Singer Tenille Arts presented two sold-out performances in Weyburn on Thursday at the T.C. Douglas Centre, as she was home with her family over the Christmas-New Year’s holidays from her home in Nashville.
“It was a lot of fun. I was really amazed so many people bought tickets for my show, and I received two standing ovations. I was just blown away,” said Tenille.
The Weyburn-born performer, now 22 years old, put on a program of songs from her newly-released self-titled debut EP, along with some songs which didn’t make the album, and new material she has written but hasn’t released yet, along with some covers, such as of Alannah Myles’ rock tribute to Elvis Presley, “Black Velvet”.
Each sold-out performance had about 120 people in attendance, with many getting autographs on photos or copies of her EP.
Tenille’s mother Glenda pointed out this venue was special to Tenille, as she had performed there many times, including during performances of the Weyburn Music Festival while she attended school here.
“I grew up singing there, and I wanted to have a concert there. Just this past year, my voice teacher, Mary Johnston, passed away. There are a lot of memories of her in that place, and that was so great to be able to play there,” she said. Johnston passed away in September, and a scholarship has been set up in her name.
Tenille made the move to Nashville a year ago, and she has been busy with songwriting and recording, and has videos for viewing on YouTube which has garnered over 775,000 views.
“It’s been a bit of a transition, but in this past year it’s been a really great experience,” said Tenille. “I’ve been recording a lot lately and writing songs.”
She added at this point she isn’t sure if these songs will be put onto a new EP, or added to the first batch of songs on her first EP to make a full-length album.
“I definitely didn’t think things were going to happen so quickly this year. I thought maybe I’d write songs for a year or so, but when we decided to put out that EP, I definitely wasn’t expecting that,” she added.
Asked what the response has been to her first EP, Tenille said, “It’s been awesome. The first week it was out it was No. 1 on the Canadian country iTunes chart. I brought home lots of copies of my EP, and they sold pretty well at my shows here.”
During the concert, she shared how she and her mother made the drive down to Nashville in two days, and her mom helped her get settled into her new apartment there.
Relating a funny experience, she told of what she went through to get the power hooked up to her place, and was asked to provide her USID. She only had her passport and visa with her, so she was told she could use a fishing or hunting licence as an ID to get the power turned on.
She told of going to a Wal-Mart and getting a fishing licence, and in her best sendup of a southern drawl, said the clerk asked her, “Do you want a one-day with trout, one-day without trout, or a week with trout or a week without trout?”
She decided to go with a one-day licence “without trout”, and noted her father, who works for SaskPower, found this incident particularly amusing.
Tenille is now preparing to play for one show on Jan. 12 in Saskatoon, as she will be the opening act for country artists Chad Brownlee and Tim Hicks.The concert will be held at TCU Place.
Following that, she will be going on a radio tour through much of January into February, visiting many major markets and some secondary markets across Canada, singing her first single release for program directors of country radio stations and developing a relationship with country radio in Canada.
