Renée Lamoureux is a local Manitoba award-winning singer-songwriter who has been sharing her music for many years. Her professional music career started when she was 20 years old in a duo, Keith and Renée, before pursuing a solo career.

“When I started my solo career, it was almost like I was putting out music to a whole new world,” said Lamoureux.

The music industry is constantly changing. Renée explained when her solo career began, streaming and online platforms were very helpful when finding a new outlet to release her music.

Renée spent a lot more time writing on many different topics during COVID-19, including her most recent single, Goodbye.

“The song is about grief and loss. On a personal level, I lost a couple of people in my life, and not being able to have a proper funeral or come together with the ones you love is what this song is about,” said Lamoureux.

The most recent live performance Renée had locally was at the Don Amero Christmas show, Amero Little Christmas.

“I always come home after a show buzzing because it always feeds my soul and is a reminder that music is what I am meant to do.”

Renée is getting ready to release her new album, Human Kind. She has been working on this album throughout COVID-19. Three singles are already out now, including Goodbye.

This album has ten songs and a more upbeat sound than previous ones. Renée described experimenting with new sounds with this album giving it more of a pop feel, different from her previous country-pop sound.

“I found myself at a crossroads and I’ve been doing a lot of different things in life, and the album is kind of like that, exploring this new chapter.”

Human Kind is Renée’s tenth album throughout her music career.

“I feel like I have surpassed a lot of goals. Life has given me lot’s of pleasant surprises.”

A goal Renée has for the near future is to get back on tour and play some festivals, which as a fan, I cannot wait to see.

Don’t forget to listen to Goodbye and the rest of Renée’s amazing discography as we wait for the release of Human Kind!

The local folk/roots duo Two Crows for Comfort (Erin Corbin and Cory Sulyma) are this year’s Manitoba Country Music Awards roots artist duo of the year.

The duo has been playing together since 2017 but hasn’t always gone by Two Crows for Comfort. They would go by different names when they started playing shows until they settled on Two Crows for Comfort.

“The name was very unplanned and random; I was originally going to use it in a song. I have a book with a lot of lyrics and lines and things that I would eventually put into songs,” said Cory.

Their songwriting and lyricism stand out through every song when listening to the duo.

“I don’t really have a songwriting process; it’s more chaos. Sometimes I’ll think of an idea, and it’s on the shelf for two years before I come back to it. Sometimes I can work on a song in 15 minutes, and I’m done,” said Cory.

Every song starts differently; some songs start with a vocal melody or a guitar part, but there is no specific formula when writing songs, the duo described.

A difficult decision artists usually have to make is what songs they release and what songs don’t make the cut.

You just know when something isn’t going to work, it’s an instinct. If we are happy with a song and like to perform it live, we will put it out and hope 1 or 2 people like it, Erin and Cory explained.

The duo’s favourite song to perform is The Ballad of Giles Corey that they did at the virtual MCMA Awards in November 2021.

There are many great things about being a musician, but for the duo, their favourite is after a show when people come up to you and say they like your song because it connects to them in some way.

“Seeing how a song you made could impact someone and hear their connection to it is my favourite part,” said Erin.

In December, I was in the audience at Don Amero’s Christmas show, Amero Little Christmas, when Two Crows for Comfort were announced as special guests. This was my first time seeing them perform live, and I was in awe of their harmonies and how their music caught everyone’s attention. The duo sang Refugee King, and Don Amero joined them to sing It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas. Their performance was a great addition to the Christmas show.

Two Crows for Comfort released a self-produced album over the pandemic entitled, Show Me Light with ten songs that showcase their songwriting and artistic abilities.

Listen to Show Me Light on all streaming platforms and keep your eye open for upcoming shows to hear their beautiful harmonies for yourself.

I asked some questions to the Now Country 104.7 FM Morning Show host and recent MCMA Awards host, Stefan Richard.

Here is a Q&A with Stefan Richard:

1. How do you choose what songs you play?

“There is a music director at most stations, especially ones that play new music, who is in charge of what gets played and how often songs need to rotate. So I don’t personally have a say as to what plays on my show but our music director (MJ) is very receptive to any kind of suggestions or questions that I have.”

2. How do you get ideas for your segments?

” I usually try to stay topical as to what is happening that news day or towards things that I am interested in or know a little bit about so I kind at least sound somewhat entertaining or know what I’m talking about. But it usually comes down to what people are talking about that day.”

3. What is your favourite thing about being a radio host?

“The creativity is my favorite aspect. I enjoy being able to tell a story to listeners that I find funny or interesting. It allows me to express myself in ways that I wouldn’t be able to in a regular conversation. I’d sound like a maniac if I started making observational jokes out of nowhere.”

4. How do you find new music to play? Do artists send their music to you?

“Yeah, usually a newer artist will reach out to our Music Director and send a song. But artists on a bigger label somewhere go through a different system of doing things and I have no idea how that works! So I trust in the people in charge of that to handle it.”

5. You did a great job hosting the MCMA Awards on the weekend, how was that experience and interacting with all the artists?!

“Thank you! That was a lot of fun. I got to spend the day with my co-host Don Amero and talk about ideas on how the show would go down. Don is one of the nicest people I’ve met in music so it was a lot of fun. The performances were filmed on a closed set because of the pandemic so it was just the hosts, artists who had just finished performing & ones who had yet to perform. So it was all this great music being performed in a great venue with a very small crew of people to enjoy it. Everyone was incredible to work with. I hope I am able to do it again next year!”

I hope you enjoyed this Q&A I did with Stefan and learned a little bit about what its like to work behind the scenes at a local country music radio station. You can listen to Stefan Richard on the 104.7 Morning Show from 6:00am- 10:00am.

Local Manitoba country music artist Emma Peterson started playing music at 11 years old. She fell in love with songwriting and the aspect of storytelling through music.

Emma released two new singles earlier this year, “Hurt Like Hell” and “One More Night,” which are both very successful on Canadian country radio stations.

At the end of September, she played her first live show since the pandemic. Emma played a drive-in concert in Brandon, Manitoba. “It felt so good to play music again. As soon as I got up there with my band, everything fell into place.”

The most memorable moment of her career so far was singing at the Manitoba Country Music Awards for the first time. Her whole family was able to come see her perform. “When they are able to see me do what I love, it fills my heart.” You can watch her perform at this year’s MCMA on November 6. This year, Emma is up for two awards, Female Artist of the Year and Song of the Year for “Hurt Like Hell.”

The country music industry has a history of lacking female representation. As a female in the country music industry, Emma sees that the industry is definitely male dominant. “It’s no secret. People see it on the radio or at shows when a lineup is all males.”

She sees a big change happening where award shows are putting in more effort to include female artists, but there is still more work to be done. Emma has gotten a lot of support from radio, but she knows it isn’t the same case for everyone. She is grateful for the local female artists who took her under their wing at the start of
her career.

Emma’s goal is to do music full-time and record an album in the next few years.

I am looking forward to hearing new music from Emma Peterson soon and watching her performance at the Manitoba Country Music Awards!

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