Genre Country, bluegrass Founded 1975 | Location Los Angeles, CA Country of origin United States of America | |
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Founders Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith, Martin Haerle Subsidiaries Vitamin Records, Dwell Records, Hushabye Baby, Modern Meditations Artists Pickin' On, Osborne Brothers, Mac Wiseman, Iron Horse, Don Reno Albums Pickin' on Modest Mouse, Pickin' on the Grateful Dead: A T, Gone Phishin, Fade to Bluegrass: The Blue, Lonesome Skynyrd Time Profiles | ||
Founded in 1975, CMH Records is a Los Angeles based independent country and bluegrass label with several subsidiary labels, including Vitamin Records, Crosscheck, Dwell, and Rockabye Baby!, which release diverse styles of music including string quartet tributes, punk, metal, and lullabies, respectively.
Contents
History
CMH co-founder Martin Haerle grew up in Stuttgart, Germany during World War II, where he heard American country music on Armed Forced Radio. At the age of 20 he moved to Nashville to work in the mailroom at Starday Records, where he learned the record business from legendary label president and A&R man Don Pierce. Haerle was promoted to vice president by the early 1960s, and later worked in country radio. In 1968, he became general manager of United Artists Records' manufacturing division.
In 1975, Haerle formed CMH in Los Angeles with Arthur Smith, the renowned guitarist who wrote both the million-selling “Guitar Boogie” and "Dueling Banjos," the bluegrass standard made famous by the movie Deliverance. By the mid 1970s, major country labels including RCA and MCA had dropped all of their bluegrass acts, with the notable exception of Bill Monroe. CMH was one of a small number of independent labels that cropped up to fill the void.
Haerle and Smith signed many major first-generation bluegrass artists, some contemporary bluegrass groups, and several important country artists. Writes Jonny Whiteside in LA Weekly, "They churned a slow but steady series of albums by out-of-fashion geniuses, like Merle Travis, Joe and Rose Lee Maphis and Grandpa Jones, carving out a corner of the market for marginalized and ignored country stars (much the way his mentor Pierce did at Starday Records in the 1960s)."
Between 1975 and 1988, CMH released albums by Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass, The Osborne Brothers, Jim & Jesse, Mac Wiseman, Carl Story, The Stonemans, Josh Graves, Don Reno, Benny Martin, The Bluegrass Cardinals, IInd Generation featuring Eddie Adcock, Grandpa Jones, Merle Travis, Joe Maphis, Johnny Gimble, Carl & Pearl Butler, and the only studio album by legendary songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant.
When Martin Haerle died in 1990, his son David Haerle stepped in to run the label, and created the “Pickin’ On” series, which consists of bluegrass tributes to rock, pop and country artists including Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Chesney, Led Zeppelin and The Offspring. The first title in the series was Pickin' On The Beatles (1994), but it wasn't until three years later that the concept took off with the success of Pickin' On The Grateful Dead.
CMH continues to release bluegrass tributes, compilations of traditional bluegrass and country, and studio albums by well-known artists.
Labels under the CMH umbrella include Vitamin Records, Rockabye Baby!, Dwell, Crosscheck, Scufflin', PanAm, Urabon, Rockwell, OCD International, School of Rock, and Open Mike.
Partial discography
A discography of LPs released between 1973 and 1988 can be found here.
Features songs the Beatles wrote but never recorded. Brian Gari, a musician and Beatles scholar, approached CMH with the concept of recording these songs with vintage instruments, similar to those that the Beatles used. The album was mastered at Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles recorded most all of their albums.
Van Halen tributes performed by renowned bluegrass bands such as Blue Highway, Mountain Heart, The John Cowan Band, Iron Horse (band), and David Grisman and Sons. David Lee Roth sings on two tracks backed by the John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band.
Bluegrass-tinged covers from the former lead singer of the Mavericks and several top country and bluegrass instrumentalists.
Studio album from Grammy-nominated rockabilly pioneer with special guests The Cramps, Rosie Flores, Elvis Costello, Lee Rocker, and Dave Alvin.
Performed by Iron Horse (band), a bluegrass band from Muscle Shoals Alabama.
Performed by Nate Leath (Fiddle, Vocals), Darrell Muller (Bass), Jess Harper (Guitar), Ben Krakauer (Banjo), and Pete Frostic (Mandolin).
Artists
This is a list of artists who have recorded with CMH Records and their associated labels.
CMH Records
Eddie Adcock
Badlands
Bass Mountain Boys
Benny Martin
Bluegrass Cardinals
Johnny Bond
Felice and Boudleaux Bryant
Carl Butler and Pearl
Cache Valley Drifters
Carolina Road
Larry Cordle
Lonesome Standard Time
Carter Falco
Lester Flatt
Jimmy Gaudreau
Johnny Gimble
Josh Graves
Heights of Grass
Wanda Jackson
Jim & Jesse
Grandpa Jones
Raul Malo, Pat Flynn (musician), Rob Ickes, & Dave Pomeroy
Manuela (singer)
Joe Maphis
Jimmy Martin
The Masters (Jesse McReynolds, Josh Graves, Kenny Baker (fiddler), Eddie Adcock)
Mose McCormick
The Nashville Grass
The Osborne Brothers
Wynn Osborne
David Parmley & Continental Divide
Pickin' On Series
Pine Mountain Railroad
Pinnacle Boys
Don Reno
David Lee Roth
Colonel Jim Silvers
Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith
Buddy Spicher
The Stonemans
Carl Story
Marty Stuart
Merle Travis
The Willis Brothers
Mac Wiseman
OCD International
Kool Keith (Dr. Octagon)
Dwell Records
Antagonist (band)
Behemoth
Coffin Texts
Evoken
Exhausted Prayer
Fight Pretty
Hail! Hornet
Inner Thought
It Is I
Mayhem
Opera IX
Soilent Green
Stormcrow
The Chasm (band)
Crosscheck Records
Electric Frankenstein
Hammer Bros.
Street Dogs
U.S. Bombs
Vice Dolls
Scufflin' Records
Lonnie Smith (jazz musician)
Reuben Wilson
Bernie Worrell
Secret Life of Records
Violent Femmes