Random Access

Not too many musicians can claim they opened for Bob Marley.
Not only did Liberty Silver open for Marley, she opened for him at Madison Square Gardens in New York, and he complimented her on her singing.
Not that she noticed.
You see, Silver was only 13 years old at the time.
As the Meadowvale residents tells the story, “some guy heard me singing in a pool and he invited me to an audition on Spadina (Ave.) After I sang they told me I had the job. We got in a van the same day and drove 12 hours to Madison Square Garden.
“Bob Marley said after the show, ‘You can sing’ but I didn’t really notice. I was just so happy that I made $100.”
Silver had already been giving mini-concerts for friends and neighbours, so $100 looked awfully good after playing for chocolate bars.
The Mississauga singer with the booming six-and-a-half octave voice has never fit neatly into any musical categories, with the result that her career has a certain helter-skelter quality to it. She’s a fixture on the outdoor festival circuit, where she loves to perform.
And she may be better known outside Canada than within. She’s done festival gigs in Antigua and Jamaica as well as all across Canada. She just returned from a Habitat for Humanity benefit concert in Guyana.
After doing The Beaches Festival a couple of weeks ago, she’s in Oakville Friday at 10:30 p.m. in a free concert at the Towne Square.
Having been through the bumps and bruises of show business, on different labels and off, and penalized for her stunning versatility that means she can do jazz, blues, R ’n B, and even country (She had a no. 1 hit on the Canadian country charts), Silver is now firmly in control of her own career.
That means arranging travel, writing songs, booking work and making independent recordings which she sells on her website (www.libertysilver.ca).
“If you want to be successful, you have to oversee everything,” said Silver, a Peterborough resident who’s lived happily in family-oriented Mississauga for five years. “You have to make your own opportunities happen,”
Among Silver’s startling credentials are a concert at the Indy 500 with Roy Orbison, co-hosting of the World Basketball Championship opening ceremonies with Allan Thicke, two Junos, three Genie nominations and co-writing and performing the Olympic themes for the 1996 Games in Atlanta and the 2004 Games in Athens.
Liberty and international sports competitions have a thing going. Her parents, one who hailed from Jamaica and the other from Hawaii, met at an international athletic competition in London, England where they were both competing.
They just may have had an inkling that she was headed for show business. Liberty Silver is her real name.
Among the many awards she has picked up over the years is, appropriately enough considering her start, the Bob Marley Memorial Award given out at the Canadian Reggae Music Awards.
Liberty Silver. One of those talented Canadians whose accomplished work we too often take for granted.

NOTE: I should have made clear in yesterday’s entry on Carolyn Parrish and her Smart Car that the Ward 6 candidate is planning to declare a portion of her lease costs for the vehicle as election expenses, even though she is not required to do so.