COLUMN: Carillon Flashback November 6, 2001 – Love of rural roots unspoiled by Sunshine Records success

They have recorded demos for Chantal Kreviazuk and helped launch the careers of The Crash Test Dummies and McMaster and James. They have also produced a pile of albums for country artists like Stew Clayton and Ernest Monias, and the late and great Metis fiddler, Reg Bouvette.

For more than 25 years, Nestor and Linda Shydlowsky have been bringing a little bit of musical sunshine into the lives of thousands. The owners of Winnipeg’s Sunshine Records are celebrating two-and-a-half decades of success as a relatively small, independent recording studio in competition in an industry of giants.

Carving a niche in aboriginal, ethnic, country and old-time music, Ness Michaels, as he is known in music circles, has seen the studio grow from a “mom and pop” operation on Selkirk Avenue to the largest of its kind in Canada.

Shydlowsky, who still spends most weekends playing in a Ukrainian band at weddings, socials and anniversaries, says music has always been a big part of his life. The son of Alec and Anne Shydlowsky, of Tolstoi, he used to sit by the stage at weddings and socials, intrigued by the sounds of the instruments and the energy of the musicians.