language that's going to throw you into the loop-de-loop of abstraction, but the meanings you have to dig for. I think that's one of the joys of poetry and the record,'' Holman says.
The topics and artists vary wildly on ``USOP,'' from 9-year-old Sawyer Shefts' rumination on his noisy family, ``Sounds,'' to Arizona poet Ai's chilling ``The Good Shepherd,'' the tale of a hot chocolate-sipping serial child killer.
Already, some college radio stations are giving ``USOP'' heavy airplay.
Mouth Almighty currently is assembling an artist roster; additional compilation albums are likely. Holman says obscure poets are a real possibility: ``The idea of putting out a CD of an 18-year-old is very good. You've got something to say at 18. It's wrong! And it's brilliant. And it deserves to be heard.''
Alder says the label's goal is simple: to do well enough to stay in business. Holman is more hopeful of a Johnny Appleseed effect, spreading poetry to regions where it has never thrived.
``It reminds me of the snakes who grab hold of the airplane wings, and drop down in the tundra, and all of a sudden start reproducing, and you've changed the whole ecology,'' Holman rants. ``We're the reptiles on the wheels!''
And if, 21/2 years down the road, the reptiles don't survive?
``Danny Goldberg says, `I don't expect you to make a lot of money,''' Adler relates. ```If you don't lose money, I'll keep you in business for 30 years, and we'll have some beautiful records to play for our grandchildren.'''
For more information, visit the USOP's web site at http://www.iguide.com/music/poetry/usop.
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Poet Bob Holman reads from some of his work at aby CNBparty in Los Angeles. Holman is one of four founders of Mouth
Almighty Records, a new label for spoken-word performances.