Orillia, ON (July 7, 2022) – He’s been hailed as one of Canada’s most culturally conscious songwriters of the 70s’ but Murray McLauchlan’s sympathetic song portraits of ordinary folk have appealed to our social conscience for more than five decades. The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (CSHF) is pleased to announce the Induction of singer-songwriter Murray McLauchlan, composer of more than 35 hit singles including the SOCAN Classics Farmer’s Song, Down by the Henry Moore, and Try Walkin’ Away.
Marking its first in-person songwriter induction ceremony since the pandemic, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame is partnering with Mariposa Folk Festival to recognize McLauchlan on Saturday, July 9 on the Festival’s main stage. Since 2018, the CSHF began partnering with music events and festivals across the country to connect with fans and celebrate the songs and songwriters to their musical roots. McLauchlan will be officially inducted at Mariposa by long-time friend and CSHF Inductee Gordon Lightfoot and honoured with a special tribute performance by Blackie and the Rodeo Kings.
“I am honoured to join my respected friends Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, and so many others in the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame,” says McLauchlan.
The 2022 Mariposa Folk Festival takes place July 8 – 10 in J.D. Tudhope Memorial Park, Orillia ON. Tickets are available at mariposafolk.com.
Murray McLauchlan was born in Scotland, and raised in Toronto ON, where he studied art and began singing in coffeehouses at age 17. He frequented Yorkville’s The Riverboat, a hub for the folk-rock music scene in the 70s where fellow singer-songwriters Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, and other Canadian icons would play – that was also a favourite tour stop for American artists including Simon and Garfunkel, and folksinger Tom Rush. McLauchlan would play his bittersweet compositions Old Man’s Song and Child’s Song on the backsteps of The Riverboat for Tom Rush, who became the first artist to record one of McLauchlan’s insightful songs. Child’s Song was recorded by Tom Rush in 1970; and would later garner McLauchlan three JUNO Awards for Folk Single, Country Single, and Songwriter of the Year.
In 1971, McLauchlan signed with True North Records and recorded his debut album, “Song from the Street,” that reached Top 40 in Canada. His first Top 10 single came from The Farmer’s Song which drew attention to the industrial forces decimating family farms, while earning him his first JUNO Awards for Best Songwriter, Folk Single, and Country Single. His follow up album “Sweeping the Spotlight Away” earned him a JUNO for Best Country Vocalist; and his homage to Toronto, Down by the Henry Moore, became his first No. 1 hit to cross over on both pop and country charts.
McLauchlan’s first gold record came with the 1976 album “Boulevard,” which included the hit single On the Boulevard. Through the 1980s, McLauchlan enjoyed further success with hit singles like Do You Dream of Being Somebody?, Somebody’s Long Lonely Night, Little Dreamer, and Never Did Like That Train. He rounded out the decade with the anthem If the Wind Could Blow My Troubles Away, participation in Tears Are Not Enough, and his JUNO-nominated album “Swingin’ on a Star.”
His most recent endeavors include his 2012 hit albums “Human Writes” and “Love Can’t Tell Time.” and 2021’s Hourglass that has made numerous Top 10 lists in Canada, the U.S. and throughout the world. He was won 11 JUNO Awards throughout his esteemed career and is among the Top 20 most-winning JUNO artists of all time.
McLauchlan’s songwriting, whether in his earlier narrative style or his later impressionistic one, has definite grassroots appeal. And the visual sense he developed while studying art as a youth still inspires his songwriting: “I always try to write visually, to put someone into their context,” he explains.
His love for songwriting and art came together in 2021’s “A Thomson Day”, a tribute to the work of Group of Seven painter Tom Thomson that resulted in a collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Recently, Child’s Song was featured in the hit NBC TV show “This Is Us;” and Widespread Panic recorded a hit rock cover of McLauchlan’s dark ode Honky Red. Others to cover McLauchlan’s work over the decades include Bonnie Dobson, John McDermott, Renée Claude, David Wiffen, George Hamilton IV, Waylon Jennings, Kathy Mattea, David Bromberg, The Ennis Sisters, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, R. Harlan Smith, Walter Ostanek, Bob Neuwirth, 3’s a Crowd, Melanie Safka, and Junkhouse.
Murray McLauchlan will be honoured by the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame at the 2022 Mariposa Folk Festival on Saturday, July 9th.
ABOUT CANADIAN SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME
The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (CSHF) honours and celebrates Canadian songwriters and those who’ve dedicated their lives to the legacy of music; and works to educate the public about these achievements. National and non-profit, the CSHF is guided by its own Board of Directors, who comprise both Anglophone and Francophone music creators and publishers, as well as representation from the record industry. In December of 2011, SOCAN (the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) acquired the CSHF. The Hall of Fame’s mandate aligns with SOCAN’s objectives as a songwriter and publisher membership-based organization. The CSHF continues to be run as a separate organization. www.cshf.ca
ABOUT MARIPOSA FOLK FESTIVAL
The Mariposa Folk Festival was founded in Orillia, Ontario in 1961. Through the decades it has found a way to remain Canada’s most relevant and not-to-be-missed musical gathering. The 2022 Mariposa Folk Festival is set to return to Tudhope Park in Orillia, July 8-10, and the recent lineup announcements of Blue Rodeo and The Strumbellas are added to a remarkable list of performers that includes Mavis Staples, Serena Ryder, Lennon Stella, JP Saxe, Allison Russell, Kathleen Edwards, Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, and many more. The three-day Mariposa Folk Festival features more than ten stages of top folk-roots music, along with presentations of story, dance, and craft. For more information, visit https://mariposafolk.com/
Media Contacts:
Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame Tran Nguyen, Centric PR tran@centricpr.ca c/416-220-4285
Mariposa Folk Festival Pam Carter Mariposa President and Festival Coordinator blueheron5@sympatico.ca c/705-826-1324
