Rising Ottawa country artist Kira Isabella is one of three headliners set to give a free concert in one lucky town as a part of a Canada-wide competition.
The Coors Banquet One Horse Town contest is encouraging Canadians across the country to nominate their town as Canada’s best “one horse town.” Whichever town wins gets a free concert headlined by prominent country artists Dallas Smith, Tim Hicks and Isabella.
Because Ottawa is a relatively big city, it would not be eligible for the contest. But on May 17, Coors Banquet hosted a promotional event for the contest at Montana’s BBQ & Bar in Nepean. At this event, Isabella returned to the city where she was born and raised to promote the contest and to share some new music she’s working on.
“I think the opportunity to have a big country concert in your town, it’s such a cool thing that they maybe otherwise would never have. I’m happy to be a part of it,” Isabella said.
Isabella is 24 years old and already has multiple albums and Canadian country chart-topping singles. She says she is looking forward to sharing the stage with Hicks and Smith.
“I have gotten to play with Tim before, but I’ve never seen Dallas’ show or gotten to play with him, so I’m really looking forward to it,” she said. “I’m a big fan of both, and I think my music is going to work really well with theirs, too.”
Accompanied by guitarist Nate Hall, Isabella gave the small crowd in the restaurant a short, five-song acoustic set featuring mostly new music. Her concluding song “Little Girl” is her latest single. Just recently, it made it into the top 40 of the Canadian country music charts.
“‘Little Girl’ is just so powerful of a message and a song, without being angry or negative in any way, and I keep saying that I really wish there was a song like ‘Little Girl’ out when I was 10 years old,” she said. “I know that I love this song, and all I can do is put my heart and soul into it . . . I just believed in this song a lot and the subject matter.”
In addition to the One Horse Town show, Isabella is set to play several other shows this summer, including the Boots and Hearts Music Festival, near Barrie in August.
“I’m really excited to see where this concert ends up . . . It’s really cool that there’s a little bit of a mystery about where we’re going,” she said. “The next few months are going to be solidly redoing my set, and being in rehearsal, and getting ready for these live shows.”
Photo by Jeff Pelletier
