As a country artist, BC-based Métis musician Emma Kade is very happy to finally be doing an Albertan tour.
“I haven’t played much in Alberta and it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while so it’s really exciting,” she says, from her home in Radium Hot Springs.
“It’s kind of an untapped market for me,” she continues. “I’m excited to play for people who love country music as much as Albertans do.”
Kade, who was signed to a record label at 16, started out in the pop/folk realm but also just played whatever felt right.
“I’ve always written music not thinking about the genre. My first album was pop folk and then I got into more pop,” she says. “I even wrote some gospel music. I wrote a dance tune as well. I was just creating art and finding my sound.”
She was in an artist’s retreat through BC Music’s ARC program when she had an epiphany.
“I can’t explain it, I just felt this overwhelming feeling that that I needed to be making country music and this is what’s next for me,” she says. “My songs have been always very story-telling in that nature and I grew up only listening to country music and I always had a love for it.”
The revelation has proved fruitful.
“I’m so glad that I decided to lean into that,” she says. “Since I decided to make country music and be true to myself in that genre, my career has started rolling, which it never has in the past since I was 16. I’m finally starting to gain some traction and I’m thinking, ‘why didn’t I do this years ago?’”
She won a competition to open for Juno Award-winning country singer Dean Brody in 2018. The experience clinched it.
“I just remember watching him perform and thinking, ‘oh my god, I want to do this for the rest of my life. That was one of my epiphany moments.”
She’s off to a good start, with several awards and competition wins under her belt.
Most recently, Kade received a grant from Creative BC that paid for her to record three singles. Her first, “Watering Can”, is out now and she has two more to come, including “Blue Collar Man,” out in October. The latter started as a joke.
Kade lives near a main highway, with a mill nearby. “I hear the logging trucks go by all day long. I was practising for a show and the logging trucks are so flipping loud. I remember it just making me so mad and I wrote this song as a joke.”
“I posted it online and it got the most likes I’d ever gotten. It went over so well I decided I’d better finish it and now it’s one of my singles,” she laughs.
Catch this rising country artist in Alberta soon! Kade performs in High River, August 27, Calgary, August 28, Lethbridge, August 29, Picture Butte, August 30 and Drumheller, August 31. All details can be found on her website.
“Watering Can” by Emma Kade:
