Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award Explained

The Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award is an annual Canadian award, presented to the year's best song by an emerging singer-songwriter from Ontario in the genres of roots, traditional, folk and country music.^[1] The award, created in memory of Canadian country singer Colleen Peterson, is sponsored by the Ontario Arts Council and the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals (OCFF), and is presented to a songwriter selected from 15 nominations put forward by the OCFF's Songs from the Heart songwriting competition,^[2] excluding overall winners of the Galaxie Rising Stars Awards. The award was initially funded in part by royalties from the sale of Postcards from California, a posthumous album collecting some of Peterson's unreleased demo recordings.^[3]

The award was presented for the first time in 2003.

Winners

• 2003 – Evalyn Parry, "The Stone and the Bumblebee"^[4]
• 2004 – David Gillis, "A Mouse's Crumb"^[5]
• 2005 – Lori Cullen and Brian MacMillan, "Away So Long"
• 2006 – Andy Sheppard, "Until Next Time"^[6]
• 2007 – Brooke Miller, "Two Soldiers"^[7]
• 2008 – Chris MacLean, "Feet Be Still"
• 2009 – Kyrie Kristmanson, "Song X"^[8]
• 2010 – Lynne Hanson, "Rest of My Days"^[9]
• 2011 – Alise Marlane, "L'aurore boréale"
• 2012 – Ariana Gillis, "Dream Street"^[10]
• 2013 – Leila Goldberger, "Sisters"^[11]
• 2014 – Ken Yates, "The One That Got Away"^[12]
• 2015 – Graydon James, "Couldn't Be Any Worse"^[13]
• 2016 – Abigail Lapell, "Jordan"^[14]
• 2017 – Noosa Al-Sarraj, "Pincushion Soldier"^[15]
• 2018 – Lora Bidner, "3,000 Volts"^[16]
• 2019 - Suzanne Jarvie, "All in Place"
• 2020 - Danielle Knibbe, "Footnote"
• 2021 - Julie Title, "Ghost"
• 2022 - Camie, "Winter"

Ariana Gillis, the winner of the award in 2012, is the daughter of 2004 winner David Gillis.^[10]

External links

• Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award

Notes and References

1. "Performers band together in name of Colleen Peterson". Toronto Star, October 3, 2002.
2. "Folk festival accepting entries for awards". Waterloo Chronicle, May 7, 2008.
3. "Music of Canadian country legend found and released years after her death". Lindsay This Week, October 5, 2004.
4. "First Peterson songwriting award to evalyn parry". Peterborough Examiner, October 10, 2003.
5. "Peterson Award goes to Vineland musician". Peterborough Examiner, October 21, 2004.
6. "Night of the guitar returns". Cowichan News Leader, February 13, 2008.
7. "Roots welcomes Wilson to the stage". Vernon Morning Star, September 26, 2008.
8. "Ottawa singer wins songwriting award". Ottawa Citizen, October 17, 2009.
9. "Folk artist Lynne Hanson performs at Old Church on Saturday". Quinte EMC, January 19, 2017.
10. "'Music is it for me'". Niagara This Week, October 14, 2012.
11. http://www.metronews.ca/news/ottawa/2013/10/21/local-singer-leila-goldberger-wins-colleen-peterson-songwriting-award.html "Local singer Leila Goldberger wins Colleen Peterson Songwriting award"
12. http://www.arts.on.ca/news-resources/news/toronto-s-ken-yates-receives-2014-colleen-peterson "Toronto's Ken Yates Receives 2014 Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award"
13. "Toronto roots-rock band shakes it up on new album". Times & Transcript, May 2, 2015.
14. https://www.therecord.com/whatson-story/7063297-abigail-lapell-and-the-power-of-melody/ "Abigail Lapell and the power of melody"
15. http://www.fyimusicnews.ca/articles/2017/10/20/music-news-digest-oct-20-2017 "Music News Digest, Oct. 20, 2017"
16. Web site: Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award Laureates. 2016. Ontario Arts Council. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20170203190141/http://www.arts.on.ca/awards/ontario-arts-council-awards/colleen-peterson-songwriting-award/colleen-peterson-songwriting-award-laureates . February 3, 2017 .