Two iconic musicians joined forces last fall to chronicle the story of one of America’s most significant record labels, and now they’ve reconvened to finish the job.
Jack White’s Third Man Records has partnered with John Fahey’s Revenant Records to release The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records, Volume Two (1928-1932), the sequel and conclusion to last year’s Volume One (1917-1927).
The collection — due out on November 18 — will cover Paramount’s final five years, in which the label gave birth to the entire genre of Mississippi Delta blues and issued several of the most prized recordings in history from artists such as Skip James, Charley Patton, Son House, Tommy Johnson, Geeshie Wiley, The Mississippi Sheiks, Willie Brown, King Solomon Hill, and hundreds more.
Volume 2 comprises six LPs, a sculpted metal USB with 800 songs and over ninety original hand-drawn ads from the Chicago Defender, a large-format book depicting the label’s history, as well as an illustrated Field Guide with bios and for each artist represented in the collection. The set is packaged in a streamline case of polished aluminum modeled after a 1930s Art Deco phonograph.
For more information, visit Third Man Records.