J April is the month that sees the weather change… Here in the Northern hemisphere, the first buds of Spring are to be seen, the snow melts and the wind and rain clears the land for another re-birth of all that is alive; In many ways this is the beginning of the "new season". So as we pass from the doom and gloom of Winter into the promise of the bright future of a wonderful Summer, perhaps we can hope for an all-round improvement in our affairs. For me that would be a fervent wish for an increase in record sales, a sincere hope that the many, many callers out there who do not buy new records (about 90%, based upon a simple numerical analysis), will suddenly realise that they need new music, come back into the "game" and start to support the record producers by buying their records - if only…

The Road To Kentucky… It was a bright and beautiful Saturday morning, on the 8th of September, that Tom Dillander - owner of Palomino Records Inc. arrived at our hotel to convey my Nephew and myself on a three-hour drive from Nashville to Kentucky. James Wyatt and Neil Whiston had left our party; James had to return to the U.K., to call a dance and Neil had set out to Maggie Valley to visit Jerry Story and his family at the Pride Square Dance Resort. That left my Nephew - Gregory Chapman - and myself to make the trip to Kentucky.

Having established a good working rapport with Palomino - following their take-over of Hanhurst's , I had had the opportunity to mention my intention to travel to Nashville to Tom Dillander. Tom immediately suggested that - as Nashville is only a three-hour drive from Kentucky - I could call in and visit Palomino Records Inc. Unfortunately, due to ongoing medical problems, I am not able to drive at present and - as my Nephew was only 20 years old (no one would hire a car to a 20-year-old) - it looked as though this would require some train or bus travel…

Tom's response was instantaneous: he told me that he would drive to Nashville and collect us… I thanked him for his offer but felt I had to point out that we would have to return to Nashville, after the stay in Kentucky, again Tom offered to act as chauffeur - a total of 12 hours driving for Tom! In addition, Tom set-up a dance for me to call on Saturday night, which for a simple lad from Europe was a real dream-come-true!

So it was that we travelled to Palomino and saw first-hand how Tom and Pam operate as the only surviving wholesale distributor of new music; it was a most enlightening trip. Palomino "operates" from a very large commercial building, which contains the offices, together with the extensive warehouse and distribution facility offered by Palomino. In addition this complex houses the mastering, plating and pressing plant that Tom uses to press vinyl, for Square and Round dancing; this is where most SD records are pressed, these days.

Pictures are always more easy to interpret than long written descriptions, so to avoid me turning this into a 50,000-word essay, I have included some pictures and mini-movies from the trip; to access these, click here.

Last April, in this News-Letter, I speculated a little on the effect of Palomino's purchase of Hanhurst's and Dosado.com from former owners Bill and Peggy Heyman. I stated then that Tom and Pam Dillander, the owners of Palomino, were the best people to take over from Bill and Peggy; I am pleased to say that since then I have found my faith in them to have been well placed. During the last twelve months I have had many chances to test my professional relationship with Palomino and - on each and every occasion - I have found them to be not just good but keen to rise well above any standard of service that I might have expected.

Tom and Pam - and their team - have worked so hard to help me with my production and to assist and preserve the integrity of record distribution, in general. I salute them for their hard and most excellent work. Our trip to Kentucky was another fine example of the special effort that Tom and Pam are prepared to put into keeping Square Dancing alive!

Next month, I will be able to tell all about a special task that has finally come to an end; a mammoth endeavor that has taken a lot of time and a lot of work to achieve. Be sure and read next months News-Letter to learn all about this achievement and how it might help you…

Here's the other "News":

BEST SELLER LISTING: Our April Releases did really well in the Hanhurst's Tape and Record Service best seller listing. The results were: No.4 for "Kissing In The Back Row" and No.5 for "What Do You Want?".

NEW RELEASES: Our new vinyl releases for April are: - the Three Degrees' tune, "When Will I See You Again" (vocal by Thorsten Geppert) and the Ray Charles' song, "Hit The Road, Jack" (vocal by Reine Hjärtström).

Please Note: Reine Hjärtström from Sweden is a Special Guest Caller on Snow Records. If you might be interested in recording on Snow, check out the Snow page and you can read all about it!

MP3 NEW RELEASES: For April will be - "Norwegian Wood" (vocal by Paul Bristow) and "Fields Of Gold" (vocal by Thorsten Geppert) - visit the Listen To The Music link on the web-site, to hear this on the Sting and Snow page at Hanhurst's Tape and Record Service.

INDIVIDUAL RECORD HISTORIES including ALL THE ADDITIONAL LYRICS:
This month, the history sheets for April comprise:

• Highway Cowboy
• Kentucky Turkey Buzzard
• Big Mamou
• Irving The Hobo
• Heavenly Sunshine
• Take A Chance
• Hit The Road Jack
• When Will I See You Again?

The histories contain details about each original song, including it's production and provide the extra lyrics - as featured on the called side. You can access these by "clicking" on the open-book picture , on the Catalogue, Latest Releases and Future Releases pages.

Don't forget - you can also listen to a short part of any track that has a musical note symbol .

Remember - the Record histories don't just include the lyrics, each one contains the story of the song itself, as well as comments about it's production. So for some -hopefully "useful" and "useable" information about each of our songs - this is the part of our web-site to visit.

In Addition - the next four Audio Samples of our extensive library of Hoedown / Patter music are:

• Hispaniola / Roamin' Home - SIR 513
  
• Toad-In-The-Hole / Spam Fritter - SIR 515
  
• Rag-Tag / Bobtail - SIR 514
  
• Party On! / Cracker Barrel - SNW 505
  

So if you want to hear how these top-selling recordings sound, just click on the musical note symbol . For details of the titles featured in previous months, check out the News-Letter and - if there are any that you would particularly like to see added just let us know.

HI / LO KEY CD VERSIONS - OF PREVIOUS RELEASES: Since January, this year, all of the tunes that we are releasing in MP3 format, have also been made available in CD format; this includes the previously released tracks originally issued on Vinyl about eighteen months earlier.

This CD format, for ALL releases, comprises the original tracks - plus a one step higher / one-step-lower key version of the instrumental.

So don't forget to check-out our CD and MP3 releases and see if there is a "more comfortable" key available on a tune that you may like to use. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Next month

Go Squareful! - Paul Bristow (Owner and Producer Sting and Snow Records)