to...www.billhouston.ca - the online home of Bill Houston who wrote and sang the song for the acclaimed 1971 IMAX film "NORTH OF SUPERIOR", shot entirely in Northwestern Ontario, Canada and showcasing the rugged natural beauty of the land north of Lake Superior - the home and native land of "Nanabijou", (The Sleeping Giant).

Bill was born in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, on Dec. 15th 1943, the son of a fur trader/store manager from Belfast, Ireland and a schoolteacher from Killaloe, Ontario. When he was six months old the Houston family which included an older sister, moved from Whitehorse to Attiwapiskat on James Bay. They remained there for two years before moving on to Lac Seul, Ontario. At Lac Seul, playmates were scarce for the Houston children due to a quarantine involving tuberculosis. However, having been born and bred in the north they were well accustomed to dealing with long periods of isolation.

Years later as a singer/songwriter, Bill would take inspiration from his early life in the north. Even today many of his songs contain a sense of isolation which lends a special quality to his music.

After three years at Lac Seul, the Houstons moved again, this time to Dinorwic, Ontario to enable the children to attend a one room school. The year was 1949 and the family had grown to include two more sisters. After a year at Dinorwic they finally settled in Sioux Lookout, Ontario.

In September of 1963, at the age of nineteen, Bill left Sioux Lookout to spend 14 months hitch-hiking through Europe and the Middle East. Running short of money in Spain, he made a life-altering decision to purchase a guitar with his last $20.00. He quickly taught himself how to play and was soon earning money and food for his performances in the streets and cafes of Rome. Later, while working at kibbutz Nir Eliahu (a collective farm in central Israel) he began to compose his own songs.

Back home in Northwestern Ontario, Bill worked for the local newspaper and then the railroad while continuing to write music, practice his guitar and hone his performance skills. In 1970, Bill’s song "Northern Journey" was accepted for use in the NFB film "THE SUPERIOR SCRAPBOOK" produced by Jim Farrell, Bill Lemmon, Donna Mikeluk, Kelly Pykerman and Ron Spence. This, in turn brought him to the attention of award winning filmmaker Graeme Ferguson.

That same year, Ferguson had arrived in Northwestern Ontario to film what was to become the very first IMAX production shot and shown entirely in full-frame IMAX. Bill was commissioned to write the song that would accompany its unforgettable and powerful images.

Asked what he thought the film's title might be, Bill suggested that it should be something that clearly identified the land north of Lake Superior where the film had been shot. His phrase "north of Lake Superior" was later shortened by Ferguson to "NORTH OF SUPERIOR" and the title of the film was born. It wasn't long before others in Northwestern Ontario started using this handy phrase to name everything from a tourism association to a film society.

Recorded in March of 1971 at Eastern Sound in Toronto, the soundtrack for "NORTH OF SUPERIOR" was produced by former "LOVIN' SPOONFUL" guitarist and singer Zal Yanovsky along with the superb musical talents of Maribeth Solomon, Mickey Erbe, Brian Leonard and Lenny Solomon. The spectacular 18-minute IMAX film was an instant success, and when patrons left the theatre, most of them were humming Bill Houston’s song "Ojibway Country".

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