Slowly, but surely histories of record labels are emerging.

Next in line is The Starday Story: The House That Country Music Built, the recounting of the history of Starday Records, one of the most influential record labels of the 1950s and 1960s. Under the guiding hand of President Don Pierce, Starday was responsible for creating the largest bluegrass catalog throughout that era.

Written by Nathan D. Gibson, a graduate student in the Folklore and Ethnomusicology department at Indiana University in Bloomington, with Don Pierce, this book traces the label’s origins in 1953 through to the 1968 Starday-King merger.

For those parts of the book relating to bluegrass music, the author conducted several insightful interviews with Don Pierce, Bill Clifton, Jesse McReynolds, Betty Amos, Aubrey Holt, Dee Kilpatrick, Roni Stoneman among many others. In addition, he received expert advice from noted bluegrass historians Neil Rosenberg and Dick Spottswood.

The illustrated and fully annotated 272 page book consists of several chapters relating the label’s story, a bibliography, a record listing, a list of records for recommended listening and an index.

The Starday Story: The House That Country Music Built (University Press of Mississippi ISBN-13: 978-1604738308) is scheduled to be released on January 15, 2011.