ABSTRACT
Devoting his professional life to the preservation, promotion, and distribution of blues from the 1920s and 1930s, Nick Perls founded Yazoo Records in the late 1960s primarily to re-release out-of-print recordings. The work of singers and guitarists such as Charlie Patton, Blind Willie McTell, Memphis Jug Band, Blind Blake, and Blind Lemon Jefferson was reborn on Yazoo. While a catalog heavy with 40-year-old rarities is not bound for high profits, Perls operated from the safety net of a prosperous family (owner of the Perls art gallery in New York), and thus could indulge his musical passions with light regard for the bottom line. Perls was noted for his skill in remastering often worn copies of scarce 78-rpm recordings, and his label distinguished itself for the quality of its sound reproduction, excellent liner notes, and creative packaging. In 1973, he founded the associated Blue Goose label to release new recordings of blues and ragtime performers, including Larry Johnson, R. Crumb and His Cheap Suit Serenaders, and David A. Jasen. After Perls’s death at age 45, Yazoo was acquired by the slightly more mainstream label Shanachie Records.
