Serena Ryder

Her uncle, part-Ojibwe (Temagami First Nation) singer-songwriter Bob Carpenter, worked with producer Brian Ahern and singer Emmylou Harris and recorded the unreleased Silent Passage (1974), which has since become a folk- rock cult classic.

Ryder, youngest of three children, was raised by Barbara and her second husband, Andrew McKibbon, just outside Peterborough, in Millbrook, Ontario, and grew up listening to old records by the Beatles and Leonard Cohen from her parents' collection.

At age eight, Ryder sang at Royal Canadian Legion halls and motor hotels.

Having received a guitar from her stepfather, she began playing the instrument at the age of thirteen.

Songwriting efforts followed.

At fifteen, she was playing classic and folk tunes with her piano teacher in coffeehouses and legion halls.

At age 17, Ryder left her home for Peterborough, Ontario, where she settled into a community of artists while attending the Integrated Arts Program at the Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational Institute.

Serena Lauren Ryder (born December 8, 1982) is a Canadian singer-songwriter.

Born in Toronto, she grew up in Millbrook, Ontario.

In early 1998, Damon de Szegheo, record producer and owner of the Peterborough based independent record label Mime Radio, approached her about recording.

de Szegheo had noticed her when she sang during a set change for a local stage production of Gone with the Wind.

The product of their sessions was a self-titled promotional cassette, Serena (limited to a run of 100) and her first full-length CD, Falling Out, released in December 1999.

During that time, de Szegheo also organized live concert appearances for Ryder, with many local and touring acts including bands Thousand Foot Krutch, Three Days Grace (Then named Groundswell) and Craig Cardiff.

Ryder was later managed by Kellie Bonnici.

Bonnici approached Ryder with an offer to help her after being moved by her performance at the 2001 Peterborough Folk Festival, where Ryder was awarded the Festival's first “Emerging Artist” award.

This award enabled Ryder and Bonnici to attend a regional music festival conference and make some initial connections.

Bonnici worked with Ryder to release Live at the Market Hall and A Day in the Studio in 2002.

While Ryder was playing her first show at the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield, Quebec, owner Paul Symes called Bill Stunt, the producer of the CBC Radio program Bandwidth, and left a voice mail of the live show.

This led Stunt and Symes to invite Ryder for a performance recorded by CBC Bandwidth at the Black Sheep Inn.

The recording was later released as a live EP, Serena Ryder Live.

Ryder was invited by Erin Benjamin (then the president of the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals) to perform in Winnipeg at a regional music conference.

There her manager, Bonnici, met the CBC radio host Avril Benoit during one of Ryder's showcases.

They later arranged an interview for Ryder on CBC's Here and Now, which caught the attention of the musician Hawksley Workman and Sandy Pandya, who was then his manager.

After initial meetings with Workman and Pandya, Ryder was invited to record on Workman's Isadora label.

Shortly thereafter, Ryder and Bonnici amicably parted ways, and Ryder began working with Pandya in 2004.

In 2005, Isadora Records released Live in Oz, a recording from Ryder's tour of Australia, in limited numbers available only at live performances.

In 2005, backed by Workman and two other players, Ryder recorded her debut album with a major label, Unlikely Emergency.

The album did well enough to earn Ryder a performance at the 2005 Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame press conference, after which it was suggested she cover songs written by other Canadian musicians.

Meanwhile, the poignant song "Just Another Day" got considerable airplay on various Canadian radio stations.

In November 2006, Ryder released her second album, If Your Memory Serves You Well, a collection of 12 covers of notable Canadian songs and three original songs.

The tracks include Sylvia Tyson's “You Were On My Mind”, Leonard Cohen's "Sisters of Mercy", Galt MacDermot's "Good Morning Starshine" the Bob Dylan–Rick Danko collaboration "This Wheel's on Fire", and Paul Anka's "It Doesn't Matter Any More."

Ryder first gained national recognition with her ballad "Weak in the Knees" in 2007 and has released eight studio albums.

Serena Lauren Ryder is the daughter of Barbara Ryder and Glen Sorzano and was born into a musical family.

Her biological father was a Trinidadian musician who immigrated to Canada in the early sixties.

The EP Told You in a Whispered Song, released on June 19, 2007, is an acoustic studio collection of several live tracks and new songs by Ryder.

Touring in Canada, Ryder was part of Blast From The Beach in Prince Edward Island on July 21, 2007 headlined by Aerosmith and featuring other notable bands, including 54-40 and Cheap Trick.

Touring in Australia that same year, Ryder appeared as a guest on SBS's RocKwiz in March, where she displayed an authoritative knowledge of rock music, singing song segments in answer to questions presented to her; she also performed in the closing guest spot, with Lior.

In April 2008, Ryder found herself receiving the 2008 Juno Award for "Best New Artist of the Year" while on the label EMI.

On November 11, 2008, Is It O.K., was released in Canada on EMI Canada and on Atlantic Records in the United States on February 11, 2009.

The single "Little Bit of Red", which won a Juno Award in 2010 for Best Video of the Year, was released on that album.