HALIFAX -- For the past 40 years, Sharon Hampson and Bram Morrison have dedicated their lives to entertaining Canadian children.
Originally, the pair were part of the trio “Sharon, Lois and Bram,” formed in 1978, along with Lois Lilienstein.
According to Bram, Lois played a key role in the group’s success.
“She is the one, among many other things, who brought us the song ‘Skinnamarink,’” he says.
After Lois retired, Sharon and Bram continued to tour for 20 years on their own, as “Sharon & Bram and Friends.”
The duo continued to have a relationship with Lois, who died of cancer in 2015 at the age of 78.
“We were friends, so we stayed in touch and we spent time together and, certainly, when she was ailing we were at her side,” says Sharon.
In addition to their work on television specials and series, Sharon and Bram spent years on the road performing for children across Canada.
“Every day, every week was a little bit different, which makes for a very interesting life I’ll tell you. Sometimes it was easy as pie, sometimes it was really tiring,” says Bram.
“We all had spouses and family and all that, so sometimes you missed out on things,” says Sharon.
“The fact that we were all three married, and we were in long-term marriages, so we understood about relationships and the kind of, the things you have to do to make them work and that served us very well in our business life as well.”
Sharon says, when people ask if she ever gets tired of singing their signature song Skinnamarink, her response is always “absolutely not.”
“It’s a lovely song, it has a lovely message. We know that when we sing it the audience sings it with us. They sing it to us, they sing it to their parents and grandparents, the parents sing it to babies. It’s a beautiful message and we’re happy for that,” says Sharon.
In 2019, the pair released their first album in more than 20 years, called “Sharon & Bram, and Friends.”
In the same year, they also published a picture book called “Sharon, Lois and Bram’s Skinnamarink.”
