Vaughn Pins Hopes on New Record Deal

Local musician Robert Vaughn has an impressive list of career credits. As leader and songwriter of RV and the Shadows, the vocalist-guitarist landed a major-label contract in 1987 with Island Records. A subsequent single, “Justice,” received national airplay, and the band’sdebut album, “Love and War,” sold respectably--its full potential possibly stunted by Island’s near-total concentration on pushing U2’s breakthrough opus, “The Joshua Tree.” Vaughn’s promotional performances even included an appearance on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand.”

Four years later, Vaughn, 31, has a second, small-label album on the racks (last summer’s “Songs from the Riverhouse”), and is negotiating another major-label deal. By now, one might also expect Vaughn to have built a solid San Diego following like those of his recording contemporaries--the Beat Farmers, Buddy Blue and the Paladins--and that he would enjoy an open invitation from area club owners.

So it came as something of a surprise when, in the middle of a recent interview about his current, very promising activities, Vaughn--who was born, raised and still lives in Point Loma-- claimed to have no relationship at all with the San Diego music scene.

“I’ll probably never play San Diego again,” Vaughn said. “There’s no place to play. No one wants to hire me, and I’ve lost all desire to perform here anymore. It makes no sense. I mean, people come out and hear us, and they like the band and everything, but so what? So, I’ll sell a couple hundred records in San Diego. Big deal. I’m convinced that San Diego’s never going to have a happening music scene unless something really radical happens. And it no longer concerns me.”

If Vaughn’s tone betrays some rancor at what he considers a moribund local music community, it becomes apparent in conversation that his attitude is more the product of redirecting his energies for maximum effect. He’d just returned from a brief stint in Australia, where he notonly worked as a record producer but discovered first-hand that Aussie listeners are ripe for picking by someone with the right sound.

“I went down there to produce four tracks for an upcoming album by (PolyGram recording artist) Chris Falson--Midnight Oil’s producer, Keith Walker, produced the other six,” Vaughn said. “And I also started producing an album for a guy named Darcy, who’s sort of the Australian Outback’s answer to Dwight Yoakam or Steve Earle. They’re rednecks down there, and Darcy plays a kind of rebel-country-rock style that’s real popular.

“But I’ll tell you something, while I was down there, I realized that I could play Australia right now and get huge in one tour,” Vaughn continued. “People down there really dig what I do. My records get played down there, and the response has been consistently great.”

To critics, “Riverhouse” demonstrated dramatic stylistic growth for Vaughn. In contrast to “Love and War”--a collection of predominantly hard-rocking tunes whose socially conscious lyrics made them somewhat anthem-like--”Riverhouse” runs an eclectic gamut, from power rock to cool ballads, from Dylan-esque sing-alongs to dark, fiddle-folk mood pieces reminiscent of Robbie Robertson’s more trenchant work.

In spite of the critical huzzahs that greeted “Riverhouse,” however, the limited promotional resources of Eugene, Ore.-based Alternative Records has translated to low sales. Oddly, Vaughn--who doesn’t share the critics’ love for the album--claims not to care about its still birth.

“ ‘Songs from the Riverhouse’ was too disjointed,” he said, matter-of-factly. “The guy from Alternative picked through my song catalogue and put that album together, and for me it wasn’t conceptual enough. And, at 16 songs, it’s a little long, too. I actually cut some of those tracks for the soundtrack of the movie ‘Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man,’ but they ended up on the cutting-room floor. Thank God, since the film died a miserable death,” he added, laughing.

Vaughn finds black mirth in how the downscale machinations of a small label can affect one’s career. He claims that Alternative gave away 1,500 copies of “Riverhouse” for promotional purposes. That wouldn’t be unusual, except for the fact that the mom-and-pop-size company could only afford to press and distribute 5,000 units. That left only 3,500 copies for sale, with the result that the record is less familiar to consumers than to radio programmers, many of them in places far removed from the heart of the music biz.

“I’ve been getting great radio play in Belgium--who the hell cares about that?” Vaughn said, laughing. “And my video of the song ‘Gypsy Girl’ is in regular rotation on Brazilian TV. They have literally one copy of the video and one copy of the ‘Riverhouse’ CD in the whole country, and both get such great response that they get played a lot. But there isn’t a record of mine in any store there, so what good does it do me?”

Vaughn hopes to have better luck with his next couple of releases. While others were busy shopping or partying on the Saturday night before Christmas, Vaughn was in a local studio working on a new album that will purposefully enjoy restricted distribution.

“I’m calling it Blue Trash Drifters instead of RV and the Shadows, and it’s sort of an undercover album I’m doing with different versions of the same band,” Vaughn said. “I’ve been offered a new deal by Epic Records, who wanted me to put out an album after the first of the year, but (parent company) Sony is going through a shake-up, so all their schedules have been set back. While things are temporarily on hold, I wanted to release another independent album, so I’m doing this one somewhat on the sly. Warner Brothers is going to distribute it in Australia and Europe in March.”

For Vaughn, the Sony-Epic deal is shaping up as a potentially major breakthrough, especially because he is being guided through the process by top label executive Bobby Colomby, who was the drummer with Blood, Sweat, and Tears in that band’s heyday.

“There are times when I think, hey, what is Epic going to do with me?--I’m not a Michael Jackson or an MTV type. But Colomby’s the kind of guy I can trust. He built a brilliant career for Harry Connick Jr., who at one point didn’t have a shot in hell because no one at his own label even knew who he was. Plus, he’s a staunch supporter of mine, and he’s helped steer me through the incredible bureaucracy at Sony. If Bobby believes in me, I gotta go with that.”

In addition to finishing the clandestine album, Vaughn fills his time with assorted projects that are helping to keep a roof over the heads of his family, which includes a wife and two kids. Recently, he signed a “pretty substantial” music-publishing deal with Windswept Pacific, a firm that provides a lot of music for film soundtracks. Already, Vaughn has cut three tracks for the next Joe Pesci film, “My Cousin Vinny.” For all that, Vaughn continues to nurture his dream of viability as a recording and touring artist--a goal that he feels might finally be within reach.

“You know, my wife and I have been married seven years now, and basically we’ve always lived at the poverty level. But that’s changing; I can see that things are finally going my way,” Vaughn said.

“I don’t know how to explain it--you try your whole life to get a record deal and no one will listen to you, and then you get discovered through channels you didn’t know existed. If I could just play 500-seaters for people who knew my songs, I’d be a happy man. And that’s coming. It’s just my time, you know? I’ve worked hard for this.”