Stony Plain Records is a Canadian independent record label, which features multiple music genres such as blues, folk, and country. The label has released more than 300 albums with a plethora of artists such as Steve Strongman, Sue Foley, The Downchild Blues Band, Jeff Healey, Sass Jordan, Colin Linden, Harry Manx, Big Dave McLean, MonkeyJunk and a boatload more of artists. This award-winning label is one year away from celebrating its 50th Anniversary and continues to support both Canadian and International music artists.
Ken Wallis interviewed Stony Plains Record President Geoff Kulawick for the radio show BluesSource Canada.The following are excerpts from that interview, edited and amended for clarity and brevity,
Ken Wallis
Stony Plain Records in Waterdown, Ontario has got some exciting news, and joining us to tell us all about it is Geoff Kulawick, president of Stony Plain Records. Stony Plain just got a few Grammy nominations. Congratulations.
Geoff Kulawick
Thanks Ken, great to be joining you. And yeah, we're pretty pleased as punch here to get three Grammy nominations this year. A rare occasion for an independent Canadian label to get any Grammy nominations, but to have three in one year. It’s a very rare achievement.
Ken Wallis
I know Steve Strongman and Sue Foley are nominated. What are they nominated for?
Geoff Kulawick
Sue Foley is nominated for Best Traditional Blues Album for her album One Guitar Woman, which is fabulous. She's been on just about every cover of just about every Blues magazine on the planet this year. And this is her first Grammy nomination. So she’s pleased as can be and so are we.
We also got two other Grammy nominations, both for the Fabulous Thunderbirds, one for the same category as Sue Foley for Best Traditional Blues Album. And, the other one is for Best American Roots Performance for one of the tracks on the album called Nothing in Ramblin’, the old Memphis Minnie cover song that features The Fabulous Thunderbirds, along with guests Bonnie Raitt, Keb Mo, Taj Mahal, and Mick Fleetwood. A star-studded track on that record that was co-produced by Steve Strongman.
Ken Wallis
So how did Steve Strongman get involved with the Fabulous Thunderbirds?
Geoff Kulawick
I signed Steve to a publishing deal and a recording deal a couple years back. The idea was to try and develop him as a go-to co-writer, producer for all those Blues artists that are looking for catchy choruses and some good up-tempo bluesy-rock tunes, which Steve is just so good at. With that in mind, I set him up collaborating with a bunch of different artists from Crystal Shawanda, to Sass Jordan, to number of Canadian artists.
But, I also reached out to the manager of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, because I thought there was a band that has a great history, a great track record that probably could use some inspiration for writing a new record. So, I pitched them the idea of having Kim Wilson, the leader and original founding member of the T Birds, to fly Steve down to try co-writing with him. And, that's what you do as a publisher, you look for opportunities for your songwriters to co-write with established artists and they hit it off and they ended up writing 17 songs together, and most of them ended up on this record, and Steve ended up co-producing the record. It's great feather in the cap for Steve and also for Stony Plain.
Ken Wallis
And what does it mean to the record company? A real tip of the hat for what you’re doing.
Geoff Kulawick
Well, it's great to be recognized by the Recording Academy in the States. And you know it's mostly made up of artists and producers and engineers and creative people. So it's not really a fan thing. It's more of an industry insider thing and you have to be a voting member of the Recording Academy. You just can't be an accountant or a radio promoter. You've gotta be involved in the creative process. And that's the only way to become a voting member of the Academy.
It's great recognition. I think it will open opportunities for Steve to work with other artists and for Sue to perform in more venues and more higher capacity venues, and, bigger festivals. Hopefully it will open up opportunities for them to develop as artists and songwriters.
Ken Wallis
So tell us how Stony Plain got started?
Geoff Kulawick
It was founded close to 50 years ago by Holger Peterson, who's like you, a Blues fan and radio host. He hosts CBC Sunday Night Blues and CKAU’s Nashville Blues show for I think 30 plus years.
So just a true dedicated Blues music lover and fan of the of the Blues and Blues artists and truly doing it because he has his love for music. So, he founded the label and signed many brilliant artists, not just in the Blues world, but in roots and folk.
He worked with the likes of Ian Tyson and Sylvia Tyson, and Grievous Angels, and a whole range of American Blues artists like Duke Robillard and Ronnie Earl and the The Broadcasters, and Maria Muldaur.
He’s a fantastic entrepreneur and producer and we've known each other for a long time. I've been in the record business running my own label, Linus Entertainment for close to 25 years now. We always talked about if he was looking to sell Stony Plain, that I would be interested in buying it. As it came about, his original partner, Alvin, who was handling a lot of the administration and day-to-day operations of Stony Plain, while Hogan was the creative guy, Alvinn wanted to retire. And so it was an opportunity for Holger to be able to find another partner that could take care of the operations, distribution, sales and administration sides that would allow him to continue the creative side.
Holger and I co-executive produced the Taj Mahal album that we put out a year and a half ago, which was great, and he's still our consultant. He overseas projects like Kenny Blues Boss Wayne and other artists that he's got relationships with. We bought Stony Plain from Holger four years ago and it’s been great working together.
Ken Wallis
And you’re located in the small town of Waterdown. It's amazing, a great Canadian record story. So hats off to all of you and I thank you so much for your time. Geoff. It’s been great chatting with you.
Geoff Kulawick
Thanks Ken. I appreciate it and thanks for having me on.
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