Label Guide: Excello

Excello Records was founded in 1953 by Ernie Young in Nashville, Tennessee, as a subsidiary of Nashboro. While Nashboro was primarily a gospel label, Excello was started to record blues. It recorded such artists as Lonnie Brooks, Lightnin' Slim, Slim Harpo, Charles Sheffield, Roscoe Shelton, Lazy Lester, Silas Hogan and Arthur Gunter.

Excello was a singles-only label, on 45 and 78rpm, until the first longplay album was released in 1960. Most of those albums are quite scarce today. The label continued to release albums until the mid-1970s, but the overall output of Excello was small, both in number of releases and copies pressed.