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​The Sit Down with Tenille Townes

​As one of the most decorated and successful country music artists out of Canada, Tenille Townes is back with her latest self-produced and independently released album “The Acrobat” and also her subsequently released new single “Sunshine’s Free”. The more exciting news for fans on this side of the Atlantic is that her eagerly awaited return across the pond is on the horizon as she is back in the UK later this year for shows on The Living Room Tour in London, Manchester, Cardiff and Glasgow. Somehow it had been nearly four and a half years since we last caught up with the Grande Prairie, Alberta native, so with the promise of even more new music on the way this year and the excitement building for her return to these shores, it felt like a great opportunity for a long overdue catchup.

“Hello, how are you?”
I am really, really good.
“Oh, I'm so happy to see you.”

I know, me too. I was looking how long ago it was since we last spoke like this, then when I searched through the site and typed in Tenille, I’m going through being like nope, that’s theother Tenille, other Tenille, other Tenille again. Let me tell you, it has been so long since I crowned you as the best hugger in country music that Caylee Hammack has stolen that crown off you!
“Oh, she’s the best.”

She may well lose it again though on Saturday because I’m gonna see Ashley.
“I mean, this is true, listen, these are good contenders for this title for sure.”

How’ve you been?
“I've been doing good, doing well. I’m happy to be getting some new stuff going and so excited to be coming back to the UK. I'm hanging in, it's beautiful outside, there's zinnias growing on my deck, I’ve been hanging with my dog, you know? How about you?”

All good. It's really warm here at the minute in London, I think on Wednesday we're gonna hit like, let me work it out, oh wait, you’re Canadian so you know how to read the temperature properly. They’re saying it’s going to be up at thirty-eight degrees.
“Thirty-eight! That’s hot!”

Yeah, tell us about it. You know what it’s like here, we’re notset up for the heat like they are in the States but yeah, it’s pretty humid so travelling around on the tube is an absolute delight.
“I’m sure it is.”

But, we would rather have the sun than the rain.
“This is true. Look at that, love that at the end of the day.”
​

I mentioned Caylee when we were starting off and I saw that you, her and another lady who is coming back over here this weekend, were all at the Opry together last week. How was that and where did the idea to bring your pals up to do a little bit of Alison Krauss come from?
“Oh my gosh, I had the best time with Caylee Hammack and Mae Estes, they've just become such dear friends to me and honestly with Ashley McBryde and Shelly Fairchild, we have a little gang that gathers and we call ourselves the June bugs. We were supposed to have a little campfire and then Ashley got booked for something, thenall of a sudden I was like, wait a second, I got this call forthe Opry on the same night as our campfire so I was like, girls, I think we should just bring the jam to the Opry.They were so sweet, they wanted to come and hang anyways, so I was like, if you guys are coming to hang, then we're definitely getting up to sing. It was so fun to get to sing in harmony together, I love them both so, so, so much.”
​

Lastly down the Caylee Hammack tangent, when I last spoke to her, we was talking about “The Hill” which you guys wrote together with Logan (Wall) during COVID over Zoom. The word she used was “survived” and that it found a way but when I first heard it, it just had your imprint all over it, where you are like this sounds like it could be a Tenille Townes song before I knew you were in on the write. Was there ever a point where you wanted to like fight her for it and go, no, I want tocut this?
“Ha-ha, never! Seriously, I write a lot of songs with Caylee and I'm always just sitting in the corner daydreaming, listening to her sing because she's just so freaking good. We've written songs that both of us have done versions of and I love to get to create with my friends, so I'm always like, we’ll write more, you go, girl. I was so excited she loved that song and that it fit the project she was working on and that's a special one. I'm really glad that did survive COVID, I feel like there's a lot of interesting creativity that came out of that song. I feel like you can hear that kind of resiliency in that track and I'm just honoured to get to be a writer on that with her.”
​Coming on to your new project and “The Acrobat” isobviously a lot more kind of folk driven or in the singer-songwriter realm. Was that always the idea that you had for itor was that just how the whole thing turned out?
“Honestly, the music kind of tricked me into making that album, to be honest. I started because I had just parted ways with the major label, I was going through some personal transitions and feeling pretty lost and low, to be honest. I was like, okay, I feel like I need to just tune out all the noise around me and get back to the truth underneath, let me just make some guitar vocals of what songs I would want to take into the studio to do next. Itwas just my way of trying to keep one foot going in front of the other and I got three or four songs done, then I was like, hold on a second. I think I like how this feels, what if I just made the record right here? Then I made this album, produced it myself, just literally sitting playing these songs live the way that I would and it was a really healing journey to bring back a lot of creative autonomy. It was like every decision I made strengthened my own intuition again and I was like, does this need a little basshere? Do I want some harmonies in this part? Every decision where I was like, yeah, I think I like this justbrought this whole healing in this project together for me. I'm really excited it's out there and it's been so encouraging feeling people wrap their arms around this return to being an indie artist era and they just blew me away with all the vinyl orders so it just completely gave wings to this whole flight path and I'm so grateful.”

One thing about the album is something that a lot of my friends have become fascinated with when people do it and are all convinced there is some sort of secret behind it but in reality when people do all of the song titles completely in lower case, it is just how people type notes on their phone and how you’re used to seeing it. It genuinely is as simple as that, isn't it?
“It's really as simple as that. I love your attention to detail, thank you for noticing that, but these songs were very understated to me in general. There was nothing in my heart at that time that felt like capitalising anything. I was just kind of in survival mode trying to find my way back to myself and so that was literally how I was journalling about it all and it felt exactly like an honest way that I'm just typing things into my phone, so that's what we did for this record.”
​

Talking about a couple of tracks specifically, the one that like really stands out to me and I think is just absolutely stunning is “she plays the piano”. Listening to that, then knowing you in the way you are and what you draw from, particularly with songs like Jersey or “Somebody's Daughter” how there's a poignant story behind it, I'm guessing it's probably a similar case with that one.
“There is a story, yes. The song has been really special to me for a while. It came from a story where I would visit my great-grandmother in the Alzheimer's ward at the seniors home and she had Alzheimer's or dementia for like ten years which was just so brutal and hard, but we would go visit her and have lunch. I was probably in fourth or fifth grade and I remember when we'd sit in the cafeteria with her, there this other patient, a woman who literally couldn't even tell you her name and had no recollection of it, but the staff would bring out this plastic keyboard for her and they'd sit it at her table after lunch where she would just play this polka like it was nobody's business.She just knew it and she played every note beautifully, then she'd finish and we'd all cheer for her where it was like she, I don't know, played a sold out Carnegie Hall in this cafeteria and then she'd turn around, look at the keyboard again, give it a second and she'd play the exact same song from the start over all the way to the end. It was just one of those moments where I was like, wow, how crazy is it that music can remember who we are even when we can't? It just stuck with me all these years and I've always wanted to write a song about it. This was actually another COVID song that I wrote a while ago with Alex Stacey, Amy Wadge and sweet Lori McKenna where I was telling them about this woman and the power of music. We thought we have to tell this story, so I'm grateful they wrote it with me.”
The other one is “grey like emmylou” which has I'm With Her on that. None of those ladies were a co-writer on there with you, so how did you decide that firstly, it needed some other voices and input on it and what was it about Aoife, Sarah and Sara Watkins that you thought made the perfect fit for it?
“I absolutely adore and have just been a fan of each of their artist paths individually and then collectively watching them come together I was like, oh, it'd be a dream to do a song together someday. I wrote this song with my friend Kat Higgins and Jordan Shellhart, we were talking about Emmylou Harris and what a beacon of inspiration she is for true artistry and is someone who is never afraid to do things on the left or on the outskirts a little bit. I got to have tea with Emmylou at one point and she told me that she had everything she ever wanted, she had a dog rescue in her backyard she got to make music with her friends and that's like the epitome of success. To me, that's just set the bar, so I was telling Jordan and Kat about that and Jordan had this chorus started with these beautiful lines about a friendship ending and how it would be a good way to wish someone well and to hope that they grow, enjoy a long life and be as gorgeous as Emmylou Harris. I was like, wow, what a what a beautiful thing to say, so the song is about friendship and that's what drew me to feel like this could be a really interesting perspective to sing with some other voices. Then I just dm’d the girls and I was like, I'm such a fan, I adore your music, I know that we all have a love for Emmylou Harris and sent them the song. They said we love this song and we'd love to do it, then Sarah Jarosz and I, both were a part of Daniel Tashian's night playing through “Wrecking Ball” at Brown's Diner. That was like a week after or something, it was really close timing where they were recording the parts and we were standing there as Emmylou Harris issitting there listening to all of us sing her songs and we were like, wow, this is kind of meant to be, so it was really special to share that with her.”

You mentioned earlier about the fact that you self-producedthis record and also you've released it independently for the first time since moving away from the label. You’ve shared on socials that you are looking to be releasing a lot more this year as you have a lot more freedom like where you put out another single a month after the album, which you'd probably never get to do from a label standpoint. What would you say so far have been your biggest rewards to putting music out on your own and also what are the biggest challenges for you?
“You know, at first it was just such a lonely feeling, like not having this village of people around with all these opinions and excitement, enthusiasm, or feeling like you're moving the rock up the hill with an entire army of people behind you. There was such a lonely feeling of that parting ways and kind of this looming thing of failure where it’slike, okay, it didn't hit the mark or it wasn't sustainable to stay in the system. That kind of haunted me for a while, but making this record helped me get to the freedom side of lonely I think and that's what I've really been just grateful to be celebrating now. There's certainly challenges and things I'm learning every day of how to navigate and figure all of this out but the best part has just been feeling the community of people who've listened to the music and who've come with me through all these years, feeling them embracing this chapter, where it's really just us building this together now and that's pretty awesome. I've really enjoyed the flexibility that comes with that, like you're saying, I put the album out then I also just felt like we're coming up to summertime and I really love this song so why wouldn't I share more music? That ability to just be able to go, yeah, okay, let's do that next week and roll with it is really fun, so I'm excited to figure out more of how that ends up rolling out right now.”

Talking about “Sunshine’s Free” being that perfect song for summer, I guess one of the first things that a lot of people askyou about this song is how you've got a friend that's not too shabby on the guitar who joined you to record it. I reckon hecould go go quite far and do pretty well.
“Ha-ha yeah, I think there's a lot of potential.”
​

Was it as simple as it was with the I’m With Her girls where you just shot Keith a message and he said yes?
“Well, we were actually working on a version of the song a long time ago that never saw the light of day, and in that time, Keith had actually recorded a version of a song I'd written and had reached out about tweaking some lyrics.That song never ended up taking flight, but we had a back and forth going around that time with that song and that was pretty quick after the ACM Zoom call that he'd surprised me with to tell me I had won New female Artist of the Year on. We'd opened a couple shows and he's just such a radiant beam of joy in my sphere. I really felt when I was working on this song, there was something about the spirit of it that made me think about him and I was like, if we're to pick up a guitar, I wanted to embody that same kind of joy that Keith Urban would have, like, what would he do in a solo on the song? Then I thought, what if I just asked him? So, I sent him the song and I was like, hey, I don't know, something about this made me think of you, no pressure at all, but would you ever consider playing some guitar on this? He was like, I totally would love to, sent the tracks right away and it was so cool to get to work on this with him, to have his fingerprint be a part of thejoy that this song embodies. It's such a cool full circle for me because I grew up a huge Keith Urban fan and took road trips with my friends in high school to see his show so this is pretty cool for me.”
​Lastly and most excitingly, you are coming back over in three months now, I guess.
“That's so exciting, the countdown is on, let's go.”

You're coming to a new venue for me in London, EartH is somewhere that I haven’t been too, so I can’t tell you much about it.
“I was going to ask, have you been? It's the first time for me too, but I'm pretty excited about it.”

All I can tell you is that it is in Hackney, which is East London and a part of town that is really resurging but everyone is convinced that it’s really far to get to when it isn’t but it’s an acoustic tour with just you and your guitar, is that right?
“Yeah, I mean, you never know what kind of surprises are up the sleeve, we love to keep it interesting and exciting. I got a couple things planned, but for the most part, this tour is just me, my guitar and maybe attempt the keys on a couple songs, but it's very much just the songs, the stories behind them and kind of reflecting the heart of this record that I made in that space. We've been doing a few of these tour stops throughout Canada and the US whichhave been really fun, because they're very conversational, like a two way street and taking requests. It just feels like a very vulnerable space in a great way to feel whatever we need to feel together, so I've really enjoyed building that and I can't wait to take that to the land of second verses in the UK. I'm pumped.”

It's amazing to catch up with you, I promise I will not leave it four and a half years again, which is crazy.
“That is crazy!”

I will make it up to you though and seeing as your dad ate all of your Mini Eggs, we will make sure you have plenty waitingfor you when you come back in September.
“Ha-ha, thank you for that, I can't wait, I definitely need to replenish so I really appreciate you. I can't wait to see you, I so appreciate you taking the time to chat today and I look forward to getting to cross paths very soon.”

UK TOUR DATES:
Tuesday, 29th September - The Gate, Cardiff
Wednesday, 30th September - EartH, London
Thursday 1st October - Stoller, Manchester
Friday 2nd October - Mackintosh, Glasgow
​

The new single “Sunshine’s Free” from Tenille Townes is out now which you can listen to HERE and her recently released album “The Acrobat” is also available HERE. Tenille returns to the UK in Autumn with the dates listed above and you can find ticket information on her WEBSITE and follow her socially on FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM or TIKTOK.

Keep in touch with Country in the UK

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    • Previous Festivals >
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      • American Express Presents BST Hyde Park 2025
      • The Long Road 2024
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      • The Long Road 2023
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      • Nashvile Meets London 2022
      • The Long Road 2022
      • Country to Country 2022
      • Buckle and Boots 2021
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