The Hometown Band was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) 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 ...

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. ...

, a former member of The Collectors and

Chilliwack Chilliwack ( )( hur, Ts'elxwéyeqw) is a city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Chilliwack is surrounded by mountains and home to recreational areas such as Cultus Lake and Chilliwack Lake Provincial Parks. There are numerous outdo ...

, as the back-up group for

folk artist

. The band comprised Shari Ulrich (lead vocals, flute, fiddle), Geoff Eyre (drums, vocals), Robbie King (organ,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, keyboard bass), and Doug Edwards (

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

, 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 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, Shari Ulrich played in several other groups as well as solo performances. She and Joe Mock continued to perform occasionally with The Pied Pumkin. 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