OC SINGER PAVES OWN WAY TO STARDOM

THE O.C. REGISTER- Music By Gene Harbrecht

How can you sell a mere 100,000 records and call yourself a huge success? Ask Marc Corey Lee, Orange County singer-songwriter who has been making waves for the past year with his album, "Stardust Cowboy." You see, Lee is not exactly taking the well-worn path to stardom. He's doing it his own way, and while that is often a recipe for failure in Nashville, so far it's working for him. He contacted me last week to catch me up on his career. After signing with the William Morris Agency, Worldwide, Lee was able to land some bigger gigs, eventually playing a big show in Nashville that generated interest from radio, "which is even more important than the record labels themselves," he notes. And Lee has taken to the Internet, getting thousands of hits on his web site and, consequently, placing two songs from "Cowboy" on Americana and country charts. "As a result of our Internet success, we are now enjoying airplay in Australia, France, Belgium, Spain, Canada and New Zealand. Their appetite for American 'country' is rabid," Lee says. "Online sales of the CD are well into the thousands." So Lee and his band are making plans to tour abroad soon. Lee says his management company calls his success "self-generated." And interest from radio has been so strong that he intends to bypass traditional labels and release, distribute and promote the album (including a radio single) with his own team. "The interesting thing is that I can sell 100,000 copies of an album and call it an enormous success because of the profit percentage that I can earn vs. that with a traditional major label," Lee says. The singer and his team plan a "full-scale" assault on radio in the next few months and will see where that leads. "It's the hard way, but I'm so determined to do things the way I want them that I feel this is the most effective way to accomplish that." It may be harder this way, but a lot of musicians go to Nashville and compromise their individuality to fit into the hit-making mold. It's good to see an artist who can succeed in transcending that process. Good luck, Marc. Lee is playing several local dates in the next few months and I encourage you to check him out. He'll be at the Abilene Rose in Fountain Valley on March 23 at 8 p.m., The Swallows in San Juan Capistrano April 7-8 and again May 18-19, 8 p.m. for both shows. He'll be at the Country Rock Café in Mission Viejo on April 28 at 8 p.m. and Irvine Spectrum on May 26 at 7 p.m. -------------------------------------------------------- Gene Harbrecht's Country Music column appears every other Monday in Show. You can phone him at (714) 796-5037, or e-mail at Gharbrecht@notes.freedom.com.