Philo Records (folk)

Philo Records was founded in 1973 by half-brothers Michael Couture and Bill Schubart to record and distribute folk and traditional music. Over the course of its nine-year history, before its sale to Rounder Records in 1982, Philo produced roughly 100 albums of folk, traditional, and later, jazz, world, and new music from a converted barn-studio in North Ferrisburg, Vermont. Philo's allure to many established and emerging artists was its policy of giving them full control over their productions and repertoire.

Philo Records (as distinct from the Philo Records founded in California in 1945 by Eddie, Leo and Ira Messner, a jazz and R&B label) was founded in 1973 in a barn in North Ferrisburg, Vermont by half-brothers Bill Schubart and Michael Couture. The two brothers shared a love of eclectic music and Couture was himself a performing musician, while Schubart had long dabbled in recording various folk and classical groups. Schubart bought a vacant dairy barn on eight acres in 1969 that had been recently used to raise pigs, steam-cleaned it and elicited the help of an architect friend, Arthur Norcross, to create a home recording studio. The studio opened as Earth Audio Techniques in 1972. Schubart and Couture founded Philo Records to produce and distribute some of the music they had recorded at Earth Audio.

The first two releases in 1973 were Philo 1000 The UVM Choral Union performing The Psalmody and Fuguing tunes of Justin Morgan (of Morgan Horse fame) and Philo 2000 Louis Beaudoin, the soon to become renowned French-Canadian fiddler. These two releases loosely defined the 1000 series of more popular releases and the 2000 series that was more strictly roots or traditional music. In 1979, the 9000 series was added to include jazz, world and new music releases.

Philo’s aesthetic hallmark was its artist-centered culture. The prevailing industry employment of sA&R (artists & repertoire) executives who choose material, hire arrangers and sidemen, and then oversee the production of market-ready music was never adopted at Philo. Schubart and Couture chose musicians, not for only their renown, but for their ability to perform live outside the studio. They often opted to record unknown artists whose work they respected and gave them full control over their own production and choice of sidemen. Their goal was to capture on LP the artist’s own vision of their music. There was no prescribed company vision. This, of course, cut both ways. The company produced a number of releases that received significant critical acclaim but sold only a few hundred copies. It also led to considerable success and the debut of a number of new faces in the folk, traditional and, later, new music fields such as: Tom Mitchell, Kilimanjaro, Mary McCaslin and Jim Ringer

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