Carlisle’s Geoff Kulawick is ending things on a high note, after a decade of running his record companies out of Waterdown.
Kulawick is winding down his company, Linus Entertainment, which operates a handful of record labels out of an office just off Dundas Street East, as he prepares to retire. But this year Kulawick and his small-but-mighty team are celebrating a slew of award nominations.
“It’s a landmark year for us, with three Grammy nominations,” Kulawick said.
Stony Plain distributed albums for three songs that are up for Grammy Awards, which will be presented on Feb. 2, 2025.
This includes: Best American Roots Performance for the song Nothing In Rambling by The Fabulous Thunderbirds, featuring Bonnie Raitt, Keb’ Mo’, Taj Mahal, and Mick Fleetwood; Best Traditional Blues Album for the song Struck Down by The Fabulous Thunderbirds, co-written and co-produced by the celebrated Canadian bluesman Steve Strongman; and Best Traditional Blues Album for the song One Guitar Woman by Sue Foley.
“It’s great to see a local business in the Flamborough-Hamilton area on the world stage with the Grammys,” Kulawick said.
But it's no surprise, considering the talent his companies work with. Stars like Gordon Lightfoot, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Ron Sexsmith and Bruce Cockburn, to name a few.
"We work with mostly Canadian artists, but some international ones as well," Kulawick said.
Over the decade Linus Entertainment has operated in Waterdown, Kulawick says his company has garnered so many awards he has lost track.
"More than I can count," he said.
When Kulawick closes up shop in the next year, he says those awards will be donated to Centennial College's archives.
Winding down a long career in music
A lifelong musician, Kulawick says he started his career in the music industry in the '90s, working with major labels like Virgin Music and Warner Chappell. By the year 2000, he wanted to start his own label — Linus Entertainment.
In the 24 years since he began his own company, Kulawick said he acquired a handful of small, independent labels to bring under Linus Entertainment's umbrella, like True North Records in 2007 and Stony Plain Records in 2020. The labels he acquired mostly represented folk, jazz, classical and children's music, he said.
Linus Entertainment runs True North Records, Mummy Dust Music, Spring Hill Music, Stony Plain Records, The Children's Group, Independent Digital Licensing Agency, CMAS Inc., and the True North Art Gallery and Zoso Art Studio, out of their building on Griffin Street in Waterdown.
Kulawick said he and his wife will continue to run True North Records and Stony Plain Records by themselves, but most of the catalogue, he said, has been sold to a company in Nashville called Round Hill Music.
"The labels are going to continue. I won't be managing them at a certain point," he said.
The two art galleries in the building, Kulawick said, are winding down as well.
The building hosts original artwork from artists like David Bowie, Andy Warhol, Miles Davis, Tony Bennett and Patti Smith. But with the building also up for sale, Kulawick says the collection is available to visit by appointment for a limited amount of time — both to see and buy.
"It's all visual art by musicians. Many of the pieces we do own, but there's also a consignment art here as well that the artists own and we exhibit it and sell it on their behalf," he said.
When looking back over his career, Kulawick said his favourite moments were working with the talent he had the opportunity to represent.
"I think that just the privilege of working with such incredible artists as Buffy Sainte-Marie, Bruce Cockburn, Gordon Lightfoot, Taj Mahal. It's just been great," he said.
