Road Recordings

"Limited Edition" series on American record label Cook, established by an audio engineer and field recordist Emory Cook. Between 1952 and 1956, Road Recordings produced 20+ releases with serialized artwork and a "mirrored" ЯR logo on center LP labels, identifiable by [u]50xx[/u] catalog numbers. As its name suggested, Road Recordings was dedicated to sounds and music captured "on the road," allowing Emory Cook to explore his passion as a field recordist. The label mainly represented traditional music and ethnographical recordings: Mississippi delta blues singer K.C. Douglas, square dance "calls" of Al Brundage, oral memories of retired Maine sailing skippers, East Indian ceremonial drums, Venezuelan folk dances, Calypso music recorded across Trinidad & Tobago, the Caribbeans and the east coast of Mexico. Road also featured various "audio curiosities," such as synchronized ionosphere observations from Naval Research Laboratory and Dartmouth College, a collection of earthquakes on Out Of This World, or '56 8307613 LP with binaural recordings of antique steam-driven carnival machines. Whenever this hard-to-find material didn't sound up to Cook's high-fidelity standards, he'd place a disclaimer on the back cover, explaining the specific record originated from "a spring-wound machine or 7½ inch/sec tape originals or non-condenser-microphone work." He meticulously marked each item in the catalog with HF, MF and LF for high, medium or low fidelity. Since the early days, Emory Cook approached the music label as a promotional tool for his main business, Cook Laboratories, which pressed all the records and manufactured professional audio equipment. Every LP was an example of the exceptional quality standards and high-fidelity achievements of Cook Labs. Thus, Emory used various imprints, brands, and trademarks interchangeably. Most Road Recordings releases, for instance, still carried the "Sounds of Our Times" logo or an iconic "another SOUNDS OF OUR TIMES recording by COOK LABORATORIES" banner on the back cover. Cook also re-released some albums more than once, such as the '54 collection of ocean field recordings, LP, that appeared both with ЯR and "generic" Cook labels. Besides the domestic market, Road Recordings had distribution in Australia, partnering with Electronic Industries Imports Pty. Ltd. and Chappell's ∙ Sydney publisher, and in the Caribbeans — Emory Cook was so profoundly interested in Calypso music that in 1955 he opened a second Cook Laboratories pressing plant in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. Propelled by his latest invention, a "microfusion" vinyl manufacturing process, Cook–Caribbean Ltd. managed to implement an innovative, ahead-of-time "on-demand" record industry in the region. Multiple record stores across the Caribbean Islands began taping on-site sessions and live performances by local steelpan bands, singers and musicians. They would send master tapes to Cook Labs, which made metal stampers for portable press molds and supplied "microfusion" PVC powder solution. Then, specific retail stores pressed small runs of LPs on the spot. Typically, these albums came in Cook's label standard black embossed covers, with "hype" stickers advertising the specific retail store, i.e., Rhyders in this example. In 2006, the Smithsonian Folkways began re-releasing the most critically-acclaimed albums from Road Recordings. They are available as digital downloads or custom Smithsonian Folkways Archival CD-R editions in deluxe cardboard sleeves.