Grant Lawrence
Lawrence at the 2007 NXNE festival
Background information
Born (1971-07-30) July 30, 1971
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Occupation(s)media personality, musician, writer
Instrument(s)vocalist
Years active1989–present

Grant Lawrence (born July 30, 1971) is a Canadian broadcaster, musician and bestselling author based in Vancouver, primarily associated with CBC Music and CBC Radio 3. Lawrence was also the vocalist for the indie rock group The Smugglers.[1]

Work

In addition to his regular shifts on Radio 3 itself, Lawrence was the host of Radio 3's Saturday night program on the CBC Radio 2 network until March 17, 2007, when that program was discontinued, and was also regular host of the service's weekly podcast. Spin magazine dubbed it the best podcast in Canada.[2] The podcast made history as the first original podcast to emerge from the CBC and continued for over ten years with Lawrence as host. In 2012, he also hosted the summer series The Wild Side on CBC Radio One, and became the host of the CBC Music Top 20 in 2020.

Lawrence began his association with the CBC in the 1990s, filing stories about life on tour with the Smugglers for David Wisdom's show Night Lines.[1] When Nightlines ended in 1997, Wisdom and Leora Kornfeld, the former host of RealTime, went on to host the new series RadioSonic. Lawrence initially worked for the show as a researcher, and later became a producer, and became host of RadioSonic in 2001 after Wisdom and Kornfeld left the program.[1]

In the summer of 2013, Lawrence and director Brent Hodge did a cross-country tour called The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, which was distributed as a web series on CBC Music and other streaming video sites. It followed Lawrence across Canada visiting various musicians and other personalities along the way, including the Darcys, Hollerado, Sam Roberts, Theo Fleury, Hawksley Workman and others. The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions won an award for Best Original Program or Series produced for Digital Media – Non-Fiction at the 2nd Canadian Screen Awards.[3]

Lawrence published his first book, Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound, in 2010.[4] A memoir of his visits to the Desolation Sound area of British Columbia, the book was a shortlisted nominee for the 2011 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction and the 2011 Edna Staebler Award.[5]

Lawrence published his second book, The Lonely End of the Rink: Confessions of a Reluctant Goalie, in 2013. Both books won the BC Book Prize for Book of the Year in their respective years.

His third book, Dirty Windshields: The Best and the Worst of the Smugglers Tour Diaries, was published in 2017.[6] His fourth book is the children's picture book Bailey the Bat and the Tangled Moose. In 2022, Lawrence published his sequel to his first book, called Return to Solitude, which was a number one bestseller and the highest-selling BC book of that year.

Personal life

He is married to singer-songwriter Jill Barber.[7]

Lawrence co-founded and currently plays hockey for the Vancouver Flying Vees, an amateur hockey team staffed largely by Canadian musicians.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider, Have Not Been the Same: The Can-Rock Renaissance 1985-1995. ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-992-9.
  2. ↑ Mitges, Lynn (June 1, 2006). "More stuff you should know about Grant Lawrence and his podcast". The Province. pp. B3.
  3. ↑ “Watermark,” “My Prairie Home” up for Canadian Screen Awards. Real Screen, January 13, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Grant Lawrence Taking 'Adventures in Solitude' to a Town Near You". Hour, October 16, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Nominees for Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-Fiction announced" Archived January 4, 2013, at archive.today. National Post, September 20, 2011.
  6. ↑ "Review: Grant Lawrence's Dirty Windshields charts rock ’n’ roll fantasies". The Globe and Mail, June 9, 2017.
  7. ↑ Surgeoner, Brae (November 2008). "Jill Barber: This is no faded love Archived July 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine", BeatRoute. Retrieved April 19, 2010.
  8. ↑ the flying vees Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
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