Craft Recordings proudly announces the relaunch of HighTone Records, the influential and genre-spanning label reimagined as a curated home for standout releases from across the American roots music landscape. Originally founded in 1983, HighTone’s legacy was built on championing singular voices across the spectrum of American Roots music through blues, country, rockabilly, gospel, and beyond. Now, under Craft Recordings, HighTone returns with a renewed 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 acclaimed labels including Rounder, Sugar Hill, and Vanguard—the relaunched imprint will offer thoughtfully 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 long-awaited first-ever vinyl pressing of Tulare Dust: A Songwriter’s Tribute to Merle Haggard, arriving November 7 and available to pre-order now. See tracklisting and more details below.
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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 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.” Alvin adds, “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.”
Russell and Alvin not only served as executive producers but were also featured artists on the 15-track set. Russell, who has his own impressive catalog of solo and collaborative projects, kicks off the album with a dustbowl medley of “Tulare Dust/They’re Tearin’ the Labor Camps Down.” Alvin, who was a founding member of the Blasters, with stints in X and the Knitters, closes with a moving rendition of the 1985 Top 10 Country hit, “Kern River.”
In between are 13 inspired performances, many of which are deeper cuts. Lucinda Williams puts her own twist on 1964’s “You Don’t Have Very Far to Go,” in a performance described by Americana UK as “wonderfully world-weary.” Dwight Yoakam adds additional alt-country star power with his cover of 1974’s “Holding Things Together.” Pioneering country rocker Steve Young offers an intimate performance of the plaintive “Shopping for Dresses” (1982), while Joe Ely lends his Texas twang to the trucker anthem, “White Line Fever” (1969).
Among Haggard’s bigger hits is the rousing “Ramblin’ Fever” (1977), performed by outlaw country hero Billy Joe Shaver. Singer-songwriter Katy Moffatt offers a beautifully stripped-down rendition of 1970’s “I Can’t Be Myself” (No.3 on the Country charts), while Iris DeMent lends her distinctive vocals to the 1982 chart topper, “Big City” (Haggard later remarked that her performance “took the conviction and sincerity to a depth that I, the writer, had not been able to reach”). The country icon’s tenth No.1, “Daddy Frank,” is covered by the great Robert Earl Keen, with backing by the long-running Sunshine Boys Quartet, and Austin cow-punk legend Rosie Flores tackles Haggard’s 1979 Top 5 hit, “My Own Kind of Hat.”
Honoring the breadth of styles that comprise Americana music, Tulare Dust also highlights artists that fall outside of the country sphere, including R&B singer Barrence Whitfield, who performs 1972’s “Irma Jackson.” Controversial at the time of its release, the song explores themes of interracial romance. Power-pop singer-songwriter Marshall Crenshaw, meanwhile, gives 1969’s “Silver Wings” a modern twist, while X’s John Doe performs the bluesy 1969 track, “I Can’t Hold Myself in Line.” Rocker Peter Case (The Nerves, The Plimsouls) delivers a jaunty rendition of the 1977 Top 20 Country hit “A Working Man Can’t Get Nowhere Today.”
Upon its release in 1994, Tulare Dust: A Songwriters’ Tribute to Merle Haggard was embraced by fans and even Haggard himself. The album also received wide acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. Americana UK praised, “This excellent album goes a long way towards showcasing just how good [Haggard’s] compositions can be. . . . A great tribute to a true legend.” AllMusic hailed, “Every composition radiates with Haggard’s honesty, eye for detail, and strong point of view, and every track has the feel of a classic.” The Los Angeles Times added that Tulare Dust “Couldn’t be more loving or more sensitive.”
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.
Reflecting on the label’s legacy Sloven recalls, “In 1983, when we started the label, there were already a handful of established independent labels that specialized in roots/folk based music. Alligator did blues. Sugar Hill was primarily bluegrass. Flying Fish was all acoustic music. Bruce [Bromberg] and I did not have strict genre parameters. We just wanted to put out music that we liked and hoped we could find an audience for it—and we happened to have wide-ranging tastes in roots music. As it turned out, of the first eleven album releases on HighTone, there was blues, blues/rock, Bakersfield country, country rock, Black gospel, Southern soul and Texas singer-songwriter. Now it has a name—Americana.”
For more information, visit hightonerecords.com and follow HighTone Records on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Click here to pre-order Tulare Dust: A Songwriter’s Tribute to Merle Haggard.
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
