HighTone Records was an independent record label

Independent record label

An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...

 based in Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

. Hightone specialized in American roots music

American Roots Music

American Roots Music is a 2001 multi-part documentary film that explores the historical roots of American Roots music through footage and performances by the creators of the movement: Folk, Country, Blues, Gospel, Bluegrass, and many others....

 including, country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

, rockabilly

Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...

, western swing

Western swing

Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...

, blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 and gospel

Gospel music

Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....

. The label was created by Larry Sloven and Bruce Bromberg

Bruce Bromberg

Bruce Bromberg is an American Grammy Award winning producer of blues music.He was born in Chicago, and raised there and in Park Forest, Illinois. In 1958 he moved with his family to Los Angeles, and began working for various record labels...

 in 1983. The label's first release that year was Bad Influence

Bad Influence (Robert Cray album)

Bad Influence is a 1983 blues album by the blues singer-songwriter and guitarist Robert Cray.Released with Hightone Records, this was the album thought to have put Cray on the map, prior to his explosion into the mainstream with Strong Persuader in 1986. It was his second release and his first on...

by bluesman Robert Cray

Robert Cray

Robert Cray is an American blues guitarist and singer. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he has led his own band, as well as an acclaimed solo career.-Career:...

.

Between 1995 and 2000, the label issued three albums by James Armstrong

James Armstrong (musician)

James Armstrong is an American soul blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has released three albums to date on HighTone Records...

 (Sleeping with a Stranger, Dark Night, and Got It Goin' On).

In September 2006 the label released a five CD boxed set

Boxed set

A box set is a compilation of various musical recordings, films, television programs, or other collection of related items that are contained in a box.-Music box sets:...

 titled American Music: The HighTone Records Story. This release compiled many of the labels's most influential recordings. In 2008 the company closed its doors and sold the extensive catalog to Shout! Factory

Shout! Factory

Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...

, which continues to release reissues and compilations.

External links

• Official website