Puritan lasted only until 1927, but Paramount, based in the factory of its parent company in Grafton, Wisconsin, published some of the nation's most important early blues recordings between 1929 and 1932.

Paramount began offering to press records for other companies on a contract basis at low prices.

[3] The company relied on offices and agents in nearby Chicago to find and record artists for its blues and jazz offerings.

[4] Paramount's race record series was launched in 1922 with vaudeville blues songs by Lucille Hegamin and Alberta Hunter.

Williams did not know at the time that the "race market" had become Paramount's prime business and that he was keeping the label afloat.

In 1927, Ink Williams moved to competitor Okeh, taking Blind Lemon Jefferson with him for just one recording, "Matchbox Blues".

In 1929, Paramount was building a new studio in Grafton, so it sent Charley Patton —"sent up" by Jackson, Mississippi, storeowner H. C. Speir —to the studio of Gennett Records in Richmond, Indiana, where on June 14 he cut 14 famous sides,[6] which led many to consider him the "Father of the Delta Blues".

[7] After Williams left Paramount, he placed the business in the hands of his secretary, Aletha Dickerson, who had not been informed that her former employer had quit.

[10] Author Amanda Petrusich also dived in the river looking for records for her 2014 book Do Not Sell At Any Price, but did not find any.