You don't often see local pop music in a university press catalog. And for musicians, so few marketing opportunities arise at grouse-appreciation events. But leave it to Wisconsin music veteran pat mAcdonald.
Serendipity struck at last spring's Prairie Chicken Festival, a central Wisconsin event dedicated to a native breed of the bird. Representatives of mAcdonald's Steel Bridge Songfest, the yearly Door County showcase of Americana songwriters, were peddling CDs.
As it turned out, they found interest at the table next door. The Wisconsin Center for the Book's Nature Book Bash was going on alongside the chicken celebration, and University of Wisconsin Press marketing manager Andrea Christofferson heard a mAcdonald CD playing as she manned her book table.
While festival-goers watched the birds do their mating song and dance, she began to wonder how mAcdonald's music might inspire singing and strutting elsewhere.
"They got to talking about whether there was opportunity for UW Press to help distribute the CDs," says UW Press publicity manager Christopher Caldwell.
And now their plan has hatched: Two discs, Steel Bridge Songs and Purgatory Hill, are available through the press' spring 2010 catalog.
