Headquarters: Oxford, MS
Active Roster[]
- Hasil Adkins
- Robert Belfour
- The Black Keys
- Blackfire Revelation
- Kenny Brown
- Solomon Burke
- Robert Cage
- Joe Callicott
- Country Teasers
- Cedell Davis
- Deadboy & The Elephantmen
- Scott Dunbar
- Entrance
- T-Model Ford
- Grandpaboy
- Heartless Bastards
- John Hermann
- Paul Jones
- Little Freddie King
- Jelly Roll Kings
- Furry Lewis
- Little Axe
- Bob Log III
- Nathaniel Mayer
- Fred McDowell
- The Neckbones
- Super Chikan
- Thee Shams
- Dave Thompson
- Twenty Miles
- J.W. Warren
- Elmo Williams
- Jimmy Lee Williams
- Robert Pete Williams
- We Are Wolves
Inactive Roster[]
- R.L. Burnside (deceased)
- Charles 'Cadillac' Caldwell (deceased)
- Junior Kimbrough (deceased)
- Asie Payton (deceased)
- Johnny Farmer
Key Releases[]
- The Black Keys - Thickfreakness
- R.L. Burnside - Too Bad Jim
- T-Model Ford - She Ain't None of Your'n
History[]
Fat Possum, run by founder Matthew Johnson and producer Bruce Watson in the heart of Mississippi, is a small, exclusively blues label that has seen it's share of ups and downs. The core of their roster are elder blues-men who truely sing about what they know. Most of them have seen their share of personal tragedies, jail time and illness. Recently some of Fat Possum's best selling artists have passed away, including R.L. Burnside, who learned the blues from Muddy Waters himself, Junior Kimbrough and Charles 'Cadillac' Caldwell. The label itself has had pleny of reason to sing the blues as well. Started by Johnson off of student loan checks when he was 22, Kimbrough and Burnside was his first signings after seeing them play an all night blues session. Though Fat Possum garnished success earlier on by releasing hands-down dirty and raw blues, by the mid-90s they were a million dollars in debt. They went on a two year hiatus, mostly due to a legal battle with then distributor, Carpricorn Records. In 1996, Epitaph picked them up as a subsidary and saved them from bankruptcy. From that point on, Fat Possum has gained nothing but momentum and high sales. From the Grammy winning Solomon Burke album to the high selling R.L. Burnside hip-hop remix project to the immense hipster populartiy of the blues-punk duo, The Black Keys. Money issues are no longer a problem for Fat Possum, but keeping their aging roster out of trouble and out of the grave will alway be a challenge.