Bluesville Records was a subsidiary of Prestige Records, launched in 1959 or 1960, with the primary purpose of documenting the work of the older classic bluesmen passed over by the changing audience. Such bluesmen as Roosevelt Sykes, Lightnin' Hopkins, Rev. Gary Davis, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee recorded for the label, accounting for more than one-fourth of their overall output. By 1966, Bluesville stopped issuing LPs; items of blues-related interest appear to have then been diverted to Milestone Records, another imprint of Prestige.