Edmonton based singer songwriter Tanyss Nixi is excited to make a long awaited return to Lethbridge to play the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Friday May 18 with her new musical project Wildwood.
Nixi has played a variety of music from pop, folk and even punk music, but found connected with traditional country music and outlaw country music.
 She joined forces with Dave Johnston of Edmonton roots rockers the Fuzz Kings and rockabilly band the Confusionaires.
 Wildwood combines elements of all of their influences on their new CD “Laverne.”

After a pleasant chat about what happened to the Slice, Nixi noted she  is looking forward  to bringing  Wildwood to Lethbridge, which can get pretty wild.

“I remember at our CD release party David was playing on a guitar and was soloing standing on  an amp and fell into the drums. But he kept playing, because, you know, the show must go on,” Nixi  reminisced.

“But I’m not promising anything like that or any shenanigans,” she chuckled, adding he was all right.

a. She noted while Johnston is drawn to  Bruce Springsteen and more alternative country artists like Jason Isbel and the Drive by Truckers, the songs he sings on the CD including “Onward through Life,” “Half As Rich As youA re Lonely,” and “Little Girl,” give the band a more Blue Rodeo  feel.

“I don’t think he’d be disappointed by a comparison like that,” she said , adding she is  drawn to older, traditional country music, and indeed sings  a version of “It’s Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” on the Cd.
“I’m usually known for playing more folk , solo singer-songwriter material which is  very soulful but it’s pretty dirge-like. I love it, but it isn’t exactly foot tapping music,” she said, adding Wildwood allows her to explore her more traditional country orientated side, not to mention her more ‘foot tapping’ side.

“It’s easy to think there’s only three or four chords (in traditional country music), but it‘s a lot more complicated than that. It goes a lot deeper. I’ve played all kinds of styles. But just playing this kind of music physically makes me feel good,” she said, adding they hadn’t expected to take the band anywhere.

 

“We just started playing together in the garage and started writing songs,” she said, adding they ended up recording the album in the Fall and released it earlier this year.

“ We recorded the whole thing in five days with Stew Kirkwood at Sound Extractor. He has 12 different projects of all different genres that are all up for Edmonton Music Awards,” she said.
“He was super-professional. And he’s a multi-instrumental. He plays all of them really well,” she enthused.

Since then it has been getting played on radio stations in Victoria, where they just completed a tour of Vancouver Island, Kamloops, Burnaby, on Alison Brock’s Wide Cut Country show on CKUA, to name a few.

“And hopefully Lethbridge,” she said, noting the Lethbridge show will be one of a handful of Alberta dates including stops in Calgary, Saturday, may 19 at the Ship and Anchor and back in Edmonton on June 2.

“ So so far, so good,“ she said adding they have some big festivals booked including Sasquatch Gathering at Metis Crossing, northeast of Edmonton, July 27 in July and The Works in Edmonton. They are also playing  the King Eddie for the Calgary Stampede.
“ We’re playing happy hour, so that should be fun,” she said.