Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: Little Labels and the American Beat, 1920-1970
1. Gennett Records
2. Paramount Records
3. Dial Records
4. King Records
5. Duke-Peacock Records
6. Sun Records
7. Riverside Records
8. Ace Records
9. Monument Records
10. Delmark Records
Little Labels on Reissue Anthologies
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Promotional Information

Stories from the lean early days of American popular music.

About the Author

Rick Kennedy, a media relations manager, worked for a decade as a journalist. Kennedy plays jazz piano and is the author of Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Studios and the Birth of Recorded Jazz (Indiana University Press).
Randy McNutt is a longtime reporter with the Cincinnati Enquirer and the author of We Wanna Boogie: An Illustrated History of the American Rockabilly Movement and a book on Ohio ghost towns.

Reviews

"In this era of monolithic record companies and predictably contrived music, it's refreshing to read about mavericks who took chances... a look at ten visionaries who altered the course of popular music." --Playboy " ... close-up portraits of risk-taking label owners who often gambled their careers and livelihoods to release music they believed in." --Billboard " ... [a] volume that--like the labels it celebrates, and the 45s and 78s those labels put out--is full of exciting and vital content." --San Francisco Chronicle "This book is a great piece of storytelling... well written, crammed full of interesting facts, and great fun." --Dirty Linen "Kennedy and McNutt celebrate the predecessors of today's vaunted indie record companies in this rich survey... In profiling the feisty underdogs who produced so much music that 'is still very much with us,' Kennedy and McNutt also explore the commercial and social forces affecting the industry." --Booklist