The Cole Younger Band

The Cole Younger Band took its name from the Missouri outlaw who rode with Jesse James, and for most of the 1980s it carried that name around the fairs, halls and jamborees of Northern Ontario. Its home base was North Bay, and its records began at Tamarack Sound Studio, Don Cocksedge's eight-track studio at 488 Lakeshore Drive, which ran its own label alongside the recording rooms.

Tamarack issued the band's first two singles in 1984. 'Slap Leather Man' was paired with 'The Love On My Mind', and 'Be With My Friends' with 'Fire In Her Eyes'. Both sides of 'Be With My Friends' credit C. Younger as songwriter.

The move to Academy Records brought the group onto the national charts. 'Wild Oats' entered the RPM Country 60 at No. 58 on November 2, 1985 and was still on the chart at the end of December, nine weeks in. The band produced the follow-up, 'Dancin' In The Dark', written by singer-songwriter Dave Sturgeon, at Tamarack Sound Studio, and gathered both songs onto a cassette called Heartbreak City.

By March 1986 the lineup was Mike Peters on lead vocals and lead and rhythm guitar, Tom Aquino on keyboards, rhythm guitar and vocals, Gilles Lauzon on bass and vocals, and Steve Kramp on drums and vocals. 'Don't Grow Old Alone', 'Border Bandits' and 'You're The Love Of My Mind' followed on Academy through 1987.

In 1988 the band moved to Comstock, and 'You Were Mine' climbed to No. 33 on the RPM country chart that April. That same month Aquino told RPM the group had a full season of Northern Ontario fairs and jamborees ahead. Their next single, 'Take Me In Your Arms', was a song Aquino wrote with fiddler Gilbert Benoit, who had played on the band's previous session. 'Midnight Train' followed on Comstock in 1989.

-Robert Williston