Before the Big Bang Reveals

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Our three spring releases get rave reviews The Vinyl District

Our three spring releases have gotten great write-ups from from Joseph Neff at The Vinyl District. Read them here →

Follow along as we reveal the tracks on Before the Big Bang

We’ve begun revealing the tracks on our upcoming 167-track, 6 CD box set Before the Big Bang: Country Music Origins in the Acoustic Era, 1890-1926 one at a time via our dedicated reissue website. Visit our archive of reveals to see any you’ve missed, and follow along each day as we unveil each new selection with an image, text, and sound sample.

Celebrated, 1895-1896 by the Unique Quartette now available

Our second vinyl release, Celebrated, 1895-1896 is a 10″ EP featuring 6 ultra-rare cylinders by the Unique Quartette. The set features a full-size 4-page folio with new research and scholarship on the individuals most likely to have made the records and a printed sleeve with notes on the tracks and full transcriptions. Learn more and order yours today →

At the Minstrel Show: Minstrel Routines From the Studio, 1894-1926 now available

At the Minstrel Show features 2 CDs with 51 selections recorded between 1894 and 1926 and 56 pages of notes by Tim Brooks, author of the just-released McFarland book The Blackface Minstrel Show in Mass Media. Many of the selections are discussed in the book. Learn more and order yours today →

The Missing Link: How Gus Haenschen Got Us From Joplin to Jazz and Shaped the Music Business now available

Now available: The Missing Link. This compilation features 25 selections that reshape the story of jazz’ beginnings on record, including all six of Gus Haenschen’s “Holy Grail” 78s from 1916. Includes new original research and writing by musician and historian Colin Hancock. Learn more and order yours today →

TODAY IN ACOUSTIC HISTORY

  • 1913  — Joe Belmont and Byron Harlan  recorded "The Nightingale"  

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

Ring Out Their Names: Moore, Settle, Cayson, DeLyons

We have a much better idea than ever before of who was in the various iterations of the Unique Quartette, as well as some pretty good guesses as to which of the members participated in the group’s recordings. Good as his work was in Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919 … Continue reading Ring Out Their Names: Moore, Settle, Cayson, DeLyons→
posted: June 5, 2020

Celebrated—what it is, and what it isn’t

At the time Tim Brooks published Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press) in 2004, he was aware of three extant cylinders made by the Unique Quartette. First was “Mamma’s Black Baby Boy,” made ca. 1893 for the North American Phonograph Company. Two others were made … Continue reading Celebrated—what it is, and what it isn’t...→
posted: May 8, 2020

The Hunt for the Banjo Orchestra Records

Guest blog by Colin Hancock             The six sides recorded by Gus Haenschen’s Banjo Orchestra in 1916 are rare—very rare. In fact, before The Missing Link project was compiled, chances are no one had heard all six of them since they were first released. Gus himself stated that he never personally owned copies of the … Continue reading The Hunt for the Banjo Orchestra Records...→
posted: February 11, 2020

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