Detroit musician starts record label — Misfortune Records — to showcase what others don’t

Todd Albright hopes his Misfortune will carry happiness to himself and different musicians – and a whole music area generally.

Albright, an Ohio native who moved to Detroit from Toledo in 2013, has simply launched a brand new single, a rendition of Fulton Allen’s (aka Blind Boy Fuller) mid-Nineteen Thirties energetic “Step It Up and Go,” the lead single from his subsequent album, “Blues For Dexter Linwood,” out April 27 and named after the Detroit neighborhood the place he lives. It is also the primary launch on his new label Misfortune Information, a play on the Fortune imprint that operated in Detroit from 1946-1972 and closed for good in 1995.

“The unique Fortune Information web site was proper up the highway from me on Linwood,” says Albright, 49. “Since that identify was already taken, I made a decision to name it Misfortune Information.”

Nonetheless, working a label isn’t a long-standing ambition.

“In no way,” says Albright, who has launched three earlier albums, together with his 2022 EP “Detroit Twelve String Blues and Rags” on Third Man Information. “It is actually an indication of the occasions. Put up-pandemic, a number of the larger labels and labels I have been on earlier than cannot take possibilities on music that will not promote massive numbers. What I am coping with is mainly folks music; even when it was recorded within the ’20s and ’30s, it was by no means an enormous a part of the record-buying public. It is not pop music.

“It acquired to the purpose the place as a result of I am on the highway a lot and I see a number of music that is actually good, however I do know nobody’s ever going to listen to it. These larger labels aren’t going to spend cash on one thing that they don’t seem to be going to get a return on. However I do not care if I see a return on it. If I can break even and make sufficient to make the subsequent launch occur, that is sufficient.

“It is not an ideal marketing strategy,” he provides with a chuckle, “nevertheless it’s about getting the music on the market.”

Albright fell in love with the roots, folks and blues music he performs after he began enjoying guitar in Toledo in his mid-teens. “One of many first issues I purchased was the Robert Johnson field set about Columbia that had simply come out,” he recollects. “I knew it was essential simply to have a look at the quilt. This man was wearing a fantastic swimsuit and holding a guitar. It seemed so romantic. After which I learn the tune titles, like ‘Hell Hound on my Path,’ ‘Cross Highway Blues,’ ‘Useless Shrimp Blues.’ …What’s he speaking about, ‘Useless Shrimp Blues?’

“It was simply tremendous intriguing and acquired me going. Who does this man hearken to? What are these songs? It is simply sort of a rabbit gap you get into.”

Albright grew to become each a musicologist and a participant. He went to the general public library and used file shops to seek out extra recordings, finding out liner notes and delving into the historical past of artists like Reverend Gary Davis and John Lee Hooker. Seeing Dave Van Ronk and “Spider” John Koerner carry out dwell confirmed Albright’s want to play, whereas Paul Geremia — whose “If That Lady’s Love Was Whiskey” he covers on “Blues For Dexter Underwood,” “taught me all the things I knew about 12-string guitar.”

However Albright notes, “There was by no means a plan. I used to be a building employee. I laid tile for a residing. I had no concept in any respect about doing music professionally. I did not understand that ambition was there or that that risk existed. You simply performed round city and had enjoyable, and Monday morning you had been again at work.”

However after enjoying sufficient – first with a string band, the Stavin’ Chain, after which on his personal – Albright transitioned from pastime to full-time career. A lot of his performances had taken him to Detroit, making it a logical base for him to maneuver to. An invite to play music at a launch occasion for Third Man Books, in the meantime, led to the deal for ‘Detroit Twelve String Blues and Rags’.

“It was nice,” he says of his expertise with the corporate based by Jack White. “They care deeply concerning the artists – to the purpose the place they virtually go above and past what they need to do. Regardless of the artist says, it goes. Nonetheless you need to file, that is fully as much as you. Simply do what you do greatest, and they’re going to launch it. In order that was an ideal expertise.”

Albright initially envisioned his new album and a duo effort with Minnesota nation musician and buddy Charlie Parr, however “it grew to become extra of my file,” which Parr supplied to provide. They recorded the 11 songs – together with picks from Blind Lemon Jefferson, John Damage, Lead Stomach and others – in Parr’s residence base of St. Paul, recording in mono with a single microphone. Parr added slide guitar on three songs, whereas Dave Hundriesser performed harmonica on 4 songs.

“We made the entire file in two hours and simply sat there and pounded them out,” Albright recollects. “It sounded stunning, and right here we’re.”

Albright hits the highway once more on March 12 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and has dates booked in July, with extra to return. With Misfortune, he plans to launch a dwell Geremia archival album this fall, and has one other album, “a historic album by an older bluesman from the Twenties,” additionally on the runway. He additionally needs to signal up to date artists who work in the identical spirit.

“I simply spent the weekend in St. Louis on the Scott Joplin home for the Ragtime Rendezvous,” he says. “The primary half of the night time was open mic; ragtime remains to be well-liked sufficient in St. Louis, they will make an open mic for it. And I noticed a bunch of unimaginable ragtime gamers.

“So that you see issues right here and there and suppose, ‘Wow, nobody goes to listen to this music if somebody does not resolve to do one thing not-for-profit.’ I believe that somebody will probably be me.

Go to toddalbright.com or toddalbright.bandcamp.com to get updates on Todd Albright’s efficiency and listen to his music.