Soron Records:

Nine One Nine

Nine One Nine is the area code for the capital city (Raleigh) area of North Carolina.  It is also the name of a group of young male singers who call that part of the country home.

Rodney Wardrick, Jimmy Sutton and Daxter Brooks grew up in and around Franklinton, NC, a small town 27 miles north of Raleigh and the Research Triangle Park. It is also the home of the Bibby brothers, James and Henry, of pro baseball and basketball fame respectively, and Bobby Cutchins, an artist on the Soron Records label.                                                                              

One day Rodney approached Bobby for advice and assistance in getting into the music business as a songwriter. Bobby liked his passion for music and his sincere desire to be in the business so he agreed to help him as best he could.

At the time, Bobby was signed as an artist to Roebuck Records, a label in Philadelphia, PA. On one of his trips to the record company, he took some of Rodney’s work and the President of the label agreed to let Rodney try his hand at writing songs. Rodney went to Philadelphia and stayed for a while, but he decided to go back home after going on a promotional tour to promote a single that Bobby had released at the time. He had an idea of a singing group he wanted to pursue. He assembled his two childhood friends, Jimmy Sutton and Daxter Brooks and a friend from a neighboring town. The latter friend came from a family of gospel singers that consisted of his three siblings and their mother.
                     
When Rodney approached Bobby the next time, he asked Bobby to manage the group. Bobby gave it some thought and because he knew their parents from his school days, agreed to help them. He named the group “Nine One Nine” for the area code that represented the section of North Carolina where they lived.

One day in 1999 Bobby, Rodney and Jimmy wrote a song for the group in an effort to give them their own identity. The song was called “One Thousand Miles Away”.  It was a   love song that was tailored for Rodney and Jimmy who shared the lead singing duties. It was a good song so they took it to the group to learn it and soon they were in the studio recording it. I might add that they pooled their own money to pay for the recording costs.

The outcome surpassed everybody’s expectations so Bobby made a trip to Philadelphia just to take the demo to his record company. It was immediately accepted and the group was signed to do an album. Bobby, Rodney and Jimmy wrote all the songs for the album with contributions on four songs from Jimmy’s cousin, Mike Owens.

Today, Soron Records is proud to present to you, NINE ONE NINE. We hope you like this collection of songs as much as we do… and the group!!!!!