the long-running Ron McMunn and His Country Cousins show, which provided many of the Ottawa Valley’s country performers their first op- portunity to be heard “live” on radio. Likewise stations from Cornwall in the south of the Valley to Pembroke in the north provided country fans with a steady diet of country music. Sadly, in recent years, fans of the “traditional” style of country music that had been programmed on these stations, have now been pushed to the sidelines, with the move by syndi- cated radio into what is termed “New Country”, little of which resembles the real country music from years past. Saving grace for some radio listeners came with the introduction of Renfrew-based Valley Heritage Radio (CJHR) in January, 2007; with the station airing a variety of shows, many of which provide special em- phasis on Ottawa Valley performers and their recordings.
Ottawa and later on Holly Lane. The label was home to many of the Ottawa Valley’s top country record- ing acts including Ralph Carlson, Bytown Bluegrass, Bruce Golden, Rick Thompson, Gerry Allard, Howard Hayes, Hugh Scott, Ron McMunn, John Henry, and others, as well as out-of town artists Big Redd Ford, Anita Perras & Tim Taylor, Don Cochrane, Reg Watkins, Sharon Lowness, The Fox Family, The Rhythm Pals, etc. Snocan’s subsidi- ary label Icicle Records, featured releases by such artists as Blue Mule, Andy Lusk, Andy Clarke, Paul Henry, Kelli Trottier.
The first release by Snocan Records was the album “The Sing- ing Grandmother” (SCN-501) a collection by Arnprior-based Edie Thomas (1924-2014). The label was also home for the first release by Ot- tawa’s award-winning singer/song- writer Charlie Major, with his 1986 single “Back In ‘73” b/w “Crazy in the Night” (SC-234), the record-
ing coming as a result of his win in a CKBY-FM sponsored Talent Contest.
While the Snocan Recording
Studios were the first-call for local artists during the 1970’s-80’s, there were other studios in the Ottawa Valley with national credentials. Randall Prescott, who first per- formed as a member of his father Irwin Prescott’s band, and later with Wayne Rostad and eventually Family Brown; pursued his inter- ests in production work with his recording studio in Clayton, with hit recordings coming out of the studio by Terry Carisse, Dan Paul Rogers, The Debenham Brothers, K.C. Carter, Susan Aglukark, and others.
COUNTRY CLUBS - A
SECOND HOME FOR PER- FORMERS... AND FANS Radio stations and recording studios played a vital role in sup-
continued on page 26
RECORDING STUDIOS AND RECORD LABELS
Also an important role player in the development of Ottawa Valley country music was the establishment of Snocan Records and its subsidi- ary label, Icicle Records. Much of the label’s talent roster recorded their ma- terial at the Snocan Recording Studios. The business was founded in 1970 by recording artist Ralph Carlson with musician/engineer Dave Dennison and Ron Sparling, noted for his performing and management role of the award- winning act, Family Brown, as well as the creation of the Laurie-Ann Enter- tainment Agency, which became one of Canada’s premier talent booking houses. The Snocan studios were origin- ally located on Limebank Road in
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