Document Records

{{Infobox record label

| name = Document Records

| image =

| founded = {{start date|1985}}

| founder = Johnny Parth

| distributor = Allegro Music (US)
Proper Music (UK)

| genre = Blues, jazz

| country = Scotland

| location = Newton Stewart

| url = {{URL|http://www.document-records.com}}

}}

Document Records is an independent record label, founded in Austria and now based in Scotland, that specializes in reissuing vintage blues and jazz. The company has been recognised by The Blues Foundation, being honoured with a Keeping the Blues Alive Award in 2018. Document Records is the only UK-based recipient of the award.{{cite web |title=Keeping the Blues Alive Award – Blues Foundation |url=https://blues.org/keeping-the-blues-alive-award/#recipients |website=Blues.org |access-date=12 December 2017}}

History

Document was established in 1986 by Johnny Parth, the former owner of Roots Records, in Austria to make previously unreleased blues and gospel records from before the 1942–44 musicians' strike available on a number of European labels. In 1990, Parth felt obliged to switch production from LP to CD. With this change, he consolidated the catalogue into complete reissues in chronological order, increasingly on the Document label as other label names were dropped. The new policy was to reissue as many as possible of the recordings listed in the book, Blues and Gospel Records: 1890–1943.Dixon, Robert M. W.; Godrich, John; and Rye, Howard (1997), Blues and Gospel Records, 1890–1943. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-816239-1}}. The scope was expanded to include bluegrass, spirituals, jazz, and other rural American genres (collectively known as roots music), made between 1900 and 1945. Since 2000 it has been owned by Gary and Gillian Atkinson and is based in Newton Stewart, Scotland.Rye, Howard (2001). Afterword, in Dixon, Robert M.W., and Godrich, John, Recording the Blues. Republished in Oliver, Paul, et al. (2001). Yonder Come the Blues. Cambridge University Press. pp. 335–336. {{ISBN|0-521-78777-7}}.Rye, Howard (2006). "Document" entry in Encyclopedia of the Blues. Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-92700-5}}.{{cite web|url=http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/Document_Records_An_unlikely_treasure_trove_of_vintage_gospel_music/39952/p1/ |title=Document Records: An Unlikely Treasure Trove of Vintage Gospel Music |publisher=Crossrhythms.co.uk |access-date=2014-05-28}}

Document has the exclusive rights to a great deal of unreleased music and other audio media produced by Edison Records between 1914 and 1929.{{cite news|url=http://www.scotsman.com/what-s-on/music/blues-bring-joy-to-tiny-scots-record-label-as-us-archive-secures-future-1-689123 |title=Blues Bring Joy to Tiny Scots Record Label as US Archive Secures Future |newspaper=The Scotsman |date=2006-01-21 |access-date=2014-05-28}}