SEE Magazine
Issue #393: June 14, 2001
Copyright © 2001. All Rights Reserved

Music COLUMN by Peter North Preview Stony Plain Records 25th Anniversary Celebration Friday, June 15 at the Sidetrack Café Holger Petersen is looks weary as he slides into a user friendly couch, stretches out and readies himself to answer another string of questions regarding the 25th anniversary of Stony Plain Records. For the last two months the well-known and highly-regarded record company executive, with an equal profile as a provincial and national radio host, has been talking to the press around the country about his impressive run operating this jewel of the indie roots scene for half his life. Those interviews are sometimes welcome breaks from a non-stop workday schedule that finds him switching gears with amazing frequency. Two weekly radio shows to program – one for CKUA, the other for CBC – take up their fair share of the clock, especially when he has to bank a couple of weeks’ worth of shows because he’s travelling. He also sits on any number of boards for national music and publishing associations and societies. It is, however, the daily stream of calls from artists, disc distributors, other labels, artist managers, and producers that keeps the man occupied from the time he sits down at his desk most weekday mornings. These days, Petersen has a staff of three full-time employees, and his long-time business partner Alvin Jahns has taken a much more active and visible role in the company over the past few years. Stony Plain Records has amassed a deep catalogue of blues, country, traditional and contemporary folk and roots-rock artists. The cream of the crop are well represented on the recently released 25th anniversary set, a double-disc effort comprising 41 tracks. "For the first 10 years Stony Plain was a very small operation. It was run out of one room in my house, and the kitchen, and sometimes we could afford part-time help or would get a student on an arts placement. Of course Alvin would be there to do the books at some point," says Petersen of the early days when he worked closely with American bluegrass band the Dillards, local country-folk singer Paul Hann and a Winnipeg rock band called Crowcus. By the late ’70s he was also licensing and distributing some superior discs by the likes of steel guitar great Buddy Emmons, blues/folk veterans Geoff Muldaur and Amos Garrett and acclaimed fiddler Vassar Clements, from the Chicago-based Flying Fish label. In a business that is all about cultivating relationships, Petersen then built bridges to other American indie labels. In the early ’80s he snapped up releases by young rising talents like Ricky Skaggs and Robert Cray, plus established artistic heavyweights, one being former Byrd and Burrito Brother Chris Hillman. Stony Plain continued to work with Canadian artists such as Diamond Joe White, a young Spirit of the West and Roy Forbes. The profile of the label jumped up a couple of notches over that period, reflected in a week-long 10th anniversary party held in downtown Toronto in ’86. Roots music fans were treated to performances at the Horseshoe and Bam Boo clubs by an impressive string of acts whose work had been released by the label. Forbes, bluesman Johnny Copeland, Prairie Oyster (which issued it’s first disc on Stony Plain), the Tony Rice Unit, the Dixie Flyers, Sylvia Tyson and the new amalgamation of Doug Sahm, Gene Taylor and Amos Garrett helped serve notice to the nation’s music hub that the label was both real and unique. While that celebration was in full flight, Ian Tyson was in a Calgary studio laying down the tracks for what would become his biggest-selling, critically-acclaimed masterpiece. Tyson had left Columbia Records a year earlier and he was looking for a new home. Stony Plain would be it. "Cowboyography came along and it changed everything, really. The sales of the record allowed us to move everything up a notch. The next year it won two or three CCMA Awards and a couple of Junos. We licensed it to Sugar Hill in the states, a couple of labels in Europe, of which the most interesting was an east German label run by the state government when ‘the wall’ was still up. "We were probably more of a roots music, country label whereas the shift has been more to blues the last few years," adds Petersen who was then also the interim artistic director of the Edmonton Folk Festival. There were major lessons to be learned as the company grew. Today Petersen can chuckle at some of the calls that didn’t pan out. "Over the years, every time I’ve tried to step away from the music I love and do a pop record or a rock record because I thought we could benefit from it, it’s never worked. It’s proven to be pretty disastrous really, because you can’t compete with the majors on that particular level." Does anyone out there remember Subtle Hints or The Reds? So the Stony Plain vision for well over a decade has been to be a broad-minded roots music label, tapped into the international scene and keeping tabs on what is going on locally and regionally. Jr. Gone Wild, Cindy Church, the Rockin’ Highliners, Big Dave McLean and Gary Fjellgaard are just a few examples of the backyard beneficiaries. "Working with those acts has been important and there’s no reason why a lot more can’t happen in this community with the quality of the musicians, studios and engineers. It’s a very nice scene we have here." Petersen knows his strengths. So does the industry, which considers him to be the country’s most knowledgeable blues aficionado. Not only does he host Nat’l Blues and Saturday Night Blues, he programs all the blues music for the Galaxy Channel. "It’s an area of music I’m closer to, I know a little bit more about blues, follow it closer and I’ve had the chance to meet so many of those people and in some cases get to know them." That’s an understatement, as artists from Duke Robillard to John Hammond consider him to be a true friend and speak of Petersen with both admiration and affection. "The relationship with Duke has been a very important one. I think since ’94 when we did Duke’s Blues he’s been involved in 12 projects," says Petersen of the award-winning guitarist who has released solo efforts on the label and also produced some hot sides with blues legends like Jimmy Witherspoon, Jay McShann and Billy Boy Arnold. "Duke’s now signed with Stony Plain for the world. He loves to be in the studio, playing, producing, and writing. To be the outlet for that kind of creativity is great for both parties." With Petersen, the conversation always turns back to the artists and music. On more than one occasion he let it be known how blessed he feels to be working with creators who have been in it for the long run and whose place in the history books is near the top of the page. "It wasn’t by design, but we work with a lot of older artists. Jay McShann is now 86, Long John Baldry and other blues artists are in their 60s. Ian Tyson is in his 60s as well. "I believe they are like great painters or authors. They do get better with age, but they’re supposed to get better with age." One of Stony Plain’s most recent releases is Richland Woman’s Blues from Maria Muldaur, another veteran, who many believe has never sounded better in her remarkable 35-year recording career. Petersen’s smile hangs on just a bit longer when Richland Woman’s Blues is mentioned. It’s been a labour of love for him and Muldaur, who conceived of the disc while traveling the backroads of Mississippi a few years ago while on a break from the action at the W.C. Handy Awards in Memphis. The buzz is big on this disc; Rolling Stone just gave it a four-star review and famed record producer Jerry Wexler asked for a box of the discs to give to influential friends. Muldaur is helping promote the album, which pays homage to heroes like Memphis Minnie, by touring non-stop around the continent. I remember a few years ago Holger showing me some photos from a recent trip to New Orleans and, after flipping through them, he paused and said, "I guess I live kind of a charmed life, don’t I?" That may be true, but that’s one of the perks of having a vision, sticking with it and conducting business honourably. Twenty-five years of Stony Plain has been a great thing for local music, and the ripple from the headquarters right here in Edmonton have been felt around the world. Happy birthday, Holger and Alvin.

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