Slim Richey

[1] Richey was born in Atlanta, Texas, and became a jazz enthusiast at an early age, starting a swing band in high school.

He went to college at the University of Oklahoma, studying with Benny Garcia and taking up the style of jazz guitar playing epitomized by Hank Garland, Barney Kessel, and Wes Montgomery.

The company also sold a number of folk instruments under Richey's own Ridge Runner brand and marketed instructional materials for students of bluegrass music.

The company developed one of the first commercially-produced variable speed tape machines designed to assist in transcribing recorded music.

Specializing primarily in acoustic music from Texas and Oklahoma, the label produced some groundbreaking projects which are still cherished and studied today.