Country artist returning to her old stomping grounds for show

by Stephen Dafoe

It has been a few years since former Cardiff Echoes resident Danielle Marie sat on a stool playing guitar during a talent show at a Morinville coffee shop. Four years later, the 19-year-old country singer is an up-and-comer with 40,000 fans on Reverb Nation and an album in the works with producer Tom McKillip.

Now living in Vancouver, the singer/songwriter is returning to her roots for a show at Rednex Bar and Grill Jan. 31 at 9 p.m. She will be playing her yet-to-be-released songs during the 33-song Morinville performance.

“I’m so excited – all my friends are racking up the gang and everyone is buying tickets. I’m hoping for a sellout show,” Danielle Marie said.

A big crowd is something the performer would not have envisioned some years back. “My best friend said I used to sing in her closet because I was too scared to show her, and now I’m going to be on stage in front of everyone.”

That performance will include a large number of original songs, material from her new album due out in a couple months. “I’ve been writing a tonne with other people,” she said. “I went to Nashville for a week and did a couple co-writes there, a photo shoot in Los Angeles for the album, and just been in the studio writing and singing. It’s busy.”

Although there will be a Western Canadian tour when the album comes out, the upcoming Morinville gig was in answer to a request from Rednex proprietor Don Lien.

Danielle Marie says people can expect something different from her during the upcoming show and album. “A lot of the stuff on my last album is stuff that I wrote when I was 15 and 16,” she said. “I’ve matured as a writer. People are in for a bit of a treat.”

She is reluctant to classify her music in any one genre. Though she considers herself a country artist, she admits to many different flavours in her music. “Some of my songs are bluesy. Some of them are rock. Some of them are country pop. There is not one song that sounds the same.”