Country Music Resolution #1 – Canadian Girls Part 2 (Non-Nashville Based) by Nathalie Larsen
Have all your new year’s resolutions been tossed in the dustbin? Want ones that don’t feel like chores for the rest of the year? Discover the current world of country music outside of Nashville with B&G.
Country Music Resolution #1 – Canadian Girls Part 2 (Non-Nashville Based)
There’s more than enough country (well, pop-country at the very least) coming out of Canada for one post (INSERT LINK). Here’s another bunch for your discovery.
Kira Isabella
If you like: Taylor Swift and Kelsea Ballerini (this comparison says it all)
Kira has been around on the radio since she released her first single in 2011 at only 19, which almost breached top 10 on the Canadian Country charts. Since then and now she’s released 9 more singles, across two albums, and only two didn’t reach top 20. Each album will make you dance, cry, cut some tires of a guy’s truck, cringe a little, and then cry and dance some more. Her last album Caffeine & Big Dreams was released in 2014 and had one of the most important country songs written for the high school audience (and anyone dealing with them in any capacity – be it family or teachers – see below) in this millennium in my humble opinion. Fans have been eagerly awaiting new music from Kira, two teasing singles were released in 2016 and 2017 respectively, and she featured on a great Chris Buck Band song last year as well. But it looks like the wait could be coming to an end soon..
Top 3 songs (incredibly difficult to choose here): Quarterback, Little White Church, Coke Can
Stand out lyric: “I’d dip my toes in the water/Scared to step any farther/Feeling left behind/My mama would say to me/Hey late bloomer/You don’t have to fly sooner
Jess Moskaluke
If you like: Carly Pearce, Kelleigh Bannen and Jess and the Bandits
A Juno Award winner and a three-time Canadian Country Music Association winner as female artist of the year, Jess is a songstress to be reckoned with. Yet she still lives in smalltown Saskatchewan and makes sure to play the smaller festivals and small towns across Canada. Releasing her her 10-track album Light Up The Night in April 2014, she has released two extended plays since, and gone from strength to strength – especially with her 8-track EP released last year Past the Past, her first to make the Canadian Albums Billboard Chart. While this EP may be about heartbreak, we expect Jess is in a happier place at the moment – just a few days before it was released to fans she got engaged to her sweetheart of 6 years. Let’s cheers, I mean stream, to that!
Top 3 songs: Kiss Me Quiet, Cheap Wine and Cigarettes, Drive Me Away
Standout lyric: “Tie it up tight, and lay it on the train tracks/Give it some gas, light it up with one match/Chisel a hit stone, lower it six feet down”
Whitney Rose
If you like: Old school country/Country Gold – the greats such as Loretta and Patsy, or fresher facers such as Margo Price, Nikki Lane, and Natalie Hemby
Belles and Gals have raved about Canadian-born, now Austin-resident Whitney Rose before – in part because we’ve been lucky enough to have her grace out British shores, in part because she’s fantastic. Of course, being a world apart from the country-pop style the other Canadian girls featured roam in, radio success has been limited. Nonetheless, her third studio album Rule 62 was released last year to much critical acclaim, named one of the best albums by a whole host of sites. And we simply had to include Whitney on this list, despite our extensive previous features, because guess what? You can catch her at the Lexington on the 29th of April in London (UK) – and you can thank us later!
Top 3 songs: You Don’t Scare Me, Heartbreaker of the Year, The Devil Borrowed My Boots
Standout lyric: “At that trucker’s funeral/Two women buried wedding rings/If you’re at a trucker’s funeral/Be prepared for anything”
Article written by Nathalie Larsen (twitter.com/NathalieSLarsen)
