Information/Write-up
Shirley Rose Eikhard (November 7, 1955 – December 15, 2022) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer whose work moved fluidly between country, pop, jazz, and contemporary songwriting, and whose lasting influence is evident as much through the recordings of others as through her own extensive catalogue.
Born in Sackville, New Brunswick, Eikhard was raised in a musical household. Her mother, June Eikhard (née Cameron), was a pioneering Canadian fiddler and the first woman to compete in the Canadian Open Old Time Fiddlers’ Contest, while her father, Cecil Eikhard, was a working country musician and bassist. Music was part of daily life from the outset. After the family relocated to Ontario when Shirley was eight years old, she began writing songs and playing guitar while still in elementary school.
By her early teens, Eikhard was already performing publicly and appearing in festival and broadcast settings connected to the Canadian folk scene. Her songwriting quickly attracted attention beyond her years, and while still a teenager she signed with Capitol Records. In 1970, American guitarist Chet Atkins recorded her instrumental composition ‘Pickin’ My Way’ as the title track of his album of the same name, an early signal of the regard her writing commanded within the industry.
Eikhard’s recording career took shape in the early 1970s. Her 1972 Capitol debut, Shirley Eikhard, produced the hit single ‘Smilin’ Wine’ and earned her the Juno Award for Best Female Country Vocalist. She repeated the win the following year, establishing her as one of the leading figures in Canadian country music during a period of rapid stylistic change. Although frequently compared in the media to Anne Murray, Eikhard’s own writing and musical instincts soon carried her beyond the boundaries of the genre.
Between 1975 and 1977, a series of albums released on Attic Records documented a gradual but deliberate expansion into pop, rhythm and blues, and contemporary adult songwriting. These recordings reflected both her evolving musical interests and a resistance to being defined by a single stylistic lane. Throughout the decade she toured extensively across Canada and internationally, sharing stages with artists including Hagood Hardy, Lou Rawls, Sylvia Tyson, Sonny James, and Lynn Anderson, while developing a reputation as a compelling live performer grounded in strong songwriting.
After a brief recording hiatus, Eikhard made a decisive shift toward artistic independence. In 1982 she founded her own imprint, Eika Records, marking a turning point in her career. The move reflected a desire for full creative control over her music, presentation, and production. By the mid-1980s she had largely withdrawn from nightclub touring—partly due to severe smoke allergies—and redirected her focus toward writing, recording, and producing on her own terms.
This period resulted in Taking Charge (1987), released on Eika Records and manufactured and distributed by WEA Music of Canada. Rather than documenting a single recording session or fixed ensemble, the album brought together songs written and produced between 1983 and 1987, unified by authorship and creative control. Eikhard was deeply involved at every level, from songwriting and arranging to production and performance, and the album stands as a statement of independence rather than a conventional studio project.
By the late 1980s, Eikhard’s reputation as a songwriter had become central to her career. Her songs were recorded by a wide range of artists, including Anne Murray, Chet Atkins, Cher, Emmylou Harris, Ginette Reno, Alannah Myles, Rita Coolidge, and others. The defining moment came in 1991 when Bonnie Raitt recorded ‘(Let’s Give Them) Something to Talk About,’ a song co-written by Eikhard that became an international hit, won a Grammy Award, and permanently altered the trajectory of her professional life. In 2020, the song was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, formally recognizing its enduring impact.
Eikhard’s compositional work extended beyond popular song. In the early 1990s she wrote music for stage productions by Toronto playwright George F. Walker, including Escape from Happiness, which received a Dora Mavor Moore Award for sound design. She also received multiple songwriter citations and later a SOCAN Classic Award, reflecting sustained airplay and long-term cultural presence.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, Eikhard returned to recording with a renewed focus, increasingly exploring jazz as both a vocalist and composer. Albums such as If I Had My Way (1995), The Jazz Sessions (1996), and Going Home (1998) demonstrated her ability to write original material that functioned convincingly within the jazz tradition rather than relying on reinterpretations of standards. Going Home received the East Coast Music Award for Best Jazz Performance and led to national television appearances and collaborations with leading Canadian jazz musicians.
Subsequent releases continued to blur genre boundaries. The Last Hurrah (2000) integrated original songwriting into a jazz framework, while End of the Day (2001) was largely instrumental, featuring Eikhard performing guitar, piano, bass, drums, saxophone, percussion, and chromatic harmonica herself. Later projects including Stay Open, Pop, Country, Stuck in This Groove, Just Call Me Alice, and Riding on the 65 reflected an ongoing refusal to settle into a single stylistic identity, treating genre as a palette rather than a destination.
Across her lifetime, Shirley Eikhard wrote more than 500 songs and developed a rare level of instrumental fluency through self-directed study. Beyond music, she was deeply engaged with visual art, environmental concerns, and animal welfare, living and working largely on her own terms in rural Ontario.
Shirley Eikhard died peacefully on December 15, 2022, at Headwaters Health Care Centre in Orangeville, Ontario, following complications from cancer, shortly after her sixty-seventh birthday.
-Robert Williston
Musicians
Shirley Eikhard: vocals
George Koller: bass
Mark Kelso: drums, percussion
Ed Bickert: guitar
Bob Eriendson: piano
Mike Murley: saxophone
Marcus Printup: trumpet
Production
Produced by Shirley Eikhard
Recorded by Ormond Jobin, assisted by Tom Heron at Reaction Studios, Toronto, Ontario
Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering. Portland, Maine, USA
Mixed by Shirley Eikhard and Ormond Jobin
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