Ken Irwin (left), Marian Leighton Levy, and Bill Nowlin
Tomorrow, October 22 will be 40 years since the release of the first two Rounder Records albums, Rounder 0001 George Pegram and Rounder 0002, The Spark Gap Wonder Boys. It wasn't until 1971 that we released our first bluegrass album, 0003 Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys' "One Morning in May."
It really DOESN'T seem like "only yesterday", but it doesn't seem nearly that long ago. Bill and Marian and I all pretty much expected we'd be teachers some day, and - in a sense - we have been involved in teaching of sorts, helping to try to get attention for a wide variety of minority-taste music (but pleased to see several of our "roots music" artists succeeding on larger stages as the years have passed.) At the same time, we've been long time students, learning from everyone we could. We've become part of a great community which includes incredible artists, fans, managers, agents, talent buyers, media people and so many more.
It's been almost exactly six months since we joined the Concord Music Group, and it's been a very good experience. There's always some trepidation regarding the unknown but Concord's reputation preceded it and we really have found the people at Concord to be good allies as we confront these rapidly-changing times.
We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you and the greater bluegrass community for your support of bluegrass and other roots musics over the years.
Year 41 starts on Saturday.
Thanks,
The Rounders
The message above was posted by Ken Irwin to the Boston Bluegrass Union's listserve.
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