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by Seth Rogovoy
NORTH BENNINGTON, Vt., Spring, 1996 -- In a house on a quiet street in this quaint New England village, a husband and wife are hard at work managing their own cottage industry. They do all their own manufacturing and much of their marketing from home, and they frequently hit the road to present their wares in person to potential customers.
They move a lot of their product by mail order, and at about $15 per piece, their profit margin is small. Occasionally, however, a corporate customer will license the rights to one of their creations and repackage it in a slicker container. This doesn't happen often, but when it does -- as it did a few years back, when one of the best-known and most successful corporations in their field leased one of their items -- it carries them through the leaner times.
In that recent case, the corporation was one doing business as country superstar Garth Brooks, and the product was "Unto You This Night," a song co-written by Steve Gillette that Brooks included on an album of Christmas songs. With the one-quarter royalties he earned from this recording, Gillette and his wife, Cindy Mangsen, were finally able to move out of their rental apartment and put a down payment on the house they now call home.
But for the husband-and-wife folk team, such deal-making -- while a necessary part of the business -- is not the point.
"An artist is someone who does his own work for his own reasons and lives by it," said Gillette, who has been living by his own work for over 30 years. During this time his songs have been recorded by the likes of John Denver, Waylon Jennings, Linda Ronstadt, Kenny Rogers, Tammy Wynette and Ian and Sylvia. Except for these recordings and a stint as a staff writer for Walt Disney, said Gillette, "we have not accepted any patronage other than that of people buying a ticket or a cassette or CD of our work."
Their self-imposed independence allows them total artistic control. "Since we have been able to sustain ourselves performing and writing the music we most value for the people we most want to hear it, we have been able to do it according to our own choices," said Gillette.
Judging by a resume of their recent accomplishments, the recipe is working. The duo recently released the enchanting new album, "The Light of the Day" on their own Compass Rose Music label, the follow-up to their "Live In Concert" album of four years ago. A mix of traditional folk songs and original tunes presented in traditional style, the album captures many aspects of their talents, including Gillette's mastery of songcraft, Mangsen's stirring voice and the duo's warmth and intimacy.
"What I love about the old traditional songs is that they remind us that the essential issues of life don't change with the passing of time," said Mangsen. "If the album has an overall theme, it concerns the ability of humans to persevere and exhibit great courage and kindness in the face of enormous difficulties."
In addition to their work together, the two maintain solo careers. Mangsen tours and records as a member of a trio with Anne Hills and Priscilla Herdman. Gillette's most recent solo accomplishment takes the form of the printed rather than the sung word. "Songwriting and the Creative Process," a 228-page, how-to manual published by Sing Out!, demystifies the songwriting process at the same time that it provides valuable tips from Gillette and other contributors, including Judy Collins, Ani DiFranco, Bill Staines, Suzzy Roche, Tom Paxton and Fred Koller. Chapters focus on the basics of writing music and lyrics as well as the psychology of creativity and choosing topics.
"I kept thinking of some young kid, standing in the bookstore looking for a book about songwriting, and how important it was to show him that songs could be so much more than hit records and videos," said Gillette. "I wanted to give him a glimpse of the possibilities for community, personal growth and the ways songs can help in living a full life."
While Gillette and Mangsen work primarily in a traditional style, playing acoustic instruments in folk clubs and coffeehouses away from the glitz of the pop-music industry, they are not Luddites. They recorded "The Light of the Day" in their own home studio. They also have embraced digital technology to help them run their business: they take a laptop computer with them on the road, they have a fax-modem, E- mail and a home page on the World Wide Web. In fact, most of this interview was conducted via E-mail while they were on a recent concert tour in the West and Midwest.
"The new digital `desk-top recording' just makes life easier," said Mangsen. "It's wonderful to be able to relax and record vocals at home. And as a cottage industry, having a web page makes us equal, at least on the 'Net, with Sony. And there's no way we could maintain our mailing list, do our booking and keep up with mail orders and correspondence without the computer."
While it offers no vacation pay, pension plan or health insurance, the life of a contemporary troubadour has its fringe benefits. "We earn our living in a business which has evolved over centuries and in one of the few markets where creative people can get paid for doing their own work without having the job provided to them by anyone but the audience," said Gillette.
"We get to be with many of the people we admire in the folk music community. We get to go to all the exotic places. The Mazda has 244,090 miles on it and is doing fine. When we have a day off we go to museums or movies or walk on the beach at Laguna, Puget Sound, Bar Harbor or Saint Augustine."
"But none of it beats Sunday morning at home with the New York Times."
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