Can anyone help me identify this label?

[K]

a few years ago, a guy at work told me about a music 'label'. the people behind the label would travel around the united states and find these amazing hobbyist musicians, people who had never recorded albums, usually older people. People in their sixties, seventies, eighties. Think like, bluesy, country stuff. Slow. Low tech. Anyway they would fund some studio time and put out complete albums with these people. It was all very raw. 

I had some of their stuff on spotify for a while, but I've lost it all, and every few months I try and find it again, but can never do it.

Does this ring any bells with anyone?

 

 

part of me thinks the name might have like, lizard, or reptile, or something in it, but I might be conflating it with something else, so don't fixate on that.

[Damian WayLNKe]

Sounds like the label from this documentary I watched a few weeks ago.  The label was Arhoolie Records and the doc was This Ain't No Mouse Music.

[VerbalPuke]

10 hours ago, K said:

a few years ago, a guy at work told me about a music 'label'. the people behind the label would travel around the united states and find these amazing hobbyist musicians, people who had never recorded albums, usually older people. People in their sixties, seventies, eighties. Think like, bluesy, country stuff. Slow. Low tech. Anyway they would fund some studio time and put out complete albums with these people. It was all very raw. 

I had some of their stuff on spotify for a while, but I've lost it all, and every few months I try and find it again, but can never do it.

Does this ring any bells with anyone?

 

 

part of me thinks the name might have like, lizard, or reptile, or something in it, but I might be conflating it with something else, so don't fixate on that.

Can you remember any of the artists at all? There was a story in the last ten years in Detroit where there was an older gentleman that was probably within this type of stuff you describe. Forgot his name, other than the fact that he was supposedly a long-time artist that was sort of re-discovered, forgot his name though. I think he may have even had some Native American blood, but I can't remember when I saw the article. Could have been five years ago, maybe ten. If I could figure out who he was that might help as he may have been one of the types of artists you refer to. 

The only lizard/reptile record label I can think of is Amphetamine Reptile records, but that's noise, post-hardcore stuff (think Melvins, Unsane, etc). 

[MalaCloudy Black]

I think the documentary VP is thinking of is Searching For Sugarman. 

@K What you described reminds me of Alan Lomax.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Lomax

L

Quote

omax's greatest legacy is in preserving and publishing recordings of musicians in many folk and blues traditions around the US and Europe. Among the artists Lomax is credited with discovering and bringing to a wider audience include blues guitarist Robert Johnson, protest singer Woody Guthrie, folk artist Pete Seeger, country musician Burl Ives, and country blues singer Lead Belly, among many others.

 

 

[MalaCloudy Black]

Oh this is pretty cool. I've always liked Almeda Riddle's songs but I just learned from looking her up that she's from Cleburne County, Arkansas, which is about a 15-20 minute drive north of me. 

 

[C-MIL]

Is it Alligator?

https://www.alligator.com/

[K]

Oh man, there's so much good stuff to check out. Cheers guys. Love all this stuff.

I've been googling most of the day, and I think it may have been Fat Possum Records, which went on to put out some  Iggy and the Stooges and Black Keys, even EL-P, but started out...

At first Fat Possum focused almost entirely on recording previously unknown Mississippi blues artists (typically from Oxford or Holly Springs, Mississippi).

[VerbalPuke]

I gotta do this...

allmusic.com ?

[Lint]

20 hours ago, K said:

Oh man, there's so much good stuff to check out. Cheers guys. Love all this stuff.

I've been googling most of the day, and I think it may have been Fat Possum Records, which went on to put out some  Iggy and the Stooges and Black Keys, even EL-P, but started out...

 

 

Fat Possum put out some great albums.  I used ot have some stuff by RL Burnside and T-Model Ford