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photo by Dean Palmer

KATHERINE WHEATLEY — QUICK FACTS

Born and raised (#4 of 6 kids) in Parry Sound, part of Ontario's cottage country. She now lives in Guelph, Ontario.
She got her first guitar at 14 from the Sears Catalogue.
Early influences: Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, James Taylor, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach.
First performance: "Rhinestone Cowboy" with her high school stage band, in 1976.
In her twenties, she studied geology at Queens and environmental science at the University of Calgary, and worked several summers in northern Saskatchewan for-the Canadian Geological Survey.
Wheatley's songwriting began in earnest, ironically without her guitar, while traveling for 3 months by herself in Africa.
For five years, she was the Ambassador for the capital campaign to raise 6 million dollars for the new hospital in her home town, Parry Sound.
She received her diploma in music from Humber College, winning awards for songwriting, composition and arranging.
Her first CD, Straight Line, earned considerable airplay - CBC and commercial radio.
The decision to leave geology behind was confirmed by the release of her second CD, Habits and Heroes four years later.
She spends considerable time working with inner city kids and on native reserves, helping young people write and record their own songs through her program, Youthsongs. She has produced 13 school cds in the last 3 years.
Katherine is a founding member of Betty and the Bobs, an informal group of some of the best musicians in the Toronto area. She frequently works as a duo with award-winning guitarist Wendell Ferguson.
She plays over 100 concerts a year in Canada and the U.S. - mostly acoustic venues and folk festivals.
She's sold over 8000 copies of Straight Line and Habits and Heroes. Landed was released Sep. 25.2009.
Her favourite quotes: "Music is God's greatest gift to his sorrowing creatures."—J.S. Bach. And from a CBC Radio interview with an old fiddler in Nova Scotia: "If you got music, you got friends."