Spring Fed Records adds to CPM repertoire

The Center for Popular Music has acquired another priceless set of recordings that preserve the musical offerings of the U.S. South.

Spring Fed Records, a Grammy-winning label focused on recordings of traditional Southern music, is now a part of the center’s growing collecting of historically significant music genres. The Arts Center of Cannon County donated the label in name and rights and sold its existing inventory to MTSU.

Founded in 2002, Spring Fed Records is devoted to issuing unique recordings of traditional Southern music, including old-time country, blues and gospel. Among its featured titles are music by Uncle Dave Macon, Sam and Kirk McGee, The Fairfield Four, Frazier Moss and Mississippi John Hurt. Spring Fed’s compilation of field recordings by pioneering African-American folklorist John Work III won a Grammy in 2008 for its liner notes by former CPM staffer Bruce Nemerov.

Dr. Greg Reish, the new director of the Center for Popular Music.

The label established a strong partnership with MTSU and the Center for Popular Music from its inception with contributions from Nemerov, former CPM director Paul Wells and the late Dr. Charles Wolfe, a venerated scholar of traditional music. Spring Fed will be housed in the Center for Popular Music, and CPM staffer John Fabke will manage its day-to-day operations along with the center’s new director, Dr. Greg Reish. A new marketing and sales structure, including a new website, will roll out soon.

“Spring Fed’s regional emphasis on traditional music fits well with the CPM’s mission and will allow us to explore even further the vast repository of historically and culturally significant recordings in the CPM archive,” Reish said.

The Center for Popular Music is affiliated with Mass Comm and is housed in the Bragg Mass Communication Building. Production and marketing of new Spring Fed releases will be in cooperation with Mass Comm’s highly regarded Department of Recording Industry, giving students the opportunity to work in a specialized sector of the business.

The Spring Fed catalog is distributed by City Hall Records of San Rafael, California. Selected titles are also available as digital downloads from Amazon.com, iTunes and CD Baby.