JAMES BULLARD

Instruments: Music Industry Executive
Date of Birth: April 9, 1932
Place of Birth: Atmore, Alabama

Record executive and Gospel industry pioneer, James Bullard, has long been acknowledged as one of the true visionaries of Gospel music. After decades of accolades and awards, not to mention launching the careers of a long list of Gospel giants, that includes Shirley Caesar, Rev. Milton Brunson, The Mighty Clouds of Joy, Al Green, Helen Baylor, and O'Landa Draper & the Associates, Bullard today is the president and CEO of his own pace-setting label, MCG Records.

A man of humble origins, Bullard has risen to his position of preeminence without forgetting either his roots, or the true Source of his success. With over 20 Grammys to his credit, Bullard is a seasoned 40-year-plus veteran of the Gospel music business, and is widely regarded as one of the pivotal figures in moving Gospel from the back burner to center stage in American popular music.

Bullard grew up in the 1940s in the tiny agricultural town of Atmore, Alabama. He moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in his early 20s where he formed a vocal trio called BOX - Bullard, Oliver and Ship - which toured and recorded together with considerable success for 12 years, from 1958 to 1970. Bullard's highly astute handling of BOS's business affairs brought him to the attention of Cleveland-based Wayout Records which, in 1970, hired him to start and operate a Gospel division for its label.

Bullard began to hone his skills as a marketer, personally visiting record shops around the country and, in the process, selling thousands of units.

Bullard's career climb continued unabated, when in 1978, he got an offer from Roadshow Records, a major force in both secular pop and R&B, asking him to take charge of their act, Shirley Caesar, commissioning him to make her a "household word." Bullard accepted the challenge and once again delivered the goods, building Caesar's reputation as the "Queen of Gospel" in both the secular and Christian markets, and bringing her with him to Word Records when he took his next giant step upward.

In over 13 years at Word Records, from 1980 to 1993, he assembled the most creatively and commercially successful roster of Gospel artists in history, posting sales of more than 12 million units, and surpassing his first three-year sales projection in only eight months.

In November of 1993, he was appointed vice president of Atlanta-based music organization, InterSound, and in only three years built what remains today a thriving roster featuring a host of the Gospel's hottest acts - Grammy and Stellar-winners William Becton & Friends, DeLeon Richards and Vickie Winans, among them.

Bullard departed InterSound in 1996 to co-found Majestic Communications Group, known now as simply MCG. Based in Nashville's famed Music Square, with offices as well in Los Angeles, MCG released its first album in November of 1997.

It was the discovery and nurturing of a little-known quartet from Tupelo, Mississippi, called Lee Williams & The Spiritual QC's, that truly opened the floodgates for MCG, unleashing a torrent of hit singles and albums to rival Gospel's grandest, most venerated, and hottest acts of the day.

With a select roster of artists that includes the R&B/rock/pop legend Billy Preston, the Gospel Four, Rev. James Cleveland's GMWA Mass Choir, Olanda Draper's Associates, and Michael & Regina Winans, Bullard has raised the bar in Gospel even higher, by releasing long-format performance videos concurrent with almost all of his artists' albums. But of even greater significance, MCG has become the first Gospel label ever to produce and distribute to theaters a full-length, 35mm film, featuring Lee Williams & The Spiritual QC's in concert. With successful and heralded runs in major markets that included Atlanta, Georgia, and Memphis, Tennessee, Bullard could rightly lay claim to taking Gospel to even greater heights.

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