Nancy White
Encyclopedia
Nancy White is a Canadian
singer-songwriter, whose topical songs were a regular feature on CBC Radio from 1976 to 1994 on the public affairs show Sunday Morning
. White's most famous songs include Leonard Cohen's Never Gonna Bring My Groceries In, Stickers on Fruit, Piping them Home, Jesus at Tim's, Moose on the Highway, River Mend My Heart, Love in Wartime, Daughters of Feminists, No More Multitasking, Un Peu Cochon, and Someone Handed Me the Moon.
and Anne of the Island
. The show premiered at the Victoria Playhouse in Victoria, Prince Edward Island
in the summer 2005, and has been produced at the Jubilee Theatre in Summerside for three summers, and in Gananoque
, Ontario
at the Thousand Islands Playhouse in 2007. In 2008, the Playhouse again produced the show, but at The Grand in Kingston, then toured it around Ontario. It has had amateur productions in Lethbridge
, Alberta
, Ottawa, Gretna, Manitoba, and Palmerston,Ontario. Anne and Gilbert returns to Summerside for the 2009 summer season.
She has done some translating from Spanish to English - notably Gracias a la Vida and Volver a los 17, by the Chilean composer Violeta Parra
, and sang occasionally with the Toronto Latin-Greek band Compañeros in the late 1970s.
Probably her most loved CD is Momnipotent:Songs for Weary Parents, a collection of songs about the challenges of motherhood - produced in 1990 after the birth of her second child. This CD, though mainly a comedy album, has proven to be therapeutic, and is still a popular gift for new mothers.
Nancy White has played at countless folk festivals across Canada and did a series of symphony pops concerts in the 1980s. Stephen Pedersen of the Halifax Mail Star once described her live show as "a carnival ride through life's little perversities". She toured with Roger James and Wendell Ferguson as "The Three-Headed Trio", and occasionally sings with James in "Peculiar Behaviours". She considers herself more a cabaret singer than a folk singer (although she's really both, and plays banjo and guitar), and has worked in shows like Hey Seester, You Want My Sailor with Gay Claitman, and It's a Guy Thing with Erika Ritter and Linda Griffiths. Her one-woman show The Last Virgin on the Planet, at the Blue Angel in Toronto, was widely praised.
Since the mid-80s she has performed mainly as a duo with the witty piano player Bob Johnston, who has co-written several other Broadway shows as well as Anne and Gilbert.
She was formerly married to the composer and keyboardist Doug Wilde. Their daughters, Suzy and Maddy Wilde, are also singers, Suzy in the glamfolk band StoneFox, and in Flashlight Radio (with Ben Whitely) and Maddy in the indie rock
band Spiral Beach
.
White was born in PEI, educated in Halifax, and lived in Toronto. She has a BA in English from Dalhousie University
.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
singer-songwriter, whose topical songs were a regular feature on CBC Radio from 1976 to 1994 on the public affairs show Sunday Morning
Sunday Morning (radio program)
Sunday Morning was a Canadian radio news and information program, which aired on CBC Radio One. The magazine style program was one of the highest budget shows on CBC Radio and featured documentaries, interviews, round table discussions, book reviews, arts reports, puzzles and various features...
. White's most famous songs include Leonard Cohen's Never Gonna Bring My Groceries In, Stickers on Fruit, Piping them Home, Jesus at Tim's, Moose on the Highway, River Mend My Heart, Love in Wartime, Daughters of Feminists, No More Multitasking, Un Peu Cochon, and Someone Handed Me the Moon.
Career
She is one of the writers (with Bob Johnston and Jeff Hochhauser) of the musical Anne & Gilbert, based on the Lucy Maud Montgomery books Anne of AvonleaAnne of Avonlea
-Plot introduction:Following Anne of Green Gables , the book covers the second chapter in the life of Anne Shirley. This book follows Anne from the age of 16 to 18, during the two years that she teaches at Avonlea school. It includes many of the characters from Anne of Green Gables, as well as new...
and Anne of the Island
Anne of the Island
Anne of the Island is a the third book in the Anne of Green Gables series, written by Lucy Maud Montgomery about Anne Shirley.Anne of the Island was published in 1915, seven years after the bestselling Anne of Green Gables...
. The show premiered at the Victoria Playhouse in Victoria, Prince Edward Island
Victoria, Prince Edward Island
Victoria is a Canadian village located in central Prince Edward Island.A historic seaport, the community is situated at the extreme southwestern edge of Queens County in the township of Lot 29....
in the summer 2005, and has been produced at the Jubilee Theatre in Summerside for three summers, and in Gananoque
Gananoque, Ontario
Gananoque is a town in Leeds and Grenville County, Ontario, Canada. The town had a population of 5,287 year-round residents in the Canada 2006 Census, as well as summer residents sometimes referred to as "Islanders" because of the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River, Gananoque's most...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
at the Thousand Islands Playhouse in 2007. In 2008, the Playhouse again produced the show, but at The Grand in Kingston, then toured it around Ontario. It has had amateur productions in Lethbridge
Lethbridge
Lethbridge is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada, and the largest city in southern Alberta. It is Alberta's fourth-largest city by population after Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer, and the third-largest by area after Calgary and Edmonton. The nearby Canadian Rockies contribute to the city's...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Ottawa, Gretna, Manitoba, and Palmerston,Ontario. Anne and Gilbert returns to Summerside for the 2009 summer season.
She has done some translating from Spanish to English - notably Gracias a la Vida and Volver a los 17, by the Chilean composer Violeta Parra
Violeta Parra
Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval was a notable Chilean composer, songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist...
, and sang occasionally with the Toronto Latin-Greek band Compañeros in the late 1970s.
Probably her most loved CD is Momnipotent:Songs for Weary Parents, a collection of songs about the challenges of motherhood - produced in 1990 after the birth of her second child. This CD, though mainly a comedy album, has proven to be therapeutic, and is still a popular gift for new mothers.
Nancy White has played at countless folk festivals across Canada and did a series of symphony pops concerts in the 1980s. Stephen Pedersen of the Halifax Mail Star once described her live show as "a carnival ride through life's little perversities". She toured with Roger James and Wendell Ferguson as "The Three-Headed Trio", and occasionally sings with James in "Peculiar Behaviours". She considers herself more a cabaret singer than a folk singer (although she's really both, and plays banjo and guitar), and has worked in shows like Hey Seester, You Want My Sailor with Gay Claitman, and It's a Guy Thing with Erika Ritter and Linda Griffiths. Her one-woman show The Last Virgin on the Planet, at the Blue Angel in Toronto, was widely praised.
Since the mid-80s she has performed mainly as a duo with the witty piano player Bob Johnston, who has co-written several other Broadway shows as well as Anne and Gilbert.
She was formerly married to the composer and keyboardist Doug Wilde. Their daughters, Suzy and Maddy Wilde, are also singers, Suzy in the glamfolk band StoneFox, and in Flashlight Radio (with Ben Whitely) and Maddy in the indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band Spiral Beach
Spiral Beach
Spiral Beach was a Canadian indie rock band, based in Toronto, Ontario, active from 2003 to 2009. The group consisted of vocalist and guitarist Airick Woodhead, vocalist and keyboardist Maddy Wilde, bassist Dorian Wolf and drummer Daniel Woodhead.-History:...
.
White was born in PEI, educated in Halifax, and lived in Toronto. She has a BA in English from Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University is a public research university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university comprises eleven faculties including Schulich School of Law and Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine. It also includes the faculties of architecture, planning and engineering located at...
.
Albums
- Civil Service Songwriter
- Sort of Political
- What Should I Wear to the Revolution (1982)
- Unexpected (1983)
- The Sunday MorningSunday Morning (radio program)Sunday Morning was a Canadian radio news and information program, which aired on CBC Radio One. The magazine style program was one of the highest budget shows on CBC Radio and featured documentaries, interviews, round table discussions, book reviews, arts reports, puzzles and various features...
Tapes (1984) - Unimpeachable (1987)
- Bimbolandia (1988)
- Momnipotent: Songs for Weary Parents (1990, Mouton)
- Pumping Irony (1993, CBC/Mouton)
- Homely for the Holidays (1994)
- Songs of the Spanish Civil War (1994)
- Gaelic Envy and Other Torch Songs (1998, Borealis)
- Unexpected (CD re-release 2001, Borealis)
- Stickers on Fruit (2002, Borealis)
Compilations
- Canoesongs, Volume One
- Canoesongs, Volume Two
- The World's Greatest Hockey Hits, Volume One