Nashville-based singer, songwriter, guitar player, and recording artist who has earned dozens of accolades over her career, including multiple Canadian Country Music Association Awards, a JUNO Award for Best Country Artist, an Academy of Country Music Award for Top New Female Vocalist and an American Music Award for Favorite New Country Artist. She has written for and performed with some of the biggest names in music, from Chris Stapleton to Martina McBride to Miranda Lambert, JoDee Messina, Ashley McBryde, Darius Rucker, and more. She is working on a new album and next month she will perform at the Grand Ole Opry, on October 29th. She has a combined total of 3.1 million video views on her official YouTube channel and her top five songs alone on Spotify have a combined total of over five-and-a-half million streams. This interview was recorded on location in conjunction with her performing at the 2nd Las Vegas Songwriters Festival.
“I'm still going to keep doing this because I love this. I can't not do this.”
“L.A. Reid… loved that song… And so, he made it into this other thing because he loved the song. We knew it was a special song.”
“We had my little acoustic demo in our ears while we were recording it. And we built it around the guitar vocal, which, I don't always do that. We usually start with a blank space. We listen to something. But then we start blank.”
“I wrote a lot of poetry. So, the songwriting was there.”
“I'd like to think that my heart was always shining through my voice, whether it was down in the depths or high up. I think my heart has been intertwined with my singing voice.”
“I went to recording engineering school in Vancouver, British Columbia. I thought, I want to learn. I love the producing side of things as well. So, I want to learn as much as I can so that as a female, I have just that extra bit of voice to understand what's going on in the studio, to articulate the things that I'm hoping for. I knew I had musicality to create maybe things and work with musicians, but I wanted to learn some of the business and audio side of it, engineering side of it.”
“I cried when I got on the plane to go back home to Canada because I didn't want to leave (Nashville).”
“The hardest part of songwriting is finishing a song… wrapping up a song is pretty hard.”
“I'm the face that has to go out and sell this music. I mean, that's what it comes down to when a record company is thinking about you, right? It’s like, ‘Go out there and sell this. You gotta go out there’.”
“I drove around in my car till about four o'clock in the morning by myself listening to the board tape going, ‘What is going on with my life? I have a record deal’!”
“I have had a lot of things, ups and downs, in this business. I've done so many more incredible things than I thought I was ever gonna do. I've had heart breaks, but I've had beautiful bonus moments.”
“I still love to play in front of people. I love to get their reactions. I don't know what my world would be if it didn't have music in it.”
“As a producer my strengths are hearing different parts and pieces and the feeling of the song. I have a lot of musical ideas for the instrumentation. I also feel like because I'm a singer, I can really help another singer be good in the studio. They might already be great, but I can help coach them to bring out the best of what they have and also make them very comfortable in the studio.”
“I tour with Martina McBride also and sing background some, play guitar for her at times. It's just kind of like a sisterhood.”
“Learn the genre that you want to be in. You really need to know what you're going into. Now that doesn't mean become like that. You want to be your own person.”
“Stubborn Clock”
“Complicated”