Dan Einstein Dead: Co-Founder of John Prine’s Record Label Was 61

Dan Einstein, who was a Grammy winner and co-founded independent labels with John Prine and Steve Goodman but then had to leave the business and open an East Nashville restaurant. He died Saturday at 61.

While no cause of death has been given, family members stated that Einstein had suffered from a chronic illness. A GoFundMe was set up last week after Einstein was transferred to Alive Hospice. It had raised $140,000 in just six days.

Within the music industry, Goodman — an L.A. native who moved to Nashville — was best known for helping Prine establish Oh Boy Records and, before that, setting up Red Pajamas Records with Goodman, the esteemed folk singer. Both labels were formed in the ’80s at a time when it was considered risky and less than prestigious for artists who’d achieved notoriety with major labels in the past to release records on their own.

In his adopted Nashville, the focus of attention upon Einstein’s death was not so much his music industry background but on his proprietorship of an eatery that he and his wife Ellen opened in 2004 after he dropped out of the music business. Einstein’s obituary in the Tennessean was topped by a headline that described him as “beloved Sweet 16th Bakery owner”First, and foremost “music industry veteran” secondarily.

Born and raised in Connecticut, Einstein’s family moved in 1978 to L.A., where he attended UCLA but dropped out after three years, already deep into booking acts at venues ranging from that university to Madame Wong’s and the Masque. He soon went to work for Al Bunetta Management, working out of the company’s Wilshire Blvd. office for a dozen-plus years, before he and the rest of the company transplanted to Tennessee in the early ’90s. This was a significant milestone in Nashville’s history as a hub for the Americana movement, which would soon be called mainstream country.

Bunetta and Einstein started up Red Pajamas Records for Goodman in 1981 and Oh Boy for Prine in 1982, acts of considerable moxie in a pre-internet period when there was little infrastructure for distributors to take on independent labels of any kind, let alone artist-owned imprints.

“Nothing said ‘over’ then quite like not being on a major label — not even Rounder or Sugar Hill,”Holly Gleason, a Nashville journalist who was a confidante of Einstein for over 40 years, recalls Holly Gleason. “It was a different world. No distributors would deal with an artist-owned/distributed label, so it was mail-order-only, plus sold at shows. Dan went to work trying to build that distribution network; a chain or distributor would come in on their own, and some indie record stores would get in the fold… I remember the day Tower Records agreed to carry their records. It was amazing. We went to Lucy’s El Adobe to celebrate.”

Prine made a conscious decision to go indie. Goodman had perhaps fewer options. “Dan built Red Pajamas because you can’t get a record deal for a guy who has leukemia,”Gleason emphasizes. She says Prine “John, seeing Stevie not dealing with record company people, decided he wanted in. Dan went, ‘Okay,’ and started building a label for a living artist with a future.”

Vindication came quickly — if partially posthumously for Goodman, who died in 1984. The Grammys introduced the contemporary folk category in 1986. Two nominations went to the Red Pajamas (and Oh Boy) labels. Prine’s “German Afternoons”The winner of the prize was announced. “A Tribute to Steve Goodman,” which landed Einstein a Grammy award as the collection’s executive producer. Prine, Richie Havens Arlo Guthrie and John Hartford were among the guests who honored Goodman’s memory.

Gleason remembers Einstein’s humble reaction upon learning that two records he was responsible for had been nominated in the category’s inaugural year: “Well, I guess this mean it’s working.”

This category was also held by Goodman and Red Pajamas in the year that followed, as “Unfinished Business,”Einstein’s record that completed Goodman’s last work, was awarded the second contemporary folk Grammy.

The Oh Boy label would have had to wait to be victorious, but Prine was repeatedly nominated and won his first of many awards in 1991. “The Missing Years.”Prine moved away from an acoustic sound and took the album in a rocking direction with Heartbreaker Howie Epstein producing it, along with Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty.

“When they moved the labels and management company to Nashville in the early ’90s, they sort of became a Ground Zero for roots music,”Gleason. “Suddenly, Nashville was validated”For a hipper audience that previously considered Austin and L.A. their primary bases. When Americana happened, Dan was the young guy who helped anchor the movement.”

Einstein’s two decades with Oh Boy saw it taking on not just Prine product but signing artists including Kris Kristofferson, Todd Snider and Janis Ian, as well as establishing an Oh Boy Classics imprint that released vault material from Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson and Roger Miller. The Oh Boy label continued to be active after Einstein’s exit and, indeed, is putting out new releases even now, after Prine’s death.

After leaving the music industry to open Sweet 16th Bakery, Einstein won more awards. The eatery’s signature breakfast favorite was named one of Food + Wine’s top 10 breakfast sandwiches in America. And Sweet 16th won the Nashville Scene’s award for best cupcake so many times that it was eventually retired from competition.

The bakery is also known for being a community hub in Lockeland Springs, having been open since opening its doors at the right time. “when East Nashville was still more scary than hip,”Gleason. “He pioneered the concept of creating something for his community, a place that gave back and gave refuge. He knew how small things changed lives, so he figured he and Ellen could create somewhere that offered that to people in a way anyone could partake.”The restaurant and he were well-known for their kindness to dogs and children.

One last award was to be given: He and Ellen Einstein were named “East Nashvillians of the Year”By the East Nashvillillian in 2021 for providing free meals to the residents of the community after it was hard hit by the 2020 tornado. ““We had survived the tornado [of 1998] so we had the feeling we had to stake our claim and bring something back to the neighborhood,”The publication was informed by him. “Seeing the goodness of people in the neighborhood and the way everybody came together. Our thing was to make a living, pay our bills, and give back to people who live around us.”

Due to COVID, funeral services will not be held. However, a virtual celebration of the life of the deceased will be held HereWednesday: A public memorial in person is planned later in the year.