The Hometown Band was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

folk music group. They are best known as the backup band for

Valdy Paul Valdemar Horsdal, (born 1 September 1945), commonly known as Valdy, is a Canadian folk and country musician whose solo career began in the early 1970s. He is known for "Rock and Roll Song", his first mainstream single. Valdy is the winner o ...

History

The Hometown Band was founded in 1975 by

Claire Lawrence Claire Lawrence (born 1939) is a Canadian musician who was a founding member of the Canadian band The Collectors, and remained with the group when it transitioned to Chilliwack in 1970. He performed on keyboards, flute, saxophone, and piano. He ...

, a former member of The Collectors and

Chilliwack Chilliwack ( ) is a city of about 100,000 people and in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is located about east of the City of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley. The enumerated population is 93,203 in the city and 113,767 in the gr ...

, as the back-up group for

folk artist

. The band comprised

Shari Ulrich Sharon "Shari" Ulrich (born 17 October 1951) is a Canadian/American musician and songwriter. She has also worked as a television host, actress, film composer, and educator. A multi-instrumentalist, she plays Violin, Mandolin, guitar, piano, and Du ...

(lead vocals,

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

), Geoff Eyre (drums, vocals), Robbie King (organ,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, keyboard

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

), and

Doug Edwards Douglas Edwards (born January 21, 1971) is an American former professional basketball player who was selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the first round (15th pick overall) of the 1993 NBA draft. Edwards played for the Hawks and Vancouver Grizzli ...

(

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, keyboards, bass). Their first LP ''Flying'' was released in 1976, and produced two hit singles, the title track and "I'm Ready" (both written by the Pied Pumkin's Joe Mock.) In 1977 Eddie Patterson joined the group, and they recorded a second album, titled ''The Hometown Band''. The group toured with Valdy in 1977, and continued to tour in 1978. That year the band won the

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

for " Most Promising Group of the Year", The band's second album failed to produce a radio hit, and the band broke up soon after. Following the band's breakup,

embarked on a successful solo career, as well as playing in several other groups (Ulrich Henderson Forbes; Bentall Taylor Ulrich; The High Bar Gang; The Luckies as well as solo performances. She continues to tour and record. The Hometown Band reunited with Valdy in 2016 for a 40th anniversary tour."Hometown Band deciding whether it will play more shows"
Mike Devlin / ''Times Colonist'', August 4, 2016

Discography

Albums

References

External links

Museum of Canadian Music - Hometown Band
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hometown Band, The Canadian rock music groups Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year winners