George Fox

George Fox, the Canadian singer and songwriter raised on an Alberta cattle ranch, developed almost no interest in country music until the age of twenty-one, when he prepared to spend time in Sweden. Asked by his host family to bring American country albums, he listened and quickly found himself drawn in. Returning home, he began performing in public on weekends and chose to record an album, covering the cost from funds he had earmarked for a new tractor. After sending tapes to various stations he returned to ranch life until Warner Brothers in Toronto contacted him, resulting in the release of his self-titled debut in 1988.

Working in a style that recalled John Prine, Fox saw his second single, “Long Distance,” reach the Canadian Top 20. That year he also placed his career with Leonard Rambeau, Anne Murray’s manager, who had taken on no new clients since the late 1970s. The following year brought further gains when three of his singles entered the Canadian Top 20. On the 1990 album With All My Might he wrote every song except one, and the record attained gold certification in Canada before the year closed. In 1990 he starred in his own CBC television special and appeared on three others, including Anne Murray’s Family Christmas. The next two projects, Spice of Life (1991) and Mustang Heart (1993), kept his string of hits intact.