Great news for bluegrass historians and collectors of early bluegrass recordings!
The Bear Family label in Germany is preparing to release an important compilation CD box set encompassing all the records offered by Rich-R-Tone during the important post war period of 1946-1954, which includes many influential early bluegrass sides.
Titled Various – Historic Sessions: Rich-R-Tone Folk Star Story, the set will include a total of 12 CDs with more than 300 tracks, many never before offered digitally. As is the Bear Family practice, all have been carefully restored and remastered. The package also includes a 148-page hardcover book full of rare photographs, artist biographies, complete discographies, plus essays from the producers, Ted Olsen, Richard Weize, and Matteo Ringressi, all serious students of the music from this period.
Olsen, a Professor of Appalachian Studies/Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Studies at East Tennessee State University, shared this detailed overview of the set.
“Richard Weize, Matteo Ringressi, and I are proud to announce the release in September 2025 of a box set (from Bear Family Records, featuring over 300 recordings across 12 CDs, and including a contextualizing book); the set documents and interprets all the extant releases from Rich-R-Tone Records—most previously unavailable digitally—from the period 1946-1954.
Rich-R-Tone, which has been called ‘the first Bluegrass label,’ released recordings by such early bluegrass acts as the Stanley Brothers, the Sauceman Brothers, the Church Brothers, the Bailey Brothers, Jim Eanes, James and Martha Carson, and Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper.
Founded by James Hobart Stanton in 1946 in Johnson City, Tennessee, Rich-R-Tone also released recordings by country, gospel, rockabilly, and novelty acts from Appalachia.
All the extant releases from a subsidiary label, Folk Star Records, are also included in the Bear Family box set; Folk Star, a custom label, documented a wide range of regional music from talented amateur musicians across Appalachia during the late 1940s and early 1950s.”
As you might expect, a project of this completeness and depth doesn’t come cheap. Various – Historic Sessions: Rich-R-Tone Folk Star Story carries a price of $240, but Bear Family is offering a 15% discount on pre-orders ahead of its release on September 5.
Hats off to all involved in putting together this exhaustive collection, which removes much of the mystery and folklore associated with these recordings.
Well done all!
