FolkWorld Issue 34 11/2007; Article by Ian D. Green
A Decade of Folk
Greentrax Recordings
Greentrax Recordings was launched in 1986 by former police inspector Ian D. Green.
Ian elected to take the maximum lump-sum from his police pension for this purpose. During the first five years Ian re-invested all profits in the company and drew nothing in the way of earnings, thereby ensuring a sound financial base to the company.
One of the aims of the Greentrax label was to give highly talented but unrecorded Scottish musicians and singers an opportunity to reach wider audiences and the success of some debut albums exceeded all expectations.
Many notable albums have been released and Greentrax has won several awards. In 1998 we launched the G2 label to enable the company to further diversify and in 2000 Greentrax became responsible for issuing the Culburnie label on licence for the world.
Artistes with debut albums on Greentrax who have gone on to very successful musical careers include Catherine-Ann MacPhee, Margaret Stewart, Ian Hardie, Burach, Deaf Shepherd, Tony McManus and Shooglenifty.
A successful record label must have a core of established artistes and we have been fortunate in attracting many professional and established artistes,
including Aly Bain MBE, Eric Bogle, Dick Gaughan, Jean Redpath MBE, Isla St. Clair, Mairi MacInnes, The McCalmans and more recently Natalie MacMaster and Slainte Mhath from Cape Breton.
Not only professional artistes placed their faith in Greentrax, however, and the company has been involved in projects with Scottish Television, Edinburgh International Festival, the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland and The Highland Festival.
In 2006 Greentrax celebrated its 20th Anniversary. To mark this special year we launched a special compilation album – “Scotland – The Music and The Song”, featuring 56 artistes. The celebrations ended with a concert and ceilidh in the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh. It was a huge success.
Greentrax Recordings has achieved the very enviable reputation of being regarded as Scotland’s leading traditional music label and late in 1998 Greentrax was featured in a half-hour documentary, part of Scottish Television’s “Artery” series. Greentrax has also achieved a worldwide reputation for fair trading and good business practices.
“Scotland’s Favourite Record Label” is alive and well in the new Millennium!
Greentrax Recordings was launched in 1986 by former police inspector Ian D. Green, a founder member of the Edinburgh Police Folk Club and Edinburgh Folk Club; a former committee member of both the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland and Edinburgh Folk Festival and co-editor for 10 years of Sandy Bell's Broadsheet magazine.
In 2005 Ian Green was awarded ‘The Hamish Henderson Award For Services to Traditional Music’ by the Scots Trad Awards, which automatically resulted in him entering ‘The Hall of Fame’. In 2006 Ian received an Honorary Doctorate from The Royal Scottish Academy Of Music and Drama, Glasgow, for services to
Scottish traditional music.
Greentrax currently has over 275 titles in its catalogue.
Current output is approximately 20 new releases per year.
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Photo Credits:
(1) Greentrax Logo,
(5) Ian Green (by Greentrax);
(2) Salsa Celtica,
(4) Deaf Shepherd (by The Mollis);
(3) The McCalmans (by Walkin' Tom).
© The Mollis - Editors
of FolkWorld; Published 11/2007
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