Antone's was an American

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

based in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

History

Antone's Records & Tapes was founded by

Clifford Antone Clifford Antone (October 27, 1949 – May 22, 2006) was the founder of the eponymous Austin blues club Antone's and independent record label Antone's Records and Tapes, as well as a mentor to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan, Kim Wilson ...

(October 27, 1949 – May 22, 2006) in 1987. It specialized in

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

music, particularly the blues artists who performed at his blues nightclub Antone's, which opened on July 15, 1975 in

. In 1987, Antone also opened a record store named Antone's Record Shop in Austin, Texas. In 1993, the record label's name was simplified to Antone's Records. Antone's was awarded best local record label by ''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogra ...

'' readers in 1993. Texas Clef Entertainment Group, an affiliate of Antone's Records, acquired the assets of the defunct

Watermelon Records Watermelon Records was a record label based in Austin, Texas. History Watermelon Records was founded in 1989 by John Kunz, Heinz Gessler, and Robert Earl Keen. Keen later sold his interest in the label. During the 1990s, Watermelon released 10-1 ...

label. After Clifford Antone's death in 2006, the record label filed for bankruptcy. Masters of Antone's and Watermelon recordings went to

New West Records New West Records is a record label based in Nashville and Athens, Georgia. It previously had offices in Burbank, California and Beverly Hills, California. From 2013 to 2018, New West's records in the U.S. were distributed by Alternative Distrib ...

as part of the Texas Music Group.

Artists

Here is a partial list of artists who have released recordings on the Antone’s label. *

Marcia Ball Marcia Ball (born March 20, 1949) is an American blues singer and pianist raised in Vinton, Louisiana. Ball was described in ''USA Today'' as "a sensation, saucy singer and superb pianist... where Texas stomp-rock and Louisiana blues-swamp me ...

Angela Strehli Angela Strehli (born November 22, 1945) is an American electric blues singer and songwriter. She is also a Texas blues historian and impresario. Despite a sporadic recording career, Strehli spends time each year performing in Europe, the US an ...

, and

Lou Ann Barton Lou Ann Barton (born February 17, 1954) is an American blues singer based in Austin, Texas since the 1970s. AllMusic noted that "The grace, poise, and confidence she projects on-stage is part of a long tradition for women blues singers". Biogr ...

* Lou Ann Barton * Zuzu Bollin * Doyle Bramhall *

James Cotton James Henry Cotton (July 1, 1935 – March 16, 2017) was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who performed and recorded with many fellow blues artists and with his own band. He also played drums early in his career. ...

* Lewis Cowdrey *

Ronnie Earl Ronnie Earl (born Ronald Horvath, March 10, 1953, Queens, New York, United States) is an American blues guitarist and music instructor. Earl who grew up collecting various music records, pursued a degree in special education and education at Bo ...

Sue Foley Sue Foley (born March 29, 1968) is GRAMMY®-nominated multi-award-winning blues guitarist and singer/songwriter known for her fiery Texas blues style and refined acoustic touch. A five-timBlues Music Award winnerfor Traditional Female Artist, and ...

Barry Goldberg Barry Joseph Goldberg (December 25, 1941 – January 22, 2025) was an American blues and rock keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. Goldberg co-produced albums by Percy Sledge, Charlie Musselwhite, James Cotton, and the Textones, plu ...

* Steve James *

Candye Kane Candice Caleb (November 13, 1961 – May 6, 2016), known professionally as Candye Kane, was an American adult film star, and later a blues singer. She loved to sing as a young girl and appeared on "The Gong Show," as a child. She dreamed of a s ...

Lazy Lester Leslie Johnson (June 20, 1933 – August 22, 2018), known as Lazy Lester, was an American blues musician who sang and played the harmonica and guitar. In a career spanning the 1950s to 2018, he pioneered swamp blues, and also played harmonic ...

Barbara Lynn Barbara Lynn (born Barbara Lynn Ozen, later Barbara Lynn Cumby, January 16, 1942) is an American rhythm and blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. She is best known for her R&B chart-topping hit, " You'll Lose a Good Thing" ( ...

Pete Mayes Pete Mayes (born Floyd Davis Mayes, March 21, 1938 – December 16, 2008) was an American Texas blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. He was variously known as Texas Pete Mayes and T-Bone Man (because his guitar playing resembled that of his h ...

* Teddy Morgan * Johnny Nicholas *

Omar & the Howlers Omar And The Howlers is a Texas based electric blues and blues rock band, The original Howlers was formed in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 1973. Three years later they moved to Austin, Texas. The band has regularly toured European countries.

Pinetop Perkins Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins (July 7, 1913 – March 21, 2011) was an American blues pianist. He played with some of the most influential blues and rock-and-roll performers of his time and received numerous honors, including a Grammy Lifet ...

Toni Price Toni Price or Luiese Esther Price (March 13, 1961 – November 22, 2024) was an American country blues singer from Austin, Texas, United States. Price began her career in Nashville, where she recorded a few country music, country and western sin ...

Snooky Pryor James Edward "Snooky" Pryor (September 15, 1919 or 1921 – October 18, 2006) was an American Chicago blues harmonica player. He claimed to have pioneered the now-common method of playing amplified harmonica by cupping a small microphone in hi ...

Doug Sahm Douglas Wayne Sahm (November 6, 1941 – November 18, 1999) was an American musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from San Antonio, Texas. He is regarded as a key Tejano music, Tex-Mex music and Music of Texas, Texan Music pe ...

* Silent Partners * Angela Strehli *

Eddie Taylor Eddie Taylor (January 29, 1923 – December 25, 1985) was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. Biography Born Edward Taylor in Benoit, Mississippi, as a boy Taylor taught himself to play the guitar. He spent his early years playing ...

* Eddie Taylor,

Memphis Slim John Len Chatman (September 3, 1915 – February 24, 1988), known professionally as Memphis Slim, was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxopho ...

, and

Matt "Guitar" Murphy Matthew Tyler Murphy (December 29, 1929 – June 15, 2018), known as Matt "Guitar" Murphy, was an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. He was associated with Memphis Slim, The Blues Brothers and Howlin' Wolf. In 2012, Murphy was electe ...

Luther Tucker Luther Tucker (January 20, 1936 – June 18, 1993) was an American blues guitarist. While soft-spoken and shy, Tucker made his presence known through his unique and clearly recognizable guitar style. Tucker helped to define the music known as ...

Lavelle White Lillia Lavell "Lavelle" White (born July 3, 1929) is an American Texas blues and soul blues singer and songwriter. After performing most of her adult lifetime, White released three albums, the first of which was issued in 1994, when she was aged ...

Kim Wilson Kim Wilson (born January 6, 1951) is an American blues singer and harmonica player. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman for The Fabulous Thunderbirds on two hit songs of the 1980s, " Tuff Enuff" (which was the group's only Top ...

References

External links

Clifford Antone's official site
www.CliffordAntone.com
Antone's Records & Tapes
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

Antone's Records
at

Antone's Night Club official site
www.AntonesNightClub.com
Antone's Record Shop official site
www.AntonesRecordShop.com * NewWestRecords.com {{Authority control American independent record labels Music of Austin, Texas

History

Artists

See also

References

External links