Shanachie Records was founded in 1976 by Richard Nevins and Dan Collins. The label is named for shanachie, an Irish 'story teller'.

According to Harvey Pekar, it is one of the largest independent record labels in the world, and is currently distributed by E1 Music. Starting as a record label that specialized in fiddle music, they began releasing work by Celtic groups such as Planxty, Clannad. Other genres on the label include Latin American, African music, soul, country and ska. In 1989 they acquired Yazoo Records from Nick Perls. This allowed them to release vintage jazz and blues recordings. Today, they have another imprint, Shanachie Jazz.