As music industry veteran, Kim Buie has spent over 40+ years in the music business as Vice President of A&R for several companies including Island Records, Lost Highway, Capitol Records, Palm, MCA Records, Thirty Tigers, and most recently at New West Records. In her A&R career Miss Buie has been fortunate to work with men of vision and men who supported her artistic pursuits as much as they had to pursue commercial ones – allowing Kim to work with a diverse range of artists from The Secret Sisters, Caroline Rose, Ben Folds, Ryan Bingham, The Nude Party, William S. Burroughs, Lucinda Williams, Richard Thompson, JD McPherson, Pokey LaFarge, Tom Waits, Grace Jones, Etta James, Hayes Carll, Rodney Crowell, Drivin n’ Cryin, Allan Ginsburg, Michael Franti (Spearhead & Hiphoprisy), T Bone Burnett, The Nortec Collective, Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson and Freestyle Fellowship, to name a few.
Starting in 1981 Kim began her career working at college radio station KJHK in Lawrence, KS where she served as a DJ, Music Director and Station Manager during the course of her 3 years there. While still in college Miss Buie also worked as a Disc Jockey for commercial AM Radio Station KLWN, and worked late nights as a Club DJ. From there she moved west to Los Angeles in late 1983 to work for the now defunct independent label Enigma Records (home to the Cramps, The Rain Parade, The Minutemen and Mojo Nixon to name a few) doing national press and college radio promotion. A year later she moved to Nashville, TN to work at Praxis Management (Jason & The Scorchers, Georgia Satellites) initially to re-launch their indie label but when financing fell through, she changed course and started a national independent radio, press and tour promotion company from their offices.
After a year and a half, Miss Buie was offered a unique opportunity to be a regional pop A&R rep for MCA records headquartered in the Nashville MCA offices – hired by then MCA President Irving Azoff and reporting directly to Nashville President Jimmy Bowen. For a year and a half she learned the ropes from a group of legendary producers and A&R men – Jimmy Bowen himself was not only the label chief, but a noted producer having worked with Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, George Straight, Reba McIntire, Roger Miller, Hank Jr. and many more. She was being taught the functions of A&R by men (Tony Brown, Emery Gordy Jr. & Chip Harding) of another generation – learning about union rates, budgets, musicians, publishers, studio gear, working with artists and the language of music on many platforms. While there she made several records including a solo project with Grammy Winning Producer/Artist/Songwriter T Bone Burnett, and acclaimed instrumental duo Acoustic Alchemy. Jimmy Bowen was a brilliant leader and a great mentor and advisor.
In 1987 Buie moved back to Los Angeles to re-open the west coast offices of Island Records where she built a lasting relationship with famed label founder Chris Blackwell. While at Island Buie served as Blackwell’s Vice President of A&R where she signed and or worked with a great many artists, including the Gold selling group Drivin’ & Cryin’, Grammy winner Etta James, Michael Franti’s Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Tom Waits, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, River Phoenix, and cult Hip Hop artists and Grammy nominated group Freestyle Fellowship. As a leader and visionary, Chris Blackwell was never afraid to take risks on the things he believed in and was a man who nearly always trusted his instincts, a growing rarity at the time and even more rare now. He was every bit of cool one could imagine and intelligent, but it was his effortless, and unaffected nature that made him unassumingly brilliant. He was and is my personal guru as he was (and is) my friend.
From 1993 forward Buie Relocated back to Nashville to work with Jimmy Bowen one more time at Liberty/Capitol Records where she helped bring Deana Carter in to the company – eventually moving back to Los Angeles to continue working at Capitol Records where she signed Michael Franti’s Spearhead, in addition to A&R’ing Richard Thompson, The Butthole Surfers, and Mazzy Star to name a few. In 1998 Kim shifted again to work once more with Chris Blackwell at his new independent venture Palm Pictures working in both music and the peripheral of film and DVD production. There she brought in multi-latin, tex-mex, Grammy nominated Nortec Collective.
In 2003 Buie returned to Nashville where she was hired to be the Head of A&R by Luke Lewis for the prestigious Americana label Lost Highway Records. There Buie was very involved with all the artists on the roster and signed or A&R’d multiple releases for Lucinda Williams, Elvis Costello, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Mary Gauthier, Shelby Lynne, Ryan Bingham, Hayes Carll, Robert Earle Keen, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, and more. After Lost Highway shut down due to Lewis retiring Buie then moved to Thirty Tigers, an independent marketing, management and distribution company as VP of A&R.
At Thirty Tigers she brought several former Lost Highway artists with her including Lucinda Williams, Ryan Bingham and Hayes Carll. She was also instrumental in the signing of Sturgill Simpson and John Moreland.
In addition to A&R Buie also manages the critically praised, indie darling, Jessie Baylin. Additionally she started her own label, Little Hi. The only artist signed was Caroline Rose who released one album with Little Hi to great critical praise by many including NPR’s weekend edition and Tiny Desk Concert. Frank Riley was her responsible booking agent.
In January of 2015 Buie moved to New West Records as VP of A&R. She signed Ben Folds, The Secret Sisters, Caroline Rose, Ron Gallo, Shovel & Rope, The Nude Party, Rodney Crowell, Richard Thompson, Pokey LaFarge, Devil Makes 3, Lilly Hiatt, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Andrew Combs, and oversaw and worked with a large majority of artists already there there which includes Justin Townes Earle, JD McPherson, and Nikki Lane.
In 2016 Rodney Crowell asked Buie to co-produce his album “Close Ties” which included musicians Tommy Emmanuel, Sheryl Crow, John Paul White, Rosanne Cash, and Mickey Raphael. The album won the 2017 Americana Award for Best Song and was also nominated for a Grammy under the same category.
Beyond her extensive understanding of the art of classic A&R - building budgets, working with and understanding unions, pairing artists with producers, and songwriters as needed, working with publishers, booking agents, managers, nurturing songwriting, artist development, and helping artists find their level of success. I have also taken on the role of product management for some of my artists releases.
Additionally Buie has appeared as a panelist twice at SXSW, and likewise at the Americana Honors & Awards festival, and Folk Alliance Conference and additionally included peer to peer sessions for individual meetings, and speeding dating with artists 5 minutes at a time seeking advice. In 2013 Buie also gave a speech at Berkely and was a guest for two classes. Many of the artists I’ve worked with over the years have been nominated for a Grammy Awards that includes Rodney Crowell, The Secret Sisters, Etta James, and Ryan Bingham (Golden Globe winner & Oscar Nomination for the song “Weary Kind” for the film Crazy Heart)
Buie continues to follow her creative passions when it comes to music and thrives in the world of collaboration, teamwork and supporting or enabling creativity wherever she finds it; at clubs, word of mouth, managers, booking agents, Instagram, Spotify, lawyers, friends, and associates. Staying in a forward motion is essential, and now Tik Tok and Music Connect are also in the lexicon of discovery.
Miss Buie currently lives in Nashville, TN
