Rounder Records has earned plenty of bones in the music biz with a catalog that includes George Thorogood, Rush and Alison Krauss & Robert Plant. But the label started scrappy in 1970 when its three college-pal founders issued an LP by obscure old-timey North Carolina banjo picker George Pegram out of a Cambridge, Mass., apartment. Today’s Rounder has its paws on everything rootsy from the Lomax field recordings to modern bluegrass, where a roster including The SteelDrivers, J.D. Crowe, Rhonda Vincent, The Grascals and even Steve Martin makes it top dog. The label’s doing a little howling to celebrate its 40th anniversary with a genre-jumping revue that includes Krauss, N’Awlins soul queen Irma Thomas, the ubiquitous Bela Fleck, songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dobro dude Jerry Douglas, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas, piano domo Henry Butler and “musical host”—yes, that’s how she’s billed—Minnie Driver. PBS’s cameras will be there to record the concert for posterity and fundraising season.
Mon., Oct. 12, 7:40 p.m., 2009
Mon., Oct. 12, 7:40 p.m., 2009
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