When it comes to Canadian country artists, very few compare to the powerhouse that is Meghan Patrick. At her live shows, she walks on stage with her black electric guitar and hits the audience with her mighty vocals. She embodies the title of her hit song “Grace & Grit.”
And frankly, Patrick’s audiences love what she does. The Bowmanville, Ont. native has topped Canadian country charts, won Female Artist of the Year at the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) Awards twice, and toured across the country with the support of a powerful backing band.
But this past summer, while performing at the Haggersville Rocks festival, Patrick got a lot of attention and praise on social media over her response to being catcalled.
According to Patrick’s social media, a man in the crowd yelled “show me your tits.” In a video posted to Twitter, she calls out the man and says, “this isn’t a fucking strip club, get the fuck out.”
The audience had her back, and cheered as the man left the venue. Patrick recounted this experience in an interview with the Charlatan, ahead of her sold out performance at the Carp Fair.
Patrick said people have made inappropriate comments about her while performing several times in the past, and that she was especially angry about the incident in Haggersville.
“Something just broke in me, I was so angry because I’ve worked so hard and I’ve put so much time and energy, and blood, sweat and tears into the songs that I write, into the performance I put on every night, into making sure that my audience is having a good time,” she said. “For him to just reduce everything that I’ve put into that, it was enraging.”
Patrick received support from a number of her fellow country artists, including Brett Kissel, Emily Reid, and Madeline Merlo. She says she stands by everything she said onstage that night, and that she will continue calling people out for inappropriate behaviour.
“When I’m on that stage, it’s my prerogative to decide that I don’t want that person in the audience anymore. If they can’t be respectful of me or the other people watching the show, then he doesn’t deserve to be there, I don’t care if he paid for a ticket,” she said. “It should be common sense that you don’t do that, it’s insane to me that people don’t think that.”
Despite the negative, Patrick is very focused on her recent work, successes, and accolades. Since releasing her second studio album, Country Music Made Me Do It, over a year and a half ago, she spent a significant amount of time writing new music. The product of all that writing: Patrick’s latest EP, Wild As Me.
“It was as much about being able to find myself in a relationship as much as finding him and falling in love with him, it was the idea of feeling completely at ease with who I was and feeling I had to change or give up any part of me,” she said.
Both Patrick and Tenpenny are full-time touring and recording country artists, which means they don’t get to see each other often because they’re usually each busy with their own travels and work.
They recently had the opportunity to show off their relationship in front of a national audience at this year’s CCMA Awards in Calgary. Together, they performed an unplugged acoustic rendition of “Wild As Me” on the live television broadcast. Patrick said it was a very special moment for her and Tenpenny because it was the first time they had performed on stage together.
“I think what we have is really special and I think that was cool that other people got to witness that too,” she said.
Next year is set to be an exciting year for both Patrick and Tenpenny; they’ll both be opening for American country superstars Old Dominion on their upcoming Canadian arena tour.
Patrick said she has wanted to tour with Old Dominion for a long time. She’s excited that it’s finally happening, and she said it’s even better that Tenpenny will be a part of the tour as well.
“Just being able to see him perform night after night and to have that experience together is just going to be really special,” she said.
In addition to the Old Dominion tour, Patrick is excited to be playing her first-ever Ontario headlining tour, which is scheduled to come back to Ottawa in April. Although she’s a bit nervous about being a headliner for the first time, Patrick is really looking forward to playing shows to fans across her home province.
“I’m just excited to see everyone out on the road,” she said.
Feature image by Jeff Pelletier.
