From the 1920s through the 1960s, scores of small, independent record companies nurtured distinctly American music: jazz, blues, gospel, country, rhythm and blues, and the 1950s offspring of R&B, rock n' roll. This title profiles ten such companies.

Now in paperback!
Little Labels —Big Sound
Small Record Companies and the Rise of American Music
Rick Kennedy and Randy McNutt
Foreword by Al Kooper
A wild ride through American popular music.
"[T]hese cats had their ears to the ground and cut vinyl that created the hip sounds of the day, sounds that still reverberate today. . . . Little Labels—Big Sound is a great primer into the history of these . . . independent record labels."
—Blue Suede News
"[L]ike the labels it celebrates and the 45s and the 78s those labels put out . . . full of exciting and vital content."
—San Francisco Chronicle
"In this straightforward and engaging collection of histories and profiles, the authors present a brisk overview of important indies and a look at several distinctive companies and the men who ran them . . ." —Billboard
"Show me a man today who could stand up to a Syd Nathan or a Don Robey, and I'll show you a man behind bars—not behind a desk. Why, without Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records and the man who unearthed Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Rufus Thomas, and Howling Wolf to name but a few, there might not even have been any rock 'n' roll, electric blues, or rockabilly music."
—Al Kooper, from the Foreword
Rick Kennedy, a media relations manager and former journalist, is author of Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy (Indiana University Press).
Randy McNutt, a longtime reporter with the Cincinnati Enquirer, is author of We Wanna Boogie and a book on Ohio ghost towns.
March 2001 (cloth 1999) 224 pages, 33 b&w photos, 6 x 9, notes, bibl., index, append.
cloth0-253-33548-5$24.95 t / £18.95
paper0-253-21434-3$17.95 t / £13.95