Red House Records is an independent folk and Americana

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 ...

in St. Paul, Minnesota. The label was founded in 1983 by Bob Feldman after seeing a performance by Iowa folk singer Greg Brown.

Origin

The label is named for a farmhouse in

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

where Brown was living when he started it. After Brown's albums ''

44 & 66 ''44 & 66'' is an album by folk singer/guitarist Greg Brown. It was released in 1980 on Rose Alley Records. It was re-issued in 1984 on Red House Records, the second release by the newly formed label. Reception Writing for Allmusic, music criti ...

'' and ''

The Iowa Waltz ''The Iowa Waltz'' is an album by folk singer/guitarist Greg Brown. It was re-issued in 1984 by Red House Records. It was their very first release, carrying the issue number "01" of the newly formed label. Reception Writing for Allmusic All ...

'' were released in 1981 and 1982, it briefly went dormant until he met Bob Feldman in 1983. Feldman took over operation of the record label, while Brown focused on his musical endeavors, as he had just signed on to regularly perform on the

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

program ''

A Prairie Home Companion ''A Prairie Home Companion'' is a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from 1974 to 2016. In 2016, musician Chris Thile took over as host, and the successor show was eventually renamed ''Live from He ...

''. Feldman was known for his business philosophy of wanting "to provide a home and environment in which creative artists can make albums in total freedom—without interference from mogul types just looking for the next hit single." The first album released on the newly restarted label was Brown's ''

In the Dark with You ''In the Dark With You'' is an album by folk singer/guitarist Greg Brown, released in 1985. Reception Writing for Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than ...

''. Over the next few years, the label focused on publishing work by musicians in the

upper Midwest The Upper Midwest is a region in the northern portion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. It is largely a sub-region of the Midwest. Although the exact boundaries are not uniformly agreed-upon, the region is defined as referring ...

, including

Spider John Koerner "Spider" John Koerner (born August 31, 1938, in Rochester, New York, United States) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as a guitarist and vocalist in the blues trio Koerner, Ray & Glover, with Dave Ray and T ...

Prudence Johnson Prudence Johnson is an American folk and jazz singer. Early life and education Johnson grew up in a musical family in Moose Lake, Minnesota. She earned a bachelor's degree in international studies from Hamline University. Career In the early ...

Peter Ostroushko Peter Ostroushko (August 12, 1953 – February 24, 2021) was an American violinist and mandolinist. He performed regularly on the radio program ''A Prairie Home Companion'' and with a variety of bands and orchestras in Minneapolis–Saint Paul an ...

Rio Nido Rio Nido is an American jazz vocal group based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Band history Rio Nido is a jazz vocal trio that began as part of the Minneapolis Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis, West Bank music scene in the early 1970s. The first incarna ...

Jorma Kaukonen Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen, Jr. (; ; born December 23, 1940) is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist. Kaukonen performed with Jefferson Airplane and still performs regularly on tour with Hot Tuna, which started as a side project with bassist J ...

and

John Gorka John Gorka (born July 27, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter. In 1991, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement." Personal life Gorka was raised in the Colon ...

. The label weathered difficult conditions as the music industry transitioned from

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

s, and started signing established artists from across the U.S.

Utah Phillips Bruce Duncan "Utah" Phillips (May 15, 1935 – May 23, 2008)
, KVMR, Nevada City, California, May 24, 2008. Retrieved 24 May 2008 ...

Tom Paxton Thomas Richard Paxton (born October 31, 1937) is an American folk singer-songwriter who has had a music career spanning more than fifty years. In 2009, Paxton received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

, Norman Blake,

Eliza Gilkyson Eliza Gilkyson (born August 24, 1950, Hollywood, California) is a Taos, New Mexico-based folk musician.Gilkyson moved her base from Austin, Texas, to Taos in 2020. She is the daughter of songwriter and folk musician Terry Gilkyson and his wife, J ...

Loudon Wainwright III Loudon Snowden Wainwright III (born September 5, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actor. He has released twenty-six studio albums, four live albums, and six compilations. Some of his best-known songs include "The Swimmin ...

Robin and Linda Williams Robin and Linda Williams are a husband-and-wife singer-songwriter folk music duo from Virginia. They met in South Carolina in 1971, and began performing in 1973. The Williamses appeared on Garrison Keillor's '' A Prairie Home Companion'' radi ...

Cliff Eberhardt Cliff Eberhardt (born January 7, 1954, in Berwyn, Pennsylvania) is an American folk singer-songwriter. He is a founding member of the Fast Folk Music Cooperative in New York City. Eberhardt joined Red House Records in 1997 and has recorded fi ...

, and

Ramblin' Jack Elliott Ramblin' Jack Elliott (born Elliot Charles Adnopoz; August 1, 1931) is an American folk singer and songwriter. Life and career Elliott was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, New York, United States, the son of Florence (Rieger) and Abraham Adnopoz, a ...

are among the dozens of performers who have released music through Red House. Elliot's ''

South Coast South Coast is a name often given to coastal areas to the south of a geographical region or major metropolitan area. Geographical Australia *South Coast (New South Wales), the coast of New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney * South Coast (Q ...

'' won a

Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album The Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album was awarded from 1987 to 2011. Until 1993 the award was known as the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Recording. An award for Best Contemporary Folk Album was also presented. Prior to 1987 ...

in 1996. Eberhardt's album, ''The High Above and the Down Below'', released by Red House in 2007, was named one of the TOP 5 of 2007 by USA Today. Other recordings from the label have won about a dozen Indie Awards from the

Association for Independent Music The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) is a trade association that represents independent record labels in the United States, founded in 2005. A2IM is headquartered in New York City, with chapters located in Nashville, Chicago, North ...

(A2IM). The label has released a number of compilation albums, including '' A Nod to Bob'', which is described by Red House as a tribute from a Minnesota label to a favorite native son. Feldman continued to head the company until his health deteriorated in late 2005. A few weeks after leaving work, he died on January 11, 2006 at the age of 56. In November 2017 the Label was purchased by The Compass Records Group in Nashville and its operations in St. Paul were shuttered.

References

External links

Official site

FolkLib Index - Red House Records Discography
{{Authority control American independent record labels Independent record labels based in Minnesota Folk record labels Companies based in Saint Paul, Minnesota Record labels established in 1981

Origin

See also

References

External links