Colleen Peterson
Encyclopedia
Colleen Susan Peterson was a Canadian
country
and folk
singer, who performed both as a solo artist and as a member of the band Quartette
.
, her family moved to Ottawa
when she was 10 years old, where she attended Ridgemont High School
. She began performing in coffeehouses in 1966, and soon attracted the attention of other notable folk musicians such as Bruce Cockburn
and David Wiffen
. She won an RPM Gold Leaf Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist in 1967 and, in 1968, joined Cockburn, Wiffen, Richard Patterson and Dennis Pendrith in a later version of the folk band 3's a Crowd
. In 1970, she was cast in the Canadian production of Hair
.
She subsequently moved to Kingston
in 1971, forming the band Spriggs and Bringle with Mark Haines. She then relocated to Nashville
in 1974, and released her first solo album, Beginning to Feel Like Home, in 1976. She had a hit single on the Billboard
country charts with "Souvenirs", and won a Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist in 1977.
Following her 1978 album Taking My Boots Off, Peterson did not record new material for several years, although she appeared on two albums by the Charlie Daniels Band in 1980 and 1981. She continued to perform, however, touring with Gordon Lightfoot
, Tom Waits
and Ry Cooder
, hosting television specials and appearing on Spirit of the Country and The Tommy Hunter Show
, and working as a backing vocalist for Waylon Jennings
, Roger Miller
, Janie Fricke
and Marty Stuart
. Artists such as Anne Murray
, Ronnie Prophet
and Sylvia Tyson
also recorded Peterson's songs.
In 1986 Peterson released the single "I Had it All", which was a hit on the Canadian country charts and launched the most successful phase of her career. She released the album Basic Facts, her first in ten years, in 1988, and had a string of ten hits, including "No Pain, No Gain", which hit #1 on the Canadian country charts in 1991.
In 1993, she joined Tyson, Caitlin Hanford and Cindy Church
for a one-off concert at Toronto's Harbourfront
, and the four later also appeared together on CBC Radio
's Morningside
and on A Prairie Home Companion
in the United States
. Due to favourable audience response to the collaboration, they continued to work together, adopting the name Quartette
and releasing their first album in 1994. She toured and recorded with the band until 1996, when she was diagnosed with cancer
. Unable to perform with the band during her cancer treatment, she chose her friend and collaborator Gwen Swick to fill in for her, and died in Toronto on October 9 of that year, aged only 45. She is buried in Little Lake Cemetery in Peterborough, Ontario.
in 2000. In 2003, the Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award
, an award for young emerging songwriters, was created in her memory. In 2004, her friend and songwriting partner Nancy Simmonds worked with several musicians to produce a new album, Postcards from California, from unreleased demos she had recorded with Peterson in the early 1990s.
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...
country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
and 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....
singer, who performed both as a solo artist and as a member of the band Quartette
Quartette (band)
Quartette is a Canadian country-folk group featuring Cindy Church, Caitlin Hanford, Gwen Swick and Sylvia Tyson. Each of the four members also records as a solo artist in addition to their work as a group.-Biography:...
.
Career
Born in Peterborough, OntarioPeterborough, Ontario
Peterborough is a city on the Otonabee River in southern Ontario, Canada, 125 kilometres northeast of Toronto. The population of the City of Peterborough was 74,898 as of the 2006 census, while the census metropolitan area has a population of 121,428 as of a 2009 estimate. It presently ranks...
, her family moved to Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
when she was 10 years old, where she attended Ridgemont High School
Ridgemont High School (Ottawa)
Ridgemont High School. It is an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board secondary school in Ottawa, Canada. The school is located at 2597 Alta Vista Drive in the Alta Vista neighbourhood of Ottawa. It is next door to St...
. She began performing in coffeehouses in 1966, and soon attracted the attention of other notable folk musicians such as Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Douglas Cockburn OC is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter. His most recent album was released in March 2011. He has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll.-Biography:...
and David Wiffen
David Wiffen
David Wiffen is a Canadian folk music singer-songwriter. Two of his songs, "Driving Wheel" and "More Often Than Not", have become cover standards.- Career :...
. She won an RPM Gold Leaf Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist in 1967 and, in 1968, joined Cockburn, Wiffen, Richard Patterson and Dennis Pendrith in a later version of the folk band 3's a Crowd
3's a Crowd (band)
3's a Crowd was a folk rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, that existed from 1964 to 1969. The group is particularly notable for its association with Cass Elliott, who co-produced the group's sole album release...
. In 1970, she was cast in the Canadian production of Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
.
She subsequently moved to Kingston
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
in 1971, forming the band Spriggs and Bringle with Mark Haines. She then relocated to Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
in 1974, and released her first solo album, Beginning to Feel Like Home, in 1976. She had a hit single on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
country charts with "Souvenirs", and won a Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist in 1977.
Following her 1978 album Taking My Boots Off, Peterson did not record new material for several years, although she appeared on two albums by the Charlie Daniels Band in 1980 and 1981. She continued to perform, however, touring with Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...
, Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
and Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
, hosting television specials and appearing on Spirit of the Country and The Tommy Hunter Show
Tommy Hunter
Thomas James "Tommy" Hunter, CM, O.Ont is a Canadian country music performer, known as "Canada's Country Gentleman".-Career:...
, and working as a backing vocalist for Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...
, Roger Miller
Roger Miller
Roger Dean Miller was an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known for his honky tonk-influenced novelty songs...
, Janie Fricke
Janie Fricke
Janie Fricke is an American country music singer, best remembered for a series of country music hits in the early to mid 1980s....
and Marty Stuart
Marty Stuart
John Martin "Marty" Stuart is an American country music singer-songwriter, known for both his traditional style, and eclectic merging of rockabilly, honky tonk, and traditional country music...
. Artists such as Anne Murray
Anne Murray
Morna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....
, Ronnie Prophet
Ronnie Prophet
Ronald Lawrence Victor Prophet is a Canadian-born country musician and comedy performer.In his childhood, Ronnie Prophet lived in Calumet, Quebec and began performing at local venues in his youth. His successful musical career in the United States began in the mid-1960s...
and Sylvia Tyson
Sylvia Tyson
Sylvia Tyson, CM , is a musician, performer, singer-songwriter and broadcaster. From 1959 to 1974, she was half of the popular folk duo Ian & Sylvia with Ian Tyson....
also recorded Peterson's songs.
In 1986 Peterson released the single "I Had it All", which was a hit on the Canadian country charts and launched the most successful phase of her career. She released the album Basic Facts, her first in ten years, in 1988, and had a string of ten hits, including "No Pain, No Gain", which hit #1 on the Canadian country charts in 1991.
In 1993, she joined Tyson, Caitlin Hanford and Cindy Church
Cindy Church
Cindy Church is a Canadian country and folk artist. Church released three studio albums on Stony Plain Records and was nominated for Best Country Female Vocalist at the Juno Awards in 1995 and 1996. She is also a member of the award winning group Quartette....
for a one-off concert at Toronto's Harbourfront
Harbourfront
Harbourfront is a neighbourhood on the northern shore of Lake Ontario within the downtown core of the city of Toronto, Canada. Part of the Toronto Waterfront, Harbourfront extends west from Yonge Street to Bathurst Street along Queen's Quay. East of Yonge to Parliament St...
, and the four later also appeared together on CBC Radio
CBC Radio
CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...
's Morningside
Morningside (radio program)
Morningside was a nationally broadcast Canadian radio program, which aired on CBC Radio from September 20, 1976 to May 30, 1997. It was broadcast from 9AM to 12 Noon, Monday to Friday...
and on A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion is a live radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. The show runs on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Central Time, and usually originates from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, although it is frequently taken on the road...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Due to favourable audience response to the collaboration, they continued to work together, adopting the name Quartette
Quartette (band)
Quartette is a Canadian country-folk group featuring Cindy Church, Caitlin Hanford, Gwen Swick and Sylvia Tyson. Each of the four members also records as a solo artist in addition to their work as a group.-Biography:...
and releasing their first album in 1994. She toured and recorded with the band until 1996, when she was diagnosed with cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
. Unable to perform with the band during her cancer treatment, she chose her friend and collaborator Gwen Swick to fill in for her, and died in Toronto on October 9 of that year, aged only 45. She is buried in Little Lake Cemetery in Peterborough, Ontario.
Tributes
She was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of FameCanadian Country Music Hall of Fame
The Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, located in Merritt, British Columbia, was established in 1984 to honour Canadian country music artists, builders or broadcasters, living or deceased...
in 2000. In 2003, the Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award
Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award
The Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award is an annual Canadian award, presented to the year's best song by an emerging singer/songwriter from Ontario in the genres of roots, traditional, folk and country music...
, an award for young emerging songwriters, was created in her memory. In 2004, her friend and songwriting partner Nancy Simmonds worked with several musicians to produce a new album, Postcards from California, from unreleased demos she had recorded with Peterson in the early 1990s.
Albums
| Year | Album | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Beginning to Feel Like Home | Capitol |
| 1977 | Colleen | |
| 1978 | Takin' My Boots Off | |
| 1988 | Basic Facts | Book Shop |
| 1991 | Let Me Down Easy | Intersound |
| 1994 | Beginning to Feel Like Home (re-release) | Capitol |
| 1995 | What Goes Around Comes Around | EMI |
| 2004 | Postcards from California | EMI |
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN Country | CAN AC | US Country Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales... |
|||
| 1976 | "Don't It Make You Wanna Dance" | — | — | — | Beginning to Feel Like Home |
| "Souvenirs" | 38 | — | 100 | ||
| 1978 | "Beginning to Feel Like Home" | — | — | — | |
| "Delaney" | — | — | — | Colleen | |
| 1986 | "I Had It All" | 50 | — | — | Basic Facts |
| "What a Fool I'd Be" | 20 | — | — | ||
| 1987 | "Basic Fact of Life" | 46 | 24 | — | |
| 1988 | "I Still Think of You" (with Gilles Godard) | 14 | — | — | single only |
| "Gently Lay Me Down" | 55 | — | — | Basic Facts | |
| 1989 | "Weather the Storm" | 44 | — | — | |
| 1991 | "No Pain, No Gain" | 14 | — | — | Let Me Down Easy |
| 1992 | "I'm Not Just Another April Fool" | 69 | — | — | |
| 1993 | "Code of the West" | 78 | — | — | single only |
| "Deeper Waters" | 68 | — | — | Let Me Down Easy | |
| "Crazy" | 29 | — | — | What Goes Around Comes Around | |
| 1994 | "Let's Try Love Again" | 43 | — | — | single only |
| "Souvenirs" (re-release) | 50 | — | — | Beginning to Feel Like Home | |
| 1995 | "What Goes Around Comes Around" | 46 | — | — | What Goes Around Comes Around |