New Folk City Records, formerly 109 Records - takes off where it left off... My old label 109 that was the first anti-folk record label back when the scene broke in 1988 after the Tompkins Sq. Park riots. When the police swooped in on horseback to evict the homeless, the artists came to their defense and once again music became politicized. In the aftermath many of the artists came to me and asked if I would put out a folk compilation record that would put all these songs on one record and tell the world about what was going on in NYC. I already had an indie label in the East Village which put out records in other genres based out of my store on St. Mark's Place b/w 1st Avenue and Avenue A.

Tompkins Square Riot, New York City, 1988
Ángel Franco-The New York Times

I went to my friend Don Fury's recording studio and recorded all the songs of each artist in one or two takes. I mastered the album at Europadisk and got the artwork together and put out an album quickly called "White Trash NY Folk Vol. 1" and soon thereafter got the lead article in the Village Voice which was big back then. We got a lot of additional press, lots of college radio airplay, and sold very well for an indie (over 2500 copies).

Roger Manning (alter ego)
Joe Folk (Roger Manning) and the Soho Valley Boys 1. John Henry
2. The Old Crossroads
Then Roger Manning, one of the leaders of the revolt in Tompkins Sq., made me an all-star CD which was called Broome Closet. He recorded it in his little apartment on Broome Street. It was even bigger than White Trash and got written up in Billboard and Rolling Stone. That album launched the career of Paleface who is one of Scott Avett's favorite artists and often plays with or opens up for the Avett's Brothers (recently did so at Radio City Music Hall). I still work with Paleface and he has his own tab on the label although he's signed to the Avett Bros. label Ramseur Records who have just released "One Big Party" produced by Paul Kostabi (NFC#4). I've always wanted to continue the folk compilation label only concept but the timing was never as good as it is now.

New Folk City Vol. 1 began to come together musically last summer when my friend Alain Rozan (NFC#1) offered me his wonderful and original French language folk song "Histoire d'Amour" feat. Erik Della Penna on guitar (Joan Baez and Natalie Merchant) and the comp was off to a great start. My wife and partner Anne is French/Alain is French and it just went on naturally from there. I know so many folk musicians from over the years that I just followed the trail and we picked the best song we loved from each artist we found and then asked them if we could use it on the record so that the record truly is exactly what we love and what we listen to and what we believe in our hearts will make a wonderful listening experience for the new folk fan as well as pleasing the traditionalists. We don't accept submissions we only solicit so there are no rejections ever from New Folk City. This is one thing I wanted to change this time around running a record label. When 109 blew up there were so many great submissions I was overwhelmed and could not even listen to them all let alone help all the artists with their careers. Rejecting musicians is not only bad karma it is a heartless, thankless and unnecessary task. Thankfully in today's world where you can hear everything on the net you can pretty much listen to any song you can think of for free. The raison d'être of New Folk City Records is not only to present a perfect mix of folk songs placed in the perfect order for 80 minutes of continuous listening pleasure but to expose unknown or less promoted artists alongside better known artists, putting together the best songs that might otherswise be lost is the sea of web. The musicians have their power back there are no record labels per se to get in the way of each artist fully expressing themselves and releasing their own product but we at New Folk City offer the skill and years of experience necessary in compiling and then manufacturing the best physical product this side of the digital wasteland. Welcome to our world. Enjoy!