Shirley Eikhard
Her mother, June, released her debut album, Canada's First Lady of the Fiddle, in 1959, and was the first woman to participate in the Canadian Open Old Time Fiddlers' Contest.[citation needed] At age 13, following her debut performance in Cobourg, Eikhard successfully auditioned for the Songwriter's Workshop at the 1969 Mariposa Folk Festival where she played alongside Joni Mitchell, Ian & Sylvia, and Bruce Cockburn.Through the 1980s, she battled both stage fright and throat problems, and was advised by her doctor that she should stop performing in clubs due to an allergy to cigarette smoke.[4] Following her 1987 album Taking Charge for WEA Records, a period which she would later describe as the nadir of her life, her prominence in the music industry had significantly declined, and she had started to pursue background extra work in film and television to support herself.[4] By 1989, however, the tide began to turn for her as a songwriter again, with singers such as Rita Coolidge, Mary Lu Zahalan and Alannah Myles recording Eikhard songs.[4] In the early 1990s, she performed with Gwen Swick and Cherie Camp in the trio The Three Marias;[8] her songs were also recorded by artists such as Quartette ("It's Just a Little Rain")[9] and Cher ("Born with the Hunger").