Two musicians with local connections, Eli Barsi and Chris Henderson, were recently awarded honours at the Saskatchewan Country Music Association (SCMA) Awards Gala and Industry Awards. In addition to this Barsi took home a Wrangler Award for "Outstanding Western Composition" from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
Eli Barsi
Growing up on a farm near Kennedy, SK, it was always Eli's dream to become a singer/songwriter. Learning full songs at the young age of 3-years-old she would sing around the farm. She would try to write songs and after learning the guitar at 12-years-old would go on to accompany herself in performances around the Kennedy area.
After high school she ventured to Vermillion to study Animal Health, but it turned out this would be where she needed to be to meet musicians travelling through from Winnipeg. Giving her tips on how to break into the business, she would find an agent in Edmonton and paying gigs from bars to lounges to concerts over the next 10 years.
Early in these years she would save her money from playing and pack everything up to head to Nashville. While in "Music City" Eli honed her writing skills and made many great contacts before moving back to Canada, which led her to begin recording.
"Once I started recording, I got to get my stuff on the radio and got bigger shows out of it and 29 years later I've now released my 13th album and am plugging away still," Eli said.
Eli took home awards from the SCMA including Roots Artist/Group of the Year and Roots Album of the Year, while also being recognized south of the border with a Wrangler Award for Outstanding Western Composition.
The song making waves in the country music industry is both her first single from her 13th album as well as the title track, "Portrait of a Cowgirl."
Though the idea of the song wasn't originally as meaningful to Eli as the finished product the process quickly led to great love and care being put into the song.
"My mom, like everybody's mom, they're very special gals" Eli explained. "It was the last song I wrote for the album, I needed a title for the album and I needed one more song and I had this idea I didn't know then that it was going to be about my mom, but then I started working some ideas up and thinking back to all the stories she's told me"
"taking a good look at her life it just sort of shaped itself and became a song about her, not everything she's done, but some of her high points."
Eli performed it for different audiences before recording it and found the song resonated in their hearts. People could relate to a very personal song Eli wrote for her mother, which is to Eli the purpose of song writing.
"I was completely blown away and thrilled when the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City recognized this as being the best original western composition of the year because I know the competition was very, very stiff," Eli stated. "So, I was blown away that a personal song about my mom could touch so many people and convince the decision makers to award me the Wrangler, I was just so honoured."
The SCMA awards also carried great significance for the singer who has written most of her own music over the years with a few songs on many albums each coming from other songwriters with Eli specifically in mind to bring them to life. This year, however, it was her goal to have a hand in writing each of the songs on her album, which helped to make the SCMA even more special.
"And the Roots Awards are really special to me because I've always considered, especially this last while, that my music is a little more western roots than it is main stream country. So, if other people get that, that's really important to me," Eli stated.
"I'm just very honoured to be recognized both sides of the border. It's really, really great. The verification and recognition is huge. After I've been doing it all this time it's nice to get that vote of confidence from all these different audiences."
Eli is currently promoting her single "Portrait of a Cowgirl" on radio, while the music video which was shot last year at her mother's home farm was just released in Canada and has found play time on CMT. Over the year she has a few more singles to release from her album to radio and is continually touring.
"I have a few more singles from this album to be released to radio throughout the next year and in the mean time I'm always on tour," Eli said. "We play every week just about, somewhere in the world, so we're busy travelling all the time. We're keeping our calendar full and I'm writing for the next album."
"That's a slow process that I don't rush, that if I feel the urge to write and get some good ideas, I sit down and work on them."
In addition to her musical endeavours that she is working on, Eli is also working on two travel shows for television.
Chris Henderson
Chris has been playing music since he was very young and first entered the country music scene at the age of 21 after winning CKRM's "Big Country Talent Search."
Born and raised in Estevan, Chris' ties to Carlyle come with having taught a semester at G.F. Kells. He has been grateful for the community support ever since.
This year Chris took home the award for Song of the Year (Composer), which he shared with Troy Kokol and Willie Mack.
Writing since an early age as well, Chris' first album was more focused on creating connections in the music world and he worked with different songwriters, but his latest album, "My Turn," he was able to put more of himself into it including the song "Don't Miss Your Kiss Goodbye."
"I really didn't focus on that [writing] with my first album, but with this one I just released I wanted to make sure I had written everything for the most part with that record," Chris explained. "So, that has become more of a focus."
His co-writers of "Don't Miss Your Kiss Goodbye" include Troy, who is known for his song "Pickup Truck" performed by Shane Yellowbird, and Willie whose ideas helped to shape the song.
"with this particular song, Willie and Troy had originally tried to write a song with the same title and they had just a couple lines that they liked but they had scrapped their idea," Chris said. "Troy came and sat down with me and said, here's an idea that Willie and I kind of worked on but didn't really like"
"here's a few ideas and let's see if we can do something altogether different. So, in this case Troy and I wrote the song, but some ideas came from Willie originally"
"Don't Miss Your Kiss Goodbye," was written in the course of three hours from beginning to end and was kind of a weird process, Chris explained: "For this particular track we wrote it on Skype actually and we just gathered ideas and threw melodies back and forth and it was kind of a really weird process we just sat there and stared at the computer screen at each other for quite awhile bouncing ideas back and forth."
Ultimately the song became personal and writing it came down to the feelings of being on the road and away from home.
"This song, the biggest thing we talked about, and Troy's being playing in bands for years, and Willie and myself obviously, so the concept was just kind of how hard it is to be on the road and how easily being away all the time can make things difficult and so you miss everything about being at home" Chris stated.
His most recent album, released last month, has been doing well on iTunes, which is one of the main mediums of purchasing songs in this day and age.
Though he is currently planning a tour the details of it have not yet been finalized, though he will be playing a house concert with Lorri Solomon-Matthewson, which is currently sold out, but he is happy to be able to return to the community.
"I miss them and appreciate all their support!" Chris exclaimed about those in Carlyle and the surrounding areas.
