New discs from two rising Alberta singers.
Tenille Nadkrynechny knows the exact moment when she knew she wanted to be an entertainer.
She was nine years old, standing onstage at Rexall Place next to her idol Shania Twain, gazing out at a crowd of 18,000 people.
“I was dressed in her costume from the Miami concert with a yellow ponytail on top of my head and I had a big sign that said ‘Shania can I please sing with you?’” recalls the Alberta country singer, who now goes strictly by her first name. “She pulled me up onstage for one of the songs and I remember thinking ‘This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’”
While Twain lit a fire for singing and performing in the young musician, it was the concept of “pay it forward” that galvanized her.
She founded the annual music event, Big Hearts for Big Kids, one of the largest fundraising events in the city of Grande Prairie. It has raised nearly $200,000 since the first event in 2010, with proceeds going to Sunrise House, the only emergency youth shelter north of Edmonton. Her own Play It Forward school tour uses music and motivational speaking to promote positive leadership for students.
Her newest album, Light, being released on Tuesday, incorporates many of the themes that she carries through the school tour.
“It’s named in honour of the fact that everyone has that light inside them, that passion or spark to share,” explains the 18-year-old, winner of the 2012 Slaight Music Humanitarian Award at last year’s Canadian Country Music Awards. “When you do what you love and help other people, it lights up and makes the world a brighter place. The songs on the album are personal and definitely reflect that no matter what kind of experience, whether exciting and fun or tougher, there’s always something you can take away from it. In the darkest corners of a room there’s still light.”
Produced by Fred Mollin (Barbra Streisand, Jimmy Webb), Light features songs like — you guessed it — Pay It Forward, the theme for the Play It Forward tour. First single Dear Heart shows the calibre of her co-writers, with Gordie Sampson (Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride), Caitlyn Smith (Rascal Flatts) and Kelly Archer (Jason Aldean, Dustin Lynch) lending a hand.
“I love to tell stories that connect on an emotional level, and I love messages that mean something,” says the singer, who won awards recently at the Alberta Country Music Awards for Female Artist of the Year and Fan’s Choice. “Writing with my mentors has been an amazing experience. I’ve learned some new things, as well as different strategies for putting a masterpiece of a song together.”
She may only be at the start of a promising career, but Tenille is already thinking beyond the baby first steps.
“I want to someday pack Rexall Place with 18,000 people and pull some nineyear-old girl onstage so that I can ignite her spark and pay forward that experience.”
Alberta songwriters might be connecting on an unconscious level when it comes to album titles. Fort Saskatchewan’s Krysta Scoggins has a new release called Shine.
“My producer says ‘You’re one of those people who laughs at everything,’ ” explains the singer, a contender for this year’s Female Artist of the Year at the Alberta Country Music Awards. “That’s just my personality. I’m sure there’s going to be a situation where I don’t laugh, but generally I take life with a grain of salt.”
Scoggins has been performing professionally for a few years — her first solo album (It’s Up to Me) came out in 2005 — but she’s been in Nashville since 2001, co-writing with the likes of Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Jason McCoy, Patricia
“Songwriting was my love before anything else.”
KRYSTA SCOGGINS
Conroy, Britton Cameron and Danick Dupelle of Emerson Drive. For Shine, she hooked up with producer Scott Baggett (Alison Krauss, Jason McCoy), a business arrangement that’s turned into a firm friendship. “We’ve talked on the phone or Skyped every day since. He’s family now.”
Shine is being released on On Ramp/EMI on Tuesday as well, with a performance at the Ranch Roadhouse, 6107 104th St. at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, March 20. Tickets are available at Scoggins’s website, krystascoggins.com. The first single, I’ll Carry You, came out in May of last year, while the followup, Home, was released on March 5.
“Songwriting was my love before anything else, even performing,” says Scoggins, who works with the Make-A-Wish Foundation in her spare time.
“When I was six years old, I started changing melodies and fooling around with songs, ripping them apart and analyzing everything. Then, when I was 13, I really started to home in on things like ‘What is a bridge,’ really getting into it. Going down to Nashville to write has really been important as well.”
She’s also spent time in Los Angeles, working on videos for both of her singles. “That was a huge step for me, because I’m not an actress. I was very nervous for I’ll Carry You, but by the time I did the second one for Home, I was a little more relaxed.”
With Shine, Scoggins hopes to get across her burgeoning songwriting skills as well as her personal philosophy of life.
“I feel very blessed. I want people to be happy, and I like it when they’re in a good mood. I like it when people smile, and that’s really what this album is all about.”