Whilst Prince Edward Island is the smallest of Canada’s thirteen administrative divisions, the dreams of the provinces Alli Walker are much bigger as by way of Toronto in Ontarion and Kelowna in British Columbia she has just made the move south of the border to now call Nashville home.
After releasing her sophomore album “Growing Up” in March 2023 and channelling one of the most unique musical talents in today’s country music in “The Whiskey’s Gone” where you will hear her craft as a champion bagpiper, she continues with new music in 2024 with her Sir Mix-A-Lot interpolation “I like Big Trucks” which is out now and is available HERE. Earlier this month Alli and her electric “dudelsack” as our German friends call the bagpipes, found their way to Berlin for this years C2C: Country to Country where Jamie spent some time getting to hear more about her story and her plans for the future.
Thanks for taking the time to hang out. “Sure, thanks for wanting to take the time to chat with me.”
Well, you do come very highly recommended curtesy of Mr Todd Cassetty. “Oh really, that is high praise indeed. How do you know Todd?”
When Song Suffragettes started doing things in the UK, it’s my friend Phoebe (Seston) who does all the magic for him in London. “Oh cool, I didn’t know they did that.”
They’re not doing it as regularly as they were in town at the moment but they still do a big show during Country Music Week, do tours and they have a round at C2C during the London weekend so, I know Todd through Phoebe. It’s a shame he can’t make it over this time even if my liver is quite relieved by his absence. Back to you though, you’re a long way from PEI right now over here in Berlin. “A very long way and I came over from Kelowna, British Columbia actually which is the other side of Canada.”
The only reason I really know anything about Prince Edward Island is because Music PEI are one of the sponsors of our Americana Music Week and I guess the tourist board of the province are involved in some way too. “That’s cool, yeah they do a lot with tourism because Prince Edward Island is like a two month province because it’s really snowy for the rest of the year but it’s so beautiful in the summer and we want everyone to come and experience it. It’s beautiful, the whole island is just sandy beaches and it’s so pretty.”
But you’re about to make the big move south of the border. “Yeah, I moved from PEI when I was nineteen so fourteen years ago. I moved to Toronto then to Kelowna and now I’m moving to Nashville like next week, because that’s where you’ve got to be.”
It’s a really exciting time for Canadian artists and particularly amongst the females right now who have made the move down to Nashville. A lot of them have really big UK followings and keep coming over to London. Lindsay (Ell) has been touring here for over a decade, the two Tenille’s keep coming back to bigger and bigger rooms each time, Jess (Moskaluke) is over more and more, Robyn Ottolini has been a couple of times now, then Madison Kozak, MacKenzie Porter, Sacha and Sykamore have all made the trip too so, hopefully we can soon be adding Alli Walker to that list too. It’s quite interesting to see so many of you girls make the move down to Tennessee but the Canadian male artists who are really successful domestically don’t seem to be heading to the more Nashville based mainstream side of things. It get’s me thinking whether it is even harder for female artists in Canada than it is in the States. “That’s a great question. I’m definitely a proponent of females in country music because there is such a discrepancy of females to males when you look at playlists. I’m not sure what we do to change that other than have more females going to Nashville and writing songs to try and make it happen but I’ve never really looked at it as there also being a specific Canada problem, I see it more as an overall problem. It is cool that there are lots of Canadian females who are now in Nashville trying to make it happen.”
As we’re here in Berlin, how have you found the whole festival in Germany this weekend? “I love it, I think it’s so cool how it’s all in this one area and the fans are the craziest fans that I’ve ever seen. They are so dedicated and they come up with printed photos, they want signatures, they want photos and they come out to every single show so they are seeing the same set over and over again.”
I’ve just been blown away by the audience here, I hear from people that come over about UK crowds which I see day in, day out but the way that the Germans are just so respectful on another level compared to the UK. “It’s insane, they probably don’t get a lot of country music acts that come over here so, this to them is incredible but it’s definitely a different level of support.”
This is the first time playing here and it seems like it’s gone really well and that your liking it a lot. “I love it, I’ve never been to mainland Europe before. I’ve been to Scotland, Ireland and Iceland but not here itself.”
Watching you on stage with your “dudelsack” which is definitely my new favourite German word but this along with you saying that you have been to Scotland and Ireland before tells me that you’ve probably got a bit of Celtic heritage in you. “I think I know about three words in German and one of them is for bagpipes which is dudelsack, I love it. Yes I am Scottish, Irish and then French so because I play the bagpipes I guess it is kind of a Scottish/Irish thing and the world championships for bagpiping is in Scotland so I went over there and played at the worlds then there is a Highland Games, the week before in Ireland that I went to. Everyone goes to that to practice before the worlds.” How did you get started with playing the bagpipes?
“My mother was the accountant at a place called The College of Piping and they needed a bass player for a parade, like a bass drum player with the big thing that you have on your belly so, I did that and it literally killed my back. I was like, I cannot do this but I am interested in the bagpipes, I was already a stepdancer there too and bagpiping just came super easy to me so, it was just something that I loved immediately. It is something that you can get better at, it’s very regimented where you have to be a perfectionist as you can’t miss one little chirp and they have competitions for it, which is great.”
Then you’ve found a way to bring it into your style of country music as well. “Yeah, one song so far. I’ve got to get another one with the bagpipes but I never thought I would get bagpipes in one of my songs and when I did it became one of my most fun songs. I was just having coffee before the writing session when we wrote it and it came up that I played the bagpipes so, they were like we need to write a bagpipes song and I was like well, how do we do that? We landed on doing a sea shanty type thing with “The Whiskey’s Gone” and we didn’t have bagpipes in at the beginning, we just had a fiddle sample, then I thought I’ll add bagpipes to this and I got musicians from PEI to play fiddle and tin whistle on it.” The new song that’s just come out is a little bit different, we’ve got a rework slash cover type thing with “I Like Big Trucks” so, where did doing something about trucks with that iconic Sir Mix-A-Lot track come from? “Well, it didn’t mean to happen. I wanted to write a song about trucks, my dad loved trucks and I grew up loving Ram trucks then the co-writer I was writing with was like, this is going to be really dumb and I don’t even want to say it. I said just say it and he was like what if instead of I like big butts, it’s I like big trucks ha-ha and I was like yeeeeeeessss. He was like are you sure and I said absolutely so then we had to get permission from Sir Mix-A-Lot because it is technically like a co-write so now I get to say that I co-wrote a song with Sir Mix-A-Lot. He wasn’t in the room but it still says it if people view the credits on Spotify.”
Coming back to this trip to Europe, you’re here this weekend and I really wish we could see you again next week. “I was meant to come and it was lined up but I have another gig in Texas, it’s literally going to be my first rodeo but I’ll be back and I want to do all of them next time where it will hopefully be bigger and better with what I bring. I have a lot in Canada this summer because as I’m just moving to the States and building my team in Nashville, festivals book out so much in advance so my Canadian booking agent booked all my summer festivals in Canada then I’m going to California for some acoustic shows in the fall.
It's a busy time then with so much going on, then here you are as a Canadian sat in Germany and talking to a Brit. “Ha-ha isn’t that so weird.”
Yeah it’s nuts, Carter Faith said yesterday that a Brit and an American sat in Germany sounds like it should be the start of a joke so I guess this is version two of the joke, I still need a punchline though. I definitely hope that you can get over to see us in London soon because there is one hundred percent a market for what you do musically with your style and sound. “Awh thank you, I will definitely be back, London is actually my third highest city on my analytics behind Toronto and Montreal.”
Oooh interesting with the UK and French speaking Montreal up there. “Quebec is like its own country basically and they love things hard when they do.” That’s wild and excited for everyone else to see you so, can’t wait for you to come back. “Me too, thank you for taking the time, this has been really fun.”
The new single “I Like Big Trucks” from Alli Walker is out now and is available HERE. You can find details for all of Alli’s upcoming North American shows by checking out her WBESITE or you can be the first to be in the know about any news of forthcoming new releases and what she is up to by following along on INSTAGRAMTIKTOK & TWITTER.
C2C: Country to Country will return in 2025 for three days of festivities in Berlin over the weekend of March 7th to 9th which you will be able to find further detail on their WEBSITE and on INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK where you will also be able to relive highlights from this year’s event. The event will then roll into London, Glasgow and Belfast the following weekend between March 14th and 16th which you can keep a look out for all forthcoming details at the event WEBSITE or socials (INSTAGRAMTWITTERFACEBOOK) with line-up details expected to be announced later in the year.