Family of Capricorn Records co-founder Phil Walden announces creation of memorial fund benefiting University of Georgia’s new Music Business Program

ATHENS, Ga. (August 16, 2006) – Family and friends of the late music impresario and Capricorn Records co-founder Phil Walden Sr. will be on hand Thursday, Aug. 17, at the University of Georgia to announce the creation of a memorial fund in his name to support UGA’s recently established Music Business Certificate Program.

   Philip Walden Jr., an Atlanta lawyer who grew up around Capricorn Records in the 1970s and eventually joined his father there, is expected to announce the fund’s creation on behalf of the Walden family while delivering a presentation on the recording industry to students in the music business program.

   Growing up in Macon, Ga., Phil Walden got into the music business booking acts while still in high school. He began his career in earnest after graduating from Mercer University in 1962, managing rhythm-and-blues acts like Otis Redding, Percy Sledge, Johnny Jenkins, and Sam and Dave, but cemented his place in music history by co-founding Capricorn Records in 1969.

   Based in Macon, family-run Capricorn Records became the epicenter of the “southern rock” movement of the 1970s, thanks to a roster of artists that included the Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie, Elvin Bishop, Delbert McClinton and the Dixie Dregs.

   A series of setbacks resulted in the label’s filing for bankruptcy in 1980. Walden eventually re-launched Capricorn Records in 1990, however, releasing albums by such artists as Widespread Panic, Cake, 311, Col. Bruce Hampton, the Vigilantes of Love, Jack Logan and Kenny Chesney.

   After entering into a joint venture with Mercury Records in 1996, a series of record industry mergers resulted in Capricorn’s exit from the music stage in 2000 after selling most of its assets and back catalog to Zomba Records.

   Walden and his family remained in the music business, however, starting Atlanta-based Velocette Records, which handles mostly Georgia-based artists like Vic Chesnutt, Kevn Kinney, the Glands, Jucifer and Brass Castle.

   Walden was still involved in the operations of Velocette when he died in April 2006 at age 66 after a long battle with cancer. He was posthumously awarded a Doctor of Humanities degree by Mercer University. He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1986.

   The University of Georgia’s Music Business Program began in January 2006 as an interdisciplinary certificate program organized and operated by the university’s Terry College of Business and the Hodgson School of Music. Students take seven classes, a mix of basic business and music courses, including the two “music business” courses designed by the program’s directors, Bruce Burch and Steve Dancz.

   In addition to guest lectures from prominent figures in the music industry, students gain real-world music industry experience through internships with record labels, promoters, studios and other companies. Students are also asked to find local artists with potential and promote them through their own “record labels.”

   For more information about UGA’s Music Business Program, please visit the program’s Web site at http:// www.terry.uga.edu/musicbusiness/.