Trough Records was formed in 1993 by Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Mark Humphreys as a way to release his music, bypassing the traditional barriers put up by the mainstream music industry. Humphreys has now released five albums on Trough,"A Lust and a Longing" (TRCP 1011), "Angelenos" (TRCP 1022), "Leap Day"(TRCP 1033),"Songs at the Moon" (TRCP 1044), and "The River Road" (TRCP 1055).

Beginning in 1997, with the release of "dot" by Rod Smear (TRCP 1302), Trough Records moved to a new phase in what we hope will be a long adventurous run. Since then the label has released "Location Location Location" by Andrew Lorand (TRCP 1303) and the self-titled "Tim Tedrow and John-Michael Kaye" (TRCP 1305) in 1997; in 1998"Whenever the Moon is Full" by Lisa Johnson (TRCP 1306) came out; in 2000 "Lucky Penny" (TRCP 1304) debuted the talented David Piper; in 2001 Puppets of Castro (TRCP 1307) put out their self-titled project and comedian/songwriterPhil Ward released a live collection of his music, "Easily Amused".(TRCP 1308). In 2002 the label released Tim Tedrow, Terry Vreeland...and Friends (TRCP 1309) and David Piper's second effort, "All My Angels Past" (TRCP 1310). 2005 brought the release of Piper’s third CD, “Lemonade Shoes” (TRCP1311).

Our goal is to release albums by artists who are part of the "Acoustic Underground" movement in Southern California, where many incredible songwriters labor every day against the backdrop of a music industry often too large to notice the wealth of talent right in its own back yard.

By banding together some of L.A.'s finest performers under the Trough logo, we hope the label will begin to gain recognition and provide better opportunities for its artists to be noticed. And because we enter into non-exclusive license agreement with the artists--all of whom retain full ownership of their recording, writing and publishing copyrights--Trough makes it possible for them to move wherever and however they please if such an opportunity arises.

We intend to continue to provide a steady stream of some of the best music from Southern California's Acoustic Underground.

Watch us grow. See you soon.

© 1997-2005 Trough Records. All rights reserved.