Marie Bottrell, got her start in country music at an early age when she joined the family band. A natural performer and gifted songwriter, it didn’t take long for Marie to get noticed. At age 17 she began recording for The Mercey Brothers label and from there it was on to RCA. Beginning in the late 1970’s and into the late 1980’s, Marie maintained a tremendously busy touring schedule. During this time she was twice named Female Artist of the Year at the Canadian Country Music Awards. In addition to those wins were another 7 nominations by the association. For 8 consecutive years, Marie was nominated for Country Female Artist of the Year at the Juno Awards. She released five albums and charted five Top 10 singles, many of which she wrote or co-wrote and in 2010, Bottrell was named to the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. I was happy to hear her story from the early days in London, Ontario, to grinding it out in smokey bars on the long road across Canada, to the dark side of the music business and where she’s at today.
