Peterson, Colleen

Websites:  https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/colleen-peterson-emc
Origin: Ottawa, Ontario, 🇨🇦
Biography:

Colleen Peterson – Canada’s Country Queen

Colleen Peterson’s voice carried both the warmth of folk and the grit of country, a blend that helped her carve out a unique place in Canadian music. Born in Peterborough, Ontario, on November 14, 1950, and raised in Ottawa from the age of ten, she grew up steeped in music. She saved diligently for her first guitar, and by her mid-teens she was performing at Ottawa coffeehouses, part of a vibrant folk scene that also nurtured artists like David Wiffen and Bruce Cockburn.

By 1966, still in high school, she was performing regularly around Ottawa and even caught the attention of Toronto’s Riverboat Coffeehouse. That fall she crossed paths with the folk-pop group Three’s a Crowd, and by 1967 she was briefly a member, filling in for Donna Warner. The same year, her star was rising quickly—she won the RPM Gold Leaf Award (precursor to the JUNOs) for Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year, the first of two times she’d receive that title.

After a series of short stints with groups including Five D and St. Patrick Street Rooming House, Peterson moved briefly to New York, joining the jazz-rock outfit TCB and recording an album with them. Returning to Canada in 1970, she appeared in Toronto’s production of Hair and later toured in the musical Love and Maple Syrup. She also formed the duo Spriggs & Bringle with Mark Haines, touring the North American club circuit for several years.

By the mid-1970s, her career tilted toward country music. After recording three Willie P. Bennett songs for the CBC’s LM-400 series, she moved to Nashville, where her warm, versatile voice found a natural home. Capitol Records signed her in 1976, and her debut LP Beginning to Feel Like Home produced “Souvenirs,” a single that cracked the Billboard Top 40. Though the record fared better in the U.S. than in Canada, it cemented her reputation as a promising country talent.

Peterson returned to Canada often, appearing at major festivals and earning her second JUNO Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist in 1977. A self-titled album followed that year, and in 1978 she released Takin’ My Boots Off, which included her Canadian Top 40 cover of Del Shannon’s “I Go to Pieces.” Despite moderate chart success, frustrations with label support pushed her toward session work and songwriting.

Through the 1980s, Peterson became a highly respected backing vocalist and guitarist, touring with Gordon Lightfoot, Ry Cooder, and the Charlie Daniels Band, and recording with Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller, and others. She also found success as a songwriter, with Anne Murray, Ronnie Prophet, and Sylvia Tyson among those who recorded her songs. In 1988 she signed with Book Shop Records and released Basic Facts, yielding multiple Canadian Top 40 hits, including “Weather the Storm,” “Gently Lay Me Down,” and her duet with Gilles Godard, “If You Let Me Down Easy.”

The 1990s brought new directions. After her 1991 album Let Me Down Easy, Peterson stepped back from solo work but soon found renewed inspiration as a founding member of Quartette, alongside Sylvia Tyson, Cindy Church, and Caitlin Hanford. Their 1993 Harbourfront performance led to a self-titled debut in 1994, which earned critical acclaim and a Canadian Country Music Association award. A second album, Work of the Heart (1995), followed.

That same year, Peterson issued a retrospective compilation, What Goes Around Comes Around, just before being diagnosed with cancer in early 1996. Too ill to tour, she handpicked Gwen Swick to take her place in Quartette. Colleen Peterson died in Toronto on October 9, 1996, at just 45 years old.

Her legacy, however, endures. Posthumously inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000, she is remembered for her artistry, versatility, and generosity. The Ontario Arts Council’s Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award, established in 2003, continues to support emerging Canadian songwriters, ensuring that her influence carries forward to new generations.
-Robert Williston