Ernestine b/w Friend and Sweetheart (Man and Wife)

The Changing Times were Art and Carol Sherman, a husband-and-wife country duo who grew up in central Saskatchewan before establishing their musical career in Alberta. Art left his job operating heavy equipment to pursue music professionally, first performing with Jimmy Arthur Ordge before joining the Edmonton country circuit. Carol later joined him, and the couple recorded a single for Damon Records in 1973 and an album for Cynda Records in 1975.

Art and Carol grew up in central Saskatchewan, where they met and married. Art operated heavy equipment for a living and played bass at local dances. Carol worked as a legal stenographer, and the couple raised two children. There was always music in the house, but for years it stayed a sideline.

Then Art quit his job. With a wife and two kids counting on him, he went to Calgary to try his luck as a full-time musician and landed a place in the band of Jimmy Arthur Ordge. Raised around Donalda, Alberta, Ordge was one of the biggest country names in the West, with 'Irena Cheyenne' in 1967 and the 1970 novelty hit 'The Ballad of Muk-Tuk Annie', written by Bob Ruzicka, behind him and a reputation that carried him to the Calgary Stampede grandstand.

The family joined Art in Edmonton, where he became a working sideman on a busy circuit, backing Dick Damron, Diane Leigh, Roy Penny, Joyce Smith, The Allen Sisters and R. Harlan Smith. Smith was one of the partners behind Damon Studios, the Edmonton recording operation founded in 1968 that would become home base for the Shermans' own records.

With that experience behind him, Art asked Carol to join him onstage. As The Changing Times, Art sang and played bass and Carol sang alongside him, and their label later promised audiences "a most entertaining pair of performers."

Their first record came out on Damon in 1973. Issued as D. 015 and billed as A Damon Production, the stereo single paired two Art Sherman songs, 'Ernestine' and 'Friend and Sweetheart (Man and Wife)', a B-side title that could have served as the duo's own description. London Records of Canada distributed it nationally, and 'Ernestine' turned up in RPM's country radio reporting in the April 14, 1973 issue.

In 1975 the duo released their first album, You're Why Baby, on Cynda, the budget imprint of Boot Records, the Toronto country label founded in 1971 by Stompin' Tom Connors and his manager Jury Krytiuk. The sessions stayed close to home at Damon Sound Studios in Edmonton, which had stepped up to eight-track recording in 1972. Garry McDonall produced, Don Paches engineered, Rhythm Company handled the rhythm arrangements, and Jan Lefine, Virginia Forsland, Jim Olson and Marvin Olson sang backup.

The ten songs mixed western Canadian writing with material from Nashville and Broadway. Art wrote 'Sweet Love to Me' and co-wrote 'Oh Canada' with McDonall, who also supplied 'Back Home' and the flag-waving 'Canada Keep on Singin''. Bob Ruzicka, the writer behind Ordge's 'Muk-Tuk Annie', contributed 'The Blues Keep Comin' Back for More', a quiet link back to Art's first professional job. Around them the Shermans sang Sandy Posey's title track, Hal David and Lee Pockriss's 'My Heart Is an Open Book', Cole Porter's 'True Love', Harlan Howard's 'Yours Love' and Glen Reid's 'Love from Me to You'. RPM carried the album in its August 2, 1975 dealer listings under London distribution.

The back cover introduced the couple to record buyers with the story of Art's leap from steady work, the move west and Carol stepping up beside him. It signed off with a line that suited a duo built on a marriage: "They love people and we know you'll love them."

-Robert Williston