The year is already filling up and taking off! 

I hope that wherever this message finds you, that you’re enjoying the (slightly) warmer weather today. Most of all, I hope that you’ve got things to look forward to in your life. 

For me, I am feeling incredibly grateful that 2025 is already providing lots of exciting opportunities that feel aligned with my passions and pursuits!

I just uploaded a little calendar of events for the next handful of months, and I wanted to share it with you, in the event that you like to see things organized (like I do).

Next weekend, I’ll be performing on Valentine’s Day at Salisbury Greenhouse, as part of Ravenwood Experience’s Concert Series! I’ll be playing mostly original tunes (and a handful of covers) with my pals Vicky Berg and Gareth Gilliland. We hope you’ll join us and share in a night filled with love and great music!

The night after, I look forward to hosting the 10th and final Love Fest at the Aviary with Mercy Funk and plenty of other awesome local music acts! It’s going to be a night to remember and I am truly honoured to be the host for the night.

Here’s a link to an awesome local playlist, featuring Love Fest alumni over the years.

Speaking of awesome local playlists, Silver Skate Festival starts this weekend and runs until February 17 at Laurier Park.

To celebrate local musicians, the festival has put together a playlist (featuring yours truly!) of Treaty 6 based musicians to highlight, which can be heard throughout the park during the festival. 

This same playlist can be heard outside City Hall, daily between 11-2 and 6-9!

If you’re looking for a tune to soundtrack your late afternoon, I just posted a live performance of What I Need from a show in October with my full band. I find it’s the perfect song for these long, introspective winter days.

You can watch it here onYouTube, where all my other music videos live!

Thanks for letting me share some warmth and good news with you!

The most exciting news of all is yet to come and I look forward to letting you all in on the secret once the right time comes!

I SENT MY FIRST NEWSLETTER TODAY!

This was something I had on my goals list for last year, but better late than never!

With the landscape of social media becoming less engaged, less personal and more focused towards algorithms and advertising, it can feel like a tall order as a solo artist to find new ways to engage, connect with and grow my audience. 

How does one make themselves heard through all of the noise? 

I’ve decided to revisit the newsletter approach! Mostly because I find it’s a really helpful way for me to stay connected to what my artist pals are doing!

Amy Dixon is a great example! She has always done a really great job of her newsletters and that has inspired me to begin this new venture- it’s more direct, it’s more personal and I love being a pen pal!

So, here goes! I’ve got a link to my newsletter sign up in my link tree and in my stories! If you’d like to be part of my pen pal club, I’d love to have you!

Yours truly,

Ellie 

Here’s the link to join!

Friends and lovers, you can catch me at Salisbury Greenhouse on Friday, February 14, performing my original tunes and some covers as part of RavenWood Music Festival’s Concert Series! 🌺 ♥️ 🎶

Bring your loved ones and let’s celebrate Valentine’s together with some live local music in a beautiful setting!

Tickets + info:
https://www.ravenwoodexperience.com

Speaking of beautiful settings, the Silver Skate Festival is coming up February 7-17 at Laurier Park and they’ve put together a local playlist (with some tunes by yours truly!) to play at the park while folks mill around and enjoy the winter festivities! ⛄️

In addition to Silver Skate, City of Edmonton has been using the playlist outside of City Hall daily from 11am-2pm and 6pm-9pm! Check it out next time you’re walking by! ❄️

It makes me so happy to have these opportunities to share my music with folks and grow my audience- thanks for receiving the good news! 🗞️

Exciting things are on the horizon! 🪩

The Critics in your head are lying to you.  

These pins started out as merch in collaboration with The Tesse Rae for my solo show Fake n’ Bake. My Critics were some of the main characters in the show, which explored personal themes of disordered eating, addiction, mental health and recovery.

In the first year I did the show, 10% of merch proceeds went towards Canadian Mental Health Association, Edmonton. The Critics pins were by far the biggest hit of all!

In fact, I remember needing to order more halfway through the run because the message on them resonated so strongly with people.

“Oh, my sister/brother/best friend/mom/partner needs this pin!” 

“Can I get 10 of these to give to people I love?” 

In the second year, I shifted to selling the Critics pins by donation, with 100% of the proceeds going to CMHA Edmonton. By the end of that summer, we had raised over $1,700 for the Canadian Mental Health Association.

In the fall of 2023, I partnered with all four locations of The Makers Keep, as well as The Tesse Rae in Highlands, to sell these pins by donation. %100 of profits from all pins sold go towards the Canadian Mental Health Association. 

Last summer, I had the privilege of learning more about this incredible organization. The CMHA provides vital support for individuals in our community, creating a safe, welcoming space where people feel empowered to address their mental health challenges. They are a fantastic organization that I will always continue to support. 

I’m proud to share (with thanks to the ongoing support of The Makers Keep and The Tesse Rae), we’ve raised over $2,068 for the CMHA.

The pins are still available by donation at the locations above and I also have a stash of pins and fridge magnets if anybody wants one. 

I’ve mailed them as far West as Vancouver and as far East as London, Ontario! 

I am THRILLED to announce that I’ve received funding to record a FULL LENGTH ALBUM!

I cannot stress enough how important this funding has been to me, in being able to step up my game as an artist and also, to be able to pay others in the process!

Any time that a granting body is willing to take a chance on me as an artist, it is incredibly validating and instrumental in providing the passion and impetus to keep going. So much gratitude to Edmonton Arts Council for all of the opportunities you provide for the creatives in our community.

I am beaming with light and wonder as my musical career continues to unfold. I cannot wait to begin this new chapter of growth and discovery as an artist!

In the meanwhile, I’ll be celebrating my music with some UPCOMING SHOWS:

Friday, January 10 at Felice with Travis Matthews, Angela Bégin and Bailey Sutton

Wednesday, January 15 at The Common with the New Standards band

Friday, February 14 at Salisbury Greenhouse as part of the RavenWood Music Festival concert series

Friday, March 14 at Chianti Cafe as part of SkirtsAfire’s Key of A series

Hope to see you at one or all of these!

In the interim, thanks to all who have taken the time to listen, to come out to a show, to watch a music video. It’s all very inspiring and exciting and I will continue to share as this process unfolds- thanks for being here!

HIGH LEVEL, the music video, is out in the world!

Shot + directed by Mike Robertson

With music production, instrumentals and back up vocals by Jesse Northey and Steven Foster

Written and performed by yours truly and my favourite bridge of all time!

Enjoy 🙂

HIGH LEVEL, the music video, comes out TOMORROW!

I had the pleasure of watching the latest draft from Mike Robertson this morning and I am brimming with gratitude to be able to have collaborated on such a colourful, joyous tribute to the bridge I love the most in this world. 

Brianne Jang did a fantastic job (as always) of capturing the fun we had in and around the High Level and Mike did a superb job (as always) capturing it all on film. 

Hope you’ll come to my YouTube page to check it out tomorrow- I am chock full of beans in anticipation of sharing it with all of you.

For now, much love! 

I’m in awe of our city’s arts community-

I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of so many great events and initiatives recently!

Last week, we had the pleasure of opening Die-Nasty, The Live Improvised Soap Opera to a packed crowd, with Ron Pederson and Janis Irwin guesting. We kicked off the newest season of Die Nasty, GOLD FOOLS. This ace group of silly goofs will be back at it tonight, 7:30pm at the Varscona Theatre.

Last night, I got to perform alongside Robyn Ashley as part of After Hours at the Commodore YEG. It was an intimate night of live music, put on by a wonderful group of people who want to bring more eyes and ears to the music happening here in our city. I’ll be sure to share the YouTube link once my episode goes live.

Speaking of YouTube events, I’ve had to postpone the release of my upcoming music video, High Level, to November 15. There’s just too much excitement and creativity happening over here!

There’s much more I could say at this moment, but I’ll leave some of it for future posts.

In the meanwhile, I hope you’re all having a great start to your week!

Lots of fun stuff coming up in my world, including my NEWEST music video for HIGH LEVEL, which I’ll be releasing into the world on Friday, November 1!

Next Monday, October 21, Die-Nasty, OPENS at 7:30pm with Janis Irwin as our special guest and FREE ADMISSION! The series will run every Monday night to follow, same time, at Varscona Theatre.

Sunday, October 27, I look forward to guesting on the Commodore’s After Hours music series with a solo set! I highly recommend checking out their YouTube page for great live performances from #yeg musicians.

Girl Brain just started rehearsals, prep and writing for our HOLIDAY SHOW(s) at Roxy 124 Street, December 12-22. You can grab tickets on the Theatre Network site and celebrate with your friends, family and Girl Brain!

I’ve also got some writing workshops that I’ll be teaching in the coming months with YMCA of Northern Alberta – Edmonton + GeriActors!

ALL THE FUN STUFF and if you can believe it, I’ve already got lots of fun stuff booked in 2025!

HERE WE GO!!!

Listen to High Level before the music video releases, November 1!

Got some images back from my HIGH LEVEL shoot with Brianne Jang and Mike Robertson this Monday-

High Level, the music video, drops Friday, November 1, 2024. 

Who is as excited as I am? 

Listen to the song here!