Nighthawk Records was an American

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

, founded by Robert Schoenfeld who began operations in 1976 with the release of four vintage post-war blues reissue albums. This series consists of nine volumes of post-war blues recordings from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, Memphis and the Delta,

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

and the Southwest. In 1979, Nighthawk expanded by launching the 200 series of blues productions with ''Mule'', an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Henry Townsend Henry Townsend may refer to: * Henry Townsend (Norwich) (1626–1695), early American colonist born in Norwich, Norfolk, England * Henry Townsend (Oyster Bay) (1649–1703), American colonist born in Oyster Bay * Henry Townsend (missionary) (1815� ...

. Townsend made his first recordings for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

in 1929. Since then he recorded and performed on a variety of labels including RCA/Bluebird, as well as Paramount, Bullet and Prestige/Bluesville. In the 1980s, Nighthawk became a predominantly reggae label before going out of business in the late 1990s. The 300 series began in 1980 with ''Wiser Dread'', an anthology of Rastafarian roots music recorded between 1972 and 1978. Steven Davis, author of ''Reggae Bloodlines'', has called ''Wiser Dread'' the "...best reggae anthology since ''The Harder They Come'' ten years ago." Since then Nighthawk released a self-produced album by

The Morwells The Morwells aka Morwell Unlimited were a Jamaican reggae band formed in 1973 by Maurice Wellington and Eric "Bingy Bunny" Lamont. They disbanded in the early 1980s with members going on to form the Roots Radics. History The band formed in 1973 ...

of some of their singles and three volumes of Nighthawk's own Jamaican productions: ''Brutal Out Deh'' by the Itals, ''Symbol of Reality'' by the Gladiators and ''Calling Rastafari'' featuring Culture, the Itals, the Gladiators, Wailing Souls and Mighty Diamonds. In October 2017,

Omnivore Recordings Omnivore Recordings is an independent record label founded in 2010. It specializes in historical releases, reissues and previously unissued vintage recordings, as well as select releases of new music, on CD, vinyl and digital formats. Omnivore Re ...

acquired the back catalogue of Nighthawk Records.

References

External links

Nighthawk Records homepage
{{Authority control American independent record labels Record labels established in 1976 Blues record labels Reggae record labels 1976 establishments in the United States

See also

References

External links