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Swede Home Chicago now available

Swede Home Chicago: The Wallin’s Svenska Records Story, 1923-1927 is now available for preorder. A collaboration with Mills Music Library and the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the compilation presents the story of Chicago-based Wallin’s Svenska Records, the first label founded by a Swedish-American immigrant. Features 2 CDs with 56 selections and a 76-page full-color booklet with notes and scholarship by Jim Leary, Richard Martin, and Marcus Cederström. Learn more and order today!

1923: “Gonna Play the Villain Part” now available

Our 20th Phonographic Yearbook, 1923: “Gonna Play the Villain Part” is now available. The compilation features 25 selections from the year a popular president died amid growing public scandals and a new sign illuminated the Los Angeles skyline. Learn more and order today!

Anthology: America’s Favorite Entertainers by Collins and Harlan now available

Our Collins and Harlan compilation Anthology: America’s Favorite Entertainers is now available. Featuring 29 selections recorded between 1902 and 1924 and a 36-page booklet with new research and notes by Grammy-nominated authors Richard Martin & Ryan Barna, this career retrospective tells the story of the most popular recording duo of the acoustic era.

Three Grammy nominations for Archeophone releases

The 2020 Grammy nominations have been announced, and three Archeophone releases have received nominations. Our Unique Quartette release, Celebrated, 1895-1896, is a nominee for Best Historical Album, while The Missing Link and At the Minstrel Show are both contenders for Best Album Notes. Congratulations to nominated authors Colin Hancock and Tim Brooks as well as the production team behind all three releases.

TODAY IN ACOUSTIC HISTORY

PRAISE FOR ARCHEOPHONE

  • “In the digital age, when liner notes have been reduced to a song name scrolling across a streaming playlist, the husband-and-wife team of [Richard] Martin and Meagan Hennessey are an anomaly. They gather rarities from the earliest era of recordings, research the music and put out entire books of analysis alongside the music.”
    Geoff EdgersWashington Post
  • “Truly epochal reissues, which unearth completely forgotten chapters of musical history. The tiny Illinois-based Archeophone label has been doing that kind of archaeology for several years now, almost single-handedly championing the popular music of the acoustic recording era.”
    Jody RosenSlate.com

FROM OUR BLOG

The Captain and The Jazz Boy

Guest blog post by Marcus Cederström While transcribing the many songs from Swede Home Chicago: Wallin’s Svenska Records, 1923–1927, I reached out to friends and family for help. After listening to the same song for hours on end, you reach a sort of impasse. You slow things down. You turn things up. You adjust your … Continue reading The Captain and The Jazz Boy →
posted: September 23, 2021

Wallin’s Performers: Beyond Anonymity

Guest blog post by Jim Leary Old discs serve as singing tombstones. Spinning grooves and printed labels yield voices and virtuosity, names and places, commemoratively situating dead souls. Discs are all we have sometimes, but happily they’re often where we start.  Swede Home Chicago started with a search to identify the otherwise anonymous impresario whose … Continue reading Wallin’s Performers...→
posted: September 3, 2021

Transcription, Translation, and Operatic Tenors

Guest blog post by Marcus Cederström In the fall of 2018, Jim Leary sent me an email with plans to track down and reissue all of the songs from Wallin’s Svenska Records. It was just an idea at that point and Archeophone hadn’t even signed on to the project, but Jim had already started identifying … Continue reading Transcription, Translation, and Operatic Tenors →
posted: August 13, 2021

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