[img width=721]//7ca49eb9f67ba1319ef136f9d52cd8b8.cdn.bubble.io/f1714960883213x695611419088332300/richtext_content.jpeg[/img] [b]Recording scene in Calgary is going full blast[/b] By Brian Brennan (Herald staff writer) The recording scene in Calgary is a hive of activity these days. Singer Terry Kushner has a new single, Say It Like You Mean It, just released on the independent Aurora label. Jameson Booker has a single, Hard Way To Go/Hollywood, released on Edmonton's Vera Cruz label and playlisted on local radio stations. Four new singles have been released by Michael Chursinoff's Strawberry Records. Two new singles and an album have been released by Ron and Val Mahonin's Heart Records. Two singles recorded at Circa Sound's new 16-track studio have been released on Keith Hitchner's Highwood label. And there's more to come. Scheduled for release in the near future are albums by country singer James Lee Hitchner, jazz-rock group Ebony and gospel-rock singer Barry Allan Wilson, along with a number of singles and EPs by various local artists. Terry Kushner and Mantra are working on separate new albums at the well-appointed 24-track Smooth Rock studio on Beaver Dam Rd NE. Singer-songwriter Richard Harrow has a new album in the works at his own 16-track Living Room studio. That venerable Calgary institution, Backline Orchestra, has just released its first EP. Pianist Wally Havrilenko is about to release his first, self-produced, piano-and-orchestra album, Just In My Dreams, on the Dream label. And EPs have also been produced independently by such new wave acts as Andrew Methven, The Unusuals and The Tickets. Second studio Accompanying all this activity is the news that Calgary's second 24- track recording studio will be open for business early next year. A third 24-track facility, tentatively named Crystal Sound, is said to be in the planning stages. And major new recording facilities are planned for Lethbridge and Red Deer, according to music industry sources. Current single releases on the Strawberry label include Mr. Whiskey by Wanda Flach, Pideme by Carleen June Belick, Nice and Easy by Jean Marie, and Waiting For A Slow Song by Mary Lansdell. Flach is a Winnipeg-based singer who has performed with Buddy Knox and whose repertoire ranges from pop to country. Belick is a 15-year-old Calgary high school student whose first two singles. Everybody Wants To Love Me and Rodeo Rider, were playlisted on more than 85 radio stations throughout Canada and the United States. She attends Bishop Grandin High School and has won several local talent contests. Jean Marie (Van Kleek) is a local songwriter and performer who has been working the lounge circuit in western Canada for the past five years. She writes middle-of-the-road pop material and works as a solo artist. Lansell sings with a local rock group named Ezra Brook and records pop and middle-of-the-road material. The Strawberry label was established in April of this year as an adjunct of Chursinoff's 16- track Jonathon Sound studio. It's aim is to develop Canadian talent, and recently the label established a branch office in Nashville, according to Chursinoff. Also on the move to a new office and eight-track demo recording facility in the Calgary Cable TV building on 10th Street NW is Ron and Val Mahonin's Heart label. Heart releases Current releases on Heart are James Lee Hitchner's single, It Was Easy, Ron Mahonin's It's Closing Time which has been playlisted locally by CFCN and CHQR and an album by Leth- bridge-based country singer Brian Bickerton, entitled Simple Kind Of Lovin'. Due for release in the near future is Hitchner's first album, entitled Fire of Love. Hitchner's brother Keith, mean- while, has a new album released on his own Highwood label and a single Cowboys Like Rockin' Too which is being played on CFAC and other country music stations across Canada. The recordings were done at Bruce Thompson's Circa Sound on Centre St near 13th Avenue S. Also recorded at Circa recently were an album by the lounge group The Highlanders, which is expected to be out by Christmas, and singles by Art Barker, Chuck Irwin and Don Warden. Barker, who lives in Red Deer,. performs country and bluegrass material. His bluegrass single, entitled The Captain and Nicky, was produced by Keith Hitchner. Irwin is a country singer who lives in Black Diamond and who writes and performs his own material. Warden sings folk and pop material in the easy relaxed style of Roger Whittaker. His first single is expected to be released on the newly-established Circa label early next year. Other projects in the works at Circa include a jazz-rock album by Jimmy Carver's Ebony group, a neo-rockabilly album by Okotoks-based Geoff Edmunds (brother of England's well-known rockabilly revivalist, Dave Edmunds), and gospel albums by Barry Allan Wilson and Ken Harder. Manager Thompson says the studio is also busy with educational projects, following the recent accreditation of its recording engineering course by the Columbia School of Broadcasting. And Circa has formed a work- ing partnership with Nikki Productions of Calgary to run a series of seminars on the business side of music, beginning in January.
