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 July 15, 2006 Red House Records The Minneapolis-St. Paul area is known for a few things besides long winters and a brutal wind-chill factor. Prince, the Replacements, the St. Paul Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and Bel Canto Design are just five things music lovers can thank the Twin Cities for. Another is Red House Records, a premier folk and Americana label based in St. Paul. Bob Feldman, who died earlier this year at age 56, started the label in 1984 to help folk singer Greg Brown bring two early-1980s LPs, 44 & 66 and The Iowa Waltz, back into print. Brown was living in an old red farmhouse in Iowa when he made those two albums and had christened his label Red House Records. In 1983, Brown began to gain national attention through Minnesota Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion, and was eager to get his music to a wider audience. Feldman, a high school teacher at the time, was an ardent fan, and not only helped Brown get his earlier LPs back in circulation but urged him to record a new record as well. In 1984, Brown’s In the Dark with You became Red House Records’ first official release. Since then, Brown has added 15 more titles to the label’s catalog, and the Red House roster has grown to include John Gorka, Spider John Koerner, guitar master Adrian Legg, and many more country, folk, and roots-rock artists. "The biggest thing is that we’re artist-driven and artist-focused," Ellen Stanley, the label’s director of publicity and promotions, told me. "We’re with them for the long haul."
While Red House is committed to music rooted in tradition, its catalog is anything but predictable or stodgy. Three new releases illustrate the label’s continued vitality and its diversity. At least one of them, Firecracker, by the Wailin’ Jennys, sounds like a hit record to me. Each member of this Canadian trio -- Annabelle Chvostek, Nicky Mehta, and Ruth Moody (no Jennys) -- writes songs solidly grounded in folk, bluegrass, and country. They also write great pop songs, such as "Things That You Know," that should find favor with radio programmers and listeners. Each also writes moving, meaningful lyrics that are heartfelt and poetic. All three are skilled multi-instrumentalists, but it’s when their voices join in three-part harmony that you know you’re hearing something special. Firecracker is filled with subtle touches that reveal themselves with repeated hearings. I already see this stunning disc landing on my top-ten list for the year.
Singer Guy Davis plays an older, traditional style of the blues that relies heavily on acoustic instruments, including banjo, mandolin, and guitar. Although Davis’s new disc, Skunkmello, features a couple of electric blues tracks (including a terrific version of "Goin’ Down Slow"), even these have an understated quality largely missing from much of current blues. The musicians include Mark Naftalin, John Platania, and T. Bone Wolk; they play with conviction while keeping things focused on the song and Davis’s singing. Davis has a deep knowledge and respect for blues tradition, and on Skunkmello he demonstrates both his love for the blues and his impressive command of its many styles. "Uncle Tom Is Dead (Milk ’n’ Cookies Remix)" is a toned-down version of a tune that appeared on Davis’s last album, Legacy. Davis takes rap music to task in the song and hopes the expurgated version will gain more airplay. Like Ostroushko, Guy Davis is typical of Red House musicians in having been with the label so long -- Skunkmello is his eighth release for them.
This past February, Red House won the Label of the Year award at the Folk Alliance Music Awards in Austin. Members of the Alliance -- artists, labels, agents, and others in the music business -- chose the nominees and winners. Eliza Gilkyson also received four awards, including Album of the Year. Red House musicians should gain even more exposure through Robert Altman’s latest film, A Prairie Home Companion. Robin and Linda Williams, Peter Ostroushko, and Spider John Koerner all record for Red House and perform in the film, which tells the story of the show’s (fictional) last performance. Eric Peltoniemi, vice president of production for Red House for more than 20 years, is now the label’s manager, and plans to continue pursuing his friend Bob Feldman’s passion for bringing unique, high-quality music to listeners. Singer-songwriter John Gorka, one of Red House’s most popular musicians, has just released Writing in the Margins, his first CD in three years. We can look forward, I hope, to much more from a label that presents music of integrity with the care and respect it deserves. …Joseph Taylor
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Perhaps the label’s most
acclaimed and honored musician is singer-songwriter Eliza Gilkyson. "Bob was a fan,
and in the last couple of years she’s hit her stride," Stanley pointed out.
After years in the music business, Gilkyson was able to record the music she wanted,
beginning with her first Red House disc, Hard Times in Babylon. Since then
she’s released three more knockout recordings for the label: Lost and Found (2002),
Land of Milk and Honey (2004, a Grammy nominee for Best Contemporary Folk Album),
and Paradise Hotel (2005). Gilkyson’s music effortlessly blends blues,
country, rock, and folk, and her songs are notable for their powerful melodies and
unsentimental, finely wrought lyrics. The conviction in her lovely, slightly raspy voice
makes it easy to believe the often personal stories she tells.
Peter Ostroushko’s
new record, his 11th for Red House, is the kind of recording that would stump the majors. Postcard:
Travels with a Great American Radio Show features compositions this master musician
wrote while touring the country with Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion.
Ostroushko is a virtuoso mandolin and fiddle player, but neither he nor his
accompanists -- most of them from the radio show’s All Star Shoe Band -- use his
compositions as an excuse to show off. Each arrangement is carefully constructed to create
a mood that evokes the place that inspired it. The tunes cross many musical genres,
showing hints of jazz, ragtime, bluegrass, and even Eastern European music. Some tracks,
such as "St. Augustine Lullaby," are delicately beautiful, while others, such as
"Bemidji Blues," have the liveliness of Western swing. This music is hard to
classify, other than to say that it’s captivating, played with great skill, and
should be savored.
"We’re all in this business
because we’re music fans," Ellen Stanley says. The label’s commitment to
its artists is evident in the care it takes in presenting them. "We can provide the
marketing, PR, and publicity," Stanley explains. "We make sure to work with the
artists and their managers to help them bring themselves to the audience." Red
House’s attention to detail extends to the design of the CD covers and booklets. The
label uses many of the same graphic designers as the majors, and the CDs have a classy,
attractive look that many independent-label releases lack. Red House CDs also sound
terrific -- there are no gimmicks in the recordings, just pure presentations of the music.