By Chris Stedile
Castlegar News
Country singer and self-proclaimed redneck, Lisa Nicole, is getting ready to saddle up and ride off into a new future full of exciting opportunities. But not before she says goodbye to Castlegar and the Kootenays, the place she’s called home for so long.
On January 16, Nicole will be performing her biggest show yet at the Charles Bailey Theatre in Trail.
She will be playing songs from her previously released album ‘It Got Ugly’ as well as new material yet to be released. In addition to the expansive set list, Nicole’s performance is sure to include local guest act, Jason Thomas and superb lighting and sound effects from Enormous Productions.
“This is kind of a kickoff for me since I’m hoping to move to Nashville within a week of the performance,” Nicole said.
Up until this fall — when she moved back to Castlegar — Nicole had been living in Vancouver for the past 5 years, but she is no stranger to Nashville.
Nicole said she had done writing and recording down in Tennessee every so often but only recently decided to make this next trip a permanent one.
“This one day I was in a session with Paul De Villiers and we were talking about how I’m going down to Nashville to record, and I had a kind of epiphany, thinking why am I just going down their to visit?”
De Villiers is a sound engineer and record producer who is best known for his work on Mr. Mister’s best-selling 1985 album ‘Welcome to the Real World’.
“I want to pursue this full-on and if I’m going to do that I should be down there,” Nicole added. “Right then I decided I was going to move there.”
Nicole believes the move to Nashville will garner her additional recognition and a chance to branch out to a larger country audience.
The move back to Castlegar was necessary for Nicole to be close to friends and family before she departed for Nashville in the new year.
As for Nicole’s music, she describes it as “real country living.”
“I like to write about real country things. Especially lately, I’ve been writing a lot from personal experiences. You can either expect to hear about guns, drinking or relationships. These are always in my songs,” she laughed.
Not to worry, the part about guns comes from a dominant hunting background.
“I grew up in a hunting family, I’ve been hunting since before I could walk.”
Nicole sees a lot of herself in those she looks up to, and finds inspiration in those that have made it in the industry before her.
“My influences? Definitely Miranda Lambert is a huge one. Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift, she’s a very good song writer.”
Back on the topic of Lambert, “Oh, her feistiness. I love that she sings about real country things. Real country living. I feel she really speaks the truth but also in a quirky, funny way. She writes about things I would write about.”
Lately, Nicole has been writing about many things.
“I’ve been writing a lot in the last year because I’m really ready to record a new CD,” said Nicole.
“You can whip out an album in a month if you wanted to, but I really want to focus on perfecting this one. I don’t want to rush. I mean I do feel very anxious to get something out there because it has been a couple years since I released my ‘It Got Ugly’ CD. But I’m just going to take my time and do a really good job.”
Nicole has recently had World Vision sign on as her charity and is very excited for her career to take off.
Tickets for her upcoming show are available for purchase now and more information can be found at LisaNicoleMusic.com