Scot McCracken merges coffee and music in a new business venture.

In his wake are the sales of 60 million records. His horizon holds a mountain of beans.

Standing at the collision of coffee and music is Scot McCracken, one half of the buzz behind Storyville Coffee Company, Bainbridge’s newest, and perhaps most ambitious coffee outfit.

“You have to market internationally to be an international coffee company,” said Storyville CEO McCracken, adding that coffee trails only oil as the world’s most traded commodity. “We’re going to do that. But our home is here on Bainbridge. This is where we want to be.”

So McCracken and partner Jon Phelps, both of whom live on the island, set up shop at Sportsman Park Business Complex (see related story, this page), where they are vowing to “save the world, one cup at a time.”

They vow to be a philanthropic fixture in the community, while simultaneously redefining two separate, but complementary niches, coffee and music.

Step one was the launch of Storyville, a subscription coffee service that stresses freshness.

Step two is a musical movement that runs counter to the way record companies have in the past promoted their artists.

Step three is the intersection of both ideas, details for which remain shrouded in secrecy.

“Both Jon and I love coffee and we love music,” McCracken said. “We want to be involved in both.”

With their mutual passions came mutual disappointments over the way both industries have progressed.

McCracken, a former record executive and talent manager who has represented several national acts, became disillusioned with the formula used to sell popular music.

“The music industry is broken,” he said. “Instead of pursuing artists, a lot of companies are giving record contracts to any 14-year-old with a television show.”

He believes a similar trend –made manifest through the burning of beans by big coffee companies – has scorched all the flavor from his favorite beverage.

“They do it so the beans will last longer,” he said. “But in doing it they burn off the oils and caramelized sugars and then try to make up for it by pushing drinks with all this cream and sugar and other stuff that masks the bad flavor of the coffee.”

Storyville’s solution is simple: beans aren’t sold in stores, they’re roasted on Bainbridge and shipped directly to customers.

A six-month membership, through which subscribers receive a half pound of coffee by mail every week, costs $197. The company waives shipping costs to Bainbridge customers.

The whole-bean blend – a mixture of Indian, African and South American beans – is considered best served within 12 days of the roasting process. Preferring simplicity, the company doesn’t offer a variety of flavors or blends. There’s just regular or decaf.

“We think the coffee industry is a lot like the wine industry used to be,” McCracken said. “Twenty years ago, people’s palates weren’t as discriminating because there weren’t as many quality choices. But if you make good wine or good coffee, people will appreciate it.”

That same rule applies to music, McCracken said.

Tasty tunes

The music portion of the business began with a recording studio, and has since evolved into something more.

With a new concert series, Phelps and McCracken want to pluck from obscurity talented artists who lack the backing of major labels, and promote them in a most unorthodox way: by not telling anyone who they are. At least not until the curtain goes up.

Despite the prospect of not knowing who they’re going to see, audiences at three such concerts in California recently lined up for the shows , selling out each venue well in advance.

“We wanted to see if we could do it,” McCracken said. “And so far it’s worked.”

To top it off, he said, profits went back into the community to support local art and music programs. Plans are in the works for similar events on Bainbridge.

Also in the roaster are ideas about how to get more involved at home. The easiest way, he said, is to offer free cups of coffee, something he invites people to come by and enjoy.

As a matter of fact, McCracken has been doing his best to give away coffee to anyone who’ll taste it, most recently offering his blend to the attendees of a Christmas party hosted by a group of Californians who live on Bainbridge, and are looking for new ways to connect.

“We’ll do anything to support the community,” McCracken. “If people want coffee for a local event we’ll give it to them.”

McCracken said the plight facing the island’s Californians is one he can relate to, having moved here from New Jersey a little more than a year ago.

Though technically a newbie, he said his local allegiances are already firmly planted.

“This is our home,” he said, of his wife, his dogs and his company’s place on Bainbridge. “I’m going to die here.”

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Beans by mail

See www.storyville.com to order coffee from the island’s newest

roasterie and subscription coffee service, or place phone orders at at (888) 323-3348. Beans are are not for sale at the roasterie, located in the new Sportsman Park Business Complex, but employees will brew a free cup for those who drop by. The roasterie is closed until the new year.