In 1989, Bob Irwin packed a tape machine into his road-weary VW and drove nineteen straight hours to Nashville. He had an idea. The result was “Presenting The Fabulous Knickerbockers,” the debut release on his new Sundazed imprint. The title immediately generated a positive buzz among collectors, then percolated into the mainstream press. Buoyed by initial success, Bob soon took the scary leap of quitting his day job and, along with wife Mary, set up shop in a cramped attic in Coxsackie, New York. [Please make your “Coxsackie” jokes here and get them out of your system.]

While all this was happening, CBS Records was being sold to Sony. They summoned Bob to Manhattan for a meeting – and thus began Bob’s 25-year relationship as a producer for Sony Music. Irwin quickly learned the ins and outs of mastering, vault research, and the care and feeding of corporate sharks. The catalogs Bob curated and restored for Sony include Santana, Janis Joplin, The Byrds, Sly & The Family Stone, Simon & Garfunkel, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jefferson Airplane, Donovan, and Carole King. And that’s not even scratching the surface. His work in all of them is considered definitive.

Sundazed, meanwhile, grew and prospered.  Now based in both Upstate New York and Nashville, the roster includes artists such as The Velvet Underground, Buck Owens, Link Wray, Byrds, Meters, Bob Dylan, Love, MC5, Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, and hundreds more.  His new imprint, Modern Harmonic, brings further niche music (Sun Ra and many others) to new and enthusiastic audiences.

Sundazed and Modern Harmonic continue to explore and delight in presenting sounds old and new, on vinyl, CD, and streaming media. It’s Bob’s labor of love, like making compilation tapes for the world. And the company’s formula remains unchanged since its inception: find great music, share it, and have fun doing it.

Sundazed on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2uCsfLX

Modern Harmonic on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2uHbQEk