Diesel Only Records

{{Short description|American record label}} {{Infobox record label  | name = Diesel Only Records | image_name =  | image_size =  | image_bg =  | parent =  | founded = {{Start date|1990}} | founder = Jeremy Tepper | status =  | distributor =  | genre = Country music | country =  | location = Brooklyn, NY | url =  }} '''Diesel Only Records''' is a Brooklyn-based country music record label established in 1990 by musician and journalist Jeremy Tepper, then also the lead singer of the World Famous Blue Jays.

==History== Tepper, along with Diesel Only's cofounders, Jay Sherman-Godfrey and Albert Caiati, originally started the label with the goal of releasing vinyl 45s for use in jukeboxes at truck stops.<ref name=scene>{{cite web | url=http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/white-line-fever/Content?oid=1180421 | title=White Line Fever | work=Nashville Scene | date=25 April 1996 | accessdate=20 July 2014 | author=Ridley, Jim}}</ref> Tepper also started the label with the goal of releasing his own band's music,<ref name="Clark">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ro09vs0YpTwC&pg=PT88 | title=The All-American Truck Stop Cookbook | publisher=Thomas Nelson | author=Clark, Jim | year=2001 | pages=88| isbn=978-1-4185-5782-9 }}</ref> as well as tracks by other artists from New York City. The first non-vinyl release by the label was 1992's ''Rig Rock Jukebox'', which was also their first singles compilation. Also that year, the label released a single by Mark Brine entitled "New Blue Yodel," which, after Brine sent it to Hank Snow, landed him a gig at the Grand Ole Opry that July.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tAU7_ejzzoYC&pg=PT32 | title=Keep On Truckin' | work=Spin | date=September 1992 | accessdate=27 June 2014 | author=Foege, Alec}}</ref> By the end of 1993, Diesel Only had released more than 30 records by artists from across the United States.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | title=Diesel Only | encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Country Music: The Ultimate Guide to the Music | publisher=Oxford University Press | author=Marx, Jonathan | editor=Kingsbury | year=2004}}</ref>

Following a second singles compilation, ''Rig Rock Truck Stop'', the label finally gained wider recognition in 1996 with its third, ''Rig Rock Deluxe'', which was released as part of a deal with Upstart Records.<ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zgsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA61 | title=Assessing NARM Confab's Murky Future | magazine=Billboard | date=8 July 1995 | accessdate=20 July 2014 | author=Morris, Chris | pages=61}}</ref> The album included songs by Buck Owens, Steve Earle, and Marty Stuart, and won Americana Album of the Year from the National Association of Independent Record Distributors.<ref name=Clark/> Tepper recalled that after Owens agreed to contribute "Will There Be Big Rigs in Heaven?" to the album, they merely had to mention that he had signed on to the project, after which "we [Diesel Only] got anybody we wanted."<ref name=scene/> ''Rig Rock Deluxe'' received a favorable review from Billboard, which described it as the label's best compilation yet.<ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wwkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA55 | title=Music Keeps on Truckin' on "Rig Rock Deluxe" | magazine=Billboard | date=21 September 1996 | accessdate=21 June 2014 | author=Morris, Chris}}</ref>

In 1996, Peter Blackstock wrote in ''No Depression'' that through his work with Diesel Only, "Jeremy Tepper has established himself as a unique and indispensable cog in the alt-country underground."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://nodepression.com/article/jeremy-tepper-products-when-producer-isnt-exactly-producer | title=Jeremy Tepper | work=No Depression | date=September–October 1996 | accessdate=21 July 2014 | author=Blackstock, Peter}}</ref> In 1997, Tepper married fellow musician Laura Cantrell. The label first diverged from its pattern of releasing trucking songs and related thematic compilations in 2000, with the release of Cantrell's debut album, Not the Tremblin' Kind.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/13/arts/music-moonlighting-at-the-bank-on-her-way-to-the-opry.html | title=Moonlighting At the Bank On Her Way To the Opry | work=The New York Times | date=13 July 2003 | accessdate=21 June 2014 | author=Applebome, Peter}}</ref> Cantrell and Tepper later became the co-owners and co-operators of Diesel Only.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://nodepression.com/article/laura-cantrell-simple-twist-fate | title=Laura Cantrell - Simple twist of fate | work=No Depression | date=30 June 2005 | accessdate=27 April 2017 | author=Ray, Linda}}</ref> Cantrell has released all but one of her albums on Diesel Only (as of 2011).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703509104576327631392991132 | title=A Little Country in the City | work=The Wall Street Journal | date=18 May 2011 | accessdate=21 June 2014 | author=Bennett, Bruce}}</ref>

==Artists== Artists who have released albums on Diesel Only include: *Dale Watson *World Famous Blue Jays *Amy Allison *Laura Cantrell *Will Rigby *Joe Flood *Tammy Faye Starlite *Ween

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{discogs label|Diesel Only Records}}

Category:Record labels established in 1990 Category:American country music record labels Category:1990 establishments in New York City