RECOMMEND
 ADD COMMENT  READ COMMENTS (0)  PRINT  EMAIL  SHARE  THE CANADIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA
0 people recommend this
Orval (William) Prophet. Singer, guitarist, songwriter, b Edwards, near Ottawa, 31 Aug 1922, d there 4 Jan 1984. After singing 1944-9 with Bill Sheppard's country band on CFRA's 'Fiddler's Fling' (a travelling radio show which appeared throughout the Ottawa Valley), Prophet toured Canada in 1949 with Wilf Carter and was recorded by Decca on Carter's recommendation. The second Canadian (after Hank Snow) to record in Nashville, he was popular in the USA and Canada during the 1950s with singles (for Decca) released under the names Orval (Rex) Prophet, 'The Canadian Plowboy,' (eg, 'Going Back to Birmingham,' 'Judgement Day Express,' 'Molly Darling') and Johnnie Six (eg, 'Mademoiselle').


Keywords
Country Singers

Subsequent recordings (as Orval Prophet) appeared in Canada under the Harmony, Caledon, Broadland, and Acclaim labels and included several LPs and such popular singles as 'Lois and Me' (1962) and 'Run Run Run' (1962), 'Mile After Mile' (1971), 'It's Good to be Home Again' (1972), 'Eastbound Highway' (1974), 'Lisa Mae' (1976), 'Leroy Can't Go Home' (1977), 'Ol' Amos' (1978), and 'Sorry & the Hobo' (1979). Some of his songs were collaborations with Ken MacRae (including 'Judgement Day Express'), Dallas Harms, and others.

Though based in Edwards throughout his career, except for a few months in 1958 in Nashville, where he had his own radio show on WWBA, Prophet toured widely in North America and appeared on CBC TV and CTV. He received a Big Country Award for outstanding performance by a male country singer in 1978 and was posthumously inducted into the CCMA Hall of Honor in 1984 and the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989. The singer Ronnie Prophet is a cousin.


Bibliography

Foster, Don. 'Interviewing Orval Prophet,' World of Country Music, Dec 1972

Grealis, Walt. 'Orval Prophet - inducted into hall of fame,' RPM, 14 Jul 1979

Beyer, Susan. 'The beautiful dream of Orval Prophet,' CMN, vol 4, Feb 1984

Kennedy, Ted. Country Canada (Kelowna, BC, 1989)

Feature Articles
David Thompson: The Greatest Geographer the World has Known
David Thompson was an outsider, struggling to find a foothold in the empire that had consumed his country...
MOST READ ARTICLES
Trudeau, Pierre Elliott
Pierre Elliott Trudeau, politician, writer, constitutional lawyer, prime minister of Canada 1968-79 and 1980-84 (b at ...
Great Depression
Few countries were affected as severely as Canada by the worldwide Depression of the 1930s. It is estimated that ...
Riel, Louis
Louis Riel, Métis leader, founder of Manitoba, central figure in the NORTH-WEST REBELLION (b at Red River ...
MOST RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Great Depression
Few countries were affected as severely as Canada by the worldwide Depression of the 1930s. It is estimated that ...
Evangelical Christian Church in Canada (Disciples of Christ)
Evangelical Christian Church, often called the Christian Church (Christian Disciples), is a denomination stemming from ...
Group of Seven
The Group of Seven was founded in 1920 as an organization of self-proclaimed modern artists. The original members - ...
MOST COMMENTED ON ARTICLES
Sears Canada Inc
Sears Canada Inc, headquartered in Toronto, is a Canadian retailer incorporated in 1952. In 1953 operating under the ...
Ware, John
John Ware, "Nigger John," horseman, rancher (b near Georgetown, SC 1845; d near Brooks, Alta 11 Sept 1905). ...
Land Claims
Land claims are dealt with by a process established by the federal government to enable INDIANS, INUIT and ...
newsletter subscription
* E-mail:
join us on facebook twitter
WIRE BLOG
Survival Kit
by ANNE SEIGNOT
WIRE BLOG
Love Stories
by JENNIFER GIVOGUE
ARTICLE
Pierre Trudeau: Politics and Personality
by WILLIAM CHRISTIAN
ARTICLE
How to Reverse the Decline of Parliament
by NELSON WISEMAN
WIRE BLOG
Prorogation Protest
by WILLIAM CHRISTIAN
INSIDE TCE
Gallery
Browse the rich visual resources of The Canadian Encyclopedia through thematic galleries of Canadian Art, History, Nature, People, and Science and Technology.
Interactive Resources
Illustrations, lively text, animations, sounds and games help make learning about Canadian history, art, geography, architecture and other topics entertaining as well as informative.
Canucklehead
The ultimate test of your knowledge of Canada, trivial and otherwise. You can choose from more than 60 dynamic quizzes with visual or text clues. Your scores depend on the speed with which you answer and the number of clues you need. Results are sent to you by email and high scores are posted on the site.
Timeline
This unique resource includes more than 6000 events from Canadian and world history. It can be searched by era, subject, keyword or date. To find out what happened on your birthday, select the month and day of your birth.
100 Greatest Events
This selection of the 100 "greatest" events in Canadian history was made by editor in chief James H. Marsh to draw attention to events that have left an indelible memory in the minds of later generations.
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MUSIC IN CANADA
Brueggergosman, Measha
Measha Brueggergosman (b Gosman). Soprano, b Fredericton 28 June 1977; B MUS (Toronto) 1999, honorary D MUS (Acadia) 2009, honorary D LITT (St Thomas) 2009. Brueggergosman began singing in the choir of her local Baptist church, ...


Who's Who at TCE    |    Our Partners The Canadian Encyclopedia © 2010 Historica-Dominion Copyright Information