The following information was handwritten and found tucked into a record sleeve of The Second Hand Bittersweet 45, author unknown:
“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 he quickly hopped on the teen rock action in the early ‘60s.
In 1966 Brown was in the U.S. Army stationed in Aberdeen, Maryland. He was able to keep recording until his discharge in 1968, when he opened the Fremont operation. All of the bands recorded in the Maryland period (numbers 124-132) were local to that area, so there is no additional coverage of them.
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 used Empire. My conjecture is that Empire was intended for the non-rock acts. In 1969 two subsidiaries were started – Now! Records, later Right Now!! for psychedelic bands, and Country Empire for country artists. The last known CEI release was in 1974.
Since the end of the CEI label, Brown continued to be active in recording.”
Brown has an extensive record release catalog in Ohio. A discography of Maryland releases follows (see the individual artist biographies for more information):
1966 CEI 124 Sodom & Gomorrah
1966 CEI 125 Sites ‘N Sounds
1968 CEI 126 Soulations
1968 CEI 127 Runabouts
1967 CEI 128 Talmydge-Overby Singers
1968 CEI 129 Souls of Britton
1968 CEI 130 Rob Selmer
1968 CEI 131 The Hamilton Beach (from Fremont, Ohio)
1968 CEI 132 Second Hand Bittersweet
