County Records was a Virginia-based independent American

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

founded by David Freeman in 1963. The label specialised in old-time and traditional

bluegrass music Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music The term American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as ''traditional music'', ''traditional folk music'', ''contemporary folk music'', ''vernacular music,'' or ...

History

Old-time music Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination ...

collector David Freeman started the County Records label in 1963 to focus on music from the rural Southeastern United States. He told an interviewer that he selected the name "

County A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

" because it evoked the rural, regional and local aspects of old-time music. Living in New York, Freeman avidly collected recordings from Southern musicians including old-time, bluegrass,

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

artists. His new label's first release was a reissue of old-time music drawn from his personal collection of

78 rpm A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog signal, analog sound Recording medium, storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove ...

recordings from the 1920s and 1930s by

Charlie Poole Charles Cleveland Poole (March 22, 1892 – May 21, 1931) was an American musician, singer and banjo player, as well as the leader of the North Carolina Ramblers, which was a string band that recorded many popular songs between 1925 and 1930. ...

, the Leake County Revelers, Crockett's Mountaineers and similar string bands. ''A Collection of Mountain Fiddle Music'' (County 501) was released in 1964, and several similar reissues followed within the 500 series. Around the same time, Freeman met Charles Faurot, an old-time banjo player from Chicago who was also living in New York. Faurot proposed that he make some new recordings of the old-time musicians who were still performing in Virginia and North Carolina. Freeman agreed, and Faurot traveled south to make field recordings of 15 artists. The first County Records release of new music was ''

Clawhammer Clawhammer, sometimes called down-picking, overhand, or frailing, is a distinctive banjo playing style and a common component of American old-time music. The principal difference between clawhammer style and other styles is the picking direct ...

Banjo: Old Time Banjo and Fiddle Tunes'' (County 701) in 1965, recorded and produced by Faurot. This

LP album The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and a ...

included new recordings by

Wade Ward Wade Ward (1892–1971) was an American old-time music banjo player and fiddler from Independence, Virginia. He was widely known playing the clawhammer banjo and frequently won the Galax, Virginia Old Time Fiddler's Convention. His instrument, ...

, who had previously been recorded by

John Lomax John Avery Lomax (September 23, 1867 – January 26, 1948) was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist, and a folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk music. He was the father of Alan Lomax, John Lomax Jr. and Bess Lo ...

and

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...

for the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

. The album was also the recording debut for fiddle and banjo players

Fred Cockerham Fred Cockerham (3 November 1905 - July 8, 1980) was an American fiddle and banjo player of American folk music. Cockerham was one of the seven children of Elias and Betty Jane Cockerham in North Carolina. He was one of the most accomplished of al ...

and Kyle Creed. Additional Faurot field recordings were released on ''More Clawhammer Banjo (Volume 2)'' (County 717) in 1969 and ''Clawhammer Banjo Volume 3'' (County 757) in 1978. Faurot eventually recorded and produced more than a dozen of County Records' early releases, all numbered in the 700 series to indicate non-reissues. County Records also expanded into the

genre, although Freeman preferred those artists who stayed the closest to their old-time roots. The label's first bluegrass release was 1965's ''Blue Ridge Bluegrass'' (County 702) featuring

Larry Richardson Larry Richardson (August 9, 1927- June 17, 2007) was an American bluegrass and old time banjoist and guitarist from Galax, Virginia. He is known for his work with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys, and the Blue Ridge ...

and the Blue Ridge Boys. It was announced that County Records went out of business and permanently shut down on 17 January 2018 after over 50 years of operation. As of early 2020, County Sales continues to operate.

Related businesses

Freeman ran County Records as a sideline while working for the railway post office. In 1965, he started a companion business, County Sales, to provide a mail-order retail outlet for his County Records releases and other hard-to-find titles. This enabled him to quit the railway job and focus on music full-time. Both businesses operated from a single room in his father's printing business on East 37th Street in New York. In 1974 Freeman relocated his family, the record label and the distribution business to

Floyd, Virginia Floyd is a town in Floyd County, Virginia, United States. The population was 425 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Floyd County. The Town of Floyd was originally named Jacksonville as the surrounding county was formed during the tenur ...

. In 1977, he started a regional wholesale distribution business for old-time and bluegrass music, Record Depot, in

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is lo ...

. In 1978, Freeman helped his graphic artist Barry Poss start a new label in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

called

Sugar Hill Records Sugar Hill Records is an American bluegrass and Americana record label. It was founded in Durham, North Carolina in 1978 by Barry Poss and David Freeman, the owner of County Records and Rebel Records. Poss acquired full control of Sugar Hil ...

. In contrast to County's focus on old-time and traditional bluegrass, Sugar Hill would specialize in the more modern and progressive bluegrass genres. In 1980, Freeman bought a pioneering bluegrass record label, Rebel Records, from Dick Freeland, one of the label's founders. Rebel's focus is mainstream bluegrass, somewhere between the traditional sound of County and the progressive sound of Sugar Hill.

Awards

County Records founder David Freeman was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 2002.Biography of David Freeman
on website of the International Bluegrass Music Museum (accessed July 15, 2009).

Notable artists

* John Ashby *

Clarence Ashley Clarence "Tom" Ashley (September 29, 1895 – June 2, 1967) was an American musician and singer, who played the clawhammer banjo and the guitar. He began performing at medicine shows in the Appalachia, Southern Appalachian region as early as 1911 ...

* Kenny Baker * E.C. Ball * Robert Byrd *

Gaither Carlton Gaither Wiley Carlton (February 3, 1901 – June 24, 1972) was an American Old-time fiddle player and banjo player. He is best known for his appearances accompanying his son-in-law Doc Watson during the folk music revival of the 1960s. While ...

* Carter Family *

* Coon Creek Girls * Kyle Creed * Easter Brothers * Foot Hill Boys *

Bill Grant and Delia Bell Bill Grant and Delia Bell were a bluegrass music duo from Oklahoma. Emmylou Harris has said of Delia Bell: "If Hank Williams and Kitty Wells had married and had a daughter, she would have sounded like Delia Bell." Grant was recognized as "Ambassad ...

G. B. Grayson Gilliam Banmon Grayson (November 11, 1887 – August 16, 1930) was an American Old-time fiddle player and singer. Mostly blind from infancy, Grayson is chiefly remembered for a series of sides recorded with guitarist Henry Whitter between 1927 a ...

& Henry Whitter * Bobby Hicks * Tommy Jarrell *

Clark Kessinger Clark Kessinger (July 27, 1896 – June 4, 1975) was an American old-time fiddler. Many of his fiddle tunes made their way to other fiddlers or into the bluegrass music genre. Biography Kessinger was born in South Hills, Kanawha County, West Vi ...

* Skillet Lickers * Lilly Brothers & Don Stover * Uncle Dave Macon * Mac Martin & the Dixie Travelers *

Eck Robertson Alexander Campbell "Eck" Robertson (born November 20, 1887 in Delaney, Arkansas, died February 15, 1975 in Borger, Texas) was an American fiddle player, mostly known for commercially recording the first country music songs in 1922 with Henry Gil ...

* Russell Family *

Herschel Sizemore Herschel Lee Sizemore (August 6, 1935 – September 9, 2022) was an American mandolinist in the bluegrass tradition. Biography Early years Sizemore was raised in Leighton, Alabama, near Muscle Shoals. When he was age eight, Sizemore's parents ...

Matokie Slaughter Matokie Worrell Slaughter (December 21, 1919 – December 31, 1999), sometimes known as "Tokie" Slaughter, was an American clawhammer banjo player. Born in Pulaski, Virginia, to a large musical family, Slaughter performed regularly with her fa ...

Art Stamper Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of what ...

* Ernest Stoneman *

Benny Thomasson Benny Thomasson (April 22, 1909 – January 1984) was an American fiddler in the Texas style of fiddling. Thomasson was born in Winters, Texas, and raised in Gatesville, one of 10 children in a family where music was not only encouraged, i ...

References

External links