Laura Vinson

Laura Vinson is a singer/songwriter born in Edmonton on May 23, 1947 and grew up in Brule Alberta. She is of English/Cree and French Canadian/Cherokee descent. Laura performed around the town of Hinton from 1962 to 1965 where she won the Talent Award in 1964 as solo country performer. She moved to Edmonton to attend St. Joseph’s High School where she continued with her music and taught guitar. In the summer of 1966, she performed at the Jasper Park Lodge where both her parents worked.

Laura continued to perform as a folk/country artist with Bob Ruzicka in the 1960s while attending the University of Alberta. Always loving music, she continued to play and joined a rock band called Bitter Suite. The band performed many gigs in the Edmonton rock scene from 1969 to 1972. It was an exciting time to be part of the music scene in Edmonton.

Laura formed her own group, Red Wyng in 1973 and started recording her own music. The band did country clubs and shows for about 16 years. The longevity of the band was due to the character of its members. Being part of the Royalty Records label helped them get on The Tommy Hunter show, get into festivals, and become a concert headliner. They released several LPs and singles with two going to the top ten on the Canadian radio charts.

Laura Vinson appeared on national TV quite often during this time and received many awards and nominations. She had started writing poetry at the age of 8 and wrote about half of the Red Wyng songs. Red Wyng consisted of Frank Walls on steel and lead guitar, George Hauser on bass, Stuart MacDougall on keyboards and Tim Lent on drums.

One of the highlights of Laura’s career was opening for June Carter and Johnny Cash in 1981 at the Devil’s Lake Corral near Onoway, Alberta.

Vinson’s best-known song ‘Sweet Mountain Music’ was a hit in 1979. The most popular of her other singles have been “Sun Always Shines” (1978), “Mes amis O Canada” (1979), “Crazy Heart” (1981) and “In My Dreams”

(1989). Laura has composed music for several Access TV Alberta films about native arts. Her songs have also been recorded by Glory-Anne Carriere, Danny Hooper, Greg Paul and Tommy Rogers.

From 1977 to 1986 she completed seven LPs for Royalty Records; First Flight, High Fashion Queen, Hooch Heartache and Hallelujah, Adios Mexico, The Spirit Sings, If You Don’t Play the Game, and Back to the Rockies, and a cassette entitled The Spirit Sings in 1989.

In 1991, Laura Vinson, and brothers Dave and Paul Martineau, formed the new band Free Spirit. This marked the moment when Laura decided to leave the country music scene behind her and dedicate her music to her Native American and Métis roots. It was very important for Laura to sing and write about her heritage. Laura sees herself as a lyricist and finds it much easier to do than the melodies. This was left up to Dave and Paul Martineau and Fred LaRose who was also a key part of Free Spirit.

Besides Dave and Paul Martineau, the first members of the Free Spirit Band consisted of Charlotte Wiebe on piano and Farley Scott on bass. Because neither Charlotte nor Farley

could combine their own careers with the intensive tours, they decided to leave the band. The band was completed again with two unique musicians who both had their own career, the multi-instrumentalist Maria Dunn and a little later bass and Chapman Stick player Dale Ladouceur. Laura also had another project called Vigilante with Dave Martineau and Dale Ladouceaur.

In her songs, Laura lets you feel the roots of her aboriginal background. They tell of the life of North America’s First Peoples and their traditions. The roots of her aboriginal background are told in her songs which tell about the life of the North American Indians and their traditions. “Louisiana Purchase” is a true story about her Cherokee great-grandmother who was purchased by her American husband for just a “good horse and some blankets.”

Laura is very proud of her song “Petit Maria” which is about a missing aboriginal woman. She feels good about being able to educate people about aboriginal history, their conditions and situations in a way that is educational and not offensive or preaching.

In addition to performing for festivals and aboriginal celebrations, she toured internationally with her theatre production of “The Spirit Sings.”

The Free Spirit Band released six CDs and a DVD as well as videos that have received national airplay.

Laura Vinson and Free Spirit received many awards from The Alberta Recording Industry Association (ARIA) as well as national nominations in the Canadian Folk Music Awards. The group composed film scores and was nominated three years in a row at the Alberta Media Production Industries Association (AMPIA) awards.

To be in the audience at a Laura Vinson and Free Spirit concert is to experience what it was like to be part of the spiritual and tribal rituals of a time which is regrettably long past. One feels the ancestral spirits especially when the Native dancers make their proud and mysterious entrances. Their dazzling outfits, dances, songs and drumming come from centuries of spirituality and tradition, with Laura’s songs and the band’s music and the ancient rhythms and melodies from the First Nations performers evokes a feeling of the past and present merging.

In 1996, Laura Vinson created a theater show around her highly successful album Voices on the Wind, an album for which she has received several ARIA awards.

The singer-songwriter is also well known by North American audiences through her radio show “First Voices” and her many performances across the continent. She has appeared at major festivals like Merit Mountain, Big Valley, Dream Speakers, Edmonton Folk Music Festival, Wabanaki in the Maritimes, The Pre-Olympic Festival of the Dreaming in Australia in 1997, and Sokcho Expo in Korea. She has made several appearances in Europe as a headliner in The Canadian All Star Show which toured Scandinavia, Belgium, Scotland, England and the Netherlands. Return engagements in 1997 brought her to festivals in Denmark and the Netherlands. The predominant newspaper in Denmark, Jyflands Posten was so enthusiastic about her presentation, they gave her front-page coverage and another sighted her act as the best of the three-day festival.

AWARDS

• Lifetime Achievement Award 2005 (Women of Alberta Country Music) Esquao Award 2003 (Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women)

• The Queens Golden Jubilee Medal 2002

• Alberta Recording Industry Awards

• Top Female Artist, Best Film Score 1989

• Top Female Artist 1990 & 1993

• Album of the Year, Best Roots/Traditional/Ethnic Artist on Record 1993

• Best Roots/ Folk Artist & Single of the Year 1995

• Song of the Year 1996

• Music Score of the Year 1997

• Best Roots/Folk Artist 1999

• Prairie Music Awards - Best Aboriginal Recording 1999

• Performing Rights Organization of Canada - Song Writing Award

• Alberta Motion Picture Award - Best Film Score

• Alberta Achievement Award – Music

• CMAC Awards - Top Female Artist & Duet of the Year

• Spanish Music Awards - Duet of the Year

NOMINATIONS

• Aboriginal Song Writer, Canadian Folk Music Awards 2006

• The Canadian Aboriginal Achievement Awards - Best Folk/Roots Artist 1999

• JUNO Awards - Most Promising Female Artist, Top Country Female Vocalist

• CMA Awards - Top Country Group ACME Awards - Top Female Vocalist & Top Country Album

• Big Country Awards - Top Female Vocalist, Top Country Single, Top Song Writer

TELEVISION

• CBC - Native Voices 1997, Country Beat, Tommy Hunter Show,

• Disney World Special (with Celine Dion), The Ronnie Hawkins Show

• CTV - Sun Country, Christmas Moods (with Michelle Wright), Indian Time (with Buffy Sainte Marie)

• The Nashville Network CMT Videos- Daughters of the Dawn, Roots That Go Deep, Let Go