“The Blues Brothers” isn’t just a star-studded movie with over the top car crashes and a legendary soundtrack.
Now, it’s a record label.
Dan Aykroyd, who played Elwood Blues in the 1980 comedy, and Judy Belushi, widow of John Belushi, who played Elwood’s brother Jake, announced on their fan site that they launched the label.
The label is called Blues Brothers Records. They said that it’s “dedicated to the development of blues artists that will be distributed by venerable jazz label Blue Note Records, a flagship label of the Capitol Music Group.”
They have invited musicians to submit their work through the web site.
Aykroyd plans to use his radio show, Elwood’s BluesMobile, to promote the label’s musicians. He also plans to use the House of Blues music venues located in a dozen cities around the U.S. He co-founded those with Belushi,
The label is based in Los Angeles — not the Blues Brothers’ home town of Chicago.
“The Blues Brothers” movie is about two musicians — one of them an ex-con — who are on a “mission from God.” They need to raise enough money to keep the orphanage that raised them from closing down. They do this by reuniting their old band.
They encounter some legendary musicians along the way, including Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown and John Lee Hooker. The also encounter neo-Nazis and an angry country-western band called The Good Ole Boys.
They manage to destroy a shopping mall, and a whole lot of police cars in the process of saving their orphanage.