In the 2000s, Lost Highway Records was the prestige country and Americana imprint for Universal Music Group’s Nashville division. Like, say, Warner’s esteemed Nonesuch Records, Lost Highway was a major label affiliate with indie cred. The label put out soundtracks for the Coen Brothers’ O Brother Where Art Thou?, HBO’s foul-mouthed Western Deadwood, and Paul Westerberg’s music for the cartoon Open Season, as well as records by Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Hayes Carll, Mary Gauthier, and Lyle Lovett. In 2012, Lost Highway was subsumed into Mercury Nashville, but it returned this year with the involvement of Americana overlord T Bone Burnett, who worked with Ringo Starr on his country album Look Up and made it the first release on the reactivated Lost Highway. Today, the label has revealed a noteworthy signing that really kicks its new era into gear.
