October 2006 has become a very significant date in the story of Sting and Snow Records. Three of our staff callers have decided to become part owners of another Square Dance music company. The callers concerned are: Carsten Nielsen, James Wyatt and Søren Lindergaard and their new allegiance will be with New Beat - a company that offers MP3 downloads as the primary source of musical media. For more information about New Beat, click here; where you will see that the other part-owners of New Beat are Bronc Wise and Nils Trottman.

The decision of these three callers to "migrate" from Sting is quite significant. They have done a great deal for the company and have been instrumental in many of the initiatives that we have introduced. In addition, as you will be aware - from the News-Letters - it was these three gentlemen who, on different occasions, were present at the recording sessions that I organised, in Nashville, since I acquired control of the company in 2001.

James, Søren and Carsten will - with effect from 1st October 2006 - step down from the staff caller roster of Sting and Snow Records.

Notwithstanding this action, all three of them will continue to be featured on the web-site; you will find them on a new drop-down menu, on the home-page, which will be called GUEST CALLERS; this new category will appear on both the Sting and the Snow pages and will list the guest callers and special guest callers who have appeared on each label, which is probably something that I should have done before!

So, if you still want to know more about James, Søren and Carsten, just visit the new drop-down, from where you will be able to read all about them and link to the New Beat web-site!

Over the next few months, you will see Søren and Carsten's names appear on the FUTURE RELEASES page of the web-site as we release the remaining recordings that they have already made. These will be released with them featured in their new roles as "guest callers" on our label.

Whilst it is sad to say goodbye to good friends, I salute anyone who endeavours to make music for Square Dancing and have no hesitation in wishing them the very best of luck with their new company. So that we don't get too unhappy at our separation, we have agreed that we will maintain a close working relationship between the two companies and will do all that we can to assist each other, wherever possible.

Now for the other news:

BEST SELLER LISTING (positions on the August 2006 listing)

• No.1 - Where Have All The Flowers Gone? - SNW 1105
• No.10 - Hi Ho Silver Lining - SIR 352

NEW RELEASES (October 2006):

• Who Wouldn't Wan'na Be Me? - SIR 1206 - vocal by: Carsten Nielsen
• Hometown Honeymoon - SNW 707 - vocal by: Maarten Weijers

MP3/CD RELEASES (October 2006):

• Without You - SNW 2005 - vocal by: François Lamoureux
• Bright / Breezy - SIR 520 - Double Instrumental - Hoedown/Patter

INDIVIDUAL RECORD HISTORIES including ALL THE ADDITIONAL LYRICS:
As all the previously released records have now been covered, this month's history sheet features our newest singing call releases: Who Wouldn't Wan'na Be Me? and Hometown Honeymoon

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

Okay, that's enough for now - "speak" with you next month!

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