Some news out of Nova Scotia reported the (30-years late) high school graduation of Gordie Sampson (keeping with the theme of Nashville Canadian songwriters today). Here’s a quote from the Journal Pioneer article that also includes a video of Gordie celebrating with his fellow 2020 graduates:
Sampson said he’s “honoured” to be getting his diploma 30 years after he left school.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to complete but didn’t get the chance,” he said.
“I took one night school class after high school with the intent to take another one but when you’re traveling, it’s hard to do it because you can’t make class. It wasn’t very feasible.”
The pandemic, which forced much of the world to shut down, also had positive gain for songwriters, according to Sampson. Because they had no choice but to learn how to virtually write together, he said artists now can easily work together from cities around the world because they know the software to use and how to deal with issues like delays
The last 10 summers, Sampson has been hosting young, up-and-coming songwriters for his workshop called Songcamp. Held in Ingonish, the artists are teamed up into groups of three, given a coach who is an established recording artist and taught how to co-write.
Gordie is a very successful songwriter – co-writing tunes for the likes of Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert and winning a Grammy while doing it. And as the quote shows, he has given back to Nova Scotia songwriters with his Songcamp for the past 10 years now. May the Muse stay with Gordie and all his camp attendees/songwriters… Here’s a mini-doc on his Songcamp: