This November, Jack White’s “Thirdman Records” and John Fahey’s “Revenant Records” will come together one more time and present “The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records, Volume 2 (1928-1932).” This last stand for America’s powerhouse recording studios will pick up where Volume 1 left off. The music set will give people the opportunity to listen to the founding fathers of Mississippi blues.
Five years after Volume 1, men such as Daddy of the Delta Blues Charlie Patton, Preachin’ Mississippi Bluesman Son House, Willie Brown, Skip James, Blind Blake to the Mississippi Sheiks and many more are featured. Traveling to Grafton, WI, the birthplace of Paramount Records, these men were not coming in for anything but a reckoning. With this platform, which can nether be denied nor resisted, they brought us the blues.
According to “Thirdman Records,” this cabinet-of-wonder box set, “contains: 800 newly-remastered digital tracks, representing 175 artists, 90+ fully-restored original 1920s-1930s Paramount ads from Chicago Defender, Six 180 gram LPs pressed on alabaster-white label-less vinyl, each side with its own hand-etched numeral and holographic image, 250 page large-format clothbound hardcover book featuring original Paramount art and the label’s curious tale, 400 page encyclopedia-style softcover field guide containing artist biographies and portraits and full Paramount discography, Polished aluminum and stainless steel cabinet, evoking 1930s high art deco stylings and America’s own Machine Age modernism and First-of-its-kind music and image player app containing all tracks and ads, housed on a sculpted metal USB drive.” The set does not only bring people back to vinyl, where the music all started with, but it is then canonized and catapulted into the 21st century with the addition of the USB port. This not only gives the listener a fully evolved listening experience but makes it the listener’s responsibility to keep this music alive, well past our present time.
So if this not only intrigues you but makes you want to experience this Wisconsin gem even further, I welcome you to explore the beautiful town of Grafton to get a real sense of the music; from the ruins of the record shop, to Paramount Plaza, and taking walks outside ATLAS BBQ restaurant to the other historic preserved buildings. If you go up to Grafton in person or purchase the box set, please let their words not only swell inside you but change the way you perceive your own music. These pioneers of music were the ones that gave our music its direction in the first place.