Valdy performing several years ago at Stanfest. (John Gillis photo)
April 10, 2024
-by John Gillis
Mr. Paul Valdemar Horsdal is better known as the singer songwriter and performing artist, Valdy.
My first recollection of Valdy was hearing his hit, “Play Me A Rock and Roll Song,” on the radio back in the 1970s when I was a teenager. I first met Valdy back in 1983 when I was a college student in Halifax when a friend and I had gone to hear him in concert at The Rebecca Cohn Auditorium at Dalhousie University. We really enjoyed his concert and had the opportunity to chat with him backstage after the show.
There’s a reason Valdy is still performing and touring at the age of 78 and that is that he is always working on his craft, playing the older songs and interspersing them with new material.
”It’s what I do and I’m good at it. I’m writing new material all the time and that keeps it fresh for me,” Valdy told The Oran from his home in Saltspring Island, British Columbia last week just before embarking on a cross-Canada tour that sees him playing five dates in Nova Scotia.
Valdy has been performing music publically since he was a teenager.
He grew up performing in musical groups in the Ottawa area as a bass player before relocating to the West Coast in the 1960s when he started playing guitar, singing, and performing at coffeehouses, small clubs, and music festivals. His family owned eight acres of land on Vancouver Island and he went there to see it.
It was at a rock music festival in Aldergrove B.C. in the early 1970s that he had an encounter with fans who were less than enthused with his folk repertoire when they came to hear rock and roll. Valdy got a great song and a career changing hit out of the story (Play Me A Rock & Roll Song) and as he says, “the rest is history.”
Valdy says his audience likes to hear a lot of the old material but he keeps a fluid set list that changes every night once he gets a feel for what each audience wants in a given show.
Valdy has had quite a storied career in the music world.
He has sold almost half a million copies of his 16 albums and 22 singles. He has earned two Juno Awards (Folk Singer of the Year and Folk Entertainer of the Year) with a total of seven Juno nominations and four Gold albums to his credit. In addition to Rock and Roll Song, other hits for Valdy have included Yes I Can, Simple Man, and Sonny’s Dream (by Ron Hynes).
Valdy was awarded The Order of Canada in 2011 and was recognized for his charitable work as well with that award – particularly for his dedication to the cause of literacy in Canada.
“It all began with an invitation from the late CBC Morningside host Peter Gzowski and his Invitational Golf tournament for literacy. We did that for many years until Peter couldn’t do it anymore. I remember once we were in Yellowknife in February and we played ice golf. They plowed the lake and had little holes in the ice for greens. It was more like billiards than golf. Peter couldn’t attend all of the tournaments so he would send us as emissaries and I got to play coast to coast to coast and to help people with literacy,” he recalls.
Asked what major changes he has seen in his lengthy music career, he noted: “I’m seeing women being recognized on a more equal basis, seeing content creators getting recognized and we’re seeing the whole promotions sector changing with social media and ticketing platforms,” he added.
He continues to perform music on a weekly podcast called Live at Five; where he performs live, building an global audience for his music and connecting with music fans the world over.
I would encourage everyone reading this to attend his show Saturday, April 13th, in Port Hawkesbury at The Civic Centre’s Bear Head Conference Room.
On this Nova Scotia mini-tour, Valdy plays Truro on April 10th (with Doris Mason); Wolfville, April 11th; Black Point, April 12th; Port Hawkesbury, April 13th and The Highland Arts Theatre in Sydney on April 14th.
Visit the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre website for tickets.
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