Article

Gilles Godard

Published Online June 18, 2007

Last Edited December 15, 2013

Gilles Godard. Songwriter, record producer, singer, guitarist, b Cornwall, Ont, 13 Jul 1957. Son of a fiddler, Guillaume Godard, he played violin and pedal steel guitar in his teens and studied the latter instrument in 1977 with Jeff Newman in Nashville.

Godard, Gilles

Gilles Godard. Songwriter, record producer, singer, guitarist, b Cornwall, Ont, 13 Jul 1957. Son of a fiddler, Guillaume Godard, he played violin and pedal steel guitar in his teens and studied the latter instrument in 1977 with Jeff Newman in Nashville. With his first album Gilles Godard, released in 1980, Godard inaugurated his own Book Shop label, which was taken up for distribution by RCA in 1985. A song from Gilles Godard, 'From the Bar Room to the Bedroom,' was a major Canadian country hit in 1982 as recorded by Eddie Eastman. Godard's second LP, Tell It to My Heart (BSR-33-701), included the popular 'Took a Train to Vegas' (1982) and 'Dressed to Kill' (1983).

Although Godard has concentrated on songwriting and record production, working in Nashville studios as early as 1978, he has had further hits under his own name with 'Nothing Good About Goodbye' (1984, a duet with Kelita Haverland), 'Hold on to What You Got' and 'We Won't Ever Say Goodbye' (1985), and 'Love Crazy' (1986), all included on Have I Got News for You, BSR-33-720). Two duets with Colleen Peterson, 'I Still Think of You' (1988, included on Lose Control, BSR-33-757) and 'Life is Just a Holiday' (1990), also have been popular. An LP of songs sung by Godard in French, En Amour (RCA KKL1-0584), included the Quebec hits 'En Amour' and 'Coeur en tombeur' and received a Félix Award in 1987 for country album of the year.

In 1988 Godard moved to Nashville, maintaining the Book Shop label, whose roster to 1991 included Eastman, Haverland, Peterson, Hal Bruce, Ray Griff, Susan Jacks, Erik Johnson, Jules, Bobby Lalonde, Ronnie Prophet and Glory-Anne Carriere, and several US artists. Godard has produced recordings by all of these artists, as well as albums by Tommy Hunter, Terry Kelly, and the US singer Janie Frickie. Writing alone or in collaboration with others (including Eastman, Haverland, Lalonde, Peterson, and Prophet, and fellow Canadians Lee Bach, Barry Brown, J. Martin Johnson, and Cyril Rawson), Godard has had his songs recorded by most of these same artists.