Heartstrings & Honky Tonks inspired by Opry shows
Dan Davidson got more than he bargained for earlier this month when he went to Edmonton country station CFCW to promote his songwriting series, Heartstrings & Honky Tonks.
The station was already involved in the project. Davidson and his friend, fellow Alberta songwriter Clayton Bellamy from the Road Hammers, had modelled the series on the Grand Ole Opry, where performers would be beamed out to the radio waves during live broadcasts. To celebrate its 70th birthday, CFCW would broadcast the five theatre shows with a rotating group of artists that Davidson and Bellamy organized for Sherwood Park, Fort Saskatchewan, Calgary, Spruce Grove and Camrose.
As part of the deal, Davidson was asked to sub in for the station's morning show hosted by Stella Stevens and promote Heartstrings & Honky Tonks at the same time. Despite having no real experience in radio, Davidson decided to give it a go.
“A couple of weeks went by and I got the call and asked if I wanted the job,” he says. “So now I'm the morning man there. I've been doing it for the past three weeks or so. So it's a nice little change for me. It's really cool for me as an artist, because I can provide a little bit of a different perspective than a lot of radio people might have.”
Luckily, Davidson has always been a morning person, which he admits is a rarity among musicians. The show starts at 6 a.m., which means the singer will be putting in a long day on April 3 when Heartstrings & Honky Tonks comes to the National Music Centre. It's the third of five in the series and will feature Davidson, Bellamy, local guest Alex Hughes and veterans George Fox and Patricia Conroy, who will swap songs and stories with CFCW program director Jackie Rae. It will all be broadcast live on the station.
At past shows, the series has featured Danny Hopper, Duane Steel, Mariya Stokes and Hailey Benedict. The Spruce Grove show will feature Kalsey Kulyk and Bobby Wills on April 5, while Nice Horse and Steele are scheduled for Camrose on May 1. The setup is meant to be a tribute to Nashville but it also has a pragmatic side. Davidson says it is getting harder to tour because of costs, so gathering four or five artists in one spot also makes financial sense.
Davidson and Bellamy were inspired not only by the Grand Ole Opry, which Bellamy has played but also by Nashville's iconic Bluebird Cafe, a venue that has hosted generations of singer-songwriters. It has become a rite of passage for many Canadian songwriters as well, including Davidson.
“We try to make sure we stay authentic to the vibe and make it about the stories and give people a little peek behind the curtain into the mind of a songwriter,” Davidson says.
Born and raised in Edmonton, Davidson first entered the country scene in 2016. He has since received seven Canadian Country Music Award nominations and 10 Alberta Country Music Awards.
He has tended to stay in Canada for most of his career, though he has a large following in Australia, rather than spend much time in Nashville. Nevertheless, he made a pilgrimage to the Bluebird in 2019.
“It was nerve-racking,” he says. “It's holy ground. It's the same chairs that Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton have sat (in). The funny thing is that it's in a strip mall, somewhere off the beaten path. It's another old, sleazy chicken wing bar. It happens to have some good history behind it. I started to talk to the audience and realized it was 95 per cent Canadians in the audience. I started to feel more and more at home the more I got through it.”
Heartstrings & Honky Tonks will be at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre, on April 3. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.