Tight Ship Records is a record label founded by Barry Phipps in 2004. Using downtime at a recording studio he owned at the time (North Branch Studio in Chicago), Barry would bring in bands and artists he liked, record a few songs and put the recordings out on self made cds promoted through the Tight Ship Records website. Most of the album covers were photographs of the band taken by Andrew Collings at his photo studio down the street.
Between 2004-2010, over thirty recordings were made and released on the label. In late 2010, North Branch Studio closed when the building that housed the studio was sold. The website stayed active and kept releases available, but the demand for compact discs waned as mp3s dominated.
In 2015, Barry released his solo record The Town as Tight Ship’s first vinyl lp release, along with a Tight Ship cd of cover songs recorded by Barry.
In 2017, Barry re-released most of the Tight Ship recordings as digital download releases and moved the Tight Ship website to its new home at barryphipps.com.
New Tight Ship recordings are planned for 2018 focusing on bands and artists from Barry’s new home of Iowa City, IA.
