Rounder Records

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Rounder Records
Parent company	Concord Music Group
Founded	1970
Distributor(s)	Universal Music Distribution
Genre	Various
Country of origin	US
Official Website	Official Web Site of Rounder Records

Rounder Records, originally of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students. It once served as a major distributor^{[citation needed]} and central sales location for other independent labels specializing in roots music, at one point representing as many as 450 other labels.^{[citation needed]} In the 1990s, though, the company cut back on the distribution effort in order to focus on its own productions. In the early 2000s, shortly after the merger of the PolyGram and MCA label families, Rounder signed a manufacturing and distribution deal with Universal Music, which also purchased an interest in the label.

Starting with blues, blues-rock, string band, and bluegrass, Rounder expanded to over 3,000 titles of folk, soul, soca, Cajun, and Celtic. The name was chosen partly because of its association with the band Holy Modal Rounders. The word rounder also means a hobo or tramp. One of their earliest successes was the blues-rock band George Thorogood and the Destroyers.

One of the label's projects is the Alan Lomax Collection, a series of releases of the work of the pioneering ethnomusiclogist and folklorist.

Among Rounder's artists, bluegrass superstar Alison Krauss (who had been with the label for the duration of her career) was offered a number of major label deals following her commercial breakthrough in the late 1990s, but Krauss opted to remain with Rounder.^{[citation needed]} Rounder was one of the very first labels to become involved with compact discs, in 1985. In 2004, the company launched a book division known as Rounder Books.

Rounder formed a children's music division called Rounder Kids in the 90s, distributing soundtracks of the popular PBS Kids series Arthur. It's current label roster is the Canadian children's entertainer Raffi Cavoukian.

In 2010, Rounder was purchased by the Concord Music Group. It will continue to be distributed by Universal, as all of Concord has a distribution deal with UMG.[1]

On January 31, 2012, Rounder Records released the Soul Rebels Brass Band's debut record on the label entitled "Unlock Your Mind".

Artists (past and present)

• Soul Rebels Brass Band
• Tom Adams
• Darol Anger
• Etta Baker
• The Balfa Brothers
• Marcia Ball
• Russ Barenberg
• Pierre Bensusan
• Big Shoulders
• Tony Bird
• Norman Blake
• Blue Rodeo
• The Blue Sky Boys
• The Bobs
• Bodeans
• Roy Book Binder
• James Booker
• Sandra Boynton
• Brave Combo
• Bob Brozman
• Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
• Buckwheat Zydeco
• Solomon Burke
• J J Cale
• Chuck Carbo
• Cephas & Wiggins
• Marshall Chapman
• Bruce Cockburn
• The Cottars
• Country Cooking
• Cowboy Jazz
• Cowboy Junkies
• Dailey & Vincent
• The Damnwells
• Delta Spirit
• Dennis DeYoung
• Hazel Dickens
• disappear fear
• Dirty Dozen Brass Band
• Michael Doucet
• Dry Branch Fire Squad
• Ronnie Earl
• John Fahey
• Cathy Fink
• Béla Fleck
• Benton Flippen
• The Freight Hoppers
• J. Geils
• Jimmie Dale Gilmore
• Girl Authority
• Philip Glass
• Mike Gordon
• The Grascals
• David Grisman
• Richard Greene
• David Grier
• Nanci Griffith
• Woody Guthrie
• James "Slim" Hand
• Cheb Hasni
• John Hartford
• Juliana Hatfield
• Tish Hinojosa
• Holy Modal Rounders
• Sierra Hull
• Mississippi John Hurt
• Huxtable, Christensen & Hood
• The Incredible Casuals
• Bill Keith
• Kids of Widney High
• King Wilkie
• Alison Krauss
• Sleepy LaBeef
• David Laibman
• Lead Belly
• Sondre Lerche
• The LeRoi Brothers
• John Linnell
• Lisa Loeb
• David Mallett
• Del McCoury
• John McCutcheon
• Natalie MacMaster
• Magic Dick
• Mike Marshall
• John Mellencamp
• The Meters
• John Miller^[1] (guitarist, three albums, also member of Country Cooking)
• Whistlin' Alex Moore
• Lynn Morris
• Nashville Bluegrass Band
• Tracy Nelson
• NRBQ
• Alecia Nugent
• Laura Nyro
• Ellis Paul
• Tom Paxton
• Carl Perkins
• Madeleine Peyroux
• Grant-Lee Phillips
• Pianosaurus
• Robert Plant
• Preacher Jack
• Raffi
• Ed Reavy
• Leon Redbone
• Tony Rice
• Jonathan Richman
• Amanda Shaw
• Riders in the Sky
• Jimmie Rodgers multi-volume catalog reissue
• Rush
• Mike Seeger
• Peggy Seeger
• Allen Shelton
• Jon Sholle
• Ricky Skaggs
• Son Volt
• Jo-El Sonnier
• The SteelDrivers
• Steep Canyon Rangers
• SteveSongs
• Sweet Honey in the Rock
• Tut Taylor
• The Tragically Hip
• Ten Shekel Shirt
• Vienna Teng
• They Might Be Giants
• Linda Thompson
• George Thorogood and the Destroyers
• Happy & Artie Traum
• Tony Trischka
• Dan Tyminski
• Uncle Earl
• Joe Val
• Guy Van Duser
• Rhonda Vincent
• Loudon Wainwright III
• Martha Wainwright
• Doc Watson
• Ween
• Cheryl Wheeler
• The Wild Magnolias
• Bob Wills

Subsidiary labels a.k.a. The Rounder Records Group^[2]

• Bullseye Blues
• Dolphin Safe
• Easydisc
• Flying Fish
• Grand Illusion
• Heartbeat
• Heavy Rotation
• Henry Street
• Hudson Music
• Moon Junction
• Philo
• Rounder Select
• Rounder Specials
• Symmetry
• Tone Cool Records
• Trampoline
• Upstart
• Varrick
• Vestapol
• Zoë

See also

• List of record labels

References

External links

• Official site
• The Never-Ending Revival: Rounder Records and the Folk Alliance by Michael F. Scully (University of Illinois Press, 2008)
• Radio Interview with founders Marian Leighton Levy and Ken Irwin