We can't really tell you anything about any of these artists, unfortunately. So we'll just share this clipping from the classified section:
Carrying on through the stack of Westmount Records singles, here's a batch of three country records from Denny Eddy, A.J. Nobles & The Country Mystic's (sic), and Ron Sillito. Is Ron the father of 2000's indie singer-songwriter Dolly Sillito? We hope so. But we couldn't find anything to confirm it.
But we did find a clipping about Denny Eddy from 1972, chronicling his attempts to make it in the music business:
We've got an all-female line up from Westmount Records today, with a pair of singles from Sally Dee, two from Judy Reimer (although one is on Doug Wong Music - how did that slip in here? we'll get to the DWM collection soon, we promise!), and one from Marie Bailey.
We couldn't find anything on any of these singers, aside from an obituary for Marie Bailey - Bailey passed away in 2014, and her obit notes that she "loved music, had a beautiful voice and sang with several bands in Calgary (Quinton and the Polka Dots and Foothills Stompers). She was the first local girl to sing at the Petroleum Club with Frank Bailey’s orchestra in the 1970’s; sang in Vancouver, B.C at the War Amputees Club and various Legions, as well as in a choir and quartet with Sweet Adelines. Marie recorded a 45 - single of 2 songs she composed in 1975 which was sent to radio stations across Canada and also recorded with Quinton and The Polka Dots."
These records span a pretty huge range of years (despite the date in her obituary, we're sticking with 1978 as the year on Marie Bailey's single, based on the catalogue number), reminding us that Westmount was active for a pretty big stretch of the 70's. Here's a clipping from the early days in 1972, with some more info about founder Peter Bentley:
Here's today's helping of Westmount Records singles, a smattering of country artists that we largely can't tell you much about. Except for one!
We found a pretty comprehensive article about Wayne Vold that covers his many facets - cowboy, stock contractor, and country singer. It's a pretty fascinating read - and we quite like Vold's single, possibly because his voice reminds us of Tom Phillips'.
Get this batch of Westmount singles here!
We're trying to figure out how to eat the elephant that is the rather large pile of singles on Westmount Records that's sitting in the queue here at the CCPS. We're still uncertain - but we do know that if we do them one by one, we're going to be struggling for content. SO! We'll start with this pair by singer Roxanne Goldade.
Goldade was an up-and-coming star in the late 70's, attracting national attention (a Juno nomination!) in her mid teen years, based on a series of LP and single releases. It looks like after these country-focused singles, she was part of soft-rockers Hot Pursuit, before heading into University - and, we assume, leaving the music biz.
Today we've got a set of singles from Vocal Records, which was the imprint of E.K. Studios The clipping below describes the studio's output as "country, middle-of-the-road gospel and other specialized music" - which is pretty much what this batch of 7 inchers is.
Get our Vocal singles here!
Get taken here!
Oh, but we're not here to talk real estate. We're here to talk singles! Honky Tonk Heroes may have been based out of Vancouver at some point, based on what we could find out about them - which wasn't really much. All we know is that their drummer, Britt Hagarty, was also a writer. Sadly, Hagarty passed away in 1999.
Get your Honky Tonk on here.
Next up is a trio of singles from the, uh, duo of Brian Booker and Margie Jameson, who put out a bunch of releases under the moniker Jameson Booker in the late 70s/early 80s - with their debut on Richard Harrow's Living Room Records. We've also got two singles on Edmonton's Vera Cruz records added in here for your listening pleasure.
Roman Cooney is maybe a bit cruel in his review of the band's live show (at Lucifer's!) below, but it helps paint the picture of the conundrum that faced local bands in the 70s and 80s - covers sell seats.
We've posted work by Living Room Studios head honcho Richard Harrow in the past, so let's catch up with a few singles that we've picked up over the years.
The first two are on the History On Records imprint, which we know NOTHING about (surprise!), and were recorded at Sound West rather than Harrow's living room/basement studio. They're kind of fun local history/tourism things - the B side of Skiing Lake Louise is a great soft rock jam, the instrumental of the A side - it sounds like the theme music from an 80s sitcom.
Long Time Laying Down is a pair of remixed tracks from Harrow's 1974 album, Potts. Which is also kind of a local history thing, now that we think about it...
Get the Harrow singles here!
Here's a slew of singles from Jonathon Sound Production/Michael Chursinoff's Strawberry Records. And another clipping!
While the first record in this set isn't truly a Calgary release, since it's by local blues legend Tim Williams, we couldn't pass up a chance to package it up alongside his Aura Records release.
American-born Williams has a long career, reaching back to recordings from the early 1960's. These two capture more of a country feeling than the most bluesy guitar work that he's renowned for - except maybe for the b-side of his Aura Single, "Hoo Doo Woman," which is the standout track on these records.
Aura Records was one of two imprints run by Jonathan Sound Productions and Michael Chursinoff. The article below refers as this to their "budget" label - we're not sure what that means. We'll get to some Strawberry stuff, and maybe you'll be able to tell us?
Two of these records are from father and son Larry and Dwain Sands, both of whom appear to still be active musicians. Well, as active as a musician CAN be, in these times.
The Heart Archives have a great story about that first recording and how it came to be:
Placing semi-finalist in the American Song Festival, A Hit Song (aka Tryin' To Write A Hit Song) was first recorded by the group Player, giving Mahonin his first Gold record. Teaming up with manager Marc Gordon of Los Angeles, Mahonin's version of A Hit Song was produced in L.A. studio One Step Up. With a law suit in the works against an L.A. publisher, Mahonin recalls, "We did the record on spec, but no one would touch it. Even the Canadian record companies loved the record, but because of the legalities, we couldn't get a deal." Desperate to make at least some money back on the initial recording investment, the record was self-released in Canada. And the rest as they say, was history. The record achieved incredible airplay, broke on every major market station and a Canadian label was born.
We also found this great clipping from the Herald, from the early days of Heart:
We're going to keep ping-ponging thru the boxes of 7" singles here at the CCPS, and we've got a pair today from the legendary Cal Cavendish. These are two great country singles in Cavendish's honest and unassuming style. We quite like this lyric from "Breath-a-lyzer Blues": "You're high enough to fly/And you don't need a plane/If you're driving your car you gotta be insne," but mostly because it makes us think of his amazing aerial escapades.
Blow into the mouthpiece and get the download here.
We're going to keep this one short. YES we realize that the Mom and Dads (note: singular female parent, plural male parents) were from Spokane, NOT Calgary. NO we don't know why these singles were released out of Calgary. And NO REALLY we don't know why there were released from an address on THE SAME STREET as the CCPS offices, within less than 500m. BUT YES it freaks us out a bit.
But because we're committed to the cause, you can get these here.
We're pretty sure we warned you that this trip into 7" land was going to get random, right? So, from 60's garage rock to... 60's square dancing!
Roy Warhurst is a celebrated musician with a long history of radio performances, touring, and recording... Mr. Warhurst was introduced to the fiddle and banjo at a young age by his uncle. As a schoolboy, his principal became a fan of his musical abilities and sent him off to other schools in the area to perform. At fourteen years old, Mr. Warhurst became a featured performer on Bill Rae’s Roundup show on CKNW Radio (New Westminster, BC)... this band became regulars on CBC’s national Burns Chuckwagon Show. One year later, Roy formed his own band, the Fraser River Boys, which played western swing, standard country tunes, and old-time dance music... Mr. Warhurst was then asked to join Vic Siebert and the Sons of the Saddle in Calgary. He also played fiddle with the iconic western music group Sons of the Pioneers from 1994-1997... Mr. Warhurst also had established himself as a recording artist, recording albums of western swing music with the Kunkel Brothers Band and various projects in Nashville, TN. Together with Dick Damron, Mr. Warhurst produced the album “Northwest Rebellion,” later deemed an instrumental work of art. He was also a musician on three Ian Tyson albums... Mr. Warhurst would go on to produce local Calgary TV shows, recruiting local talent for the station and putting together shows for the Calgary Stampede for three decades.
We're backing up the 7" truck for a moment to pick up this little gem that we would have posted along with the pack of Gainsborough Gallery, Happy Feeling, and 49th Parallel - if we'd had it at the time. We had to make some amends and source of copy of this for ourselves, which took, well, cash. Which is just the way of the CCPS sometimes.
We're fairly indebted to the great work of Roy Wilcox and his Garage Band Rockers ebook, as we've raved on about a fair amount. The book opens with an overview of rock in the 50's before diving into a chapter on the band that Roy founded, The Esquires. The band started as a five-piece instrumental outfit, playing hall shows in Calgary. Wilcox left the band in 1961, a few years before this single was recorded and released under their original name. Wilcox tells a great story about the recording session in his book:
In 1964 the Barry label of Quality Records released “Melody of the Woods”, backed with “Electrocution”. It was recorded at one of the CFCN TV studios. Don Wood worked the soundboard for the session. These recording sessions had to be scheduled at 2:00 in the morning when studios were vacant. There were several recording sessions. At one session, Mark was injured in a freak accident. CFCN hosted a local wrestling TV show and the ring was set up on one Friday night. Naturally, the young guys had to get into the ring and display their non-existent wrestling skills. Everyone started hamming it up by scuffling under the pretense of being wrestlers. Inadvertently Mark got swung backwards into the ropes. Because no one knew what they were doing, Mark fell butt first between the ropes and landed on his back on the concrete studio floor striking his head. Of course, he could not record any music that night!
After the release of this single, the band changed their name to the S'Quires due to, well, a bazillion other bands having that name. They then added lead singer Pete Fargey and went on to release two more singles. Which we don't have yet. But this double instrumental single will serve us well for now - as with so many garage rock classics, it's the b-side, "Electrocution," that gets us moving.
Our copy of this isn't quite as nice as the one that youtube video is sourced from, but you can get it here.
