N.B. chanteuse elated with stamp honour
Published Thursday May 8th, 2008
Canada Post to issue stamp with folk singer Edith Butler
By MARC HUDON
Times & Transcript Staff
OTTAWA - A New Brunswick chanteuse who will be immortalized with a stamp by Canada Post next summer says the honour might rekindle her passion for a long-forgotten hobby.
Edith Butler
Edith Butler said her grandmother once kept a spectacular philatelic collection, including rare finds from the Victorian era in an attic at the family home in Paquetville.
Butler was handed the collection when she was a kid and continued to build on it until she was 30 years old.
"Then I stopped," she said. "But when I see a stamp, I'm always fascinated. Stamps taught me about geography, history and politics."
And now, said Butler, stamps might teach a generation of new collectors about rock n' roll and Acadian music.
The folk music songbird, along with fellow New Brunswicker Stompin' Tom Connors, rock legend Bryan Adams and Quebec singer Robert Charlebois will be featured as part of Canada Post's Canadian Recording Artists stamp series.
The stamps are scheduled to be released in June 2009.
"When I heard I'd be on a stamp, I thought, 'Maybe in 100 years kids in my family will be looking at the stamp and say that woman was my great-great-great aunt," she said with a laugh. "I'm really happy. It's a beautiful day."
Butler has spent the past eight years writing and playing music while tending her acreage near Magog, Que.
She said she found out about the stamp yesterday when she opened an e-mail from the Times & Transcript.
Butler said her career took off while studying in Moncton during the 1960s where she soon became a regular on French radio airwaves and CBC's Singalong Jubilee.
She still takes to the stage regularly throughout Quebec and is scheduled to perform in Bouctouche on her birthday on July 27.
Butler said performing has become a joy because after 60 years of singing and writing songs, she's finally managed to master her art.
"It's so much fun because I have nothing to prove," she said. "I just walk on stage and people are already smiling and clapping their hands. I just do my art and if some money comes with it, that's fine."
This is the second time Canada Post is scheduled to release stamps sporting the mugs of famous Canadian musician.
Joni Mitchell, Paul Anka, Anne Murray and
Gordon Lightfoot were bestowed the honour in 2007.
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.co...article/290047