In the past year I've come to know & love this record label out of Portland, Oregon. Most of it's releases are various artist compilations but a few focus on a singular artist. The comps. are what dragged me in. The first one I saw at ear-x-tacy in Louisville, KY was one titled 'Last Kind Word(1926-1953)' which is filled with vintage 78rpm recordings and I think a few come from some field recordings done a little after the dates provided on the cover. Most tracks are straight forward gospel tunes others are more blues than gospel but still dealing with the spiritual side of life but at times the darker parts of it. To top it off the cover artwork and the notes on the rear cover were sparse, nothing like Harry Smith's notes on the Anthology of American Folk Music but it added an air of mystery to the recordings lying inside. Along with the comps they've done Albums of Skip James & a fave of mine Fred Cole's 'The Rats' which is a late 70's early 80's garage/punk group by the man who would later form the fantastic Dead Moon. So they don't focus just on the vintage 78's they focus on what sounds good to them be it 1930's blues, 1960's gospel or 1970's garage/punk. Any music fan of any of vintage 78's though would do themselves well by checking these fantastic comps out. I think wikipedia has a little info about them but there isn't much else out there on this label. The new issue of Arthur magazine's recent online only issue has a little article about this label as well as some other like-minded labels. So do something good for yourself and seek out some of these records which aren't easy to come by (most issued in vinyl only format and pressing only a 1000 of each release) but worth the hunt.
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