Legendary guitarist Liona Boyd is celebrating a 50-year career in the music industry with the release of an album. This Thing Called Love blends folk, pop, and global music influences through her signature classical guitar sound.
Produced by longtime collaborator Peter Bond, guest artists include Mark Masri (of The Tenors) and Ronnie Hawkins in a blend of moods that range from romantic to playful, and themes that cover both love and loss.
LV spoke to the iconic Canadian music about her career, and the new release.
Bye Bye Love (Feat. Mark Masri):
Liona Boyd
Liona Boyd is often called The First Lady of the Guitar, and there’s no doubt she was a trailblazer for women as classical guitarists, and classical guitarists in general. Across a five decade career, her musical practice has incorporated solo and orchestral performances in the classical music sphere, along with folk and global music. She’s also performed extensively on television, including her own specials.
She’s a five-time JUNO Award winner, and has a recording catalogue of 30 albums, many of which have been certified Gold and Platinum sellers. Online, Liona’s music has seen more than 100 million streams.
Boyd has performed for the British Royal Family and American presidents, and she’s collaborated and recorded with a wide range of artists that include Sir Andrew Davis and the English Chamber Orchestra, Yo Yo Ma and Georges Zamfir, Gordon Lightfoot and Tracy Chapman, Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Olivia Newton-John and Roger Whittaker.
She was named an Office of the Order of Canada in 2022, following recognition with The Order of Ontario, and the Diamond Jubilee Medal. Liona is also a published author, and released two autobiographies, as well as a children’s book that was published in 2022.
Earlier in 2025, she was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame.
Album Notes: This Thing Called Love
She’s joined on the album by classical guitarist Srdjan Givoje (a prominent Croatian artist) and Andrew Dolson, who contributed background vocals and steel guitar on some tracks, as well as Peter Bond, who plays electric guitar, steel string guitar, bass, drums, and percussion, and produced the album.
Boyd wrote all the songs, except for By Bye Love (by Boudleaux Bryant and Felice Bryant), and Jamaica Farewell (by Irving Burgie aka Lord Burgess).
Among the bittersweet songs on the album are Gordon Lightfoot featuring Ronnie Hawkins, a tribute to the late Canadian icon, and a redux of Summer Dreams, Boyd’s hit song featuring the late Olivia Newton-John, which was originally recorded in 2012.
Other songs are personal and contemplative, including Living On Borrowed Time, and My Life Alone.
On the lighter side, she sings a duet version of the Everly Brothers’ classic Bye Bye Love with Mark Masri of The Tenors. Her ballad The Wedding Song celebrates lifelong love, and a playful piece, Tamarinda, was inspired by her time living in Mexico.
Liona Boyd performs Concerto of the Andes in 1990, a work she commissioned, and premiered with the Costa Rica Symphony:
Liona Boyd: The Interview
Boyd’s career has taken her in many different directions, from renowned classical guitarist to beloved singer-songwriter. When she began, however, none of that was on her mind.
“No plan at all, it evolved organically,” she says. “I was just imagining playing in church basements in the beginning,” she laughs.
From a growing career as a performing artist, she began to get requests for TV appearances.
“The next thing was TV shows,” Liona recalls. “I did so many TV shows all over the world.”
Radio spots followed, then a record deal. “I started with a small Canadian label,” she adds. She would later sign with the Columbia Masterworks label.
Still, the backbone of her music for many years was touring and performing.
“I toured for many, many years. I was very adventurous.” Boyd recalls taking advantage of the time she’d spend in airports waiting on connections, playing her guitar to practice and work out new material. She sometimes performed with orchestras, sometimes as a solo act.
“I loved getting to know the world,” she says. Her tours took her to many locales that were not known as hotbeds of classical music, or guitar for that matter, including concerts in Kathmandu and Calcutta.
“In India, they’d never heard of classical guitar,” she says. “I’m very proud that I was a kind of pioneer representing Canada around the world.”
While she was occasionally called upon to officially represent Canada at events such as the Cultural Capitol of Europe festival in Thessaloniki, Greece, and during Canada Week in Bermuda, her Canadian representation abroad was most often simply due to the fact that many international audiences had very little exposure to Canadian artists or music.
“Usually it was unofficial,” she says. “People would ask me to play ‘Canadian music’ — that’s why I started writing my own,” she comments. “I felt like an unofficial Canadian ambassador.”
She also recalls playing for Cree audience in Moose Factory and other points in northern Canada, including Fort McMurray and Rouyn Noranda.
“Really remote places where they didn’t have many concerts,” she says. In some ways, they were among her favourite memories. “I kind of always missed the small, intimate theatres.”
She wrote a song about it, in fact, called Small Town, about checking into questionable motels, and playing in tiny venues.
She often played at venues that had seldom seen an artist like her, including several small towns in Saskatchewan and other points west. “They hadn’t even had a concert,” she recalls. “It was a great privilege. I spent hours on the road answering mail,” she adds. “You couldn’t do it these days.”
The travelling and touring fuelled her music. “I liked to be alone,” she says. “It’s how I stayed creative over the years.”
For several years, she lived in the US after marrying a prominent Beverly Hills businessman. When they travelled, they stayed in five star hotels, but she says she missed the more modest accommodations and concert halls.
“I had such a good time as a student,” she recalls. “My guitar went everywhere with me.”
Jamaica Farewell (Feat. Srdjan Givoje):
Songwriting
“I never thought I would sing,” she says. It wasn’t part of the plan early in her career. “Phase one was purely instrumental.
Boyd often toured with Gordon Lightfoot through the 1970s as his opening act. The two artists became friends, and she began to consider songwriting, although she wouldn’t pursue it per se for several more years.
At Lightfoot concerts, she recalls audiences of 20,00 or more listening to her play Debussy and other classical repertoire. For most of them, it was their first exposure to classical guitar.
“There were no other female guitarists that were well known [back then].”
Summer Dreams (Feat. Olivia Newton-John):
“Some of my songs are quite autobiographical,” she says. Three on the album, including the Olivia Newton-John duet, reimagine previous releases. “She was a dear friend of mine,” she says of the Australian singer-songwriter. Both the original Summertime Dreams, and her new version Sweet Dreams, appear on the album.
This Thing Called Love was originally a vocal piece. She’s turned it into an instrumental work. “It makes a beautiful duo,” she says. She performs the piece with Peter Bond, who also arranged the track with her. “I work with an amazing producer. He’s originally from Kingston,” she says. “He’s worked with me for 20 years. We’re very close friends.”
It’s crucial to find collaborators who are on the same page. “We have the same vision. He was very influenced by Enya, as was I.” She notes the track Living on Borrowed Time has similar production values. Guitarist Andrew Dolson is another collaborator on the album. “We did many, many concerts in Canada and the US,” she says of Dolson. “He’s a fine, fine classical guitarist, as well as a beautiful singer.”
Boyd was living in Palm Beach just before the pandemic hit. Luckily, she’d stockpiled several songs by that point. They represent a balance of emotions, from experiencing loss to celebrating love.
“That’s life isn’t it?” she says. She comments that she’s experienced many losses over the last several years, including that of her parents. “Living on Borrowed Time — it’s so pertinent to the way I feel.”
Other losses have included friends like Lightfoot and Olivia Newton-John. “I thought they’d be around longer.”
Celebrating Love Of Different Kinds
One of the tracks on the album is titled My Dog, dedicated to all animal lovers. “I’ve always loved animals,” she says. “I chose the dog, even thought I’m probably more of a cat person.”
She lived in California during some of the wildfires that devastated the region, and the song was inspired by the stories of the dogs and cats who’d run away during the fires, only to find their way home later. “People reuniting with their pets, there’s such an overwhelming joy,” she says. She recalls having a cat that went missing for days, but then came back. “I think that was one of the happiest moments of my life.”
Tamarinda was inspired by her love of Mexico. “I wanted to sing. It’s got a lot of Mexican feel to it, and it’s very playful.”
She wrote The Wedding Song as a waltz, perhaps one that future brides and their fathers can dance to.
The tracks add up to a meditation on the ups and downs of life. “Different moods, and different spaces in life,” she describes. The songs were collected over a period of years. “I don’t write a lot,” she adds.
Her influences as a songwriter come from much of the music she was listening to as a young woman and artist. “I grew up in the 60s and 70s.” She counts bands like ABBA, and folk musicians of the era, along with Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen, particularly the latter’s seminal Suzanne. “He was an influence.”
Other inspiration comes from her many travels. “Some of the adventures I had influenced me to write songs,” she says.
Liona Boyd performs in Cuba in 1982:
Giving Back
Back in 2023, Boyd teamed up with Long & McQuade in a contest to give away Yamaha classical guitars to young people across the country. She recalls it as a rewarding experience.
“I got letters from parents,” she says. Often, they’d include a picture of the kids with their brand new guitar.
“In my will, I’m leaving a lot of money to an organization that supports young people in the arts, and music, particularly,” she says. “They do a lot of good work.”
She notes the importance of young musicians playing together. “It’s good therapy.” Boyd also mentions Sistema, the organization working with kids in under-served communities. “It really changes the lives of tens of thousands of young people.”
Liona has her own fond memories of working with orchestras, and conductors like Boris Brott and Kerry Stratton. “He was conducting me many, many times,” she recalls. “We’ve lost them. They were two particular conductors that I knew as friends. This life is difficult when you lose so many people you love.”
Her ex-husband, who she remained close to over the years, recently died at 100. “We were still close,” she says. It inspired the song Living My Life Alone. “So, life isn’t the same,” she continues.
“I came back to live in Toronto after the pandemic, and so many people I know are gone.”
What are her future plans?
“I wrote two autobiographies,” she says. “I’m writing another book. It’s inspired by stories from my life,” she explains, adding that it’s not strictly autobiographical in nature.
This Thing Called Love
“One of the techniques I love to play is a lot of harmonics,” she says. “Sweet Dreams — you’ll hear it on that song. I think that’s one of my favourite pieces,” Boyd adds.
“I’m so appreciative that I still have music fans.”
The new album is available digitally, and also on CD. “This is more for my guitar fan fanatics. Some people want physical.”
Along with the CD, they’ll get liner notes, behind the scenes photos, and other added goodies.
- Find details and purchase a signed CD of This Thing Called Love [HERE].
- Stream This Thing Called Love everywhere [HERE].
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