Courier (2)

1960s label from Fremont, Ohio. Courier records was owned by Robert "Bob" Brown in Fremont, Ohio. The studio was located in a cinderblock building downtown. Brown's original interest was jazz, but quickly hopped on the teen rock action in the early 60s. In 1966, Brown was in the US Army, stationed in Aberdeen, Maryland. He was able to keep recording until his discharge in 1968, when he reopened the Fremont operation. All of the bands recorded in the Maryland period (numbers 124-132) were local to that area. Around the time of the move to Maryland, the label was changed from Courier to CEI (Courier-Empire International). Almost all of the early records used the Courier label but at least one found record used Empire. Conjecture is that Empire was intended for the non-rock acts. In 1969, two subsidiaries were started - Now! Records (3) (later Right Now!!) for psychedelic bands, and Country Empire Records for country artists. The last known CEI release is from 1974.