 Born in Regina, Saskatchewan on April 25, 1949, Bishop studied piano as a child, began playing the guitar in her teens, and later took voice lessons in Winnipeg with Alicja Seaborn.She earned a BA (Regina) in 1969.After performing in the early 1970s with the all-women dance band Walpurgis Night, first as a pianist and then as a singer, she began a solo career at the 1976 Regina Folk Festival.