Bloodshot Records
| Bloodshot Records | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Founded | 1993 |
| Founder | Nan Warshaw Rob Miller Eric Babcock (former partner from 1993–1997) |
| Genre |
Alternative country Insurgent country Roots Twang Americana |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois U.S. |
| Official website | bloodshotrecords |
Bloodshot Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois that specializes in roots-infused indie rock, punk rock, and alternative country.
Bloodshot Records was founded in 1993 by Nan Warshaw, Rob Miller, and Eric Babcock. Warshaw and Miller met in 1992 when they bonded over a passion for country music and began to regularly deejay on Wednesday country nights at a Chicago bar called Crash Palace, now called Delilah's. Both Warshaw and Miller had played in bands, had deejayed at their local college radio stations, and had worked in different areas of the music business. Warshaw had booked tours for bands she was friends with and had worked as a publicist for the band KillBilly who released a record on Flying Fish Records, where co-founder Babcock worked. Active in what was then an underground, burgeoning underground music scene in Chicago with a country root thread running through it, Warshaw and Miller made a wishlist of unheralded bands and musicians they loved on a cocktail napkin while having drinks at a bar.
That cocktail napkin list eventually became the label's first release, a 1994 compilation called For A Life of Sin: A Compilation of Insurgent Chicago Country that Warshaw, Miller and Babcock self-funded. The album, which documented the Chicago music scene Warshaw and Miller saw at the time, included artists such as The Bottle Rockets and Robbie Fulks as well as long-time local Chicago band, The Sundowners. Using the compilation format, Bloodshot organized record release shows in multiple cities with four of five bands on each night's line up, which allowed a wide press presence for the small label, where the bands could sell what turned out to be some of the bands' first records at the multi-band lineup shows. The record was self-distributed and sold on consignment, with enough success that the record was paid for and there was funds to do another compilation.
A year later, in 1995, the label released their second compilation album Hell Bent: Insurgent Country Volume 2. The album included band from all over the country, and Bloodshot continued to put on events showcasing the bands involved with the making of the record. Although well received by critics, Bloodshot had very tight financial constraints, and worked under the model of not starting a new project until the prior project had paid for itself. Also challenging was establishing Bloodshot's brand, a mixture of country, punk, and folk that had no prior precedence. The name of the music genre was a point of contention, with some grouping the unique, hard-to-classify singer-songwriter music under the alternative country and some grouping it under the Americana label.
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