Vocalion Records in Texas

Ever since I learned about bluesman, Robert Johnson, I’ve been fascinated with the Vocalion record label and its history. While crate digging for 78s, I pause for just a moment every time I see that iconic blue and gold label to see if what I’m holding is an elusive Robert Johnson 78.

Beginning in 1916 in New York City, the Vocalion label has a long and storied arc in music history, but its roots in Texas date back to the mid-1930s. Owned by Brunswick Records at the time, the catalog was licensed to the American Record Corporation and featured popular jazz, country, and blues music. To take advantage of growing regional markets, temporary recording studios were set up in hotels, film studios, and warehouses across the country. Texas was a hotbed for country, western swing, and blues (known as ‘race’ records at the time), setting up recording studios in Dallas, Ft. Worth, Saginaw, and San Antonio.

The most notable artists recording in Texas during this time were Robert Johnson, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, The Lightcrust Doughboys, Roy Newman & His Boys, and Shelly Lee Alley and His Alley Cats, featuring a young Floyd Tillman on guitar. American Record Corporation would eventually be bought by Columbia Records in 1938 and fold the Vocalion label in 1940, rebranding as Okeh Records. Some of the recordings made for Vocalion in Texas would be reissued on the Okeh imprint, though original Vocalion releases are highly sought after by collectors and scholars.

I broadcast a special two-hour episode of Record Ranger Radio featuring many of those rare blues, jazz, country, and western swing recordings made in Texas, showcasing the history and sound of an important early 20th century record label, which you can find here.

You can tell the recording location of these records by looking at the prefix of the matrix number on the center left side of the label: SA for San Antonio, FW for Fort Worth, DAL for Dallas and SAG for Saginaw. For example, the matrix number for The Blue Ridge Playboy’s song, “Can’t Nobody Truck Like Me”, SA 2544, means the song was recorded in San Antonio. It’s a useful identifier when looking for these records.

To this day, I have yet to find a Robert Johnson 78 in the wild, but you can better believe, I’ll will gleefully share the moment I do.

The TJP is ALWAYS looking for Vocalion 78s for our archive. If you have or find any 78s you wish to donate, please drop us a line!