Carmen Townsend plans to bring the rock with the Motorleague to the Tongue N Groove, Tuesday, June 14.
“It’s going to be a night of east coast rock and roll,” said Cape Breton singer/ songwriter Townsend from the road just outside Medicine Hat
 The band drove straight out west from Waterloo to begin their tour on Vancouver Island and will play their way back home.

“We’re playing with some friends of ours called The Motorleague. We’ve never shared the stage with them. But we’ve seen them at the same venues and festivals,” said Townsend , adding they got talking at a gig and decided it would be cool to play a show together.

Townsend’s music sounds like a mix of Feist with soulful old blues singers like Koko Taylor with a touch of Janis Joplin, a little Macy Gray plus an adrenaline boost and hopped up on cigarettes and shots of whiskey.

“I’m a singer-songwriter, but my music is definitely on the side of rock and roll. That’s what I really sound like,” she said.
 She recently got to stretch her singer-songwriter chops on a tour with classic rockers Heart.

“I did a cross-Country tour with Heart. It was totally a dream come true for me. I used to lip-synch her songs and they’ve been a huge influence on me — two women playing rock and roll. When they came out there were not a lot of them,” she enthused adding she felt really connected to them.

While she has opened for Canadian rockers like Joel Plaskett and Matt Mays she’d never opened for someone of Heart’s stature, so the timing for the tour was perfect.

“The record just came out and the next thing I know I’m playing in front of thousands of people. It was a pretty surreal moment, and a great opportunity,” she said.

“They’re such sweet ladies and their crew was so nice,” she said.

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat, no pun intended. They are two legendary rock queens. And they loved the record,” she enthused, noting lots of people at the Heart shows picked up her record “Waitin’ and Seein’”

She has been on tour non-stop.
“We started in Australia in November, came back and I did the Heart tour in January then went to Texas for SouthbySouthWest,” she said.

“I’m a road dog, that’s for sure. We don't just sit around and wait for things to happen, we make things happen,” she said.
There is a $10 cover for the show that begins at approximately 9 p.m.