Gerry Taylor was born in Jordon Mountain , New Brunswick on July 19, 1933 . He became interested in country music after hearing Wilf Carter on radio in the mid-thirties and being surrounded by his musical neighbors who would play often at his house along with his mother who was a popular singer in the neighborhood.
He became a regular concert goer in the late forties and started collecting 78rpm's and later lps in the mid-fifties. He became known to record representatives through this hobby and became recognized as something of an authority concert organizers checked with as to which performers to book for the area.
In the sixties Gerry became involved in the promotion of Lily Lake Jamborees in Saint John and wrote the first stories on the local country scene to appear in the Evening Times Globe. Later he helped with the promotion of Saint John's first Country music night spot, Club XL.
In 1975, he was involved with the forming of a Saint John Folk Club and later in an affiliation of it with the active New England folk scene.
He began writing stories on Canadian music personalities for magazines and in the late seventies began a regular column called Folk and Country World in a special Rural Life Journal feature section of the Saint John dailies. Shortly after he began a Sunday night CFBC-FM radio show called Fundy Folk Night which lasted four more years.
In 1981 h e did a column and radio show about the bluegrass band Ladies Choice and how they would be breaking up if they didn't get an ATV contract. The response along with the efforts of an ATV director helped to put the TV show Up Home Tonight on the air.
Two years afterwards he worked with director Barry Bramhill in shooting the pilot shows for a new weekly ASN feature, New Faces. He is still one of their NB contacts and yearly takes down guests to the show.
During the last years of Stacy's Jamboree over Bangor television, Gerry acted as an audition person for the show. He also acted as judge and announcer on various shows.
He has traveled extensively with local Saint John performers and recently did the first Atlantic Airways CBC Radio Show recorded in Saint John.
He has also served as a judge at both the Maritime Open Country Singing Contest and dozens of fiddle and amateur contests.
Bill Canam has been a resident of Stickney since the age of five. At 18 he picked up his first guitar. Without a lesson he taught himself to chord on the Dobro.
In 1940 he won first prize in Kidd Baker's talent show. But it was when he joined the CPR in 1950, that his musical career began to develop a new course. Her began to compose his own lyrics.
Out of this era came his songs The CPR Hotel, My St. John Valley Home, The Foggy Morning Special, Tobique Railroaders, The Sweetheart Who Never Returned, and many more.
In the 1960's Bill went on CJCJ Radio's Open House. His fame continued to spread in an interview with Don Herron on CBC Radio's Morning Side Show, also in 1976.
Since then he has had the opportunity to compose the music for Carle Rigby's song, Let's Sing About New Brunswick.
When Bill isn't off to a jamboree, a benefit-fundraiser, an anniversary or birthday party to entertain, you can probably find him out in his Ponderosa strumming along with his buddies.
After 50 years of entertaining, and 40 of his own songs, Bill has recorded his first release, The Singing Trackman.
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