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Ferron
(June 2, 1952 - living) Canada

Ferron

Folksinger

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Ferron grew up in a semi-rural suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, the eldest of seven children in a working-class family. After leaving home at 15, she scrambled financially, supporting herself by driving a cab, waitressing, shovelling gravel, and packing five pound bags of coffee in a factory. From her basement, she recorded and distributed Ferron (1977) and Ferron Backed Up (1978). Since both albums are now out-of-print collector's items, Ferron has decided to re-release much of their material on subsequent albums.

In 1978, Ferron was "discovered" by Gayle Scott, an American living and working in film production in Vancouver who became Ferron's first and only manager and business partner. Ferron and Gayle collaborated on Ferron's next two studio albums: Testimony (1980) and Shadows on a Dime (1984), on which Ferron continued to convey her polished messages of raw truths, through sharply lyrical, soothingly melodic music dealing with the cyclicity of relationships, questions of survival and identity, and optimism amid fear. Despite a small budget dependent on loans and contributions, in the absence of organized promotion, Shadows on a Dime received a four-star rating from "Rolling Stone Magazine."

In October of 1985, Ferron received a Canadian Council Arts Grant, enabling her to take a much-needed year off; ostensibly to write and take voice lessons but also to recover a long-neglected personal life. Recognizing that she would need more time than a year to fully heal from the hardships of the road and the vagaries of the business, Ferron remained withdrawn from the spotlight.

After the grant money ran out, she earned a living by laboring as a carpenter's assistant and a bartender, and by doing daycare. Having reconnected with her physical and spiritual roots, having reaffirmed and redifined her own needs, Ferron has returned to the studio and the stage, having come to a remarkable new peace and with a fresh body of work: Phantom Center (1990), Resting With The Question (1992), and Not A Still Life (1992).

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Almost Kissed

I waken to a morning mist
The sun burns through an almost kiss
Now gone away
Not surprised to find me lonely now
Parade of dreams stroll by and bow
Not meant to stay
I say hello there brittle and bone
For sure you must be my home
What's more I can always feel alone
With you
O it's true you are a special one
Your very laugh makes my blood run
Where are we now?
Cemented in our city dreams
Ambition like a sifting screen
On an old farm plow
Ah, you know that some love to love
Some love to change
Some have to have their own free range
And some tear my heart all apart

But if loss is just a step behind
A dancing door
A circus mind
I leave my bed
And I stumble through my rituals
I fight my mind
My memory pulls
To things been said
O I admit that I
Hold to words
I hold them tight
I've known colder comfort
In the night
It's only time after all

As I waken to a morning mist
The sun burns through an almost kiss
Now gone away
Not surprised to find me lonely now
Parade of dreams stroll by and bow
Not meant to stay
But I say hello there brittle and bone
For sure you must be my home
What's more I can aIways feel alone
With you

© 1980 Nemesis Publishing

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FerronFerronFerron

FerronFerron

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Source: Laura Post, All-Music Guide

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