Suzanne

Websites:  No
Origin: Toronto, Ontario
Biography:

The story of Suzanne is intrinsically linked to the story of Birchmount Records. Despite the popularity and availability of Birchmount Records' releases in Toronto (and Canada at large), the story of Suzanne had more or less been lost to time. This all changed, however, when two Canadian music historians began researching the early history of the Birchmount label. Though unaware of each other's work at the time, these two historians collectively unearthed the story of Suzanne. "Who is Suzanne?" you may be asking... The below article aims to answer this question:

Suzanne [Susie] Filion was born in London, Ontario, on July 7th, 1949. During her youth, the Filion family relocated to Toronto for work opportunities. Suzanne began attending Rosedale Public School in September of 1955. Early on, she showed a talent for singing. This didn’t come as a surprise to her family, however, as they had listened to her belting out tunes since before she could walk. The irony is, other than her grandfather, John Tindal, who was an opera singer around Ontario during the 1940’s, the Filion family wasn’t really musically inclined. That is, unless you count the regular and unabashed shower time a cappella sessions, practiced individually and embraced collectively.

With the encouragement of her parents, Suzanne began singing in the children's choir at her school before the age of ten. Early on, they had the opportunity to play Toronto's legendary Massey Hall, which was a joy for the young vocalist. Suzanne loved singing, and it came easily to her from a young age. She began playing violin in her pre-teens, giving it up after a few years. This was replaced with an occasional interest in guitar.

After graduating from Rosedale Public School, Suzanne attended Jarvis Collegiate. Here, she made many musical friends and eventually put together an a cappella girl group with some schoolmates called “The Four Notes.” Though they didn’t record, they had a blast performing around Toronto. The highlight of this time together was a handful of Sunday night gigs they performed at The Blue Note club on Yonge Street.

During 1967, after graduating high school, Suzanne began waiting tables part-time at the famous Riverboat Coffeehouse, located in Toronto’s bustling Yorkville district. The music venue was located in a basement. The Riverboat's decor was modeled after the interior of a boat, featuring porthole windows, wood paneled walls, and intimate booths. The burgeoning folk-rock scene in Toronto gravitated toward The Riverboat and venues like it. The intimacy they provided trained an artist’s dynamic ability while simultaneously inspiring their songwriting. A number of famous songs by influential folk artists of the time were rumored to have been written at The Riverboat (Gordon Lightfoot's "Steel Rail Blues," Joni Mitchell's "Night in the City," Neil Young's "Ambulance Blues," and Phil Ochs' "Changes.".

Working at the Riverboat Coffeehouse, Suzanne saw and heard nothing but the highest tier of both local and visiting folk and blues talent, night after night. On top of this hotbed of creativity spurning on her singing, Suzanne had numerous opportunities to meet and spend time with the musicians who performed at the venue. Her biggest influence at this time was, without a doubt, Joni Mitchell. The two became casual friends over Suzanne’s time working at The Riverboat.

In an attempt to pay for her tuition at the University of Toronto, Suzanne began looking for other jobs around town in 1968. She eventually answered an ad in the Toronto Star newspaper looking for an assistant/secretary. The ad was placed by local musician and producer Greg Hambleton, who had just founded his “Tuesday Music Production” company and was looking for employees.

Greg Hambleton was the eldest of five siblings, many of whom were musically gifted. At the time, Greg was developing quite the resume. After a few years performing and writing songs in Toronto’s Yorkville district, he grew interested in production and publishing in 1967. He began work as an independent recording engineer at Sound Canada and RCA Studios in Toronto, recording legendary singles by The Midnight Angels, The Boodly-Hoo, The Fringe, A Passing Fancy, The Humble Sponge, and The Eighth Day, among others.

Greg's “Tuesday Music Production” was housed in an office at 9 Sultan Street, across from The Windsor Arms Hotel. Suzanne enjoyed working with and for Greg. Early on in her employment, there was talk around the office of Greg getting hired as a producer and talent scout by a new local label known as Birchmount Records.

A sub-label of Toronto’s Quality Records, Birchmount Records was a budget label that was born out of a want of their parent label to offload some of their deleted or out-of-print vinyl records. Though this may have been the initial intention, about half of the first eighty releases were unique Canadian content, exclusive to the label. Instrumental to these homegrown musical beginnings was Greg Hambelton. In tune with the local scene and its various happenings, they tasked Greg with finding local talent to record. Who was the first person on his list? Suzanne Filion.

Suzanne was never known for writing original songs, but Greg was. So with that in mind, four of the ten tracks that were rehearsed and recorded for Suzanne's album were songs written by Greg (“Weather (later popularized by Gloria Kaye),” “Shendah,” “You Try,” and “Island”). Notably, "You Try" is a vocal version of what appears as an instrumental track on the Tuesday's Children later album on Birchmount Records (BM-508). Additionally, Greg's younger brother Fergus contributed a song to the session ("Without You").

The rest of the Suzanne album were cover songs chosen from pop hits of the current era. Suzanne sings “Traces,” “I Love How You Love Me,” “(Do You Know The Way To) San Jose,” “This Girl’s In Love,” and “Anyone Who Had A Heart” in her own distinct style. The latter three cover choices are all Burt Bacharach/Hal David compositions. "Burt Bacharach and Hal David were probably my favorite songwriting duo at the time," says Suzanne. "Greg and I chose what were, in our opinion, the duos' three best songs."

The recordings took place at Art Snider's Sound Canada Studios in Toronto over a two-week span, during the summer of 1969. "We recorded the songs late at night as the studio's high demand meant this was the only available time slot," says Suzanne. Greg Hambleton brought in local psych-rockers The Magic Cycle (soon to be Cycle) to record the bed tracks for drums (Kevin Barry; brother of Paul Clinch), guitar (Stan Theriault & Paul Clinch), piano/organ (Peter Goodale), and bass (Joey Rome). It’s unknown who plays trombone on Fergus Hambleton’s “Without You,” but a likely guess is Larry Crawford.

Greg used the band that backed Suzanne to record a number of other projects he did for Birchmount, including Candy Rock Fountain, Tuesday’s Children, and The Sultan Street Nine (which I suspect Greg sang uncredited on). He later used some of the same musicians as session players when he started his own record label. Sessions include Fergus Hambleton, Gary & Dave, etc.

With the songs recorded, the album was ready for release. During September 1969, the announcement came down in RPM's weekly magazine and a few other music publications that Quality Records was launching their new label, "Birchmount Records." Suzanne's album (simply called "Suzanne") was released simultaneously with twenty-one other Birchmount releases before October. The Suzanne album bears the “BM-501” catalog number and was the first album released by the label, receiving minor local buzz due to its inclusion in the initial announcement of Birchmount’s founding in RPM and other publications. The album was released locally and stayed that way. Unfortunately, it was the first in a long line of causalities on the label. As a budget label, Birchmount did minimal promotion for its albums, making it very hard for any of these artists to get picked up or receive airplay.

Shortly after Suzanne’s album was released, she gave copies to friends and family as Christmas gifts. Suzanne soon noticed that she gave away all the copies she owned. Upon the realization of her mistake, Suzanne went to Sam The Record Man on Yonge Street to buy a copy. “The look on the salesman’s face was priceless when he realized I was the gal on the back cover who had to buy her own album. I had to eat crow that day,” says Suzanne.

After the album debacle was over, Suzanne retired from music all together. She quit working at The Riverboat in 1972. Afterwards, she worked at the infamous Julies on Jarvis Street in the Bombay Bicycle Club for seven years as a bartender and waitress. She stayed in the city as a legal assistant until around 1980. "By that point, I had had my fill of Toronto and was looking for something new," says Suzanne. She relocated to British Columbia during 1980-1981, where she got a job working in the office of the B.C. Attorney General. She remained there until her retirement, which she is currently enjoying in the golden British Columbia sun.

With that, you have the definitive "closing of the book" moment on one of Canadian pop/psych music's early cult figures. Recorded during summer midnight slots in the nook of one of Toronto's busiest recording studios, Suzanne and Greg Hambleton were able to cook up something special—a Bubble-Gum-Psych-tinged snapshot into the beginnings of one of Canada's most frustrating (but vital) music labels. The Suzanne album has found fans all over Canada, the United States, and spots in Europe. Wherever there are budget bins and music buyers willing to take a chance on an intriguing cover, that's where Suzanne and many artists like her can find their niche.

THANK YOU TO SUZANNE AND GREG HAMBLETON FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS
-Aaron Lusch
AaronLusch@hotmail.com