Local music label showcases its artists, including Campfire Vendetta

By Quentin Young

Longmont-based record label B-Normous Productions is run by musicians for musicians, which means it doesn’t make a fortune for its owners, but the profits accrue mainly to artists and fans in the form of music.

Dividends will be issued at 8 p.m. Saturday, when B-Normous presents a showcase of its artists at Dickens Opera House.

The all-ages show is “an eclectic mix of rising talent here in the state of Colorado,” said Davey Bartlett, who runs B-Normous with business partner and bandmate Van VerHoeven.

One of the label’s artists is Parker resident Christopher Dismuke, a singer whose unusual method is to accompany himself on acoustic bass guitar. His voice, which manages to combine the muscular and angelic, is the main attraction of his act.

“Christopher Dismuke is going to be a big deal,” said Bartlett, who first saw the singer at an open mic as he ran through his repertoire of covers of such artists as Sinead O’Connor and Amy Winehouse. “He just made it sound like all these songs he covered he wrote them. He’s fairly mesmerizing.”

Other artists on the Dickens program are Gracie Lawson, Sean Prahinski, Watertower and The Campfire Vendetta.

Bartlett and VerHoeven are members of The Campfire Vendetta, which grew out of their former band, Novus Folium, an act that in 2010 was chosen  Best Band in Denver by radio station KBPI.  The hard rock band broke up in 2012.

B-Normous, which could be the only record label in Longmont, is a small operation that includes a recording studio in VerHoeven’s home in the Wolf Creek neighborhood. The label does more than just release music for its artists, Bartlett said. It works with them in whatever ways they need, and the artists — who are selected by B-Normous as much as the artists select to work with the label — are like a family, Bartlett said. They don’t sign contracts, and B-Normous expects them to move on to bigger labels if that’s where success takes them.

“We hope if anything it’s more of a stepping stone to help these artists get to where they want to be,” Bartlett said.

This artist-first approach resulted from the experience Bartlett and VerHoeven had in Novus Folium, which rose to the level of glimpsing some of the artist-last practices of the traditional music industry.

“The whole time we took notes on how it should be done,” Bartlett said.

B-Normous is that set of notes put into action.

If you go

What:  B-Normous Productions Winter Showcase

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8

Where: Dickens Opera House, 300 Main St., Longmont

Tickets: $5

Info: dickensoperahouse.com