COUNTRY

 

Pressed in Ireland - its first issues at least - but intended for sale in Britain.  Country seems to have had an intimate relationship with Release Records (q.v.), several of its singles being sourced from that company and having the Release catalogue numbers of the equivalent Irish issue under the Country numbers.  A report from Billboard magazine of the 28th of April 1973 is worth reproducing here more or less in full:
‘U.K. Country company bows three new labels’ – Country Records, distributed in the U.K. by Shannon Distribution... is introducing three new labels in the U.K. aimed at the increasing Country market.  Country Records has secured exclusive rights to release material from the Nashville-based Chart and Stop labels.  The initial release will feature albums by George Morgan, Lloyd Green, Red Sovine and Pete Drake.  The third label called Country will be launched with albums by several U.K. acts including Tex Withers, Little Ginny and Brian Coll.  Country will also release some American material by Tracy Miller.  The company is also releasing three singles on Country, ‘Rangers Waltz’ by the Moms and Dads, ‘She’s The One You Live With’ by Ray Lynam and Philomena Begley, and Goodbye Comes Hard For Me’ by Larry Cunningham.
The singles duly appeared, as did one by Mary Lou; they were followed on the 20th of April 1974 by a batch of four others.  These later singles had a new label design (2), which was later used for an EP on the Shannon label (q.v.); I suspect that Country was actually owned by Shannon but I haven't been able to find documetary evidence as yet.  Numbering was in a CTY-100 series, which seems to have jumped from CTY-104 to CTY-109 for some reason - there's no trace of singles with numbers in-between those, though I suppose they may just be shy.  The few Country singles which Googling and Music Week reveal are listed below.  There were also some albums, which were numbered in the 615-300s; numbers reached 615-310, but again the records are largely Google-shy.






Copyright 2014 Robert Lyons.