Gordie Sampson

Gordie Sampson
Gordie Sampson performing at Granville Green concert series in Port Hawkesbury NS. Aug 9th 2015.
Background information
Birth name	Gordon Francis Sampson
Born	(1971-07-30) July 30, 1971 (age 45) Big Pond, Nova Scotia, Canada
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, producer, recording artist
Instruments	Guitar, piano, bass, drums, bouzouki, accordion, fiddle
Years active	1990–present
Labels	MapleMusic Recordings (Canada)
Associated acts	Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Bon Jovi, Emerson Drive, George Canyon, Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert
Website	www.gordiesampson.com

Gordie Sampson (born July 30, 1971) is a Grammy award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter and producer from Big Pond, Nova Scotia.

Beginning his career as a performer on his hometown island of Cape Breton, both in bands and on his own, Sampson has gone on to achieve international success as a songwriter based in Nashville. He has written songs for Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Faith Hill, LeAnn Rimes, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, and Rascal Flatts, among many other country performers. He has also released four albums to date as a solo performer.

Sampson has received many awards and accolades, including a Grammy Award, a Juno Award, two ASCAP Awards, 14 East Coast Music Awards, and honorary degrees from Cape Breton University and St. Francis Xavier University

Sampson's only musical training as a child were piano lessons he took from his mother, Florence Ley. He remembers being surrounded by fiddlers, who were very common in Cape Breton. Initially, he had no interest in fiddle music, but only wanted to be in a rock'n'roll band. He taught himself to play guitar and played in school bands in both junior high and high school.

Sampson attended Riverview Rural High School in the late 1980s. His first band was called Ricochet; he played with them at age 17, straight out of high school, going on a six-month tour of the Maritimes. After that, in the early 1990s, he was invited to join the Nova Scotia band Realworld with brothers Jamie and Matthew Foulds. The group released one CD, Dig; three singles from the album, all co-written by Sampson, were Top 10 hits in Canada in 1994. But the band was growing apart, and broke up later that year.