Archeophone Records, LLC, is owned
and operated by Richard Martin and Meagan Hennessey
in Champaign, IL. The
company was founded in 1998 with the aim of preserving
public-domain recordings of the acoustic era of the
recording industry on digitally remastered media, together
with extensive annotations, discographies, and rare
graphics in attractive, modestly priced packages.
Archeophone takes a "series" approach to reissuing
the sounds of yesteryear, meaning that we have focused
our efforts in a number of different categories, in
order to make sense of the vast amount of available
material. One such series is our Genres series, which
offers overviews of the acoustic era, from the early
1890s to the mid-1920s. Another series is our very
popular Phonographic Yearbook, which compiles the big
hits of each year in the early industry and puts them
together with fascinating historical and social research
from a given year. Almost any type of music or spoken-word
recording from the acoustic era is within our purview.
To date, Archeophone has released 49 CDs, featuring full-length
treatment of artists such as Billy Murray, Bert Williams
(in three volumes), Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth, and Eddie
Morton, and of dance/jazz ensembles such as the Six Brown
Brothers, the Benson Orchestra of Chicago, and Art Hickman's
Orchestra. Our compilations
feature early recording stars Vess Ossman, Collins and Harlan,
Henry Burr, Ada Jones, Bob Roberts, Fred Van Eps, Harry Lauder,
Sophie Tucker, the Peerless, American, and Haydn Quartets. Our titles have also featured historical figures such as Booker T. Washington, Jack Johnson, General John J Pershing, and presidential candidates William Jennings Bryan and William Howard Taft.
Archeophone has long been acclaimed as the premier label specializing in the acoustic era of recording. Our 2005 release, Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1891-1922 won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Historical Album. Actionable Offenses: Indecent Phonograph Recordings from the 1890s and Debate '08: Taft and Bryan Campaign on the Edison Phonograph were also nominated in this category, as is our 2009 release Sophie Tucker: Origins of the Red Hot Mama, 1910-1922. All four titles received additional Grammy nominations for Best Album Notes as well. |
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