After a pot-luck dinner, with over 100 people present, Denise opens the annual festival by presenting her good friend and long time musician-colleague, Mark Dowding and his partner Leah Williams. Later in the evening, Mark, Ann Mortifee, Denise, and Charlie Knowles perform 5 songs from Denise's soon to be released CD, To Honour Joy. Many acts from Cortes and beyond entertained all present till the midnight hours.

LOVE AND HEALING FROM CORTES - Denise Wolda records a new CD, "To Honour Joy"

The name has changed over time, and so has the sound, but one thing has not changed for Denise Reinhardt Larson Wolda. Music remains her abiding passion, and the gift she shares with her audience. A familiar name to long time West Coast folkies, Denise is one of those musicians whose life is inseparable from her music.

Raised on a farm in southwest Saskatchewan, Denise moved to Washington DC when she married at the age of 21, and soon started playing professionally as a solo folk singer and in a duo. While living in Washington, she came across Ann Mortifee's album of music for the Canadian play, The Ecstacy of Rita Joe. So touched was Denise by the beauty of the songs, that it made her want to move back to Canada, and Vancouver. After six years in DC, and two years after the breakup of her marriage, Denise packed up her U-haul and drove herself and her daughter to Vancouver, Ann's home. Though their paths crisscrossed, it would be years before they would finally meet.

In Vancouver, Denise began to write her own songs. In 1977 she recorded her first album of original material called Farmer's Daughter. A second followed in 1979- Second Harvest, and three years later a third album- Sage. During these years, she played as a solo performer and in bands, notably Denise Larson and Friends, which included Charlie Knowles on bass, Mark Dowding; flutes, whistles, and harmonica, and the late Danny Sheppard, violin and mandolin. Later she would be joined by Roger Wade, Doug Thordarson, and Sheila Allen.

For fourteen years, Denise, a single mom, supported herself entirely with her music. She appeared in folk festivals, small and major, venues like The Soft Rock Cafe and the Classical Joint, and enjoyed exposure on CBC radio and TV.

In 1982, while living in Maple Ridge, she played a release concert of her Sage album at Merville Hall, where she met, as she says, the "Dutchman", Ron Wolda, a roofer who would three months later became her second husband. Eventually the family moved to Tiber Bay, on Cortes Island.

When they first married, Denise was 'burnt out' from the rigours of her single mom musician's life, and was happy to leave that life behind her. But sometime after her second pregnancy, she started experiencing health problems. Though she loved being a wife and mom, she felt that she was losing her voice, her identity. What followed were years of unwellness that Denise believes was a necessary, deepening "journey of the spirit".

Slowly, with the support of her husband Ron, she started to write again, connecting anew with her creative self, but now the songs were very different and more meaningful.

Five years ago Mark Dowding phoned Denise to remind her that it had been twenty years since they had first gotten together. To celebrate, the boys came up from Vancouver to Cortes Island, and making music again for the first time in 15 years, they played the night away. This has been repeated every year, becoming the growing Tiber Bay Music Festival.

One year, after a band reunion, Ron, coaxed a reluctant Denise to go to a workshop at Hollyhock. As it turned out, long time soul mate, Ann Mortifee, was leading the workshop. They noticed each other across the room, though they had never met, and almost immediately began to, as Denise puts it , "pour out their life stories." So intense was the connection and so compelling were Denise's descriptions of her community and the local school, that Ann decided at once that this was where she had to live. She called her family in Vancouver, and three hours later, Ann's partner and son flew into Cortes Bay by float plane. They moved to the island one week later. Ann and Denise now live next door to each other. They are a gift in each other's lives.

It was Ann who encouraged Denise to record another CD. On April 1 of this year, Denise and an engineer, by the name of Tim C. Palmer, got to work and spent 4 months of intense 12 to 14 hour days, during which Denise knew she was being guided. Often she woke from dreams with vocal harmonies and instrumental parts playing in her head.

Denise has a great deal that gives her life meaning and joy. Top on the list is writing songs. A close second is writing and teaching music for the plays at the Linnaea School on Cortes, which she has done for years. Thirdly is her "inspirational counselling". She began doing this soon after taking a Reiki workshop some years ago which was life changing. "Consciously walking my spiritual path has deepened my life. It's joyful to discover your service."

Denise's music is infused with all of her life's awareness and belief. This CD was produced very differently from most. Instead of beginning with the usual drum and bass tracks, she started by putting down lead vocal and guitar, adding all the rest of the tracks afterwards- Ann on background vocals, Charlie Knowles on bass, Mark Dowding; flutes, harmonica, saxophone, Bruce Hipkin on keyboards, Liz Richardson on penny whistle, Zak Dennison on didjeridu, and Matt Hodgsons on saxophone. Her son Paul played djembe, husband Ron played an eighteenth century family cello, and daughter Mikael sang harmony on two songs. Mikael's own CD, entitled "Trouble", was released August 23, 2001, just three weeks after her mother's.

Beginning with lead vocal and guitar has resulted in a recording that more closely resembles the way Denise originally heard the songs in her head. More than any of her other CDs, this one was "not taken away from her". All the songs begin gently, and to Denise, they have a more feminine quality. The QuickTime enhanced CD also contains a slide show of Cortes Island, prepared by Irene Blueth, and a video, by Richard Trueman, who also did the photographs and graphics.

This CD is a remarkable document of Denise's spiritual state. It will be of interest to anyone who remembers Denise Larson, or loves tuneful acoustic folk music with rich harmonies, or who wants to become exposed to her expansive healing energy. Outlets in the Comox Valley where Denise's CD can be found are: Sound Advice, Bop City Records, Winds of Change, and Laughing Oyster Books. Watch for a local appearance soon.

Denise can be seen or contacted by phone at 250-935-8595, via email: denisewolda@cortesisland.com or through the internet: http://www.cortesisland.com/denisewolda/ Back to the TOP