Adelphi Records

Lore & Background

Adelphi Records was founded by Gene Rosenthal, who crafted the label name to evoke the Greek oracle, nearby Adelphi, Maryland, and a John Fahey song. Rosenthal's extensive field recordings began in 1964, before the label was founded, and expanded to include film documentation from early/mid 1969, covering sessions in Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, and the Mississippi Delta. In the 1970s, the label issued folk, jazz, and blues-rock albums. Mid-1970s best-selling artists included the Nighthawks and the Rosslyn Mountain Boys. By the late 1970s, sales and growth had significantly expanded, particularly in the early 1980s when Adelphi established its wholly owned subsidiary Sunsplash Records to issue Jamaican reggae performances from the 1982 Reggae Sunsplash Festival. Musician signings continued into the 1990s and resumed in the 2000s with studio sessions in New Orleans by Ken Swartz & The Palace of Sin, and in Silver Spring, Maryland sessions with the Rose Sheehan Group including vocals by Lisa Null.

Reader's Guide

Adelphi Records holds significance as an independent label that documented a wide range of American and international music, particularly through its field recordings that began in 1964 and later included film. Its blues-rock releases in the 1970s were notably important to the genre's development. The label's expansion into reggae via Sunsplash Records in the early 1980s captured performances from the Reggae Sunsplash Festival. Adelphi's catalog includes blues, jazz, folk, rock, and reggae artists, preserving performances by figures such as Rev. Gary Davis, Skip James, Bukka White, Yellowman, and Lenny Breau. The label's legacy lies in its eclectic output and its role in documenting regional and genre-specific music, particularly from the Mississippi Delta and other American roots traditions, as well as Jamaican reggae.

Did You Know?

• The label name was partly inspired by a John Fahey song, 'The Downfall of the Adelphi Rolling Grist Mill'.
• Adelphi's field recordings began in 1964 and expanded to include film documentation from early/mid 1969.
• In the mid-1970s, two of Adelphi's biggest selling artists were the Nighthawks and the Rosslyn Mountain Boys.