RIP Nora Galloway passed away Friday February 3rd
Sincerest condolences to her Family and friends
NORA GALLOWAY 2019 HOF Inductee
Nora Galloway arrived on the London music scene in 1975, when she left her home in Stratford to attend the University of Western Ontario. She started out playing in a duo with fellow student Trish Colter (who just recently retired from her teaching position at Humber College.) The Colter and Galloway duo started playing at Uncle Billie’s Folk club (in the basement of Fryfogles) before graduating to Smales Pace and its successor The Change of Pace. Later in the 80’s, she played with Prairie Wing (a country/rock band with a touch of rockabilly.) Besides playing JR’s, Town and Country and the Embassy here in town they also toured cross Canada for 8 years and released a live recording. She still plays with some of the members of that band (Ronnie D and Rod Perkins.) She then formed a folk trio “the Sirens” with Donna Creighton & Jo-Anne Lawton. After recording 2 albums with the Sirens, she moved on to form her own band “The Galloway Band” (with Rod Perkins and Kieran Kane) which toured Europe. The next band she formed was a classic country group, the Decorative Knobs (featuring London Music Hall of Famer Jerry Fletcher on guitar) which also toured Europe and released one album. Following that, she played for 10 years with Foxtail, an internationally renowned bluegrass band which played Ontario and toured extensively Michigan and the southern states. They released two CDS and she won the Central Canadian Bluegrass Award for female vocalist of the year in 2005, in 2006 she was a BX 93 Country Awards winner and a Jack Richardson Bluegrass Award winner in 2011. She’s played with the Dixie Flyers and has opened for such artists as Conway Twitty and Jeannie Shepherd. Twice she was featured with Orchestra London in their Jeans and Classics series (once was with London Music Hall of Famer & CCMA Hall of Famer Marie Bottrell.) She’s played the Home County Folk Festival on numerous occasions as well as Hamilton’s Festival of Friends, Owen Sound’s Summer Folk Festival, The Tottenham Bluegrass Festival and the Shady Grove Bluegrass Festival in Nanton, Alberta. Her current band, The Tearjerkers (which she formed with Rod Perkins and Kurtis Kane) released a CD a couple years ago: “Songs From an Empty House.” Known as the little lady with the big voice, she takes the music seriously…….herself , not so much.
“Nora, the musician, the kind, quirky person that she was has touched countless lives. The musical community in London will surely mourn her passing” Jeannie Perkins