TORONTO (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Daisy DeBolt, the Toronto singer who was half of the folk duo, Fraser & DeBolt, died of cancer on Tuesday in Toronto, according to former producer and bandmate Brian Blain. She was 66.
DeBolter career spanned 40 years and ventured into jazz, country, folk and blues.
"All of a sudden in the last week or ten days she went totally downhill," says producer Brian Blain, who had been working on a Fraser & DeBolt archive project.
"They were the original acid folk group," Blain told Spinner of Fraser and DeBolt. "They broke a lot of new ground at a time when folk music was pretty sedate."
Daisy DeBolt was born July 19, 1945, the daughter of Winnipeg musician and music teacher Marjorie DeBolt. In high school, she studied guitar with the legendary Lenny Breau.
DeBolt moved to Ontario in 1965 to sing folk music. She played mandolin, accordion and guitar and was an accomplished songwriter and poet, often sharing stories of her own life in song.
DeBolt met Alan Fraser in 1968 at the famed Mariposa Folk Festival. Shortly afterward they formed their duo.
The duo signed with Columbia Records and released their debut album, Fraser & DeBolt With Ian Guenther, in 1971; followed by Fraser & DeBolt With Pleasure in 1973.
"I always thought the music came out of their intense romance" said Blain. The duo, however, broke up in the mid-1970s."They were both brilliant artists but the extra thing came from their relationship which was so intense that it could never be sustained," said Blain, according to Spinner.
DeBolt continued as a singer-songwriter and appeared at festivals across Canada as well as in small clubs, according to CBC News. She wrote film scores for the National Film Board of Canada and worked with dance company Ballet Ys. She also explored reggae music with her band Don't Push Me Against The Fridge.
She collaborated with other poets and singers and went on to marry poet Robert Dickson, who predeceased her.
Her recordings include solo work Soulstalking, the jazz album Live Each Day with Soul, created in memory of her mother, and 2004's Lovers and Fantasies, which includes two songs written by novelist Michael Ondaatje.
In September, DeBolt toured and sang in British Columbia, but cancer rapidly overtook her in the final few weeks of her life, according to CBC News.
She is survived by her son, Jake DeBolt of B.C.
— Crystal Lynn Huntoon
