Twangin' through the decades | Stories

Edmonton might just be the country music capital of Alberta.

We’re home to two influential country radio stations and a longtime record label.

CFCW, which also broadcasts out of Camrose, is the oldest country radio station in Canada. (It celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2024.) CISN has won seven Canadian Country Music Awards (CCMAs) for Radio Station of the Year (Major Market) since 2000.

Royalty Records, which just hit the big 5-0, has worked with more than a dozen Canadian country artists, including YEG’s Hey Romeo.

In fact, the Edmonton area has been home to numerous musicians who’ve made their mark on the world of country. Musicians such as global superstar k.d. lang, Brett Kissel, or Stu Davis, known as “Canada’s Cowboy Troubadour.”

Here’s a look at a few of those artists over the last six decades.

Harry Rusk

Now in his late 80s, Harry Rusk has released more than 50 albums and performed around the world since the mid-1960s. One of his handmade guitars is now at the Royal Alberta Museum.

He was also the first Indigenous artist to perform on Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, one of the most important country music shows (and venues) in the world. (Fun fact: Edmonton and Nashville are sister cities.)

Born in B.C., Rusk spent his early teens at Edmonton’s Charles Camsell Hospital, recovering from tuberculosis. There, he met country star Hank Snow, who performed for patients in 1952. Twenty years later, Snow invited Rusk to make his Grand Ole Opry debut.

For more on Rusk’s career, visit Capital City Records.

Danny Hooper

One of Edmonton’s biggest boosters of country music, Danny Hooper kicked off his career in the mid-1970s with his first album, Just a Part of Losing You. It earned him a JUNO nomination for Best Male Vocalist in 1976.

Making music is just a part of Hooper’s repertoire. He also owned a country music venue, Danny Hooper’s Stockyard. He co-hosted the morning show on CFCW. He also created his own TV show, BSN—The Barn Satellite Network.

These days, Hooper is best known as an auctioneer, comedian and the longtime emcee of Alberta’s largest country music festival, Big Valley Jamboree in Camrose. He also hosts Danny Hooper’s Edibles, a cooking show on YouTube. (Not those kind of edibles, lol.)

k.d. lang

There’s truly no one like k.d. lang in the world of country music—a queer icon, an animal-rights advocate, a Buddhist, and a torch singer who can bring you to tears with her buttery (and twangy) voice. “When she sings, I can actually see angels,” one of her duet partners, Tony Bennett, famously said.

lang got her start in the 1980s with her band, The Reclines, tearing up Edmonton’s old Sidetrack Café. Since then, the cowpunk has expanded her sound into pop and folk, performed at two Olympics and won countless awards—including 10 CCMAs, eight JUNOs and four Grammys.

She was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2013. She was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame and performed with The Reclines—for the first time in 35 years—during the 2024 CCMA Awards in Edmonton.

Corb Lund

As the child of southern Alberta ranchers, Corb Lund took a bit of a musical detour before returning to the country fold. He first played bass for the smalls, a beloved Edmonton rock/metal band, and recorded his first two alt-country albums as a side project in the 1990s.

Lund has now released more than 10 albums—including 2024’s El Veijo, dedicated to his friend and Alberta’s late country icon, Ian Tyson—and won 13 CCMAs.

Farm life, drinking, and card games are some of Lund’s favourite themes, but he’s also not afraid to be outspoken—whether he’s singing about the health effects of oil and gas on This Is My Prairie or lending his voice to protests over coal mining.

Hey Romeo

Rob Shapiro, Darren Gusnowsky and Stacie Roper started their trio, Hey Romeo, after meeting at a gig. The two men were performing with Gord Bamford, who invited Roper on stage.

As it turned out, she was a singer.

Hey Romeo released two EPs and three albums between 2007 and 2015. Their biggest hits included a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Secondhand News and Maybe You Remember Me Now. The trio won three CCMAs, including two for Group or Duo of the Year.

Roper passed away in 2023. Shapiro and Gusnowsky continue to perform with other artists and their own project, JayWalker.

Hailey Benedict

In an industry dominated by men, singer-songwriter Hailey Benedict is one of the bright new lights of Canada’s country music scene.

She won an armful of trophies before she turned 22—including an Edmonton Music Award, 10 Country Music Alberta Awards, and a CCMA for Interactive Artist or Group of the Year.

Hailing from St. Albert, Benedict got her first big break at 14, when she performed at a Keith Urban show in 2016. He pulled her out of the crowd during the first concert at Rogers Place.

Benedict was nominated for Breakthrough Artist or Group of the Year at the 2024 CCMAs.

Editor’s note: the first image on this page features k.d. lang and The Reclines in the 1980s. Courtesy of Neal Preston/Canadian Country Music Association.