Rodeo Records Ltd.

Rodeo Records Ltd.

Rodeo Records Ltd. Parent company to several labels producing country and folk music and Melbourne, in the classical genre. It was founded in 1949 in Montreal by Don Johnson and George Taylor. Taylor (b 8 Sept 1911, d Peterborough, Ont, 12 Sept 1986). Taylor soon assumed sole control. The company moved to Halifax in 1956 (where a recording studio was opened that year) and, in 1969, to Peterborough, Ont.

The Rodeo label carried country music exclusively and was supplemented by the formation in 1953 of the Banff label and by the acquisition in 1960 of the Celtic label (whose catalogue included Scottish music and fiddlers from as far back as 1933). Other Rodeo country labels were Caprice (designed for the French-Canadian market) and Rodeo International. The Rodeo catalogue has been distributed in turn by London Records of Canada and, after its sale on Taylor's retirement in 1984, was sold to Frank Swain of Holborne Distributing Co Ltd of Aurora, Ont.

Among the performers who recorded for the Rodeo labels are Mac Beattie, Omar Blondahl, Maurice Bolyer, Winston 'Scotty' Fitzgerald, Marie King, Earl Mitton (whose 78 of York County Hornpipe was the company's first release), Johnny Mooring, Vic Mullen, Marg Osburne, Diane Oxner, Les Petits Chanteurs de la Vierge, Stu Phillips, Lucille Starr, Olaf Sveen, Graham Townsend, Michael T. Wall, Johnny Archie MacDonald, Larry Mercey (see The Mercey Brothers), and fiddlers June Eikhard and Mel Levigne.