Chatham Music Archive Article 2009

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‘BAND’ING Together
Posted By ELLWOOD SHREVE
Chatham Daily News Nov.14th 2009

If you have a favourite local band still playing or from when you were younger, try checking out the website www.chathammusicarchive.com created by Shawn Beaulieu.
In a short period of time, the 35-year-old Chatham resident has compiled an impressive amount of information on local bands and musicians, including photos and small biographies, which are listed by both name and year released.
Beaulieu began the project about four or five years ago as a blog, but since being laid off six months ago, he has been able to devote several hours a day to the website.
“All of a sudden it turned into more than a hobby and all of a sudden it got bigger and bigger,” Beaulieu said.
He has been a part of the local music scene as a member of the band Foster Child, which became the Janet Theory.
Beaulieu credits the help he has received from Jeff Mifflin, who works at Strings N’ Things and is the guitarist with The O’Hara Brothers band. He said Mifflin was able to access photos of several local bands that have been displayed at the local music store over the years. He also noted the members of the 1980s group Manpower, which have teamed up again this year, “got me into a lot of this.” Beaulieu said the website is getting the attention of several local musicians, past and present, noting people have been coming to him with information. Beaulieu is impressed with the wealth of musical talent and the wide range of genres that has come out of the Chatham-Kent area, and wanted a way to show that to the world.
He has done extensive research at the Chatham Public Library, gathering information dating back to 1889 with the formation of the Chatham City Band. There is plenty of interesting information on well-known older bands, including the Melody Ramblers, which once boasted current country music star Michelle Wright as its lead singer. When Wright left to pursue a solo career, she was replaced by Wendy Jenkins, who also enjoyed success with the popular band. Then there is The Missing Links, including members John, Fred and Eddy Larson and Bill McGrath, whose 1966 album “It’s Link Up Time,” was produced by Paul Shaffer, best known today for his long stint with the David Letterman Show.

The site is also filling up with information on several local bands from today’s era. Beaulieu said the website can also serve as a resource for bands that are looking for musicians with certain skills or local clubs that want to hire local bands to play. “I only knew about 10 per cent of the bands when I started doing this,” Beaulieu said. “There’s a big scene going on, but nobody knows each other.”

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Sylvia Tyson in Quartette 2007

CD Cover

Artist: Quartette
Release: Down at the Fair
Year: 2007
Chatham Connection:  (Sylvia is from Chatham-Kent. (Born Sylvia Fricker September 19, 1940 in Chatham, Ontario)

Who:
Sylvia Tyson, Caitlin Hanford, Cindy Church, Gwen Swick

Tracks:
1. Down at the Fair
2. Twenty Shades of Blues
3. That’s What You Always Say to My Heart
4. Where Love Lies
5. All These Things Are You
6. Who’s Foolin’ Who
7. Nothing Can Make the World Right Again
8.  Tell My Lord
9.  Sing a Song of Sadness
10. My Invitation
11. Marie Antoinette
12. I Mean What I Say
13. I Can’t Wait 
    
Notes: Even after four decades of songwriting, and with over 200 songs to her credit, Sylvia says she is not a prolific songwriter. Still, “Down At The Fair” features two of her finest songs: the spiritual “Tell My Lord” (with the magnificent line, “I can tell my Lord things I couldn’t tell my mother”) and the remarkable character sketch, “Marie Antoinette.”

The latter is a story of a deluded woman working as a maid in a hotel who believes that in a perfect world she’d be the Queen of France. The song is a reminder that all around us are people whose lives we know nothing about, and some of them are quite delusional.

“When I was a kid I knew a girl who was adopted, and her name was Marie Antoinette,” Sylvia explains. “She truly believed she was descended from the Queen of France. I thought that was an interesting concept. The line ‘Off with their heads’ gets a laugh from audiences.”
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Quartette was formed for a concert at Toronto’s Harbourfront in the summer of 1993. The following year, the group received the Canadian Country Music Association’s award for best vocal collaboration. In 1995 and 1996, it garnered Juno Award nominations for top country group. An hour-long showcase on “Adrienne Clarkson Presents” on CBC-TV introduced them to an even wider audience in 1995.

SYLVIA TYSON Quick Bio

  Sylvia Tyson first made her mark in the ’60s with the folk/country duo Ian & Sylvia which recorded 13 albums. Ian and Sylvia, who married in 1964, were at the forefront of the ’60s North American folk movement.
  Following Ian & Sylvia’s breakup in 1977 as an act and as a couple, Sylvia released seven solo albums.
  In the ’70s, Sylvia hosted CBC-Radio’s roots music series “Touch The Earth,” and hosted CBC-TV’s “Country In My Soul” series.
  Sylvia received Canada’s highest civilian award, the Order of Canada in 1995. She is one of the founders, past president, and song honoree of the Canadian Songwriters’ Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2003.

Buy the CD online here.
Listen online here.

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Sylvia Tyson in Quartette (1998)

 

 

Sylvia Tyson in Quartette
Artist: Quartette
Release: In the Beauty of the Day
Year: 1998
Chatham Connection: Sylvia is from Chatham-Kent

Who:
Sylvia Tyson
Caitlin Hanford
Cindy Church
Gwen Swick

  With the untimely death of original member, Colleen Peterson, in 1996, Quartette elected to continue performing, and welcomed another musical friend, Gwen Swick, to the group. Gwen’s skills as a songwriter and vocal arranger carried the group to a new level as they prepared to record once again, and the result was “In The Beauty Of The Day,” released in 1998.

  Quartette has received several Juno nominations, won a Canadian Country Music Award for best vocal collaboration, performed with major symphony orchestras across Canada, and recorded the CMT-TV special, “A Quartette Christmas.” They have also released two Christmas CDs, “It’s Christmas!” in 1996, and “I See A Star” in 2002, both of which are collections of traditional and original Christmas songs, and their Christmas shows have become a tradition with audiences across the country.

Tracks:
1.  I Don’t Want to Cry
2.  Me and My Love and I
3.  Sentinel Crow
4.  In the Beauty of the Day
5.  Ask Me
6.  All Things Can Change
7.  E.Z.
8.  I Don’t Believe I Do Believe
9.  A Love That Just Won’t Stray
10. I Walk These Rails
11. Long Chain of Love
12. Rain on the Highway
 

SYLVIA TYSON

  Sylvia Tyson first made her mark in the ’60s with the folk/country duo Ian & Sylvia which recorded 13 albums. Ian and Sylvia, who married in 1964, were at the forefront of the ’60s North American folk movement.

  Following Ian & Sylvia’s breakup in 1977 as an act and as a couple, Sylvia released seven solo albums.

  In the ’70s, Sylvia hosted CBC-Radio’s roots music series “Touch The Earth,” and hosted CBC-TV’s “Country In My Soul” series.

  Sylvia received Canada’s highest civilian award, the Order of Canada in 1995. She is one of the founders, past president, and song honoree of the Canadian Songwriters’ Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2003.

Sylvia has completed her first book, a work of fiction.

Buy the CD online here.
Listen online here.