Liona Boyd
 

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/10...ith-a-tribute/

In Liona Boyd’s Toronto apartment, five Juno Awards spanning three decades sit atop a table of stickered guitar cases. The stickers — flags or crests of cities and countries — read like pushpins on a map: Morocco, Belgium, Venezuela, Copenhagen and New Zealand.

“Every one of those stickers is a story,” says the 64-year-old Canadian icon of the classical guitar, whose new album, The Return… to Canada with Love, finds her sticking a pin on Toronto again.

Boyd enjoys telling the stories of her life so far. And so she does, dropping names of Canadiana and musical legend with ease.

I guess I must have gypsy blood or something.

She was an eight-year companion to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau: “He wanted me to live with him in Montreal and have his daughter,” she recalls. A Beverly Hills neighbour to Ozzy Osbourne: “We had some good times; lots of parties.” And a long-time pen pal to Prince Philip: “In fact, I just got a letter from him two days ago.”

She has “lived through hurricanes and storms and gone all over the world,” she says. “I guess I must have gypsy blood or something.”

But Boyd is back. The Canadian legend is living in Toronto again (a “funny time warp,” she calls it) as she releases her new album, aptly-titled The Return… to Canada with Love, an ode to the True North.

Born to British parents in London, England, Boyd came to Canada at age 8, and spent most of her early life in Toronto. Renown in the classical guitar world took her around the globe. She debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1975 and has since been known as “the First Lady of the Guitar.”

Boyd is credited with bringing the classical guitar into the mainstream. She appeared on the Tonight Show three times, toured with Gordon Lightfoot and Tracy Chapman, and recorded with the likes of Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour.

Though she spent much of the last 20 years married in the U.S., Boyd is back in Toronto (for good, she says), and single again. She’s focusing the music on her homeland now. The Return is part tribute, part autobiography of her homecoming. It’s a record that epitomizes the ideal of “Canadian Content.”

“Why don’t we in music celebrate Canada?” asks Boyd, who called on many Canuck artists for the album. “I was kind of shocked, amongst even the great classical composers, there’s hardly anything. Nobody’s done a symphony for the Rockies, or a concerto for Lake Superior. Oscar Peterson did the Canadiana Suite, Gordon Lightfoot did the Railroad Trilogy, and Stompin’ Tom did his hockey song, but other than that, there’s nothing.”

Then Boyd’s album certainly fills a void.

Over its 15 tracks, The Return features tributes to Canadian artists and landscapes. Emily Carr is an ode to the Vancouver Island artist who “wanted to paint it all,” as Boyd sings.

Olivia Newton-John lends her voice to Canadian Summer Dreams, a love song to the “cottages and lakes and streams” of cottage country.

“There’s a negative connotation to a lot of that stuff,” says producer Peter Bond of Canadian-themed music. “But this album is not cutesy.” He notes the complex sounds of Silver Birch, a dedication to the Group of Seven.

The credits on Canada My Canada name-drop Canadian talent like only a Liona Boyd song could. The anthemic album closer features Jann Arden, Serena Ryder, Divine Brown, and Randy Bachman of The Guess Who. Even space crooner Chris Hadfield and Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean make appearances.

A lesser known name on the track is Toronto classical guitarist Michael Savona, a key player on much of The Return. A long-time fan, Savona now tours with Boyd and says he’s learned much from collaborating with the Canadian guitar legend.

“It’s like a window into the past of all the great guitarists that she’s worked with,” he says.

Boyd’s Toronto apartment is a window into her past, too. Walls and counter tops are adorned with memories, the least of which are her many gold and platinum albums. Instead, it’s a photograph of her parents, a portrait of Prince Philip, a candid shot with Antonio Banderas, and a framed coil of guitar strings from classical legend Andres Segovia, that excite Boyd the most.

She’s had a amazing life. But something is missing, she’ll admit.

In a new track on The Return, Boyd sings, “Who would have thought that by this time, I’d be living my life alone?” She continues, “I was that girl who was loved and adored, so is this now my karmic reward?”

It’s a heartbreaking, revelatory moment in the middle of a patriotic love letter.

“I would love to find a soul mate, a companion,” she says. “Somebody who loves classical music. Who would put up with my career. Because my career is my gift to the world. I don’t want to give that up.”

For now, playing music in Canada again is Boyd’s comfort.

“I have roots here, and I think that’s important. It feels like home.”

See LionaBoyd.com for fall and winter tour dates

Re: Liona Boyd
 

Sigh........

yes, and to think that I was........that far from asking her out for a luncheon date one time long ago.

It was the Canada Postage Stamp thread that Char put up that prompted me to write this.

Being a postal worker had it's share of benefits outside the workplace for me in the fact that I got to meet lots of pretty cool folks and Leona was one.

She called the post office where I worked one day looking for an important manuscript that she urgently needed for an upcoming concert and I delivered the goods to her....personally.

Yes, another "Lightheaded" encounter.

I rode there to her house in Scarborough on my bicycle, manuscript in hand together with her "Miniatures" album which she was more than happy to autograph for me and also presented me with a beautiful black and white pic of her with her signature as well.

She greeted me at the door, commented that she loves to ride her bicycle also and invited me inside when I asked if she would autograph her album for me.

She was very sweet.

I was overly excited and said I should remove my shoes but she said that it was ok as she was housecleaning anyway and my shoes looked clean.

Having long fingernails is always a dead giveaway for guitar players and Leona took note and the conversation began.

I can't remember exactly how long I was there chatting with her but it seemed like an eternity that went in a split second and we covered a lot of territory.

The big highlight of the conversation was when I told her I attended the concert Gord put on in support of the Olympic Athletes in the early 80's and how well she did after having to follow an act like Harry Chapin. He had the whole audience in Maple Leaf Stadium up on all fours at the end of his gig.

I said, "Leona, what better an act could anyone put up there to follow a guy like Harry Chapin but a beautiful well known female classical guitarist such as yourself?"

At that point her phone started ringing; she wanted to keep talking; but paranoia stage one had kicked in for this dude and you might say I was becoming overwhelmed and getting real "clammy" (Nfld. for perspiring).

I said "your phone is ringing, I really must go." (but not before giving her my phone number in case she needed more manuscripts delivered).

Her house at the time was on Fallingbrook Crescent which was at the bottom of a very steep hill in the Beaches area of Toronto.

Well, I tell ya; even though I was riding a bicycle I went up that slope like a "bat out of hell." Nervous energy kicked in big time!

But anyway, thinking back on the luncheon date idea; I know it'd never be arranged. Just too far off the radar.

She eventually sold her home and moved to the United States and got married.

Sigh........

Re: Liona Boyd
 

don't forget her time with Trudeau! lol...

Re: Liona Boyd
 

Wonderful reflection, Ron. You should compile a book which includes many of he poetic story tellings you've already given us here. Love em

I was at many musical sessions with colleagues on Fallingbrook and one or two streets over on Blantyre, always south of Kingston Rd and a bit up the big hill from Queen. Tough on a 3 speed bicycle. Never knew she was three. A very early LP i received one Xmas was hers. A Guitar for Christmas

A bit (more) off topic, once did video a short walk from Fallingbrook at that old Waterworks grounds. That place fascinated me for decades. Often blind drunk

Re: Liona Boyd
 

Pierre was probably the sex and drugs. Gord the rock & roll

dear Ron could have been the complete package for her. (J/k)

Re: Liona Boyd
 

What though the radiance that was once so bright,
Be now forever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour,
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find strength,
In what remains behind.

Sigh..........

Re: Liona Boyd
 

http://www.thestar.com/life/health_w...eir_peril.html

By: Ian Harvey Special to the Star, Published on Tue Mar 04 2014

The last thing Canada’s First Lady of the Guitar Liona Boyd expected was to hurt herself by practicing too much.
“My middle finger on my right hand just wouldn’t behave,” recalls the world-acclaimed classical guitarist.
The symptoms started about a decade ago and it took three years to get a diagnosis of focal dystonia, a neurological condition in which the signals from the brain are distorted and corrupted en route and triggered by repetition of fine movements over time.
“It was like a knife through my heart,” said Boyd who has just released her 24th album, The Return … To Canada with Love, after retraining her muscles over six years to play again, and now tours with guitarist Michael Savona. “The guitar and playing was everything to me.”

Unlike arthritis, focal dystonia is not a disease, it’s a condition and differs in that there’s no physical damage as there is in carpal tunnel syndrome.
“The fact is I practised too much,” she sighs. “I would practise scales for hours, even just watching TV, putting a tissue under the strings to mute the sound. In a way, though, it’s been good. I now write songs and sing, which I never thought I could do.”

We don’t generally think of musicians as suffering career-ending injuries from their art, said John Chong, medical director of the Musicians’ Clinics of Canada, which operates facilities in Toronto and Hamilton, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of occupational injuries suffered by musicians and performers.

But it’s all too common, said Chong, also president of the U.S.-based Performing Arts Medicine Association, and musicians are probably their own worst enemies.
“It’s don’t ask, don’t tell,” he said. “By the time they come to see us, they’re usually in big trouble.”
Hearing impairment, for example, is a serious issue but few players will admit losing the fine pitch sensitivity so critical to their career. It’s the physical injuries, however, that are mostly avoidable. Wrist, elbow or shoulder strains in string players, back and wrist issues with pianists are commonplace.

Legendary Genesis drummer and singer Phil Collins was forced into hiatus after admitting to hearing loss, dislocated vertebra and nerve damage in his hands, which prevents him gripping drumsticks. Shania Twain thought she’d never sing again when dysphonia caused her vocal cords to spasm, triggered by the stress of her 2008 marriage breakup.

Most tragic is Glenn Gould, the legendary Canadian pianist who stopped playing and withdrawn from public life because he was stricken with undiagnosed focal dystonia.
Chong sees artists with a range of medical issues — some, like cancer or MS aren’t related to their careers — but it’s the physical injuries which are most prevalent, especially among dancers as one might expect. More ominously, there’s also the higher risk of substance abuse among artists.
Like most artists, musicians are so focused on the next performance they ignore the pain warning of trouble.

“We’re now working on raising the awareness with young musicians,” he said. “We talk with them and use bio feedback techniques to help them to relax and deal with stress.”
Prevention is better than cure and students are counselled about posture, encouraged to stretch and take a break.

“They’re putting in 70 or 80 hours a week or more practising,” said Chong adding, like everyone else they should exercise and watch their diets. “The benefit of exercise is not just aerobic, it helps with stress and mood and cleans the crap out of your body. The likelihood of an orchestral player presenting with pain or muscle-skeletal injury affecting their playing over their lifetime is 84 per cent.”

Beating those odds is the difference between the “masters and disasters” as Chong describes them and lies in the way musicians approach their work.
Those who manage their stress, eat properly and stay physically active away from the rehearsal studio and stage go on to long careers.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney is a case in point. At 71, he’s still performing at the highest level and Chong puts it down to his diet — McCartney is a hardline vegetarian — and outlook.
“His work is all about love and he really believes it,” Chong said.

Re: Liona Boyd
 

For "Lighthead2toe": I bet if you had asked her out to lunch, she would have gone. You can't look back with regrets now, but always shoot for the stars. It's the only way one can ever reach the moon.