That Brant County Sound! : Thunderbird Recordings

Thunderbird Recordings was founded by James Arthur 'Jim' Allison on September 5th 1974, after several brain storming meetings with fellow Brant County musicians. Thunderbird's address was a P.O. Box and was physically based out of Jim's home at 79 King Street West (now 190 King Street with the 1992 renumbering) in Burford, ON.

Jim earned his bread and butter by driving anything with wheels and a large front seat; a school bus, a cab, and even a gravel truck, while the label was a side-project that would hopefully earn them

some money and also promote local country talent.

Jim Allison was born into a musical family, not the Allison's, but that of his mother's, the McIntyre's of Concession 4, Burford Township, Brant County, near the hamlet of Woodbury. The Patriarch of the family was Charles McIntyre, who headed a family band called 'Chick's Mountaineers' which consisted of him and all four of his children; three daughters, Louella, Myrtle, Olive and his son Blackwell. Each person in the group played a stringed instrument and took their turns singing. Louella McIntyre had been taught to play the fiddle by a family relative, Alexander Pottruff, when she was only three.

Beginning in 1934 and up to 1942, Louella was the first paid and sponsored musician to play on C.K.P.C. Radio in Brantford when it was known as Ten B-Q Crystal. On the radio her seven piece band played as 'Louella and the Mountaineers' and was a featured act for eight years at the station, thanks to the manager, Florence Buchanan.

Louella also played with her sixteen year old son Gordon under the name of ‘Louella & Gordon,’ playing requests of present day and old time country music every Saturday night. They used to receive 150 -200 letters a week. Even thought they were dropped from the radio in 1942, she continued to play music up to her untimely death in 1944.

The picture above was taken about 1940, and shows Roy Clement aged 20, his first cousin Jimmy Allison aged 8, and Roy's brother Gordon Clement aged 22. Jimmy Allison was already a seasoned mandolin player at this point, and was immersed and surrounded by old time country music all of his life. He was 12 when his aunt Louella died, 13 when his father John J. Allison died, and 19 when old Charlie McIntyre died in 1951.

On October 30th 1954 Jim married to Marlene B. Clark. Above is their wedding picture from the Brantford Paper, Marlene was 21 and Jim was 22. Jim and Marlene were unable to have children of their own, and about 1963 they began to spend time with 8 year old Johnny Givens on the weekends. Jim played barn dances with Johnny's parents, Jack and Doris Givens, (who were distant cousins to Jim) and everyone involved thought it was a great idea. At that time Johnny was already a champion fiddle player, so no doubt he and Jim played music together.

In 1973, at the age of 18, Johnny Givens made an album with Marathon Records out of Toronto, and no doubt he proudly presented a copy to Jim and Marlene Allison. John was given the studio time in return for the session work he did. It was his only record, although he was featured on several fiddle compilations over the ensuing years.

The photo above is Johnny's 1973 album on Marathon. This record may have helped spark the idea with Jim Allison that he could record and promote local country talent in the Brantford area. Jim already knew a pretty solid circle of talent. He was good friends with both Jack Lewis and Doug Baughan who were in the Burford/Paris band 'Maple Street.' Their career was moving in the right direction and in 1974 were signed to Marathon Records, and got the gig as the house band on the first season of CTV's Funny Farm.

The photo above shows Jack Lewis and Doug Baughan (in yellow) with the Statler Brothers during a taping of Funny Farm. By early 1975 Doug decided to have Maple Street become his backing band while he went solo, something he was more accustomed to. Fred McKenna was a blind guitarist who had been Harry Hibbs music director, and had recently become the music director for the George Hamilton IV TV show, which gave him access to many up and coming artists. Fred and Jim were good buddies and had talked about creating a record label for a year. Both Doug Baughan and Paris singer/songwriter Ted Brown were itching to release records, while Jack Lewis and Wayne Heimbecker wanted to also be involved. Between May 1975 and the fall, Jim issued several singles that met with some decent response. The debut single by Doug Bond was called 'Living On Pogey,' and was a sizable hit out on the East Coast.

Above is the debut album for both Thunderbird and Doug (Baughan) Bond, 'Leaving Loving You,' issued in October 1975. Jim Allison took the cover photo of Doug at the Hamilton airport. For the first six months Jim recorded his acts at Mercey Sound Studios in Elmira, and then in December 1975 began to use Thunder Sound Studios in Toronto after Whisky Hollow's suggestion. It was said that Thunder Sound had been founded in 1968 by David Briggs, who was Neil Young's producer. Both Lighthouse and Bruce Cockburn also recorded at Thunder Sound Studios. Tommy Jacobs was the first Thunderbird artist to record at Thunder Sound. Jim used the studio until August 1976.

Thunderbird's roster began humbly with people that Jim knew, but over the years musicians got wind of the label and came to him. By August 1978 the artist roster boasted 23 acts;

Nov 1974 Ted Brown
Nov 1974 Dug Bond & The Maple Street Show Band Official Glossy Pic
Nov 1974 Jim Allison & Happy Tracks Official Glossy Pic
Jan 1975 Charlie Louvin
Mar 1975 Joe Springall
April 1975 Bob Ruddy
May 1975 Judy Lynn Gregson & Tobacco Roads
June 1975 Dusty Road
June 1975 Desert Fox (Featuring Bob Loomis) Official Glossy Pic
July 1975 Tommy Jacobs
July 1975 Tom Destry & The Wild West Show
July 1975 C. Parker Dean
Aug 1975 Floyd C. Martin
Sept 1975 Whisky Hollow Official Glossy Pic
Nov 1975 The Bridgeman Family (The Fearless Five)
Jan 1976 Sweetwater
Feb 1976 Roger Quick & The Rainbows
March 1976 T. Peter Hern
March 1976 Don Oatman Official Glossy Pic
April 1976 Tim Stacey
June 1976 Gary and Everill Muir
July 1976 Jan Stevens Official Glossy Pic
June 1978 Jo & Ryk Brennan

The photo above shows The Fearless Five about 1976, who recorded a Christmas single with Thunderbird.

In 1977 Jim and Marlene moved from Burford into Brantford so that she could be closer to the hospital as her diabetes was beginning to take it's toll, it had already robbed her of her toes, a leg, and her sight by this time. Unfortunately, she died on December 21st 1978 from complications caused from the disease. Jim had his own health issues, and took his wife's death very hard, effectively shutting the label down completely. There was talk of Tommy Jacobs taking it over, then Triple 3 Records, and Brian Callan from Dusty Road was sure that it had been sold, but the author has yet to find out any more details.

Jim Allison issued the final Thunderbird single in August 1978, and by 1979 had given up on the label. It may have been sold. It was said that all of Jim's material, records for stock, photographs, label paperwork and such were stored at his sister Jane's place in Brantford, but was eventually thrown out after Jim died.

On April 3rd 1992 the name was expunged from non-use, and Jim died on April 4th 1994 at the age of 61. On March 7th 2000 there was a Rep for Service Name Change, but that's the last record we have. As of June 21st 2016 I have absorbed Thunderbird's catalog as part of my label, Mouton Music Canada. On December 16th 2016 I began to issue former Thunderbird records on my label beginning with Charlie Louvin's 1976 album. The crowning glory was the issue of the two Thunderbird Recordings Singles CD's, one of 29 A-Sides, and the other of 29 B-Sides, in December 2018, digitally. On August 23rd 2019 this music was issued on CD, 28 A-Sides, and the other of 27 B-Sides, due to time restrictions on the CD format.

I became interested in Jim Allison and Thunderbird records during March 2015 when I rediscovered the music of Roger Quick and the Rainbows. It's unfortunate that almost 40 years has passed since Thunderbird folded, but I will do my best to do the story justice. Below is an article that ran in the Parkhill Gazette when I brought my Roger Quick Facebook page to their attention.

This is a story that ran on July 9th 2015 about my Roger Quick Facebook Page, the article continues at the bottom of this blog page. I met Roger in Nov 2015 at his induction in the Ailsa Craig Hall of Fame.

Tom Ryerson & Roger Quick Nov 7th 2015

All of this research will be used in a new book of mine, titled:

"That Brant County Sound! The Ballad of Jim Allison and Thunderbird Recordings."

ISBN 978-1-987940-02-2 (print version), ISBN 978-1-987940-03-9 (e-book)

"That Brant County Sound! In Pictures."

ISBN 978-1-987940-09-1 (print version), ISBN 978-1-987940-10-7 (e-book)

The plan is to now issue three books, the Yellow Cover will be all text with some pictures, while the second book, the Brown Cover, will consist of hundreds of black and white photos with limited text. The Blue Cover will be all the discographies with some pictures. Who knew this little project would grow into this!

If you can add to this release history with info or photos please e-mail me, I would love to get this list up to date. I can be reached at thosryerson@gmail.com

Thank you so much; John Wedge, Marilynne Caswell, Doris Givens, Johnny Givens and Ruth Ann Kruger!

Thunderbird Recording

P.O. Box 312, Burford, ON

N0E 1A0 519-449-5336

Here are the six albums that Thunderbird Recordings issued between Oct 1975 and June 1977. The Charlie Louvin record was never actually pressed, and this sleeve is only one of two known to exist. Thank you Marilynne Caswell for loaning me the sleeve, and for Don Oatman giving me his copy. Former Whisky Hollow guitarist Bob Silverthorn owns the Dug Bond record, and it too is on loan. The other four I own, and costs $25 each at various music outlets online. I took this picture on Tuesday June 21st 2016 at WadeTech in Brantford, ON.

This is where it all started in 1972.

That year, four Burford musicians, Terry Sumsion, his brother Craig, Wayne Heimbecker and Jack Lewis formed a band, and called themselves Maple Street, after the above Maple Avenue N. in Burford. The intersection of King Street and Maple Street North is the site of the towns only set of traffic lights. I was there on Sept 24th 2015. The band started out as a straight forward country act in 1972, penning some songs themselves and filling out their sets with popular covers. In April of 1973 when Terry and the band's manager had a major disagreement that they couldn't reconcile, Terry quit the band, and later formed Stagecoach (which also included Wayne Heimbecker). Terry was immediately replaced by Doug Baughan (Who used the stage name of Dug Bond) and Maple Street went in the direction of a comedy fused country show-band. They issued one album on Marathon Records of Toronto in August 1974, and then evolved. When Wayne joined Terry with Doug Johnson and Bill Carruthers and became the Moonlighters, they originally used the same purple suits Maple Street debuted back in 1972. The Moonlighters became Stagecoach in 1979.