Shout! Factory Acquires Hightone Records Catalog: 3/31/2008 |
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Co-owners Larry Sloven and Bruce Bromberg formed HighTone in Oakland, CA in 1983 when Bromberg was working with Robert Cray, producing Cray’s second album Bad Influence. After pitching the album to labels such as Arista, Rounder and Alligator, Bromberg and Sloven decided to put it out themselves. HighTone Records was born.
After first releasing Cray’s album, then a number of other blues and gospel records, HighTone went on to release records of various genres, favoring styles that approached traditional music in a fresh way. Cray is an example of this, as helped the blues find a new audience with his combination of new and traditional elements. HighTone Records also includes the reissue imprint Testament, which has focused on classic blues artists. Following their love of country music, from early on HighTone’s founders wanted to focus on meaningful country music that was original, non-Nashville, and left of center.
Shout! will endeavor to promote the much lauded HighTone brand by releasing favorites from the extensive catalog beginning in August and by making the titles more widely available digitally. |
