Stinson Records was an 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 ...

formed by Herbert Harris and Irving Prosky in 1939, initially to market, in the US, recordings made in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Between the 1940s and 1960s, it mainly issued recordings of American

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

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 ...

musicians, including

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired ...

and

Josh White Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s. White grew up in the Sout ...

History

According to most sources, the Stinson Trading Company was established in 1939 by Irving Prosky (1893-1952), a Russian-born distributor of Soviet records in the US, and Herbert Harris, the owner of the Union Record Shop in New York who was a member of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

and the proprietor of a movie house that screened Soviet films.Ronald D. Cohen, "Stinson Records", in Frank Hoffmann (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound'', Routledge, 2004, p.2097
/ref> Jeff Place, "The Music of Woody Guthrie", Liner notes to ''The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection'', Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 2012, pp.17-20
/ref> Harris and Prosky operated the concession to sell records from the

U.S.S.R. The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

at the

1939 World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purcha ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, but when supplies fell short of demand he and Prosky set up their own record label to produce copies of Soviet and other

eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

an recordings, including recordings by the Red Army Chorus. Stinson Records, ''RussianRecords.com''
Retrieved 24 July 2015 An earlier date for the company's foundation is indicated by a ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' report in 1946 which stated that it was planning to expand "in connection with its 30th anniversary as a phonograph record manufacturer". In 1943, Stinson established a financial partnership with the newly-established Asch Records, set up by

Moe Asch Moe, MOE, MoE or m.o.e. may refer to: In arts and entertainment Characters * Moe Szyslak, from the animated television show ''The Simpsons'' * Moe, leader of The Three Stooges, played by Moe Howard * Moe Higurashi, supporting character in ''Yash ...

. The arrangement enabled Asch to increase his supplies of

shellac Shellac () is a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes and dissolved in alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, while the Stinson company had an established distribution network and secured a share of the profits from Asch's recordings of such artists as

. Tony Olmsted, ''Folkways Records: Moses Asch and His Encyclopedia of Sound'', Routledge, 2013, pp.17-35
/ref> The two companies operated as one for a short time, producing records under the Asch-Stinson label, by

Lead Belly Huddie William Ledbetter (; January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk music, folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, Virtuoso, virtuosity on the twelve-string guita ...

Sonny Terry Saunders Terrell (October 24, 1911 – March 11, 1986), known as Sonny Terry, was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and oc ...

Burl Ives Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American musician, actor, and author with a career that spanned more than six decades. Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his own rad ...

Richard Dyer-Bennet Richard Dyer-Bennet (6 October 1913 in Leicester, England – 14 December 1991 in Monterey, Massachusetts) was an English-born American folk singer (or his own preferred term, "minstrel"), recording artist, and voice teacher. Biography He was b ...

Coleman Hawkins Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...

and

Mary Lou Williams Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and ...

among others, before the arrangement ended in 1946. Asch then set up the Disc record label, a precursor of Folkways, while Harris - who took sole charge after Prosky retired through ill health- maintained control of the Stinson company. The two labels, Folkways and Stinson, then operated separately and to some degree in competition, although an arrangement seems to have been reached under which they shared out recordings by some of the artists they had recorded under their joint arrangement, most notably Woody Guthrie, with Asch's Folkways label issuing most of Guthrie's topical and political songs while the Stinson label issued most of his

and

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 ...

songs. None of the musicians whose recordings had previously been released on the label continued to record for Stinson after the split with Asch, but Stinson retained the rights to some of the earlier recordings and released many of them in the new 12-inch

LP record 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 ...

format. Thomas Stern, "Folksay records label vs. Stinson records", ARSCLIST, 11 August 2006
Retrieved 24 July 2015 The Stinson label also continued to release new recordings by many major folk, blues and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

musicians during the 1950s and early 1960s, including

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...

Ewan MacColl James Henry Miller (25 January 1915 – 22 October 1989), better known by his stage name Ewan MacColl, was a folk singer-songwriter, folk song collector, labour activist and actor. Born in England to Scottish parents, he is known as one of the ...

Cisco Houston Gilbert Vandine "Cisco" Houston (August 18, 1918 – April 29, 1961) was an American folk singer and songwriter, who is closely associated with Woody Guthrie due to their extensive history of recording together. Houston was a regular recording ...

Muggsy Spanier Francis Joseph "Muggsy" Spanier (November 9, 1901 – February 12, 1967) was an American jazz cornetist based in Chicago. He was a member of the Bucktown Five, pioneers of the "Chicago style" that straddled traditional Dixieland jazz and swing ...

The Duke of Iron The Duke of Iron (born Cecil Anderson, 22 November 1906 – 17 November 1968) was a calypsonian, nightclub and concert entertainer, and recording artist from the 1930s through the 1960s. Born in Trinidad and working mainly in the United States, ...

Carlos Montoya Carlos García Montoya (13 December 19033 March 1993) in Madrid, Spain, was a prominent flamenco guitarist and a founder of the modern-day popular flamenco style of music. Early life He was the nephew of renowned flamenco guitarist Ramón Monto ...

Sidney Bechet Sidney Bechet (May 14, 1897 – May 14, 1959) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He was one of the first important soloists in jazz, and first recorded several months before trumpeter Louis Armstrong. His erratic temp ...

, and

Bob Gibson Robert Gibson (born Pack Robert Gibson; November 9, 1935October 2, 2020) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals (1959–1975). Nicknamed "Gibby" and "Hoot" ( ...

, as well as some recordings made under the agreement with Asch. Morris S. Levy, "Stinson Records", in Edward Komara, Peter Lee (eds.), ''The Blues Encyclopedia'', Routledge, 2004, p.932
/ref> Among the releases were an influential series of

compilation albums A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

in the ''American Folksay'' series. From the early 1950s, the company was run by Herbert Harris' son Robert, and opened a second retail branch in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Herbert Harris died in 1956, and under the ownership of his widow, Sonia Harris, the company was run by his son-in-law, Jack Kall (1922-1989). Based in Los Angeles from the late 1950s, the company released many folk albums. It continued to issue recordings until the 1990s. A collection of master discs of Woody Guthrie recordings from the mid-1940s, originally held by Robert Harris' widow, was rediscovered in 2007, and reissued on CD as a

box set A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists and bands ...

, '' My Dusty Road ''. In June 2019, Stinson was acquired by

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fou ...

References

External links

Stinson Records
on the Internet Archive'
Great 78 Project
{{Authority control American independent record labels