TORONTO – Canadian children’s entertainers Sharon Hampson and Bram Morrison say creating their first album in decades has been a trip back up the memory lane.
Their new record, released on Friday, is called “Sharon, Lois & Bram: Best of the Best Live” and features 22 never-before-heard songs recorded at the group’s concerts in the mid-1989s. and 1995 at locations across Canada and the United States. Statuses.
Hampson told CTV’s Your Morning on Friday that they were “proud and emotional” about the recording, which she affectionately calls “the new born baby.”
“We loved the way we sounded then and the spirit and excitement of the band and being with Lois was a special treat,” Hampson said.
The Toronto-based group spent half of their 40 years as trio Sharon, Lois and Bram singing wholesome children’s songs including “Skinnamarink”, “The Muffin Man” and “One Elephant”, among many other songs.
The group has won the Juno Award for Best Children’s Album three times in their career and was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2002. They have also received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal. Elizabeth II and Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Order.
While Lois Lilienstein stopped touring for more than a decade before her death from cancer in 2015, Hampson and Morrison continued to tour until 2019, spreading their music to new generations of children.
“It’s nostalgic and it’s amazing,” Morrison said as he created the new album. “We loved being together, and it was like being back there, which was great because it was so much younger back then.”
Initially, Hampson and Morrison worked to curate the album, but then the two superfans, along with their co-producer and Hampson’s daughter Randi Hampson took over and sifted through hundreds of records to document the experience. Sharon, Lois and Bram’s best first-hand experience.
Hampson said: “Three people have heard a lot when it comes to attracting the attention of the rich. “We also listened throughout the process … but the end result reflects all of the concerns and opinions of all of us.”
Morrison says some of his fondest memories from those concerts are seeing the excited expressions on the faces of the kids – and even some parents – when the group takes to the field to perform.
While the response from the audience has been what has given the group “the greatest joy and satisfaction,” Hampson says being part of a hard-working, supportive team has also been special.
“We’ve always felt like a team – the band and the crew and us. We hang out together, we go out to eat together, so it’s great to be a part of something that everyone is all about. happy to join,” she said.
Compared to other musical tours by rock ‘n’ roll bands at the time, Morrison said the stories of their path were quite masterful.
“We’re not doing bad things, we’re doing good things,” he said.
With the help of their daughter Hampson, the duo also recently launched a TikTok account which they say has given them and their music a new audience.
Hampson admitted that neither she nor Morrison knew much about TikTok before sharing the video on the platform, but said the responses were heartwarming.
She said their popular songs are a hit not only with the new generation of kids, but also with parents who heard the tune when they were kids.
“The people they send are lovely messages, they talk about the memory being unlocked, so people really want to hear that music,” she said.
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