Tone-Cool History:
Founded by Richard Rosenblatt in 1985, Tone-Cool Records is an independent record label based in Wellesley, Massachussetts that specializes in blues and roots music, though we have always enjoyed challenging, stretching and redefining those genres. Over the years, artists including Susan Tedeschi, North Mississippi Allstars, Paul Rishell & Annie Raines, Double Trouble, Taj Mahal, Rod Piazza & The Mighty Flyers, Rick Holmstrom, Monster Mike Welch, Bernard Allison, Garage ? Trois, and many others have made their home at Tone-Cool. Susan Tedeschi, North Mississippi Allstars and Taj Mahal have been nominated for Grammy Awards, and many Tone-Cool artists have won multiple W.C. Handy Blues Awards, AFIM indie awards, and numerous other distinctions. In 2003, Tone-Cool was awarded the Blues Foundations's "Keeping the Blues Alive" award for "Blues Label of the Year," and ranked by Billboard Magazine as the #1 Blues label.
Throughout the 1990s, Tone-Cool was distributed by Rounder Records. From 1999-2001, the label was distributed through Universal Music Distribution. From September, 2001 until the present, Tone-Cool has been distributed by Artemis Records. In June, 2004 Tone-Cool became a division of the Artemis Records Group.
Richard Rosenblatt bio:
Richard "Rosy" Rosenblatt got his start as a blues harmonica player in the burgeoning Boston Blues scene of the 1970s. He toured the Northeast US and Canada with the Allston Allstars, T. Blade & the Esquires, the 11th Hour Band, and the Billy Colwell Band, and performed and recorded with many of the blues pioneers who came through the area, including Sunnyland Slim, John Lee Hooker, Luther Johnson, Otis Rush and Hubert Sumlin.
In the early 1980s Rosenblatt set up a basement studio where he produced and engineered records for a number of regional labels and laid the groundwork for the first Tone-Cool releases. He founded Tone-Cool Records in 1985, and as his artists outgrew the confines of the basement, he continued to serve as Producer or Executive Producer on many Tone-Cool releases, including Susan Tedeschi's two Tone-Cool CDs. As Tone-Cool has grown into an internationally respected label with more than fifty releases, Rosenblatt continues to work with some of the most promising blues- and roots-oriented performers to transcend the usual limitations of the genre.
In his activities outside the record business, Rosenblatt wrote and produced a Blues History Primer for the opening of the first House of Blues in Cambridge, Massachusetts, taught harmonica classes, served six years on the Board of Directors of the Memphis-based Blues Foundation, and was a founding director of the Blues Music Association trade organization. He continues to play harmonica on the occasional gig or studio session, and somewhere along the way he picked up a degree in French from Harvard University. He lives outside Boston, Massachusetts with his wife of 25 years, their 16-year-old son, and two small but mighty terriers.
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