Craft Recordings has announced the relaunch of HighTone Records, the genre-spanning label “reimagined as a curated home” for releases from across “the American roots music landscape”. Originally founded in 1983, HighTone championed “singular voices” from Blues, Country, Rockabilly, Gospel, and beyond.
Now, under Craft Recordings, HighTone returns with the stated mission “to bring timeless recordings back into focus and introduce foundational artists to a new generation of listeners.”
Pulling from the original HighTone catalog, as well as from labels including Rounder, Sugar Hill, and Vanguard, the relaunched imprint will offer curated physical and digital releases, playlists, and original editorial content.
The first wave of activity includes the new HighTone Highlights playlist (available to stream now) and the first-ever vinyl pressing of Tulare Dust: A Songwriter’s Tribute to Merle Haggard, arriving November 7, 2025, and available to pre-order now.
More about Tulare Dust: A Songwriter’s Tribute to Merle Haggard:
Merle Haggard (1937 – 2016) has long been considered to be among the greatest country music artists of all time, with an impact that spanned far beyond his 50-plus year career. A pioneer of the Bakersfield sound, Haggard drew from a variety of influences, including jazz, blues, folk and country to create a distinctive style, while his lyrics reflected the stark realities of small-town, working-class American life.
Today, Haggard’s achievements are well-documented, while his work was honored throughout his life—among countless ACM, CMA and GRAMMY® Awards. Yet, for many years, his talents as a songwriter were often overlooked. In 1994, Americana stars Tom Russell and Dave Alvin set out to change the narrative, gathering all-star roots artists to cover a range of material from Haggard’s vast catalog, which they refer to as “One of the most important bodies of contemporary American musical work” in their original liner notes. The result was Tulare Dust: A Songwriter’s Tribute to Merle Haggard.
Reflecting on the album project Dave Alvin shares:
When Tom Russell and I started discussing putting together a tribute album to Merle Haggard, our thoughts were to put the focus on Merle’s excellent, and at that time, under-appreciated songwriting. To us, his country music stardom and complex personal mythology had perhaps made most people not realize that he was one of the great songwriters in the history of American roots music. Tom and I viewed Merle Haggard to be as much of a folk or blues or even a rock and roll singer-songwriter as he was a country one.
To make this point we invited artists from a wide musical spectrum, from the well known to the obscure, raw to polished, quiet to loud, to contribute to the album. These artists’ own unique musical styles mixed all of these American roots approaches together, just like Merle Haggard’s songs had. Tom and I have always been proud of this album and are especially proud that Merle approved.
More about HighTone Records:
Founded in 1983 by Larry Sloven and GRAMMY®-winning producer Bruce Bromberg, the Oakland-based label launched auspiciously with The Robert Cray Band’s acclaimed sophomore album, Bad Influence. Over the next 25 years, the label released titles from some of the biggest names in blues, country, gospel, rockabilly, and Western swing, including Dave Alvin, Joe Ely, Joe Louis Walker, Dick Dale, Rosie Flores, Gary Stewart, Geoff Muldaur, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, among many others. In 2016, the label and its catalog of nearly 300 albums were acquired by Concord and is now managed by Craft Recordings.
Tulare Dust Tracklist:
Side A
1. Tom Russell – Tulare Dust/They’re Tearin’ the Labor Camps Down
2. Iris DeMent – Big City
3. Peter Case – A Working Man Can’t Get Nowhere Today
4. Dwight Yoakam – Holding Things Together
5. Robert Earl Keen and The Sunshine Boys – Daddy Frank
6. Joe Ely – White Line Fever
7. Rosie Flores – My Own Kind of Hat
8. Steve Young – Shopping for Dresses
Side B
1. Marshall Crenshaw – Silver Wings
2. Barrence Whitfield – Irma Jackson
3. Lucinda Williams – You Don’t Have Very Far to Go
4. Billy Joe Shaver – Ramblin’ Fever
5. Katy Moffatt – I Can’t Be Myself
6. John Doe – I Can’t Hold Myself in Line
7. Dave Alvin – Kern River
