Cale

Based on other articles I've come across, I initially went along with the widely held belief that the short-lived

Album World label was a tax scam entity similar to Dellwood, Guinness, Tiger Lily, etc. Today I still think

there's evidence to support that theory, though I've come to believe the label started out as a legitimate

enterprise before morphing into tax scam entity. Formed in 1977 as a division of the Nashville-based

International Record Distributing Associates, Album World was apparently the brainchild of Hank Levine and

Mike Shepherd. Levine and Shepherd had considerable experience in music market and their original goal

was to provide a way for small, independent labels to get national distribution via their national distribution and

promotions capabilities. That plan explains the crazy-quilt list of labels released under the Album World

numbering system - Lanark was a Birmingham Alabama based label, Storybook was a Miami-based company

specializing in children's albums, TR Productions was a Los Angeles-based jazz outlet, etc.. Interestingly, a

1978 article in Billboard magazine indicated the company also planned to release albums by 'known' acts

including Bobby 'Monster Mash' Pickett, horror movie star Lon Chaney, and boxer Mohammad Ali. As far as I

can tell, none of those projects saw fruition. So, the uneducated conclusion I've drawn is that Album World

That conclusion seems to have some credence based on comments from photographer/art director Eric

Wrobbel. Wrobbel was responsible for many of the 'generic' cover photographs. On his interesting website

he describes Album World management giving him 'blank check projects' to design covers for various albums.

According to Wrobbel, Album World management had absolutely no interest in the end product, leaving him

with maximum flexibility to do whatever he wanted to. Photos of the artists were out of the question since in

many cases the names on the releases were fictitious (Jimmy Lewis, Marty Reese, etc.).

And lo and behold, Mr. Wrobbel stumbled onto the website and was kind enough to send in some comments:

Hi, interesting website you have. Back in 1977 I did photography and art for several (11) albums for Album World.

The Rhett Davis record was released earlier under a different label, Aquarian, with the title "For My Friends."

It was a custom record and a well-made one, produced by Rhett himself. I did the cover art that time too.

Redid it for Arrow (Album World). That hand on the Marty Reese cover is my own! The watch was given to me

by my grandfather. The Tim Winters cover was shot at The Gold Rush, a bar on Elliston Place in Nashville. The

subjects on the covers I did for Album World were all friends of mine doing me a favor by posing. Their faces

are all obscured in some way because, of course, they are NOT the artists on the records. Some of these friends

As elsewhere, on this site, this is my attempt to document the label's bizarre discography. That task is made

incredibly difficult by the near total absence of any information on the label and the fact the company chose to

release material on a series of 'subsidiary' labels such as Arnold, Clover, Kitty, etc. The only common

marketing feature they share is found in terms of catalog numbers - they all seem to start with the format

I've only heard a handful to these albums so unless there's a firm dollar value shown under the value column,

the figures reflect nothing more than a guesstimate as to value on my part. Many of these are so rare that

there simply isn't much of a baseline for coming up with a true value. (That said, I know a French dealer who

has a copy of "Moonpie" for sale - you can own a copy for a mere $10,000 ... amazing what some dealers

Feel free to send me any information you've got on Album World and I'll be happy to credit you with the

Noticed one update today which may be of interest. A few of the Album World titles (Roze Vagus

"Almost Country," Sandy Sims "Teach Me Tonight" and possibly others) have resurfaced as mp3 or

CDR copies available in "remastered" form from I-Tunes and Amazon from a company called

"Essential Media Group." These use the same cover art as the Album World versions.

My guess is that the company has a connection with well known country producer Jimmy Bowen

since I see he produced the Sims album, and also an early Kim Carnes album "Rest On Me" which

has resurfaced from Essential Media Group.