A new, independent Nashville music label, Vivaton Records, is emerging during a period when major labels are suffering a downward slide.

Former Little Texas member Jeff Huskins, the company’s president and CEO, and former Decca Nashville chief Shiela Shipley Biddy, VP of national promotion and artist development, joined forces and hope to stand apart from the standard label by cutting costs, giving creative power to the artists, and developing an equal playing ground for the artist/record label relationship, according to reports by Reuters and CMT.com.

Huskins has said he expects 75% of Vivaton’s output to be country and aims to launch with a roster of five acts, two of whom have signed. Former MCA Nashville artist Chely Wright, best known for her 1999 “Single White Female”, will release Vivaton’s first, new single, “In the Back of the Bottom Drawer,” on March 22. Angela Wolff, an 18-year old Atlanta newcomer, is expected to complete an album by the end of the year.

The label is financed by Huskins and two business partners, Atlanta-based Mike Nixon and Knoxville-based entrepreneur Mike Crabtree, according to Reuters.

Separately, Vivaton announced Monday that former KZLA-Los Angeles music director Mandy McCormack will be the company's director of regional promotion-Midwest, former Nashville Nights executive producer Trudie Richardson will be director of regional promotion-Southeast, Larry Santiago will be Vivaton's director of regional promotion-West Coast/Southwest, Brian Thiele will be director of regional promotion-Northeast, and Tracy Long will serve as the department's manager of promotion.