For more than three decades, anyone who wanted to know what was happening in Canadian country music turned to one man and one publication. Larry Delaney, the Ottawa journalist who founded, edited and published Country Music News, passed away peacefully on June 4, 2026, at the age of 83.
Born in Ottawa on August 30, 1942, Delaney spent his life in the city, eventually settling into the New Edinburgh home he shared with his wife Joanne, whom he married in 1964. He worked 26 years in the City of Ottawa’s finance department before turning his real passion into a vocation. In 1980, alongside local musician Neville Wells, he launched a modest publication called Capital Country News on a shoestring budget. Two years later it became Country Music News, and a Canadian institution was born.
The paper filled a gap nobody else would. Delaney built a network of reporters across the country, each filing monthly dispatches on the country happenings in their region. He added a Nashville report, in-depth CD reviews, feature articles, songwriter profiles, and his beloved “Top 100 Cancountry Hit Chart.” He even coined the word “Cancountry” itself. For Canadian artists who couldn’t get a column inch in their local papers, Country Music News was the one place that took them seriously, with a readership that stretched far beyond Canada’s borders.
His influence on careers was direct and lasting. He ran the first-ever cover story on Brett Kissel when the singer was just 14, walking into the office with his father. He hosted a young Johnny Reid, who sat down with a guitar and played him songs before the business had any idea who he was, and Delaney put him on a cover that helped open doors. Those stories multiplied across the years, because championing newcomers was the whole point.
The industry returned the affection many times over. Delaney was an eleven-time recipient of the CCMA’s Country Music Person of the Year award, a feat unlikely to be matched. His contributions were officially recognized in 1989 when he was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. He and Joanne, who was beside him for every issue of Country Music News, were inducted into the Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame together in 1993. In 1996 he became the first recipient of the CCMA’s Stan Klees Hall of Honour Builder Award, an honour reserved for those held in the deepest respect across the industry.
Through all of it, Delaney’s greatest pride was his family. Friends remember his sharp wit, his encyclopedic musical knowledge, and a generosity that ran through everything he did. He was a devoted husband, father and grandfather who filled his home with warmth and humour.
He once explained the work simply, saying he never got into it to win awards, and that it was a case of loving what he did and never losing that love. That love is all over his legacy. Larry Delaney didn’t just cover the Canadian country music industry. He helped build it, one issue, one cover story, one believed-in newcomer at a time.
Larry is survived by his loving wife Joanne, his daughter Kenni-Jo (KJ), his son Kirk and daughter-in-law Kimberly, and his cherished grandchildren Kailee, Ashlee and Logan. The Canadian country community he spent his life documenting will carry his work forward.