If anyone is keeping track, I've been living down in Athens, Georgia for approximately three months now. Even before moving down here, I had heard of Jomo Entertainment. The company has advertised on Jambands.com in the past and I knew that they are the promoter who is responsible for bringing a majority of the touring bands into Athens. The first concert I ever saw in Athens was a Jomo Entertainment show at the Georgia Theater with John Scofield and Living Daylights. I remember being slightly unimpressed with the décor in the theater, but the overall atmosphere of the night more than made up for the lack of gold paneling and etched marble stairways.

That night was the first time that I met Josh Moore, the president and head talent-buyer at Jomo Entertainment. With his hat almost covering his eyes, Josh welcomed me to Athens and I thanked him for getting me into the show for free. (I love the perks of being a booking agent!) Josh made me feel comfortable with his laid-back attitude and we talked briefly that night about nothing that I can really remember. Since then, I've been to about 5-10 different Jomo shows; the bands have included String Cheese Incident, The Wailers, Rebirth Brass Band, and Dark Star Orchestra.

At some point, it occurred to me that I should definitely write an article about Jomo Entertainment for this web site. After all, you can't walk ten steps in this town without seeing something that says "Jomo" on it. And, it happens when I least expect it. I was once at the post office and I looked over at the cash register and there was a Jomo sticker right in my face. It was pretty comical, actually. The fact of the matter is that there really is no other promoter doing what Moore is doing in Athens.

Josh got his start as most people in this world get their start: through a friend of the family. Josh's older cousin, John Moore, was working at Mammoth Records and is old friends with Mike Luba, who was running Madison House out of Athens at the time. (Madison House is the company that books and manages String Cheese Incident as well as overseeing a travel agency, booking agency, publicity company and record label.) Josh was attending UGA and knew that he wanted to get involved with the music business. For the next three and a half years, Josh worked at Madison House basically as Luba's assistant. Moore's job basically entailed doing everything that Luba didn't want to do. Josh was responsible for following-up on contracts, getting ticket-counts for shows, and other intern type of tasks. Doing that legwork was an extremely valuable experience, Moore told me. "I got the chance to start building relationships all over the country," Josh said. "I was calling certain companies for three years in a row and when I eventually started my own company all of the right people knew who I was." Luba also benefited from the situation as well. He referred to Josh as "a key element in the establishment of Madison House."

Madison House eventually relocated to Boulder, CO and Josh decided that the time was right to go out on his own. It was early 1998 and he was still a senior at UGA. The first Jomo Entertainment show was Galactic with Karl Denson opening at the Georgia Theater. Perhaps it was a sign of things to come because the show sold-out. It should come as no surprise that Galactic was his first show, because they were being booked by Madison House at the time (Galactic has since switched agencies and is now booked by Monterey).

For that first show, Josh enlisted the help of Brian Silver and Tommy Zivitz, his two current business partners. Silver evolved into Jomo Entertainment's VP of Marketing and his job focuses on overseeing the staff of interns and also radio promotion. Zivitz has become the VP of Business Operations and is in charge of the street promotion and handles accounting and legal issues as well. The final addition to the core of Jomo Entertainment was Stuart Walker who is "a wizard of Internet promotion," according to Moore. Any mention of a Jomo show on the Internet is almost definitely Walker's work. The company also oversees a staff of interns/part-time employees that can fluctuate between 5-10 people at a time. These individuals usually work for free; earning school credit, getting into shows for free, or just doing it for the experience.

Initially, Jomo Entertainment focused on promoting specifically jam/groove/hippie music. "We just wanted to bring bands to town that we liked," was how Josh described his decision-making criteria early on in the game. As the company has matured, however, Jomo Entertainment has branched out into the world of country, rock, and even comedy. They have promoted Willie Nelson, Carrot Top, Sonny Rollins, Steve Earle, and certain events that get promoted under different pseudo-companies. The company has even begun to start promoting in Atlanta with the current split being about 85% of their shows in Athens and 15% in Atlanta.

In talking with Josh, it is clear that he has had a lot of memorable times with all of the different artists he has worked with. Moore referred to the Lee "Scratch" Perry show he promoted as the highlight of his life. Josh recounted stories of hanging out with Perry for an entire weekend, driving him around town, watching him buy an entire case of baby oil, getting him through security at the airport, and dealing with his wife/manager. Those few days are a great example of the kind of attention Josh gives to the artists that he works with. Kyle Pilgrim, a co-owner of the Georgia Theatre, elucidated this approach, saying: "Josh is successful because he does it for the love of the music and is totally pro-band. With that kind of attitude everything seems to fall into place for him." Luba echoed these thoughts and called Moore "a huge advocate for musicians."

Considering what they have accomplished over the past three years, it is quite impressive that Moore, Silver, Zivitz and Walker are all under 26 years old. An obvious question I had for Josh was when he would be branching out into festival promotions or production. Not surprisingly, Josh assured me that Jomo Entertainment already has some plans to move into the festival realm. Aside from the leap into festivals, Moore plans on continuing to bring top-notch entertainment across all genres to Athens and beyond. I asked him what his "dream show" would be to promote and without hesitation Josh told me that he'd love to do a show with Tenacious D, the Los Angeles cult band who had a short-lived HBO series. Apart from "The D," as Josh so affectionately calls them, he also would love to work with Les Claypool and Ween.

For more information about Jomo Entertainment, or to see their upcoming schedule of events, you can visit www.jomoentertainment.com.

Lee Seelig is beginning to say "y'all" in the course of normal conversation.