The Toronto singer/songwriter comes to her intense love of music through a pedigree stemming from her grandfather, the late Chester Corbett, considered one of the best fiddlers of his era. Another strand leading towards a life of music came when Valerie at age 6 was placed in a foster home child and separated from her siblings. Fate stepped in when she was placed in the care of a loving musical family, the Blairs,
By age 9, Valerie was playing guitar and scratching out her first songs. She caught the attention of producer Terry Shields from the Oral Arts Festival of Ontario who
recognized Valerie’s gift and encouraged her to perform regularly with the Oral Arts Festival on tour. This was a huge chance to learn from other musicians and get her first taste of collaboration, all of which would come into play during recording projects in the future.
Life was good until later that year when she learned her mother had been found dead in a field in Calgary. It took considerable time, deep deep digging and music for Valerie to come back from this shocking and crushing blow, summon up the strength, and move forward.
Good news was a-coming into Valerie’s life, in the person of lead singer Buzz Shearman of famed eighties rock band “MOXY.” The pair married, had a son Jesse and Valerie found herself on top of the world. Sadly, her world ended the day Buzz was killed instantly in a motor cycle accident.
Valerie had made a positive impression within the ranks of the music industry and many of the music businesses’ finest companies came together and found ways of helping Valerie. Over time she worked at Arc Sound Records, Q107, A&M Records & Jazz-FM in Toronto where she began to develop her knowledge of doing the business of the music business.
Beneath all that, the urge to have her musical voice heard still simmered. Through these years Valerie honed her craft as a singer-songwriter and guitarist applying the meaningful lessons she had learned from late husband Buzz.
All that went into her music, culminating in her debut album Valerie Shearman, which yielded the single ‘This Kinda Guy,’ which appeared on the soundtrack of 1996 thriller The Donor starring Jeff Wincott.
