Skip to content

Country artists come together to raise funds for flood victims

Former Lakecity resident Angela Harris is among Canadian country artists coming to the aid of Alberta flood victims.
82355tribunea13-Sub-Angela-Harris-angelaharris
Angela Harris grew up in the Chilcotin and played music in Williams Lake before moving to Vancouver to further her career. She is working to help Alberta flood victims.

Former Lakecity resident Angela Harris is among Canadian country artists coming to the aid of Alberta flood victims.

Singer/songwriter, and music promoter Harris is among country artists who will be heard in a new song written by Sean Hogan called The Love Leads The Way, Come Hell or High-Water that will be sold to raise funds for flood victims through the Red Cross.

“Sean Hogan is a good friend and recording artist/songwriter that I admire,” Harris said last week in an interview with The Tribune.

“I learned of Sean’s fundraising initiative through multi-instrumentalist Eric Reed (who played electric guitar on the recording), at a time when I was looking for ways that an artist/songwriter like myself could help assist in the flood relief efforts.

“I was moved by the premise of Sean’s project and reached out to him offering my talents and services which led to me singing on the project, as well as doing the design of the promo and marketing the initiative.”

On the marketing front, Hogan confirmed in his press release that Harris’s Vancouver-based company Fair Wend Entertainment Services will help to create awareness by taking a ‘grass roots’ approach for the song’s national promotions campaign, starting with his friends, family, comrades, and fans.

Upon completion of the single, it will be made available to the public for digital download with 100 per cent of the proceeds intended to assist the Red Cross in their disaster relief efforts, which include the operation of seven emergency shelters for victims in the area as well as providing funding to food banks. Release dates for the single will be announced soon.

In his press release Hogan said he was gripped by the extreme circumstances of the Alberta floods while watching the news and feeling for his friends and family.

“I wondered what could I possibly do to make a difference, when I then saw the story of a Siksika Nation band member named Leonard Bear Shirt,” Hogan said.

“In his interview he said he had minutes to go into his house and grab some personal affects and decided to grab his drum.

“That connection between spirituality and music had a significant impact on me and I felt compelled to write a song whose sales could offer a contribution of relief needed by those who have suffered losses due to this very unfortunate circumstance.”

Hogan sat down and penned the aptly written track Come Hell Or High Water (See What Love Can Do) with thoughts of reaching out to his comrades across the nation and making it a collaborative project. He shared the song and idea with his band mate, and multi-instrumentalist Eric Reed who agreed that Hogan was on the right track.

Since then, artists from all over Canada have agreed to sing on the track including Bobby Wills, Shane Yellowbird, Patricia Conroy, Duane Steele, Shane Chisholm, Samantha King, Tenille, Blake Berglund, Clayton Bellamy, Angela Harris, Wyatt, Brett Kissel, Crystal Shawanda, Pear and Jake Mathews, with more star power still coming on side, Hogan said.

He said some artists could not participate due to their own busy schedules but the door has only just opened and the days are early for this project to become a great funding source for the cause.

The song is being co-produced by Hogan and long time buddy Rick Hutt from Ontario and mixed by Kevin Churko. By the power of the digital age, the recording, editing, mixing and mastering of the single will take place at various recording studio’s throughout Canada and the U.S. who have graciously offered to give of their time, so that recording artists can cost effectively record their parts on the song as per the direction of Hogan and Hutt.

Harris got her start in country music singing and playing acoustic guitar with her mother Marion Tilloton at various events around the Cariboo Chilcotin when she was just 13. At 19 she was performing independently and with the lakecity’s Lightning Creek band for three years. Over the next 10 years she made numerous trips to Nashville exploring the music scene and honing her craft. Her first album Angela Harris was produced in 1999 followed by her second album Roots in 2005.

In songs such as She’s Got Opinions of Her Own and T-T-Talk to Me, Good Things Will Come and Is Your Life as It Should Be, Angela presents a fusion of bluegrass, traditional country, folk and blues.

After moving to Vancouver Angela developed a career in music promotion and continues to sing and perform with some of Vancouver’s top artists in a group called the High Bar Gang: Barney Bentall on guitar and vocals; Shari Ulrich on fiddle, mando, and vocals; Wendy Bird on vocals, Colin Nairne on guitar and vocals, Rob Becker on bass and vocals, Eric Reed on banjo, mandolin and dobro.