Trailblazing lesbian folk singer-songwriter Ferron plays the Shadbolt, February 10

Praised by the likes of Rolling Stone and the New York Times, the B.C. artist is still going strong after more than five decades in music

By Gail johnson

Ferron.

Shadbolt Centre for the Arts presents Ferron on February 10 at 8pm

FERRON HAS BEEN called “the Johnny Cash of lesbian folk-singing”. The artist born Debbie Foisy made her public debut in Vancouver in 1975 at a benefit for the Women's Press Gang. A champion of the women’s movement, the singer-songwriter-guitarist went on to influence artists like Ani Di Franco, Mary Gauthier, and the Indigo Girls, who call her their primary inspiration.

Born in Toronto of Cree, Ojibwa, and French Canadian ancestry, Ferron was raised in Richmond B.C. and left home at 15. Now based on Saturna Island, she’ll be performing with Chris Nordquist, Darryl Havers, and Jami Sieber in concert at the Shadbolt on February 10.

Ferron’s vast discography includes Testimony (1980), Shadows On a Dime (1984), Phantom Center (1990), Not a Still Life (1992), Resting with the Question (1992),  Turning Into Beautiful (2005), and Girl on a Road (2011). Her 1994 album Driver earned a Juno  nomination for Best Roots and Traditional Album and was also included top 10 lists of albums of the year by the New York Times and the Boston Globe. In 1996, Ferron received an Outmusic Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Gay and Lesbian American Music Awards.

Rolling Stone has described her music this way: “Ferron writes of love with the relentless introspection of Leonard Cohen, and, as with classic Bob Dylan, her songs’ tough, questioning attitude sometimes gives way to the unexpected.”

“Politics, both sexual and environmental, are a palpable undercurrent in Ferron's songs, but they are much less significant than her distinctly personal voice,” The New York Times once wrote of Ferron. “She is a good-hearted seeker digging deep to come up with a messy but authentic poetry of spiritual struggle.”

For more information, see here.  

Ferron.

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