Monday, 28 June 2021

Westmount Records: Adam & Eve (1975), Glenn Korsberg (1975), Freddy and Max (1975), R. Thompson (1977)


Here's our last batch of singles on Westmount Records (for now!), and it's kind of a grab bag of stuff. As is the rest of the CCPS collection, if we're completely honest. 

We can't really tell you anything about any of these artists, unfortunately. So we'll just share this clipping from the classified section:


Before you get too excited about the prospect of 100 records for $475, our CFO tells us that's equivalent to $2400 today. So maybe you want to save up and just grab today's download

Sunday, 27 June 2021

Westmount Records - Ron Sillito (1975), Denny Eddy, A.J. Nobles & the Country Mystic's

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:


Funny how little has changed, eh? Anyways, you can grab his single - and Sillito's and the Mystic's' here.

Saturday, 26 June 2021

Westmount Records - Sally Dee (1973), Judy Reimer (1975), Marie Bailey (1978)

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:


Get today's batch of Westmount Records singles here!

Friday, 25 June 2021

Westmount Records: Larry Ford (1975), Charlie Fife and the Fife Children (1975), Wayne Vold (1975), Slim Cowan (The Countryman)

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!


Thursday, 24 June 2021

Roxanne Goldade - Give Me One Good Reason (1977), Mama Take My Hand (1977), Give Me One Good Reason


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.


Thank you to the commenter on our facebook page who keeps gleefully pointing out cover art in which the female singers are touching their faces; sadly, we don't have the picture sleeve for "Mama Take My Hand," which is a fine example of that trope. Instead, we'll just point you to the download

Edit: we've added a third single by Goldade, which is in TERRIBLE condition. Sorry for the noise!

Wednesday, 23 June 2021

Vocal Records - Barry Keen (1976), Kim Cote (1978), E.N. Berting, Marty Koll, J.J. Collins, Grant Norlin, Lenny Roemer and Friends

 


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.


The records by Barry Keen, E.N. Berting, J.J. Collins, Lenny Roemer, and Marty Koll cover off the country end of the spectrum, while Grant Norlin is the gospel (as you can tell by the title/cover).  The Kim Cote single on here is an odd mix of "specialized music" and country - the A side is a soft rock instrumental, but the B side is a a bit of a country stomper. Cote has an album and single on Westmount that we're curious about - is it as eclectic as this Vocal single?


The one Vocal single that we'd like to get our hands on is a garage rocker by the Saints, featuring a cover of the old standard, "Fever." 'Cos that's the sort of "specialized music" we really like.

Get our Vocal singles here!

Friday, 18 June 2021

Gloria Glenn/Gloria Desjarlais - It's Hard To Be A Woman, Baby I Was Leaving Anyhow, Close Your Eyes (1985), Baby Shoes (1987), Baby I Was Leaving Anyhow (1988)


We're fairly certain that Gloria Desjarlais and Gloria Glenn are the same person. The Glenn part is likely from Desjarlais' partner, Glenn Neale, who produced these singles. We're struck by two things about these five records from the Métis country singer - the quality of the audio production and - of course - the sleeve art. Each sleeve has an amazing pair of photos... we're kind of speechless. 

So we'll send you to straight to the download.

Thursday, 17 June 2021

Fay Stevens - Go Away (And Don't Come Back Tomorrow) (1975), Love Is A Dream (1982), Playing A Fool's Game (1984)


Let's carry on with some more random stuff from the giant boxes of 7"s we have at the CCPS. This trio is from Fay Stevens and spans about a decade - but we haven't been able to find out much about the singer other than a quick bio over at 45cat. But really, the highlight of this is the cover for "Playing A Fool's Game" - "Take me now... to your turntable"?! GOLD.

Get taken here!

Wednesday, 16 June 2021

Honky Tonk Heroes - Five Singles (1985, 1987)


Pro tip: when you name your band after a very popular Waylon Jennings album, you're probably letting people know loud and clear what kind of music you play (outlaw country, hopefully) BUT you make it really hard for people to find out about you. But! The CCPS persevered - why? Because the label a bunch of these singles are on - High Octane Records - has an address that's just over five block away from the CCPS offices. On Wildwood Drive. On the NICE part of Wildwood Drive, backing onto the ridge. It's an unassuming place. Quite nice. Not like those big, overblow homes with three-car garages out front...

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.

Monday, 14 June 2021

Living Room Records: The Electricks, Five Day Trial, Ivan Daines, Lisa Rackstraw & Don Gowan, Wild Colonial Boys (1983)


We're bundling up our last five Living Room Records singles for you with this post, even though it makes a kind of weird combination. We've got the country storytelling of Ivan Daines, the folkier strains of both Calgary Folk Club house band the Wild Colonial Boys and Lisa Rackstraw & Don Gowan, the skinny tie rock of The Electricks, and the southern boogie of Five Day Trial. 

That's a lot of ground that Richard Harrow covered in his little studio. All while doing laundry, apparently:

Get the singles here!

Sunday, 13 June 2021

Jameson Booker - Sophistication (1978), Why Don't You Spend The Night (1980), Hollywood (1980)

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.


Get it here!

Saturday, 12 June 2021

Richard Harrow - The Fort Normandeau Story, Skiing Lake Louise (1975), Long Time Laying Down (1987)

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!

Friday, 11 June 2021

Black Bear Records: Joe Wood, Peter D'Amico, Cornelia MacLeod, Generra


We're onto another niche label, this time one which is - apparently - still somewhat active! As their website notes, Black Bear Records is owned by Peter D'Amico, and has been active since 1982 (or earlier? we've got one of these singles today pegged with a 1981 release date). Black Bear released the Nex'd 12" that we posted a looong time ago, so it's time to add a set of four singles to the mix.

These singles are a mix of country, AOR rock, and skinny tie rock. So a pretty broad range, considering how few singles we have - Cornelia MacLeod's the country (country pop, maybe?), the singles by head honcho Peter D'Amico and Joe Wood are the AOR, and Generra - featuring two members of The Kids! - is the skinny tie rock. 

That said, we quite like the Generra tracks - the A side, "Don't Cut Me," is a definite nod to Men Without Hats, so right up our alley. And over at keyboardist Derek Bullen's reverbnation page, we've grabbed a few more Generra tracks - as well as some of his excellent solo piano work. 

And you can grab the Black Bear singles here (note: our copy of the D'Amico single is super warped on the outer edge - sorry about the bumpy bump for the first 30 seconds!).

Wednesday, 9 June 2021

Strawberry Records - Carleen June Belick, Wanda Flach, Debi Lamden, Mary Lansdell, Jean Marie, Strawberry (1980)

Here's a slew of singles from Jonathon Sound Production/Michael Chursinoff's Strawberry Records. And another clipping!


Apparently the AOR-sounding Strawberry single is the collectable one in this batch (to us, anything with the word Calgary on it is collectable tho). What we're really curious about is why there are THREE singles by Carleen June Belick - actually, scratch that, we just checked Discogs and there are FOUR singles by Carleen June Belick on Strawberry. And as far as we can tell, she didn't go on to record anything else, despite the flash of media attention she got in 1980:


We're not sure what happened to Strawberry, Aura, and Jonathan Sound Productions - they seem to have disappeared after 1980. But at least we have these singles to remember them by.

Tuesday, 8 June 2021

Tim Williams - Still Sings Country (1977), A Honky Tonker Till I Die/Hoo Doo Woman (1980)

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. 

Get 'em here!

Monday, 7 June 2021

Aura Records: Dwain Sands - I Can't Stay With You (1979), Tom Hawk - Take A Letter Miss Gray (1980), Larry Sands - Hands Of Time (1980), Ron Paxton and the Foothill Stompers - Crooked Stove Pipe (1980)


We'd always had a hunch that the three classic punk singles on Aura Records from the Verdix, Cutz, and Plan Nine were outliers for the label - and here's your proof!

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.

Check your Aura here!


Sunday, 6 June 2021

Ron Mahonin - Close To Your Love, One Step From Heaven (1974), A Hit Song (1978), Goodnight LA (1979), It's Closing Time (1980), You Came Into My Life (1981)


Okay, this is a big one. Six - count 'em SIX - records from Heart Records founder Ron Mahonin. Our favourite thing about this batch is that the earliest record is on Westmount Records, bridging the two, uh, powerhouses. Heart Records put out a pile of 7" records (most notably the trio from skinny tie guys The Kids) from 1979 through 1983, starting with Mahonin's "A Hit Song," which is included in that batch. 

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: 


Get this sextuplet of singles here!

Saturday, 5 June 2021

Cal Cavendish - Daddy's Diesel/Sammy The Sand Truck, Breath-a-lyzer Blues/Here Comes The Home Team (1972)

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.

Friday, 4 June 2021

Mom and Dads - REMLAP singles (c. 1970)

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.

Thursday, 3 June 2021

Roy Warhurst's Western Swing Band - Everywhere You Go/Banjo Pickers Ball. Bei Mir Bist Du Schon (1961)

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! 


This is another of those cases of us not timing things quite right - if we'd have been on the ball, we would have noted that Roy Warhurst was inducted into the Country Music Alberta Hall of Fame this past January. There's not a lot of info on that page, but here's something we cribbed from the CMA facebook page:

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.

That's an impressive body of work, and this is a fairly early slice of that work. And you can grab it here!

Wednesday, 2 June 2021

S'Quires/Esquires - Melody Of The Woods/Electrocution (1964)

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.