Here we are in February 2009, the second month of another New Year and - as I travel around, visiting clubs and working with some of the best callers in the world - I am very proud to hear so much of our music being used and enjoyed by so many Square Dancers. It seems that Sting and Snow are a part of many people's life, which is great; sincere thanks to all of you who support what we do by patronising our product.

I still have the highest hopes that we will find a way to help this wonderful dream to grow and to reach more people. Square Dancing has the answer to so many of the problems that societies all around the world have to face - it brings people from all walks of life together, to share an experience that is simple and fun and that knows almost no limitations of age, ability, skill or talent. Let's keep that dream as healthy and as active as we can!

On to the annual survey - our major achievements for 2008 include:

• During 2008 we released 24 new tunes, thus maintaining our target of 2 releases per month, all of these releases have been made available simultaneously in vinyl, CD and MP3. For those who might be interested, the revised split between media types (for Sting and Snow) shows a further change; digital is "taking over"!

• ALL of our 2008 releases featured in the top 10 Best Sellers, which is marvellous! These results gave us 1 No.1, 3 No.2s, 6 No.3s, 2 No.4s, 5 No.5s, 1 No.6, 4 No.7s, 1 No.9 and 1 No.10. These are not quite as great as last year's figures (but are still very good) giving an index value of 6.3 (as opposed to 7.2 for last year).

• As part of our on-going process, we have made 36 previous released tunes available, for the first time, on CD; these are made from the original studio masters (in most cases), or the "cleanest" copy that exists (if the studio master no longer exists); these CDs include Higher and Lower Key variations (on singing calls). There are 65 tracks still to be released at the rate of 3-per-month! Check the FUTURE and LATEST options on the RECORDS Drop-Down (above) , for details.

Right now we are planning our new recordings for this year (any suggestions would - as always - be welcome), so "stay tuned"…

Now for the other news:

BEST SELLER LISTING (positions on the December 2008 listing)
No.3 - The Candy Man - SIR 906
No.7 - Flake / Fluke - SNW 514

NEW RELEASES (February 2009):
He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother - SIR 386 - Vocal by Tony Oxendine
Blue Moon Nights - SNW 903 - Vocal by Wil Stans

NEW CD RELEASES - also available on MP3 & Vinyl (in most cases) / (February 2009):
Trust Me (This Is Love) - SIR 701 - Vocal by Thorsten Geppert
It Only Rains On Me - SIR 103- Vocal by Stefan Sidholm
Once I Was A Lonely Cowgirl - SNW 1201 - Vocal by Astrid Heckmann

INDIVIDUAL RECORD HISTORIES including ALL THE ADDITIONAL LYRICS:
To find these, just click on the book symbol next to the title on the Catalogue, Future Releases or Latest Releases pages, this month's record history features our newest singing call releases: He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother and Blue Moon Nights.

If you want to hear how these top-selling recordings sound, just click on the musical note symbol.

Okay, I need to "Travel On" and visit some more of those excellent dancer groups; maybe I will meet up with some of you along the way? Either way, I am looking forward to "Speaking" with you all again, next month!

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