King Records of Cincinnati

Through stories of people, music, and dreams, King Records of Cincinnati tells the history of a recording company which launched countless musical careers.

Starting with a few songs and a dream in 1943, King Records--a leading American independent--launched musical careers from a shabby brick factory on Brewster Avenue in Cincinnati's Evanston neighborhood. Founder Sydney Nathan recorded country singers Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Wayne Raney, and others and later added black acts such as James Brown and the Famous Flames, Bull Moose Jackson, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Lonnie Johnson, and Freddy King. Meanwhile, King also explored polka, jazz, bluegrass, comedy, gospel, pop, and instrumental music--anything that Nathan could sell. Although King's Cincinnati factory closed in 1971, the company's diverse catalog of roots music had already become a phenomenon. Its legacy lives on in hundreds of classic recordings that are prized by collectors and musicians.

Randy McNutt is a nonfiction writer and independent record producer who has recorded with Avco-Embassy, Fraternity, Counterpart, and other companies in the United States, as well as with the Gee-Dee, Hydra, and Rockhouse labels in Europe. He is the author of The Cincinnati Sound and Too Hot to Handle. He lives in Hamilton with his wife, writer Cheryl Bauer, and their three cats.