David Wilkes literally got his foot in the door of the music industry in the late 1960's as the Door man for the Bitter End Cafe in NYC, the center of the "Folk Music/Singer songwriter movement". David soon became the manager of the Bitter End & also discovered and managed such acts as Barry Manilow, Emmy Lou Harris and Jerry Jeff Walker; signing Jerry to ATLANTIC/ATCO & immediately having a top 20 pop hit with Jerry Jeff's song "Mister Bo Jangles". In addition, David set up a company ( which he later purchased) called the Coffee House Circuit, which booked acts such as Jim Croce, Harry Chapin, Emmy Lou Harris and Jerry Jeff Walker, (all of these artists having yet to be discovered by major labels) to some 160 colleges in the USA and oveseas.
David joined the management company of the Bitter End, Fredana Management and set up their publishing companies. The hit 'MR BO JANGLES" led to David's joining MCA MUSIC and shortly having a second hit single with Linda Ronstead's recording of 'LONG, LONG TIME" which became one on MCA's top royalty earner for the entire 1970's.
Those hits and other artists that David signed and managed brought him to the attention of SIRE Records where he joined Seymour Stein. David soon left SIRE for a VP of A&R position at Vanguard Records, where he signed Dave Loggins ( PLEASE COME TO BOSTON), and had hits with Joan Baez,( The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down- # 1 both Pop and Country-), Buffy St. Marie, Al Anderson, Kinky Friedman & The Texas Jewboys, Larry Coryell, and The Country Gentleman (With Rickie Skaggs and Jerry Douglas). After working withVanguard for over three years, David stared a management and production company, soon joining with Leber-Krebs, the largest management company in the USA. David then opened a Production/Publishing/Managemnt Company called Delta Music, which led to many chart recordings and a joint venture label with Shanachie/Koch Records called Cachet Records. This label specialized in the Smooth Jazz/Singer Songwriter genre. David sold his interests in Shanachie/Cachet Records in 1995 and joined Danny Goldberg at Mercury Records as a VP of A&R. When Mercury and Polygram were bought byUniversal Records, David again followed the Past Chairman of of Mercury to help him with his new label, Artemis Records.
In 2002, David returned to a familiar label, KOCH RECORDS as VP of A&R where he remains today. David has had three artists nominated for Grammy Awards that he signed to Koch Records : Earl Klugh, Jerry Douglas (-the same artist from The Country Gentleman of 1973 signing-) & Dave Douglas. Koch Records is the largest Independent label in North America as well as being the largest Independent Distribution Company.
