Red House Records

Red House Records is an American independent record label specializing in folk music based in St. Paul, Minnesota. The label was originally created in 1981 by Greg Brown as a method to distribute his own music, and is named for a farmhouse in Iowa where he was living. After Brown's albums "44 & 66" and "The Iowa Waltz" 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 (he had just signed on to regularly perform on the radio program "A Prairie Home Companion"). [cite web|author=Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen|url=http://www.celebrityaccess.com/news/profile.html?id=120|title=Industry Profile: Bob Feldman|year=2002-11-24|publisher=CelebrityAccess|accessdate=2006-04-08] The first album released on the newly-restarted label was Brown's "In the Dark with You".

Over the next few years, the label focused on publishing work by musicians in the upper Midwest, including Spider John Koerner, Prudence Johnson, Peter Ostroushko, Rio Nido and John Gorka. The label weathered difficult conditions as the music industry transitioned from vinyl to compact discs, and started signing established artists from across the U.S. Utah Phillips, Tom Paxton, Norman Blake, Eliza Gilkyson, Loudon Wainwright III,
Robin and Linda Williams, and Ramblin' Jack Elliott are among the dozens of performers who have released music through Red House. Elliot's "South Coast" won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album in 1996. Other recordings from the label have racked up about a dozen Indie Awards from the Association for Independent Music (AFIM) and the National Association of Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD). 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. [cite news|first=Jon|last=Bream|url=http://www.startribune.com/457/story/178526.html|title=Folk-music impresario Bob Feldman dies|publisher=Star Tribune|date=2006-01-12|accessdate=2006-04-08]

Red House Records has recently signed Storyhill, an acoustic duo originally from Bozeman Montana.

See also

* List of record labels
* List of electronic music record labels

References

External links

* [http://www.redhouserecords.com/ Official site]