How I Get Square Dance Records

Rich Reel 16 Jun 2002

There are several companies that offer square dance records including Supreme Audio and Palomino Records. I use BRS Square Dance Records and Engraving in Pinole California (Greater San Francisco Bay Area).

I simply send e-mail to Ronda (Bert and Ronda Swerer) at BSwerer@aol.com and tell her what I want. I try to tell her as much as I can about the records I want. It is amazing that she can find records sometime if I only can remember some of the words in the song - not even the title. I always try to tell her the color of the label on the record if I know it, this is very useful information.

Ronda will typically get any records she has in stock out to me in a few days (no kidding!). If I order new records (from this or last month's new releases), I can expect about 80% or more of what I order in a few days.

If I try to order a record I hear at a weekend dance, I typically can expect...

30% chance: She has it in stock - I get it in 2 days
30% chance: She has to back order it - I get it within a month.
30% chance: It is no longer available but another record label has the same song. My experience has been that the "other label" is not as good, but occasionally I am delightfully surprised.
10% chance: It is no longer available. But don't despair - there is sometimes a creative way to get exactly the record you want - Ronda knows someone who knows someone... Also, Supreme Audio offers classifieds where you can advertise a wanted record. I've received records this way from a very generous caller in Japan!

With tax and shipping, records cost about $5 each, maybe a little more. I order just about every record that I hear that I really like, then am happy with whatever she can find for me. Records can't be returned, so I just give those that turn out to be mistakes to friends who are curious about calling.

Tape Service

I subscribe to BRS's cassette tape service. Once or twice a month, I get a cassette tape in the mail that has a sample of 10 "new release" records on it. Each has a cut from the "music" side and a cut from the "called" side of the record. A fair number of the singing call figures listed on this web site were collected by listening to and noting the figures from these tapes. The tape service costs around $15 for 10 tapes. As a tape service subscriber, I get a little discount when I order records.

Only thinking about calling at this point?

I highly recommend that you go ahead and subscribe to a tape service now. Two reasons...

You want to start building up your record collection now. Even if you don't order the records you like, at least keep track of them. You'll want to have great records when you start calling and it will take a while to build up a decent collection.
You want to hear the variety of callers sing on these records. This will help you develop rhythm and timing and give you a vocabulary of "filler words" that will make your calling sound polished.

What WAS the name of that record?

Most callers are delighted to share with you the name and label information of the record they are using. Just walk up and ask them after the tip. Remember not to ask at the beginning of the tip when they are very busy preparing and writing down key couple information, etc.

Square Dance record labels

My Square Dance record collection

My most wanted Square Dance records

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