National Treasure #158: Paul Valdemar Horsdal

How did I forget about Valdy? I stumbled across him again while looking for someone else on YouTube.

A folk and country musician, he was hitting his popularity peak just as I was hitting my twenties. His hits, like Rock and Roll Song and Yes I Can, were gentle, melodic songs well-suited to his voice and to his home on Salt Spring Island.

He won two Junos and was nominated for seven more.

Like a lot of musicians, he hasn’t retired. Wiki shows his “Years active” as the 1960s to the present. Here he is singing one of his old songs, Ordinary Man, more or less in the present (posted on YouTube in 2009). The haircut’s different, and the voice is older, but Valdy is in there somewhere.


Learn more about Valdy here:

1981 documentary – 16:43

2010 interview/conversation – 10:01

 

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2 Responses to National Treasure #158: Paul Valdemar Horsdal

  1. Norma says:

    Thank you for this Isabel. I was lucky enough to see him quite a few years ago in Owen Sound. It was a very good show. One interesting song is”Hot Rocks”.

  2. Isabel Gibson says:

    Norma – There’s sure nothing like a live performance. Here’s the YouTube version of Hot Rocks from one of his concerts.

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