Little Village Foundation


The Little Village Foundation was founded in 2014 by Jim Pugh as a 501(c)(3) organization based in Solvang, California. Pugh is a veteran keyboard player who has toured the world with Robert Cray and Etta James. Little Village Foundation is non-profit company in the music industry that produces and distributes what it considers to be culturally significant recordings made by individuals and groups that might otherwise not be heard beyond the artists' community or family.
The label serves an access point for previously overlooked artists who retain their intellectual property and album sales through their work with the organization. The artists come from widely varied and sometimes non-traditional backgrounds. Pugh and his find and secure talent to sign and record, and several of the musicians have roots that extend to other nations, including Mexico, India, Russia and the Philippines.

Discography

LVF released its batch of four CDs in 2015. Four more followed in 2016, and seven more have followed in both 2017 and 2018. Most are released in the summer to coincide with an artists' showcase on Fourth Of July weekend at the Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland, Oregon.

2015 releases

2016 releases

  • John "Blues" Boyd's The Real Deal
  • Aireene Espiritu's Back Where I Belong
  • Aki Kumar's Aki Goes To Bollywood
  • Mariachi Mestizo's Te Doy La Libertad
  • Wee Willie Walker's ''Live! Notodden Blues Festival Norway''

2017 releases

2018 releases

  • Ada Pasternak's Sweet Dreams
  • Aki Kumar's Hindi Man Blues
  • Kevin Burt's Heartland And Soul
  • Marcel Smith's' Everybody Needs Love
  • Mariachi Mestizo's XX Aniversario
  • United By Music North America's Yes We Can Can
  • Various Artists Raise Your Voice
  • Whitney Shay's ''A Woman Rules The World''

2019 releases

  • Anai Adina's Esperame En El Cielo
  • Betty Reid Soskin's A Life of Being Betty
  • Junior Watson's Nothin' to Do But to Do It
  • Marina Crouse's Never Too Soon
  • Maurice Tani's This Is It
  • Mary Flower's Livin' with the Blues Again
  • The Mike Duke Project's ...Took a While
  • Saida Zahir's The Walking Stereotype
  • Skip The Needle's ''We Ain't Never Going Back''

2020 releases

  • Casey Van Beek and the Tulsa Groove's Heaven Forever
  • Ron Thompson's From the Patio: Live at the Poor House Vol. 1
  • The Sons Of The Soul Revivers' Songs We'll Always Sing
  • Nic Clark's Love Your Life: Songs for the Whole Family
  • Sonny Green's Found! One Soul Singer
  • ''20x20: The LVF Singer Songwriter Compilation''

2021 releases

  • Aaron Lington's 4 Bari x Bach
  • Aki Kumar's Zindagi: Live It Your Way
  • Gary Vogensen's Shot of Hope
  • Tia Carroll's You Gotta Have It
  • Bobby Black's 70 Years of Swingin' Steel!
  • Memphissippi Sound's ''Welcome to the Land''

2022 releases

  • Diunna Greenleaf's I Ain't Playin
  • Henry Kaiser and Rome Yamilov's The Lenoir Investigation
  • Marina Crouse's Canto de Mi Corazon
  • Mighty Mike Schermer's Just Gettin' Good
  • DaShawn Hickman's Drums, Roots & Steel
  • Phantom Blues Band's Blues for Breakfast
  • Maurice Tani's ''All In''

2023 releases

  • Alabama Mike's Stuff I've Been Through
  • Nic Clark's Everybody's Buddy
  • D.K. Harrell's The Right Man
  • Candice Ivory's When the Levee Breaks: The Music of Memphis Minnie
  • Marcel Smith's From My Soul
  • Bobby Vega's What Cha Got
  • Jeff Sanford's Cartoon Jazz Orchestra's Playland at the Beach
  • The Sampanguitas' The Sampanguitas: Folk Songs from the Philippines & Beyond
  • Skip the Needle's ''Octavia of Earth Vol. 2: Inspired by the Life of Octavia E. Butler''

2024 releases

2025 releases

  • Mariachi Mestizo's XXV Anniversario
  • Skip the Needle's Wake Up Wake Up Wake Up
  • Terry Hanck's Grease to Gravy
  • Aki Kumar's God Bless the USA All Things Swamp
  • Barry Goldberg's Like I Said
  • Jeff Falconer's Many Miles to Go
  • Sean "Mack" McDonald's Have Mercy!
  • Nia Cephas' ''Cosmicpolitan''

Awards

  • 2025 Blues Music Awards album of the year winner: Curtis Salgado's Fine By Me. Also nominated: Billy Price's Person of Interest.
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards band of the year winner: Rick Estrin & the Nightcats
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards song of the year nominees: Chris Cain's "Blues for My Dad" and Kevin Burt and Jerry Jemmott's "Mama, I Love You."
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards contemporary album of the year nominees: Chris Cain's Good Intentions Gone Bad and Rick Estrin's The Hits Keep Coming.
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards soul blues album of the year winner: Curtis Salgado's Fine By Me. Also nominated: Billy Price's Person of Interest.
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards acoustic blues artist of the year nominee: Kevin Burt.
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards contemporary blues male artist of the year nominee: Chris Cain.
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards entertainer of the year nominee: Rick Estrin.
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards soul blues female artist of the year nominee: Candace Ivory.
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards soul blues male artist of the year winner: Curtis Salgado. Also nominated: Alabama Mike and Billy Price.
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards traditional female artist of the year nominee: Diunna Greenleaf.
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards instrumentalist of the year -- bass nominee: Jerry Jemmott.
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards instrumentalist of the year -- drums nominees: Derrick "D'Mar" Martin, June Core and Tony Braunagel.
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards instrumentalist of the year -- guitar nominees: Chris Cain and Christoffer "Kid" Andersen.
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards instrumentalist of the year -- harmonica nominee: Rick Estrin.
  • 2025 Blues Music Awards instrumentalist of the year -- vocals winner: Curtis Salgado. Also nominated: Billy Price.
2025 Kid Andersen and Lisa Andersen win Norway's Spelleman Prisen, the equivalent to the U.S. Grammy, for their two-disc soul CD ''Spirits/Soul''

Notable events

Following the release of their album, Mariachi Mestizo was invited to play in a showcase at Carnegie Hall in New York. The performance took place on April 10, 2017. The group also performed at New York's Lincoln Center in 2018.
Formed a partnership in 2020 with Arhoolie Foundation, the non-profit that continues the mission of Chris Strachwitz and his Arhoolie Records, joining to co-produce "Working from Home", a series of concerts that provide a revenue stream for artists across the U.S. who are housebound because of coronavirus and unable to perform elsewhere. The shows are recorded and broadcast via social media with viewers contributing to virtual tip jars for each performance. All monies raised go directly to the artists involved, and LVF and Arhoolie provide matching funds for the first $500 raised per show. Ten shows were recorded in the series in 2020 to 2021, including broadcasts from Seligstein and Horowitz of Veretski Pass, Casey Van Beek and the Delta Groove, John "Blues" Boyd, Aki Kumar and Rome Yamilov, Wilson Savoy, Mary Flower, Familia Longoria, The Sons of the Soul Revivers, Xochitl and Anai Morales, and C.J. Chenier.