NORTH BAY -- A 20-year dream in the making is finally a reality for a northern Ontario trio, Women in Song, who have released their first album of original material.

"It's never too late," said Lois O'Hanley-Jones, one of the three artists. "We're all in our 60s, we're retired. We've been doing this a long time, but it's never too late to achieve one of your dreams."

The trio from Blind River, includes O'Hanley-Jones, Patty Dunlop and Debbie Rivard. However, the group also has ties in Elliot Lake and Mattawa, where O'Hanley-Jones grew up. Although they've been dreaming of creating a completely original album for decades, the entire project only took about four months during the pandemic and was released just before Christmas.

"We don't exactly know where it's going to take us," O'Hanley-Jones said. "But, you know what; we're going to go for the ride."

So far, three shipments of CDs have been purchased and are almost completely sold out, both through their Facebook page and in local stores. The band can also be found on YouTube, Amazon and Spotify.

"Our harmonies are a signature of our music," O'Hanley-Jones said. "The songs on the album reflect on daily lives."

The album is called Life of a Woman and it talks about the travails of being a woman and having it all – a career and a family.

"We have a song on the album that's dedicated to Alzheimer's disease. One of our members, Patty, her mom died of the disease and my mom is presently suffering from Alzheimer's, so this song is called 'But I Knew Her When,'" she said.

Some songs were that were inspired by family trips and fights with children, making the lyrics relatable to a broad audience.

"What's terrific about this album is that the genre is, I think, for everybody," said Elisa Char Guilbeault with the Mattawa Women's Resource Centre, which bought 15 of the CDs for staff members. "It's not just country or pop or folk, the lyrics actually explain your spirit."

For the first time in 35 years, the Mattawa Women's Resource Centre is celebrating International Women's Day internally, focusing on staff members. The CDs were a surprise part of the wellness package.

"I think it's going to be in our collections for a very long time and we will have it here at the centre as well," Guilbeault said.

"The songs just resonated with the exact work that we do here. They're women's stories and basically, that's what we do here. We're a collector of women's stories with our life experiences and the celebrations that we do with each other."

Although International Women's Day isn't celebrated until March 8, staff now have a sneak peek of the music that is coming their way.

Although it has a been a difficult year for musicians all over due to the COVID-19 pandemic, O'Hanley-Jones said this album should help people connect, which is what the group was aiming to do.

"Some of the responses has been that the music is very uplifting, and that's wonderful to us," she said. "We write these songs and we put them into the universe and we don't really know how they'll affect other people. But as I say, the response has been that people have been able to relate to the music because they're everyday occurrences in peoples lives."

"We're always looking for ways to branch out, to connect and this album does connect people," O'Hanley-Jones adds. "It connects the people we know and love, and now with its exposure, our music is able to touch other people in areas outside of our comfort zone."

With the pandemic still a big factor in the music world, O'Hanley-Jones said the group is hopeful they can start doing concerts again soon. She also hinted at the possibility of a second album in a year or two, but for now, Women in Song are just excited to finally knock this item off their bucket lists.