Bloodshot Records, 'Country Label With a Punk Rock Attitude,' Returns

By Mark Guarino

Chicago's Bloodshot Records was a powerful and pioneering force in the alt-country movement of the 1990s and beyond, defining the genre with a roster of breakthrough artists including the Robbie Fulks, Old 97s, Alejandro Escovedo, the Waco Brothers, Neko Case, Justin Townes Earle, and the Bottle Rockets. In 2021, 27 years after its first release, label co-founders Nan Warshaw and Rob Miller sold Bloodshot to Exceleration Music, a global investment group that either owns the catalogs of or has strategic partnerships with other legacy labels like Alligator Records and Kill Rock Stars.

At the time, Exceleration said it planned to largely manage and monetize Bloodshot's back catalog. But this month it is releasing "Music Man," a new album by Layng Martine Jr., a veteran Nashville songwriter who has written hits for legends like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Trisha Yearwood, Reba McEntire, and the Pointer Sisters, among many others. It is one of five new albums Bloodshot is set to release this year, said Dave Hansen, an Exeleration principal.

"What we loved about Bloodshot was it was country with a punk rock attitude. It had an edge," Hansen said. "We love putting out new music and we think we have opportunity, the resources, and the team to do it. Everybody is ready to work."

Howard Greynolds, a Chicago-based artist manager (Iron & Wine, Lydia Loveless, Glen Hansard) and Kenny Schnurstein, a Los Angeles-based artist manager (JD McPherson) are both handling day-to-day operations for the label, including serving as A&R representatives to scout new talent.

Hansen said Bloodshot's online store is being rebuilt to sell the back catalog and a new website will be relaunched soon. The label's social media channels are also newly active. Bloodshot will have expanded distribution globally, except for Canada, through a worldwide deal with Redeye, Hansen said. Among those releasing new Bloodshot albums this year are Lydia Loveless, Scott Biram and Jason Hawk Harris, all artists formerly on the label, and the Watson Twins, a new signing.

Besides the new music, Bloodshot is underway with an extensive reissue campaign of some of the label's most successful releases. This year alone Bloodshot will reissue vinyl versions of "Gone Away Backwards" by Fulks, "A Man Under the Influence" by Escovedo, "Wreck Your Life" by the Old 97s, and "Somewhere Else" by Loveless. Earle's entire output on Bloodshot will get color vinyl editions and Wayne Hancock's "A-Town Blues" will be issued for the first time on vinyl. More reissues are expected in 2024.

Getting Bloodshot back on its feet took time, Hansen said, because, unlike the other legacy labels Exceleration acquired, the label had a fractious demise before being sold. In 2019 over social media, Loveless accused Warshaw's domestic partner of sexually harassing her, both verbally and physically, over several years. (No criminal charges were sought.) At the same time, local reporting showed that Bloodshot owed at least $500,000 in unpaid royalties and related earnings to some artists and songwriters. The revelations caused Warshaw to resign while retaining 50 percent of the company, and she and Miller remained in a standstill until the 2021 sale.

Hansen said by the time Exceleration entered the picture "there was a lot of anger" among people involved with the label and even among fans. Dealing with past accounting was an issue, but Exceleration worked hard to resolve past debts. Some artists, like Jon Langford and the Waco Brothers, were able to obtain the rights to their recordings and are no longer on the label.

"We have come in to try to do the right thing by artists who had been on the label and to try to get opportunities for new artists to record and to honor the legacy," he said. "In a genuine way, we’re trying to pick up the scraps and honor these records and all the good things that Bloodshot did."

"Music Man" is a co-release with Kill Rock Stars thanks to the involvement of label founder Slim Moon, who signed the songwriter to his KRS Nashville imprint in 2022, but later realized it "made more sense as a Bloodshot record." (Kill Rock Stars, the label that cemented its legacy with landmark records by Elliott Smith, Bikini Kill, among others, is a subsidiary of Exceleration.) Moon, who started his label in 1991, sees Exceleration as a "steward" of Kill Rock Stars and said the company operates differently from most parent companies "that are buying up catalogs like they were stocks and bonds."

"They’re really creating a label group as well as investing in the copyrights and recordings. They are building an inhouse structure to help us thrive," he said. Exceleration is handling manufacturing and distribution while Moon focuses on marketing and A&R. That newfound resolve to release a new generation of Bloodshot releases is why Tucker Martine, the producer of "Music Man" and Layng's son, decided to work with the label.

"I’m a Bloodshot fan … when I’d see their name on a record, I knew it would have at least one foot in Americana, but I also knew it would be great," he said. "The fact ["Music Man"] will be part of the label's relaunch means some excitement and a reinvigorated energy around the release."

Martine assembled a band of younger musicians, all friends, to record newer versions of his father's songs that date back to the 1970s. "It's a great way to celebrate him," he said.