Editing Rounder Records (section)

===1970s: George Pegram, Norman Blake, Rounder 0044, George Thorogood===
Financed with Irwin's savings of $1500, Rounder was founded in 1970 in the Somerville apartment, a living/working/political collective.<ref name="Cambridge" /> The name Rounder was chosen for several reasons: the shape of a vinyl record, the nickname for a hobo, and the name of the folk band [[The Holy Modal Rounders]].<ref name="RR Corp">{{cite web|title=Rounder Records Corporation|url=http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/83/Rounder-Records-Corporation.html|website=Reference for Business|access-date=5 June 2016}}</ref> Levy, Irwin and Nowlin also self-identified as "Rounders", the name reflecting the "outlaw self-image of three romantics who positioned themselves in opposition to capitalism, the programmatic rigidity of the old Left, and the more doctrinaire cultural rules of the folk revival itself."<ref name = "neverending">'The Never-ending Revival Rounder Records and the Folk Alliance' Book by Michael F. Scully 2008 University of Illinois Press Urbana and Chicago {{ISBN|978-0-252-03333-9}}</ref> The lawyer who drew up Rounder's papers of incorporation did so in exchange for two Rounder albums.<ref name="RS GT">{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/interview-george-thorogood-and-the-destroyers-238390/|title=Interview: George Thorogood and the Destroyers|last1=Young|first1=Charles M.|date=1979-03-22|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-10}}</ref> 
<ref name="Bluegrass HoF">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bluegrasshall.org/inductees/the-rounder-founders/|title=The Rounder Founders|website=Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum|date=30 November 2018 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-27}}</ref>

Irwin and Nowlin were introduced to [[Fiddle|fiddle music]] through a [[Folkways Records|Folkways]] recording of the 34th Old Time Fiddlers Convention, and in late 1969 (sources differ), for $125 {{USDCY|125|1969}}, they bought the rights to a tape by a 76-year-old banjo player, George Pegram, who had been a star of the Fiddlers Convention.<ref name="Cambridge" /> It became Rounder's first release, Rounder 0001. Rounder 0002 was by the Spark Gap Wonder Boys; a local band, the album was recorded at the Harvard and MIT radio stations for "the cost of the tape." 500 copies of each record were pressed. Both were released on October 20, 1970.<ref name="Music Row 2015" /><ref name="Cambridge" /> To boost the label's credibility—and get local record stores to stock their releases—Irwin, Nowlin, and Levy started distributing other small folk labels, and began selling albums at music festivals.<ref name="RR Corp" />

In 1971, the label released its first bluegrass album, ''One Morning in May,'' by [[Joe Val|Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys]]. Over the next several years, they released bluegrass albums by old-time artists ([[Snuffy Jenkins]] and Pappy Sherrill, Highwoods Stringband, and [[The Blue Sky Boys]]), traditional bluegrass artists ([[Don Stover]], Ted Lundy, [[Del McCoury]], [[The Bailey Brothers and the Happy Valley Boys|The Bailey Brothers]], [[Buzz Busby]]), and progressive bluegrass artists, most notably by Country Cooking and [[Tony Trischka]].<ref name="Bluegrass HoF" />

Believing that "music doesn't discriminate," Nowlin, Irwin and Leighton-Levy sought out female artists, then a rarity in the bluegrass world,<ref name="Himes">{{Cite book|title=The Rounder Records Story|last=Himes|first=Geoffrey|publisher=Concord|year=2010}}</ref> and in the early 1970s released albums by [[Hazel Dickens]] and [[Alice Gerrard]], who recorded as Hazel & Alice, and [[Ola Belle Reed]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/02/7-women-who-are-smashing-the-bluegrass-glass-ceili.html|title=7 Women Smashing the Bluegrass Glass Ceiling|website=pastemagazine.com|language=en|access-date=2019-04-02|date=2017-02-09}}</ref> By 1974, Rounder had put out 22 records, including the label's breakthrough album, [[Norman Blake (American musician)|Norman Blake]]'s ''[[Home in Sulphur Springs]]''. Realizing that Rounder was no longer a part-time pursuit, Irwin resigned from his job—he was a professor at the [[University of Lowell]]—and Nowlin and Levy left graduate school to run Rounder full-time.<ref name="Cambridge" /><ref name="Billboard Three Decades"/> 
<ref>{{Cite book|title=Crowe on the banjo : the music life of J.D. Crowe|last=Marty|first=Godbey|date=2011|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252093531|location=Urbana|oclc=759907747}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bluegrasstoday.com/rounder-to-reissue-0044-on-vinyl/|title=Rounder to reissue 0044 on vinyl|date=2016-03-14|website=Bluegrass Today|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-20}}</ref>

In 1975, Rounder released the [[J. D. Crowe & The New South|self-titled debut album]] by [[J. D. Crowe]] and [[New South (band)|The New South]]. Called one of the "most pioneering and influential records in the history of bluegrass" by allmusic.com,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/jd-crowe-the-new-south-mw0000189683|title=J.D. Crowe & the New South - J.D. Crowe & the New South {{!}} Songs, Reviews, Credits|website=AllMusic|language=en-us|access-date=2019-04-02}}</ref> it was commonly referred to by its stock number, Rounder 0044.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704299804575095580934398368|title=Rounder Records at 40|last=Mazor|first=Barry|date=2010-03-03|work=Wall Street Journal|access-date=2019-04-02|language=en-US|issn=0099-9660}}</ref> The program notes from the 2016 Bluegrass Hall of Fame Induction ceremony stated that the record "did much to chart the course of bluegrass for the balance of the 1970s and beyond."<ref name="Bluegrass HoF"/>

In addition to new music, Rounder re-released 78 rpm discs from the 1920s and 1930s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://library.wit.edu/guides/humn-4345/record-labels|title=Douglas D. Schumann Library & Learning Commons: HUMN 4345: History of American Folk Music: Folk Music Record Labels|last=O'Connell|first=Daniel|website=library.wit.edu|language=en|access-date=2019-04-26}}</ref> 

In the mid-1970s, with a catalog of about 200 LPs by acoustic artists, the label expanded its bluegrass focus to include folk, blues and other styles of music, notably signing [[NRBQ]], [[Arlen Roth]] and [[George Thorogood and the Destroyers]].<ref name="Globe 1976">{{Cite news|title=Sweet Sounds of Folk from Medford|last=Morse|first=Steve|date=August 12, 1976|work=The Boston Globe|page=60}}</ref> In May 1977, Rounder released NRBQ's ''All Hopped Up''. Later that year, George Thorogood and the Destroyers' [[George Thorogood and the Destroyers (album)|eponymous debut]] was released; although it was rooted in blues, it was more of a rock album than any of the label's previous releases. Within a year, the record sold more than 75,000 copies, a substantial achievement at the time for an independently distributed record. Rounder released the Destroyers' second album, ''[[Move It on Over (album)|Move it on Over]]'', in 1978. The title track, a [[Hank Williams]] cover, was released as a single and received heavy FM airplay. The album entered the [[American Top 40]] and went gold, as did the band's debut.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/george-thorogood-mn0000647834/biography|title=George Thorogood {{!}} Biography & History|website=AllMusic|language=en-us|access-date=2019-04-22}}</ref><ref name="RS GT" /> Irwin described Thorogood's success as a "watershed" moment for Rounder, stating that while it did not change the founders' interest or mission, it made clear that the label needed to expand both its staff and its distribution. Rounder recorded Thorogood's fourth record, ''[[Bad to the Bone (George Thorogood & The Destroyers album)|Bad to the Bone]]'', and released it through a joint venture with [[EMI Records|EMI]].<ref name="Himes" /><ref name="Billboard Three Decades" /> At the close of the decade, Rounder moved from their Somerville office to a larger office in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mmone.org/rounder-records/|title=Rounder Records|date=2016-09-22|website=The Music Museum of New England|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-26}}</ref>

In 1979, Rounder's employees decided to unionize, and Nowlin, Levy, and Irwin were strongly opposed. The workers voted to join Local 925 of the [[Service Employees International Union]]. As a result of their opposition to the union, relations between the employees and the founders were strained for several years.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Never-ending Revival: Rounder Records and the Folk Alliance|last=Scully|first=Michael F.|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0252033339|pages=[https://archive.org/details/neverendingreviv0000scul/page/191 191]|url=https://archive.org/details/neverendingreviv0000scul/page/191}}</ref>