Krystan Bellows is hoping Westlock-area residents can help her out.
The Westlock-born singer-songwriter is one of three finalists on the wildcard round for the Chevrolet Boots and Hearts Emerging Artist Showcase, which selects eight of the best Canadian musicians to promote for the festival of the same name in Burl’s Creek, Ont.
If she wins, she’ll get to appear on stage during the festival, sharing the same stage as legends like Alan Jackson Aug. 9-12 before more than 40,000 people at one of the biggest country music festivals in Canada.
“It’s so hard when you’re just starting out in the music industry, it’s not always easy breaking through all the noise to be seen and heard,” she said.
“Opportunities like this really give us a chance to get out there. This is an amazing chance to do that. To play the Boots and Hearts Festival would be a dream come true. It’s definitely on any country music artist’s bucket list.”
Each artist’s fans can vote on their favourite pick once every 24 hours. Whoever gets the most votes gets the eight spots on the card and will compete for a chance to open for country music star Brett Young on the main stage of the festival. The deal also includes a single with Warner Music Canada.
Bellows said she got involved in the contest completely by chance.
“I actually found out about it through my roommate Mallory,” she said. “She was applying and told me to check it out, so I figured ‘Why not? You never know,’ so it was kind of last minute. I submitted my music video, then two weeks later I got the e-mail that I was chosen as a wildcard.”
After she was selected, Bellows and her roommate needed to come up with a way to stand out in her pitch to voters. As luck with have it, inspiration came from her radio.
“My roommate and I were trying to think of creative ideas to post about. I wanted to do something a bit different that showed how important this was for me,” she said. “I was listening to Lady Gaga’s Million Reasons and the idea just came to me to sing a jingle to ask people to vote.”
Outside of entering contests, Bellows has been hard at work on her upcoming EP, paring down roughly 50 songs to put together a six-song album, though she hasn’t figured out a release date yet.
She’s been beating the Nashville heat by playing evening gigs around town, getting as much time on stage to test out new song ideas as she can handle.
“I’ve been performing different venues around Nashville, just doing the thing,” she said. “I played a songwriter round at the Commodore Grill last night and I’ve got another show on Thursday, called ‘Jamming in Jammies’, so I get to wear my pyjamas and play music, which is really awesome. But my main focus has been writing and working on my brand for the upcoming EP.”
Bellows was quick to take to the stage, performing in school musicals, dramas and singing with bands. Eventually she moved to Los Angeles to study music at the Musician’s Institute before moving to Nashville to be at the heart of the scene.
Even though she’s on the other side of the continent, Westlock is never too far away from her thoughts. She said she would even love to perform in Westlock some day.
“Everyone’s been so amazing and supportive and helping me spread the word,” she said. “It’s such an amazing feeling to be supported and seen by your community. To even be selected as a wildcard is amazing. I’m really, really excited about this.”
If you want to support Bellows, you can vote for her at www.bootsandhearts.com/showcase once every 24 hours per IP address, meaning you can vote for her once a day from your work computer, your phone and from home. Voting closes July 13 at midnight.
