Tim Drake - Agent
Tim Drake started in the music business at age fourteen, while a freshman in high school. He promoted his first national act, Mountain, at age eighteen, which was followed soon thereafter by shows such as Billy Joel, Aerosmith, and The Kinks. He promoted primarily in the suburbs of New York City, in venues such as Newark Symphony Hall, Westchester Premier Theater, Westchester County Center, and The John Harms Theater. In 1995, after fifteen years as an independent concert promoter, Tim founded a boutique booking agency, Drake & LaRoche, specializing in acoustic and Celtic music. Later called Drake & Associates, the agency went on to merge with David Tamulevich to form The Roots Agency. Over the course of its fifteen-year history, the agency has evolved into a model talent booking presence.
Tim currently serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors for the North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents Association and frequently participates in industry forums and seminars. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Management from Pace University.
Tim is responsible for overseeing agency operations and for booking AK, AZ, CA, CO, DC, DE, FL, HA, ID, MD, MT, NM, NY, NJ, NV, OR, PA, UT, VA, WA, WV, WY, Canada, Europe, UK, and Australia.
Larry Kosson – Agent/Director, Performing Arts Division
Larry Kosson is a founding partner of SMG Artists, a performing arts agency known for international touring artists in disciplines including classical, world and popular music, dance, and theater for young audiences, with a strong emphasis on arts-in-education and community engagement.
Larry began his career in presenting as a student employee of the Student Activities Department, and as a director on the College Activities Board, at the Rochester Institute of Technology. After receiving a BFA with high honors in professional photographic illustration, he worked as a legislative assistant to New York State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, a long-time advocate of the visual and performing arts. Larry went on to pursue a career in commercial advertising photography, creating images for major corporate clients throughout the U.S. His work has graced the pages of thousands of magazines, packages and billboards, and his artistic photos have had numerous public exhibits.
In 1994, Larry met, and later married, pianist, composer and recording artist Robin Spielberg. Combining their talents in art, marketing and entrepreneurial know-how, Larry and Robin began collaborating on album cover art, independent concert tours, and the day to day business of music licensing and publishing. By 2000, the couple had founded a small music label, which has released eight of Spielberg's recordings to date. Before long other musicians were asking the couple to lend their expertise in the area of concert booking, and SMG Artists was born.
Larry was elected to the Board of Directors of the Association for Performing Arts Presenters in 2008, and currently serves as that organization’s membership chair. He is a voting member of the Recording Academy (GRAMMY Awards).
Larry oversees Performing Arts markets for The Roots Agency/SMG Artists.
David Tamulevich – Agent
David Tamulevich began his musical career in 1975, with the formation of the award-winning duo Mustard's Retreat, with which he still performs. After touring full time for nearly ten years, and looking to raise a family and be on the road less, he cut back on touring (now doing about sixty shows per year) and focused on agenting and management of other artists. He was instrumental in developing the careers of John Gorka, Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown, Dar Williams, and Ellis Paul, as well as the late Stan Rogers and Kate Wolf, among many others. A founding member of the Folk Alliance, he also serves/has served on the advisory boards of Sing Out!, The Ark, The Eighth Step, Common Ground and The Saturday Light Brigade.
David is considered one of the preeminent agents in the field by artists, managers, and venues alike. Known for his honestly and integrity, he is not only credited with helping to establish the current folk circuit, but also for redefining the traditional artist/agent/venue relationship as more of a cooperative partnership based on mutual long-term objectives. He has presented many workshops on a variety of topics related to touring/management/recording, and his articles "Should You Be Working With An Agent", and "Finding An Agent" are widely considered touchstones of the field, and widely used by artists, managers, record companies, educators, and others. In Oct. 2008 he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Midwest Region of the International Folk Alliance..
He oversees touring development strategies (particularly for emerging artists) and books CT, IA, IL, IN, KS, MA, ME, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, NH, OH, RI, SD, WI, and VT from the Ann Arbor, MI office.
Charlie Dahan - Agent
Charlie Dahan served as the A&R Director at Shanachie Records from 1994-2001, signing and working with artists like Anders Osborne, Sara Hickman, and Richard Shindell. He has produced or been involved with over 100 commercially released albums, including two Grammy nominated releases by The Skatalites. From 2001-2007, Charlie was an Assistant Professor at Oneonta State College in the Music Industry Department. Recently, he co-produced over twenty albums for CMH Records.
Currently, Charlie is an Associate Professor at Middle Tennessee State University in the Recording Industry Department and co-owns Larchmont Recordings, which has produced and released albums featuring the likes of Regina Spektor, Eileen Ivers, Stacey Earle, Randy Brecker, and Joe Ferry and The Big Ska Band. He is researching and co-authoring a discography/history of the Gennett Recording Company and Studio, along with a study of modern Independent Record Companies. He also serves as editor and reviewer for the award-winning website, AllAboutJazz. Charlie holds a Bachelors degree in History from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Masters Degree in Music from Purchase College. He maintains memberships with NARAS, The Blues Foundation, Starr-Gennett Foundation, The Association for Recorded Sound Collections, The Jazz Journalists Association, Folk Alliance, and The Southeast Regional Folk Alliance, where he serves as convention co-chair.
Charlie oversees emerging technologies and books AL, AR, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, OK, SC, TN, TX, and North American Casinos.
HISTORY OF THE ROOTS AGENCY
The Roots Agency began in 1995 as Drake & LaRoche, an aspiring boutique agency representing a modest roster of five singer/songwriters. Founding partner Sean LaRoche heralded from the glory days of Premier Talent, a legendary booking agency, which represented such British giants as Led Zeppelin, The Who, Yes, and Jethro Tull. Under Sean’s tutelage, Tim Drake quickly learned the ropes, booking that same year his first 130-date national album promo tour (for Vance Gilbert’s Shaking Off Gravity). By 1996, now known as Drake & Associates, the agency’s roster included its first multi-member band (The Burns Sisters), followed quickly, in 1997, by its first national rock club tour (for The Saw Doctors) and its first major label act (Jane Siberry on Warner Brothers Records).
Within those first two years, the agency roster had grown to include seventeen artists. Two staff members had been added (Agent Assistant and Office Manager), in addition to its core of two booking agents. Drake & Associates was already beginning to make its mark in the talent-booking arena.
By 2001, although the number of artists had leveled off, the profile and prestige of the roster continued to evolve. Sixties legends Richie Havens and Janis Ian joined the agency in 2001, followed closely by Celia Cruz, the Queen of Salsa, who was to win a Latin Grammy in 2002. Drake & Associates was eagerly expanding into large presenter markets, as well as establishing a stronger presence in the performing arts arena.
Never static, the agency merged with Tamulevich Artists Management in 2002 and became known as The Roots Agency. Veteran agent David Tamulevich significantly raised the agency’s staffing profile and paved the way for The Roots Agency to emerge as a notable force in the talent-booking world. The support staff grew to include a full time Operations Manager and four part-time staffers. Capitalizing on its unexpected headway into the Latin and performing arts markets, in 2003, the Roots Agency formed an alliance with Rosi Amador and her Boston-based MusicAmador, bringing in such artists as Peru Negro and Eva Ayllon. More recently, The Roots Agency has teamed up with respected booking agent Mark Smith, formerly of ICM Artists, to facilitate festival booking (a Roots Agency specialty) for Arlo Guthrie.
The year 2008 saw music industry pro Charlie Dahan teaming up with The Roots Agency. Charlie’s years of experience as A&R Director at Shanachie Records, his impressive music production credits, as well as his years teaching about the music industry add yet more dimension to the Roots Agency’s already solid booking team. Today, the agency’s staff boasts four agents, four booking assistants, as well as a contract manager and financial manager, representing a widely diverse and wildly talented roster of more than thirty artists.
Throughout its existence, The Roots Agency has successfully managed to continue filling the pages of its history with record-breaking growth and optimism, always building upon its solid foundation of superb musical talent and steadfast relations with topnotch venues.
