CandyRat Records

Last updated

CandyRat Records
Founded2005
FounderRob Poland
Genre Fingerstyle, Percussive fingerstyle
Country of originUnited States
Location Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin [1]
Official website candyrat.com

CandyRat Records (also stylized as CANdYRAT) is an independent American record label and online music store located in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. [1] They primarily represent instrumental guitar artists, with a focus on acoustic guitar, but include electronic music, alternative rock, singer-songwriter, and progressive rock, with musicians coming from many countries. [2] [3]

Contents

Rob Poland founded the label in 2004, first signing fingerstyle guitar talent Don Ross, [4] followed by Andy McKee, [5] [6] Antoine Dufour, and three other artists before officially opening in 2005. [7] CandyRat Records has been called the "biggest acoustical guitar label in the world", [8] and the two-handed tapping technique of playing the guitar to produce bass, rhythm, melody and harmony, which is practised by many of its artists, has become known as the CandyRat style. [9] The label gained fame after videos on its official YouTube page, 'rpoland', gained viral success. [10] Recording sessions are filmed and uploaded, contributing to the success of the albums. [11] [12] As of November 2014, the most popular video on the channel, a live recording of Andy Mckee's "Drifting", [13] garnered over 50 million views. [14] [15] Their YouTube channel has over a half-million subscribers and almost four-hundred million views. [16]

CandyRat Guitar Night Tour features CandyRat Records' guitar virtuosos traveling the U.S. and the world. [9] [17] [18] [19] [20] For 2017, Antoine Dufour and Ian Ethan Case toured. [21] CandyRat is also a festival partner for the Wilson Center Guitar Competition & Festival, with Rob Poland and the CandyRat headliners as some of the judges for the fingerstyle competition. [22] [23]

Artists

CandyRat Records had over 50 signed and independent artists as of August 2017. [24]

Current

Former

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References

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