Alli Walker, is a Canadian country music singer/songwriter from Prince Edward Island. She was named Front Porch Music’s Artist to Watch 2022, and nominated for Rising Star at the 2022 CMAOntario Awards (Country Music Association of Ontario Awards), is a Prince Edward Island raised country music singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who moved to Toronto when she was 19 to ‘chase the dream’.

Since a very young age Alli remembers always loving country music and strutting around in her little cowboy boots she bought herself at a young age.

“I think country music got ingrained in me,” she said. Her babysitter growing up always had country music on, which helped her discover artists like Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, and Taylor Swift.

“I really started singing because of Taylor and chose it for a career because of how inspired i was by her.”

In the fall of 2022, Alli released her single, “Same Stars.”

“Same Stars” is a song about being a part from your loved ones and family. At 19 years old, Alli moved away from her family in PEI to Toronto to chase her dream and have more opportunities in country music.

“Same Stars” is a reminder that although the world is so large it is also small at the same time and you can find comfort knowing that when you look up at the sky you see the same stars as your loved ones.

“It has been cool seeing the fans resonate with this song because there is a universal feeling of missing someone that people are getting with this song,” said Walker.

Same Stars is different for Walker in a sense that unlike all of her other songs, she didn’t write this one. It was pitched to her twice by her producers and at first she was hesitant about recording a song she didn’t write but this song really resonated with her and told a story she wanted to tell.

“One of my favourite song writers, Ingrid Andress wrote the song and I just really love it,” she said.

Alli Walker’s sophomore album is coming in the early new year, which will include her hit singles, “Same Stars, Red Wine or Whiskey, and Country Music.”

“This album has been a three or four year process. You think an album is going to be one way and then you keep writing and it constantly changes,” she said.

The songs she thought would be on the album constantly changed throughout those years because she kept writing more and developing a clearer idea of what she wanted the album to say.

When Alli thought her album was complete she posted a video of her single “Red Wine or Whiskey” on TikTok and fans absolutely loved it so she knew it had to be added on the album. “Red Wine or Whiskey,” a song that was never going to be on the album is now is her most successful song on the album so far!

Make sure to check out “Same Stars” and more of Alli’s hit singles!

Jerry Sereda, country music singer/songwriter grew up in Selkirk, Manitoba and was always surrounded by music from family and friends.

Growing up near Dauphin, Manitoba he remembers attending Dauphin’s
Countryfest — a summer country music festival. One particular year he was watching Dierks Bentley perform on stage and was completely mesmerized by the show. In that moment he realized that music and performing was what he was supposed to do.

Jerry started off his music career participating in talent competitions performing with his acoustic guitar. After many competitions he felt it was time to take a break from them until his mom found a contest that was being put on by an Indigenous organization. Jerry is Métis and has always been proud of his Indigenous heritage and decided to give it a try.

Jerry placed in the top 12 of the competition. The competition took the top 12 contestants and paid for each artist to go in a studio with a producer and record an original song. They got to perform on a stage with a live band , live audience on National Indigenous People’s Day.

“I was blessed enough to place in the overall top 3 of this contest, said Sereda. It opened up my eyes into the work that goes into everything in the industry and I was hooked in the industry and have enjoyed the process the entire time.”

Jerry is nominated for two Manitoba Country Music Award nominations this year in the Male Artist of the Year and NCI FM Indigenous Country Artist of the Year categories.

“I’m honoured and shocked at the same time to be nominated because everybody in these categories with me are not only friends of mine but I own their albums and listen to their music,” he said.

This summer Jerry released his latest single, “Backroad Therapy,” which discusses the idea of how driving around, listening to music with friends and family is therapy with the main theme of music being a form of therapy.

As Jerry comes out of a super busy summer with shows and recordings he is on tour with Petric and Jason Kirkness.

“They are like my brothers and it’s going to be a blast.”

The Turn The Night Up Tour kicked off in Virden, Manitoba last night and continues on Thursday, October 27 in Brandon, Manitoba.

Jerry Sereda is currently working on his new album, which is ready to go very soon, writing music, and performing live shows.

Make sure to listen to “Backroad Therapy” and catch Jerry Sereda on the Turn The Night Up tour with Jason Kirkness and Petric!

Brady Kenneth is a local Manitoba country music singer-songwriter and Manitoba Country Music Awards nominee.

Brady Kenneth started his music career in a heavy metal band and switched genres to country about eight years ago. He always played acoustic guitar and wrote songs, but didn’t grow up on country music. Once he discovered country sounds like Eric Church, he decided to change his sound to country.

He has a broad spectrum of musical influences that go back to is metal days but for country, Eric Church is definitely a major influence.

His favourite thing about being a country artist is learning about songwriting and the country music industry. Kenneth is very interested in the behind-the-scenes of the industry that not everyone sees.

In July of 2022, he released his newest single, “That One.”

“That One,” is a song that was written out of a publishing company in Nashville. Brady worked with producer, Jeff Dalziel, CCMA 2x Producer of the Year. Together, they went through hundreds of songs and found “That One” and made it his sound.

“The song is current and really well written and I can relate to it,” he said.

It’s a song about a situation where you are starting a relationship and keeping it to yourself for a bit, but when you make it public you always have those people who doubt it.

The top three goals of his are to “make music, create music, and put out music that ultimately has some success. It is very tough to break out in the Industry with many different things that go into it – right song, place, time, season, and I would love to find that and break through more,” he explained.

Brady is looking into some upcoming show opportunities, so keep an eye out for those and make sure to listen to his newest single, “That One!”

Nelson Little, a local Manitoba country music singer and songwriter released his latest single, “High Road” this spring, which talks about struggles during COVID-19.

At eleven years old, Little was gifted his first guitar and took enough lessons to learn a few cords.

After experiencing a loss in his family after a tragic car accident at 17 years old, he connected to guitar and country music on a deeper level.

He draws songwriting inspiration from listing to classic country artists like Merle Haggard and George Jones, to name a few. As he was learning to write he would get inspiration from how he could take negative experiences and put a positive spin on them by making songs and music.

In May of 2022, Little released his latest single, “High Road.”

“High Road” is about the struggles of COVID-19 and how it affected society, especially children navigating school through a pandemic. This song started as an advice song to his son, who was struggling in school but became a song for everyone.

“Hold my head up, so I don’t fall.”

Lyric in High Road by Nelson

“High Road” has recieved a lot of praise from country music fans and was one of the top five downloaded songs on county radio!

He is currently working on new music and is preparing for a new song coming out in the fall!

Make sure to stream “High Road” on all steaming platforms and stay tuned for any show and music updates from Nelson Little.

Shawn Austin is a Canadian country singer- songwriter with over 23 million collective streams to date.

He grew up in a very musical household and country music was always the backbone of everything he did. Guitar is what brought Shawn to want to be in music and introduced him to Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, and John Mayer, who ultimately started the musical fire in him.

On June 29, Shawn Austin released his second EP, Planes Don’t Wait, including his collaboration with Chris Lane on “Tailgate to Heaven.”

Working with Chris Lane was a full circle moment for Shawn, who did a couple of shows with him back in 2018. They were planning to record a completely different song but when Chris Lane heard “Tailgate to Heaven” he asked to be on it.

“He is so talented and his voice is incredible. It’s nice to call him a buddy now,” said Austin.

Shawn describes “Tailgate to Heaven” as the perfect song to release after taking time off due to the pandemic and said it has been amazing to see the positive response from their fans.

Shawn explained the meaning of the title track “Planes Don’t Wait” as a sad song in a sense where time goes fast and you miss the opportunities you don’t take advantage of.

To him, “Planes Don’t” Wait has a secondary meaning as we are coming out of what we have all been going through in the past two years and how now is the time to travel and get things going again.

A song that stands out to Shawn as a favourite on the EP is “Somewhere in Austin.” After going through almost 200 songs, “Somewhere in Austin” came around and Shawn loved it from the first listen and did everything he could to record it as fast as possible to sneak it on the EP.

Shawn Austin just wrappped up his nationwide Somethings Never Change Tour with Dallas Smith, Jojo Mason, James Barker Band, Manny Blu, Kelly Prescott, and Meghan Patrick.

“Tour has been so fulfilling.” It was like a six week reunion with the tour family on the road together,” said Austin.

Shawn Austin has a busy schedule ahead for the summer with many shows and festivals. He has already started on the next project, which will be his focus for the next little while.

Make sure to check out Shawn Austin’s new EP, Planes Don’t Wait and stream it on all streaming platforms!

To watch the full Shawn Austin interview, head to my instagram page @countryslocal!