Information/Write-up
Nancy Ryan: Country Songbird, Television Staple, and Horseback Heroine
Nancy Ryan stands as a true original in the Canadian country music landscape—a gifted singer, songwriter, and performer whose long, multifaceted career spans decades of musical innovation, television appearances, and equestrian excellence. Her story is not only about talent and perseverance, but also about the many people who recognized something in her early on and helped lift her up, often before she fully understood the potential they saw in her.
Born on March 13, 1947, in Toronto, Ontario, Nancy’s early life was marked by resilience. At just ten years old, her family home was destroyed by fire, prompting a move first to Sturgeon Falls, then later to Timmins, where her love for music continued to flourish. Long before she ever took a stage, her great-aunt, Lela MacDonald Burns, had already begun assembling a scrapbook for the young four-year-old—carefully clipping articles, storing keepsakes, and preserving the earliest fragments of a life in motion. Nancy kept that scrapbook, and over time added her own photographs, letters, clippings, and mementos, building a personal archive that would one day prove invaluable in reconstructing the arc of her remarkable career.
Her first public recording came not in country, but in classical music: a Mozart sonata in C Major, captured on tape in 1957. As a teenager, she became a regular performer on Northern Hoedown, a country television program broadcast out of Sudbury for 26 episodes between 1958 and 1959—a debut that opened doors she never could have foreseen.
In 1964, Nancy traveled to Nashville, where she recorded at Bradley’s Barn and Fireside Studios under the guidance of producer Louis Innis. She cut early demo tracks intended for Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton and soon found herself in demand as a backing vocalist. She later filled in for Janie Fricke as part of the Sound 70’s Singers, offering her voice to recordings and performances that helped shape the Nashville scene of the era. Throughout this period, American and Canadian mentors—musicians, producers, and industry figures—recognized her talent and helped her along at pivotal moments. Nancy has always credited these people, many now gone, as essential stepping-stones in her artistic life.
Her own recording career expanded in the early 1970s when she partnered with Canadian country music icon Gary Buck. With Buck producing, she recorded three Dallas Harms compositions—“I Can’t Stand to See a Grown Man Cry,” “If There’s a Better Way to Tell Me,” and “I Woke Up Crying in My Sleep”—along with her own “Polar Bear Special,” issued on Arpeggio Records.
In 1978 she released her debut album Rouge on Waterloo Music, its title chosen as a nod to her lifelong love of the colour red. The album featured six of her original songs and included one of the earliest known recordings by a Canadian female artist of a Gordon Lightfoot composition—his powerful ballad “Cherokee Bend.”
Her discography later grew to include the 1980 single “Run Terry Run,” recorded in support of the Canadian Cancer Society, and several tracks for Shannon Records in Nashville under producer Bud Logan, appearing alongside Wilma Burgess, George Kent, and Harlan Sanders on the Country Western Shannon Style compilation.
Across Ontario and beyond, Nancy remained a fixture on the country circuit, performing with Musical Ride, The Fender Trio, Ramblers Three, The Country Bandits, Ruffian, and Sundown, the latter featuring Wade Champion, Al Gain, and Bob Swaggers. She also fronted her later trio, A Wing and a Prayer, formed with Nelson Lyon and Bob Leonard. Both men have since passed from her life—Lyon to complications of diabetes-related dementia, and Leonard to leukemia—losses Nancy felt deeply, as both were cherished friends as well as musical collaborators.
Television brought Nancy’s voice into homes across Canada. She appeared on Country Hoedown, Country Time (CBC Halifax), The Tommy Hunter Show, Family Brown Country, and The Jimmy Phair Show. She performed six times on Nashville Swing and became a full-time cast member for all 26 episodes of The Ray Griff Goodtime Country Show, taped at Eastern Sound in Toronto and broadcast from CJOH-TV Ottawa. There she joined Dottie Randall and Andy Greatrix as The Good Time Singers, providing background vocals for Marg Osburne, Dick Nolan, Smiley Bates, Tommy Ambrose, and many artists associated with Condor Records.
Nancy also delivered a standout lead vocal performance in a duet with Margaret Good on Rick Fielding’s 1981 track “If It’s Just the Whiskey Talkin’,” and The Good Time Singers performed live at multiple Opry North concerts at Toronto’s Minkler Auditorium.
In 1982, Nancy expanded into children’s television with The Kangazoo Club, filmed at African Lion Safari, Marineland, and the Toronto Zoo. For the show’s 26 episodes she wrote an astonishing 54 original songs. The series went on to air in more than 70 countries, including Canada’s Global Y-Channel.
Parallel to her musical life, Nancy remained deeply connected to horses. She received her first pony at age five and grew into an award-winning show rider in Western, English, dressage, cross-country, and stadium jumping disciplines. In the 1980s she owned and operated the North Virginia Acres equestrian centre in Sutton, Ontario, and later became active in thoroughbred racing at Woodbine and Fort Erie.
In the 1990s she returned to school, earning a BA in Psychology from Queen’s University—where she wrote more than fifty scientific papers—before pursuing training as a Registered Nurse, a profession she worked in for 15 years.
In 2019, Nancy faced and survived kidney cancer; surgery removed the tumour completely, and she recovered fully. Today she lives in Belleville, Ontario, retired in name only. She continues to make music and remains closely connected to the country community that embraced her so many years ago. Practical and thoughtful by nature, she has recently photographed her many trophies before letting them go, determined not to leave burdens for her family. She remains grateful simply to be remembered, and her life—full of music, friendships, hard work, and deep compassion—continues to resonate with those who followed her journey.
As a symbol of her stature during the height of her career, Nancy was featured as the “Queen of Spades” in a promotional deck of country music playing cards issued in the early 1980s. It remains a fitting tribute to her charisma, class, and enduring talent.
-Robert Williston
Nancy Ryan: lead vocals
Alan Macumber
Jim Stade
John Cleveland
Billy Scullion: bass
Simon Stone: saxophone
Jannie Brannon: backing vocals
Dottie De Leonibus: backing vocals
Rick Gibson: backing vocals
Arranged by Billy Scullion
Produced by Louis Innis
Engineered by Paul Mercey
Mixed by Mike Stone
Album design by Linda Manson
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