Busted Flat Records is a critically acclaimed independent music label founded in 2002 by Mark Logan and based in Kitchener

Kitchener, Ontario

The City of Kitchener is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It was the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916. The city had a population of 204,668 in the Canada 2006 Census...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Musicians on the roster include blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 artist, Matt Andersen (two-time Maple Blues Awards

Maple Blues Awards

The Maple Blues Awards are Canada’s blues awards, "honouring the finest in Canadian blues". They are the only comprehensive national best in blues awards program. The program's goal is to promote blues music across Canada, and to recognize outstanding achievement...

 winner, recipient of the Best Solo performance at the International Blues Challenge

International Blues Challenge

The International Blues Challenge is a music competition run by the Blues Foundation.The 2010 winner of the top prize was Matt Andersen.The 2011 winners of the top prize were ....

, and winner of several East Coast Music Awards), as well as Paul MacLeod, Brock Zeman

Brock Zeman

Brock Zeman is a singer-songwriter from the Ottawa Valley based in Carleton Place, Canada. He has released eight albums and is known as a prolific performer having given more than two hundred live performances across North America every year for the last decade.Before his mid-20s, Zeman had signed...

, Lynn Jackson, Shannon Lyon, Jay Semko

Jay Semko

Jay Semko is a singer/songwriter and bassist with Canadian band, The Northern Pikes. He is also a music composer for numerous film and television productions, most notably the successful Canadian television series Due South...

, the Billie Hollies and many other Canadian singer-songwriters.

The label name was taken from a line in the song, "Me and Bobby McGee

Me and Bobby McGee

"Me and Bobby McGee" is a song written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, originally performed by Roger Miller. Others performed the song later, including Kristofferson himself, and Janis Joplin who topped the U.S. singles chart with the song in 1971 after her death, making the song the second...

" made popular by Janis Joplin

Janis Joplin

Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...

. The label was founded originally to showcase talent from the Southern Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 region, but has since branched out to release acts from across Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. The label specializes in roots

Traditional music

Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...

, Americana

Americana (music)

Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...

, blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

, folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 and alt-country acts.

According to a feature article in Exclaim!

Exclaim!

Exclaim! is a monthly Canadian music magazine that features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with special focus on Canadian and cutting-edge artists...

 magazine, Busted Flat Records operates on a business model that favors the independent artist, with approximately "75 percent of the profits going to artists, 15 percent paying for production and roughly ten percent going to the label." In a recent (2011) review, Busted Flat Records was named "one of the most respected roots music outlets in the country."

See also

• Music of Canada
  Music of Canada
  The music of Canada has influences that have shaped the country. Aboriginals, the British, and the French have all made unique contributions to the musical heritage of Canada. The music has subsequently been heavily influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between...
  
  
• Music in Canada
• List of record labels