Any Wednesday Tower Lincoln Center

1961 Broadway at 66th

Philip Chaffin is an accomplished artist and Tower Records Lincoln Center has got him for Any Wednesday, the in store Cabaret created by Tower’s impresario Bart Greenberg.
Greenberg has provided showcases for other quality performers., namely Ann Hampton Calloway, Bobbie Eakes and Boulevard East. Like the above, Mr. Chaffin's music is everything a grown up New Yorker could want.

Mr. Chaffin will be accompanied by his spouse,Tommy Krasker but perhaps it is better to hear from them. Before that, however, let it be said that these are attractive, talented men. You can learn to appreciate them by coming out Wednesday at 6 PM. It's everything you could want in accomplished, grown up music:

We were in Los Angeles in late September meeting with our distributor, Image Entertainment, and one of the newer members of the sales team, after hearing about our plans to record The Frogs, asked how long PS Classics had been around. And we did the quick calculation in our heads and responded that 2005 would mark the start of our fifth year in business. And then we looked at each other, and went, "FIVE YEARS?!?!"

As anyone knows who's read these "About Us" columns (which we only get around to updating about once a year), PS Classics didn't start with grand dreams and long-term strategies. We just wanted to put out a few CD's we'd dreamed of making, and for Tommy, the freelance record producer, and Philip, the actor and singer, it seemed simpler to release them "in-house" than to peddle them to record labels that were busily downsizing. Our plans were so small we even spelled our company NAME in all lower-case. (We stopped doing that when we got tired of seeing "ps classics [sic]" in print.)

From there, things just took off. We both had ideas for CD's we wanted to make, but as neither of us had any experience running a business, the first few years -- behind the scenes at least -- were a combination comical and chaotic. (In one of our first negotiations, we realized halfway through that we'd structured a deal worthy of Lucy and Ethel, where the more CD's we sold, the more money we lost.) But as wonderful artists sought us out, or proved receptive to ideas we pitched, or took a chance on us, we started to find our footing. And as we struggled to learn a whole new set of disciplines, extraordinary kind people who believed what we believed -- that great singers should be heard, that albums should flow from some kind of passion, that playing it safe can be a little dull -- signed on to help us, content to put in whatever hours they could for whatever we could afford to pay that week. We owe so much to all of them: the performers, the songwriters, the interns and the many collaborators. And we owe so much, as well, to our passionate and loyal customers.

Four years ago, our online colleague Bill Jennings likened us to the proverbial "little engine that could," dubbing us "the little record label that could," and that description probably still applies. Today, with nearly two dozen CD's in release, and two Grammy nominations, we still sit and scratch our heads occasionally and go, "How did we GET here?" We're not much bigger than we were when we started, but we just keep plowing along, working to share with our customers all sorts of music that moves us, and trying to provide a home and a showcase for artists and projects we admire.

— Tommy Krasker & Philip Chaffin, December 2004

Tommy Krasker, Executive Producer for PS Classics, can be reached at tkrasker@psclassics.com.
Philip Chaffin, A&R Director, can be reached at pchaffin@psclassics.com.