Lawson played guitar as a child, but he went into business when he left school. In the early 90s, he began to write songs and his debut album, The Quiet Canadian, was full of thoughtful work. The title track was a tribute to Canada’s wartime intelligence expert, Sir William Stephenson, the man called Intrepid. ‘Wartime Letters’ was inspired by correspondence between his parents (the multimedia version has considerable background information). Many of his songs tackle environmental and social subjects. Regular musicians that play and record with Lawson are Richard Sera (keyboards/vocals) and Ray Harvey (guitar/vocals), other band members include Lee Smith (guitar), Keith Bennett (harmonica), Ronnie Baran (drums), John Dryden (bass), and Saffron and Camille Henderson (backing vocals). Lawson owns and runs a record label plus a book publishing company both under the name of Timberholme.