Boot Records Ltd.

Boot Records Ltd.

Boot Records Ltd. Country-music label formed in 1971 in Toronto by Stompin' Tom Connors and his manager Jury Krytiuk. At first an outlet for Connors' recordings, Boot soon began to add other Canadian country artists, including Con Archer, the instrumental group The Emeralds, Humphrey and the Dumptrucks, Sharon Lowness, Dick Nolan, Stevedore Steve, and Ted Wesley. The Boot Master Concert series, which was established in 1973, initially under the direction of Eleanor Koldofsky, released LPs by Liona Boyd, Canadian Brass, the pianist Monica Gaylord, and the Ukrainian-born bass Yosyp Hoshuliak.

Boot's budget label, Cynda, reissued Boot LPs by Connors and released LPs by artists of various ethnic backgrounds, including the popular Irish-Canadian group Larry McKee and the Shandonairs. Boot itself later established series devoted to bluegrass (Bluegrass 4, Bruce County, Cody, Cross Country Grass, Dixie Flyers, Humber River Valley Boys, Dennis LePage and Station Road, etc) and to Native artists (eg, Morley Loon, Charlie Panigoniak, and Willie Thrasher). It renewed its country roster in the late 1970s with Donna and Leroy, Alex Fraser, Ray Griff, Kelita Haverland, and others, and continued to issue records until the mid-1980s. The label was inactive at the decade's end.