Q&A: Vere Music & Original Hootie Manager Rusty Harmon

Founded by Harmon in 2021, **Vere Music — as distributed globally by Warner Music Group’s independent distribution arm, ADA — collaborates with artists and labels to help realize their singular creative vision without giving away ownership or control, creating an exclusive, highly personalized marketing strategy designed for each client’s specific goals, covering each stage of growth while delivering the necessary marketing drivers to reach the next level. In the four years since its launch, the Nashville, TN-based firm has signed nearly 70 remarkably varied artists and songwriters and released over 400 singles, EPs, and full-length albums, serving as liaison with ADA to support the marketing and overall release of a product. Vere’s roster boasts both career artists that have already generated more than 500M streams as well as a number of gifted new artists with audiences ranging from 15–50K streams, for whom Vere quickly expanded their base to more than 1M streams. 2024 saw Vere Music earn a prestigious 2025 GRAMMY Award nomination for “Best Children’s Music Album” with Rock For Children’s Solid Rock Revival featuring Alice Cooper, [Rob Halford](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYctPIkCM90&t=5s&pp=ygUWcGFsdHJvY2FzdCByb2IgaGFsZm9yZNIHCQm9AIO1pN6f1A%3D%3D), Slash, and [Darryl “DMC” McDaniels](https://paltrocast.com/f/live-darryl-dmc-mcdaniels-deez-guyzz-bakithi-kumalo?blogcategory=UK#google_vignette)** of Run-DMC; proceeds from the album benefit Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Center and the Norelli Family Foundation.

Vere Music aside, Harmon is a widely praised industry veteran with a three-decade-plus career which saw him manage Multi-Platinum and 2x Diamond-certified superstars Hootie & The Blowfish towards two #1 albums, worldwide sales of more than 25M, three top 10 singles, and countless accolades including two GRAMMY®Awards, two American Music Awards, and an MTV Video Music Award for “Best New Artist.” Harmon has further steered the careers of two additional artists towards the top of the charts and served as president of two music management groups, Vice-President of Music Sales at Royalty Exchange, and other posts of note.

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Harmon is joined at Vere Music by Project Manager Paige Heinemann, and the Vere Music team recently expanded its business model to provide its services to labels and publishers. In turn, Vere now enables labels, publishers, artists, and managers to release product and retain full ownership of their masters without the overhead costs of a full staff. Vere handles all distribution and marketing and manages all label services, including publicity, social media management, and radio promotion. Among Vere’s current success stories are an array of diverse artists spanning a wide range of musical genres, including acclaimed Americana-Folk band The Arcadian Wild, The Hillbilly Thomists (a Washington, DC-based bluegrass band comprising friars from the Province of St. Joseph of the Dominican Order), and 21-year-old Nashville-based singer Mary-Clair. Established artists who have released tracks via Vere Music include **Russ Taff and Hootie & The Blowfish co-founders [Mark Bryan](https://paltrocast.com/f/mark-bryan-on-new-lp-popped-hootie-the-blowfish-more)** and Jim “Soni” Sonefeld.

Reportedly, the next phase in Vere Music’s long-term development as a label and marketing operation further sees Harmon teaming with a number of his fellow music industry stalwarts on such new labels as FLEAUX, a collaboration with multiple GRAMMY Award-winning producer and songwriter Tedd T (Dolly Parton, **for KING & COUNTRY**, Mutemath, Newsboys), and Hit and Run Music, a joint venture with Scott Brickell, Ron Smith, and Chase Swayze of Nashville-based management company BrickHouse Entertainment (known for a roster that has collectively earned over 50 #1 singles, numerous Gold, Platinum, and Multi-Platinum records, and multiple GRAMMY, Dove, and American Music Awards). Also operating under the Vere Music umbrella is Imagine House Records, an innovative partnership with Nashville’s Lipscomb University, where Harmon currently serves as adjunct professor teaching Record Label Operations and Music Marketing courses. The label will release records from students at Lipscomb’s Imagine House program, an immersive-learning initiative created in partnership between the University’s George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts (CEA) and Bart Millard of 8x Dove Award-winning band MercyMe.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Rusty Harmon via Zoom, as embedded above and set to air via *the Long Beach, New York-based Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz* series. More on Harmon and Vere Music can be found [here](https://www.veremusic.com/)**.

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