Laura Smith

Laura Smith (March 18, 1952 – March 7, 2020) was a Canadian folk singer-songwriter. She is best known for her 1995 single "Shade of Your Love", one of the year's biggest hits on adult contemporary radio stations in Canada, and for her adaptation of the Scottish folk song "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean" which she entitled "My Bonny". She recorded a version of this with The Chieftains, which they erroneously listed as "My Bonnie" on their album Fire in the Kitchen. In December 2010, that version received a nod for Song of the Decade from Bill Margeson at LiveIreland.

Biography Born and raised in London, Ontario, Smith was encouraged in her early writing by the noted poet Margaret Avison, then writer-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario. She began playing music as well, making her debut in area coffeehouses. She moved to Toronto in 1975 for nine years; in 1984, she moved to Cape Breton. In 2010 and 2011 she performed several shows across Canada, touring with Ryan MacGrath.

Poet Phil Hall celebrated Laura Smith's singing in his poem "Tremulous" (Niagara & Government, 2020, Pedlar Press). She asked him to read it her house concert audience in Fredericton in early 2019.

Smith died of cancer on March 7, 2020, in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, where she lived. She was 67.

Discography

Albums Year Album CAN 1989 Laura Smith — 1994 B'tween the Earth and My Soul 86 1997 It's a Personal Thing — 1998 Vanity Pressed: A Collection — 2013 Everything Is Moving —

Singles Year Single Chart Positions Album CAN AC CAN 1995 "Shade of Your Love" 6 42 B'tween the Earth and My Soul "My Bonny" 33 — 1997 "It's a Personal Thing" 17 — It's a Personal Thing "For Better or for Worse" 54 —

Guest singles Year Single Artist Chart Positions Album CAN AC CAN Country 1996 "Don't Take Me Home" Terry Kelly 51 38 Far Cry from Leaving