Red Pajamas Records was an independent 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, ...

founded in 1982 by Chicago singer-songwriter

Steve Goodman Steven Benjamin Goodman (July 25, 1948 – September 20, 1984) was an American folk and country singer-songwriter from Chicago. He wrote the song " City of New Orleans", which was recorded by artists including Arlo Guthrie, John Denver, The ...

and his manager Al Bunetta. Between 1983 and his death in 1984, Goodman released two albums on Red Pajamas: ''Artistic Hair'' and ''Affordable Art''. Two more, ''

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'' and the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

-winning ''Unfinished Business'', were released posthumously in 1984 and 1987. Red Pajamas Records operated under the management of

Oh Boy Records Oh Boy Records is an independent American record label founded in 1981 by singer John Prine, his manager Al Bunetta, and their friend Dan Einstein. The label has released more than 40 audio and video recordings by singer-songwriters Prine, Kris ...

, which was owned by Goodman's friend

John Prine John Edward Prine (; October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter of country-folk music. Widely cited as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, Prine was known for his signature blend of humoro ...

. Red Pajamas released archival live performances by Goodman, compilations, and reissues of his earlier material. The label also released three recordings of tribute performances by Goodman's friends.

Origin

Between 1971 and 1980, singer-songwriter Steve Goodman recorded first on the Buddah label, then on

Asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea * ...

. During this time he wrote and recorded such enduring songs as "

City of New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

", a 1972 Top 20 hit for

Arlo Guthrie Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk music, folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing protest song, songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his fa ...

and a 1984 #1 Hot Country Single for

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...

; and "You Never Even Call Me By My Name", which was made famous by

David Allan Coe David Allan Coe (born September 6, 1939) is an American singer and songwriter. Coe took up music after spending much of his early life in reform schools and prisons, and first became notable for busking in Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville. He ini ...

in 1974. Following the release of the album ''Hot Spot'' in 1980, his contract with Asylum ended and Goodman moved to Seal Beach, California. Goodman had been suffering from leukemia for more than ten years, and around this time he came out of remission. Performing was difficult and he wanted to record again, but not with a major label. He decided to create his own label, and Red Pajamas Records was born with the assistance of Goodman's long-time manager Al Bunetta.

Early releases

For Goodman's first release on Red Pajamas, Bunetta and Dan Einstein edited down 70 hours of live performance tapes. The sources included concerts in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia, TV appearances on ''

Austin City Limits ''Austin City Limits'' is an American Concert, live music Television show, television program recorded and produced by KLRU, Austin PBS. The show helped Austin become widely known in the United States as the "Live Music Capital of the World", an ...

'' and an HBO Johnny Cash special, and even bootleg concert tapes. (As Goodman's manager, Bunetta had for years been confiscating these tapes made by concertgoers who didn't have permission to record Goodman's shows.) The resulting album ''Artistic Hair'' was released in 1983. The title refers to the cover photo, which shows Goodman's chemotherapy-induced hair loss. At first, Red Pajamas Records was a mail-order business, with Goodman and his wife Nancy receiving orders for ''Artistic Hair'' and shipping copies themselves at a rate of 5 or 6 per day. When Goodman's condition improved he went back into the studio and recorded three more albums. ''Affordable Art'', with both live and studio cuts, was released in 1983, but then Goodman died in September 1984. ''Santa Ana Winds'' was released posthumously late in 1984. The appropriately titled ''Unfinished Business'' was released in 1987, and in

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

it won a

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album was awarded from 1987 to 2011. Until 1991 the award was known as the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. In 2007, this category was renamed Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album. As ...

Later releases

The next two Red Pajamas releases of Goodman's music were compilations drawn from the earlier Asylum material, followed by a two-disc retrospective with both live and studio cuts (''No Big Surprise''.) In 1996 ''The Easter Tapes'' was released, a live album edited from a series of performances taped by DJ

Vin Scelsa Vincent Anthony Scelsa (born December 12, 1947, in Bayonne, New Jersey) is an American broadcaster who was at "the forefront of the FM radio revolution" as the host of several freeform radio programs, the best-known titled ''Idiot's Delight''. ...

at New York radio station

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in the 1970s. The next five releases were reissues of the Asylum albums from 1975 to 1980. In 2000, another live album of a concert from the 1980s was released (''Live Wire'') and critics called it a treasure. In 2003, Red Pajamas released a video containing two of Goodman's performances on the TV program

from 1977 and 1982. The video included interviews with Goodman and others. A 2006 audio release featured Goodman in a 1978 concert at Chicago's Earl of Old Town, and included musicians

Corky Siegel Mark Paul "Corky" Siegel (born October 24, 1943) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and composer. He plays harmonica and piano. He plays and writes blues and blues-rock music, and has also worked extensively on combining blues and cla ...

on harmonica, Hugh McDonald on bass,

Jethro Burns Jethro is a male given name meaning "excellence". It is derived from the Hebrew word ''Yithrô''. People named Jethro * Kenneth C. "Jethro" Burns (1920–1989), mandolin player in satirical country music duo Homer and Jethro * Jethro Frankli ...

on mandolin, and composer

David Amram David Werner Amram III (born November 17, 1930) is an American composer, arranger, and conductor of orchestral, chamber, and choral works, many with jazz flavorings.

on pennywhistle and percussion. In 2008, the label released an Extended Play CD titled ''The Baseball Singles'' containing 4 Goodman songs with baseball-themed lyrics, including " Go, Cubs, Go." The final release in 2013 was ''Don't Blame Me'', a live concert from 1973.

Tributes

Red Pajamas produced three tributes featuring friends of Goodman, two on audio and one on video. The first was 1986's ''Tribute To Steve Goodman'', with Prine,

Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (; born November 8, 1949) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In 1971, Raitt released her Bonnie Raitt (album), self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed Americana (mu ...

, Fred Holstein, Bonnie Koloc and others. Next was '' My Old Man'', compiled ten years later by Goodman's daughter Rosanna. The album included interpretations of Goodman's compositions by her friends

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. A Pop music, pop and hip-hop-influenced contemporary R&B, R&B musician who works in a variety of genres, he has been called the "Honorific nic ...

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and others, and included Rosanna's own delivery of the title tune, written by her father Steve about her grandfather Bud. The third tribute was the 2007 DVD ''Larger Than Life'', a fundraiser for the

Old Town School of Folk Music The Old Town School of Folk Music is a Chicago teaching and performing institution that launched the careers of many notable folk music artists. Founded by Folk musicians Frank Hamilton and Win Stracke, and Dawn Greening, the School opened in t ...

featuring Arlo Guthrie,

Lyle Lovett Lyle Pearce Lovett (born November 1, 1957) Lyle Lovett Pageat Allmusic – Lovett's Genre and Styles. Retrieved February 2, 2007 is an American country singer and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded 14 albums and released 25 singles to dat ...

Jackson Browne Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American rock musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 30 million albums in the United States. Emerging as a teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he had his ...

Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, bandleader, and activist. She is considered one of the leading music artists behind the country rock genre in the 1970s and the Americana (music), Americana genre ...

and John Prine.

Discography

References