Another day another standing room only crowd at the Blue Jay Café for CCMA week in Calgary … another day of more people wishing they could have snagged a ticket.
This session featured Western artists from BC and Alberta who may not have all known each other when this evening started, but certainly bonded quickly and the amazing atmosphere of the Blue Jay Café and it’s songwriter circle sessions certainly gave them and the audience a memorable night of new music, old favorites, and some pretty interesting backstories.
Kadooh, Bryton Udy, Jimmy Thow, Mike Nash, Mat Cardinal, Chrystal Leigh, Blue Jay Cafe, PhotoByEGO
Up for the CCMA Rising Star award is Sons of Daughters … with a Billboard Top 15 and having appeared on The Launch, the duo seems to have catapulted into the spotlight from out of nowhere to some but they’ve been making their mark in separate projects and now collectively for a while … with a recent move to Nashville and a management deal with RGK Entertainment seeming to be just enough of a push to have them all over the CCMA stages, including a songwriters session at Studio Bell and the TD Countdown concert before the awards show at the Fan Village.
Jimmy Thow (Sons of Daughters), Blue Jay Cafe, PhotoByEGO
Chrystal Leigh (Sons of Daughters), Blue Jay Café, PhotoByEGO
Edmonton based The Prairie States have continued to make quite the name for themselves since their first place finish as part of the Project WILD in 2018 and have been having quite the year with a lot of firsts, including being nominated for – and winning – ACMA awards, opening up the Big Valley Jamboree and the Coca-Cola stage at the Calgary Stampede. They may have spent 2 years working on their debut album but it all seems worth it with the impact they’re making.
Mat Cardinal, Mike Nash (The Prairie States), Blue Jay Cafe, PhotoByEGO
Kadooh is no stranger to the music industry and has experienced wins and even a Juno nomination as part of a group, but it’s as a solo artist instead of a backing vocalist that he already took home a BC CMA award with only a couple of singles released … arguably just warming up, imagine what he can accomplish once he gets traction with Somethin to Roll On. He recently teamed up with Sons of Daughters’ Jimmy Thow and on the spot during the session decided to perform it without rehearsal … supposedly. They were so in sync and had the crowd going by the end that no one really believed it was an ad hoc thing but then with the talent between these two I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.
Kadooh, Jimmy Thow, Blue Jay Cafe, PhotoByEGO
Kadooh, Blue Jay Cafe, PhotoByEGO
It may have been as strange for Bryton Udy to perform solo as it was to see him … with is Leaving Thomas partner, Annika Odegard performing solo in as part of the following session. We were treated to interesting tales of an experience in Nashville … and it only took one day there to come out with a song … albeit not the traditional “Nashville country” song one would expect when he ran into twins in separate places who happened to be celebrating a birthday!
Bryton Udy (Leaving Thomas), Blue Jay Cafe, PhotoByEGO
Definitely one of the most talked about events during the 2019 CCMA week, the conversion of the Oak Tree Tavern into the Blue Jay Cafe to bring Nashville’s Bluebird feel to Calgary has been a raving success with all the sessions sold out. Hopefully this is enough of a catalyst to inspire similar sessions in the future.
