Route 66 Records

Route 66 Records is a Swedish record-production company founded by Jonas Bernholm and associated with the preservation and reissue of lesser-known rhythm and blues recordings. Its catalog concentrates on postwar American blues and rhythm and blues, particularly material recorded between the mid-1940s and early 1960s. Rather than presenting itself primarily as a contemporary artist-development label, the company’s documented role is that of a specialist archival publisher: it assembles historical recordings into themed or artist-focused compilations and makes them available to listeners interested in the roots of blues, jump blues, boogie, and early rock-oriented rhythm and blues. The label’s documented catalog is organized chiefly through the KIX compilation series. Releases in the series cover performers including Floyd Dixon, Roy Brown, Wynonie Harris, Ivory Joe Hunter, Charles Brown, Amos Milburn, Paul Gayten, Annie Laurie, Roy Hawkins, Little Willie Littlefield, Jimmy McCracklin, Ruth Brown, Jimmy Liggins, Larry Darnell, Percy Mayfield, Peppermint Harris, Little Caesar, Jimmy Witherspoon, Joseph August, Johnny Moore’s Blazers, and Calvin Boze. The compilations generally identify a performer or a closely related group of performers while spanning a defined period of recordings. This approach gives the catalog both a discographical function and a listening-oriented one: it offers curated entry points into artists and regional styles that have received less mainstream attention than the best-known names in American popular music. The repertoire represented by Route 66 Records includes Texas-West Coast rhythm and blues, New Orleans rhythm and blues, jump blues, boogie, club blues, and blues-shouter performances. Several compilations focus on the relationship between individual singers and the bands or labels with which they recorded. For example, the Charles Brown material includes recordings connected with Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, while other releases bring together recordings from distinct phases of an artist’s career. The date ranges printed in the series titles or descriptions are important to the label’s archival identity because they frame the historical context of each selection rather than treating the recordings as undifferentiated back-catalog material. Route 66 Records uses the motto “The Highway To R&B,” a phrase that expresses its role as a guide to the genre’s historical recordings. The available reference material does not establish a current corporate owner, parent company, headquarters address, website, release schedule, or present operating status. It also does not provide a founding year, financial information, executive roster beyond the association with founder Jonas Bernholm, or evidence of major commercial campaigns. Accordingly, the brand is best characterized as a specialist Swedish archival record label or production company whose known public identity rests on its KIX reissue catalog and its emphasis on historically significant rhythm and blues recordings.

Route 66 Records was founded in Sweden by Jonas Bernholm as a record-production company with a focus on historical rhythm and blues. The available reference material does not identify the year of establishment, the company’s original premises, or the details of its early release program. Its documented identity is nevertheless clear: the label was created to reissue recordings that were less familiar to the general public, especially recordings from the postwar American rhythm and blues field. The company’s catalog is centered on the KIX series. These releases use compilation form to organize recordings by performer, musical scene, or related repertoire. The series covers a broad range of material from approximately the 1940s through the early 1960s, including Texas-West Coast blues and rhythm and blues, New Orleans rhythm and blues, jump blues, boogie, club blues, and blues-shouter performances. The chronological ranges attached to many releases indicate an archival method based on defined recording periods rather than a simple collection of a performer’s most famous songs. Early entries in the documented series include Floyd Dixon’s “Opportunity Blues,” Roy Brown’s “Laughing But Crying,” Wynonie Harris’s “Mr. Blues Is Coming To Town,” Ivory Joe Hunter’s “7th Street Boogie,” and Charles Brown’s “Sunny Road.” Later releases extend the catalog to artists such as Amos Milburn, Paul Gayten and Annie Laurie, Roy Hawkins, Little Willie Littlefield, Jimmy McCracklin, Billy Wright, Bull Moose Jackson, Ruth Brown, Jimmy Liggins, Larry Darnell, Percy Mayfield, Peppermint Harris, Little Caesar, Jimmy Witherspoon, Joseph August, Johnny Moore’s Blazers, and Calvin Boze. The repertoire therefore presents a wide survey of performers whose work helped shape postwar Black American popular music but whose catalog visibility has varied over time. A notable feature of the series is its combination of individual-artist retrospectives and context-rich collections. Some volumes emphasize a singer’s signature repertoire, while others bring together recordings associated with particular bands, scenes, or stylistic categories. The Charles Brown releases, for instance, include material connected with Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, while other volumes place New Orleans and Texas-West Coast recordings within a shared rhythm and blues history. The resulting catalog functions both as a set of listening collections and as a resource for exploring the development of blues-based popular music. Route 66 Records describes its mission through the motto “The Highway To R&B.” This wording reflects the label’s intermediary role: it guides listeners toward recordings that may be difficult to encounter through mainstream contemporary releases. The reference material does not document a change of ownership, merger, closure, current management, or a transition into another business model. It also does not establish a current website, headquarters, financial profile, or complete discography beyond the listed KIX releases. The company’s present status is therefore not confirmed, while its historically documented contribution is its Swedish-led program of specialized rhythm and blues reissues.

A specialist archival music label providing curated reissues of underrepresented postwar American rhythm and blues, blues, jump blues, boogie, and related recordings.

• Archival music reissue series

  KIX compilation series

  Route 66 Records’ principal documented offering is the KIX series, a numbered sequence of compilations devoted to postwar rhythm and blues and adjacent blues styles. The series includes artist portraits, thematic collections, and recordings grouped by regional or stylistic context. Its repertoire spans roughly the 1940s to the early 1960s and includes Texas-West Coast rhythm and blues, New Orleans rhythm and blues, jump blues, boogie, club blues, and blues-shouter performances. The series is positioned as historical curation and reissue publishing rather than new-artist releases.

• Blues and rhythm and blues compilation

  KIX-1: Floyd Dixon — Opportunity Blues

  An artist-focused compilation devoted to Floyd Dixon, presenting Texas-West Coast rhythm and blues and blues recordings from the period identified as 1948–1961. The release is part of the KIX archival series and introduces Dixon’s work through a historically bounded selection rather than a contemporary studio project.

• Rhythm and blues compilation

  KIX-2: Roy Brown — Laughing But Crying

  A Roy Brown compilation covering New Orleans and Texas-West Coast rhythm and blues and blues recordings associated with the period 1947–1959. It forms part of Route 66 Records’ effort to make historically significant but less widely circulated repertoire available in curated form.

• Blues and rhythm and blues compilation

  KIX-3: Wynonie Harris — Mr. Blues Is Coming To Town

  A compilation centered on Wynonie Harris and described as a survey of blues and rhythm and blues associated with the singer’s period of prominence from 1946 to 1954. The release highlights the blues-shouter tradition within the label’s broader archival catalog.

• Club blues and rhythm and blues compilation

  KIX-5: Charles Brown — Sunny Road

  A Charles Brown collection drawing on Texas-West Coast club blues, recordings involving Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, and New Orleans rhythm and blues. Its stated coverage, 1945–1960, presents Brown within the wider network of bands and regional styles that shaped postwar blues-based popular music.

• Various-artists rhythm and blues compilation

  KIX-1200: Hunter Hancock Presents Blues & Rhythm Midnight Matinee

  A various-artists compilation presented under the Hunter Hancock name and associated with blues and rhythm and blues recordings from 1951. Unlike the artist-specific KIX volumes, this release represents a broader program-style selection built around a named presentation rather than a single performer.

1. 1Route 66 Recordsen.wikipedia.org