Tenille Townes

Tenille Townes Artistfacts

  • January 20, 1994
  • For Townes, songwriting is a spiritual experience. "You're transported through the music," she told Songfacts. "It's a form of surrender, where you're trusting where the song is taking you... It's the closest thing to a real-life magical experience."
  • Her birth name is Tenille Nadkrynechny, so you can understand why she changed it. "Townes" comes from Township Road 722, the road she grew up on in the Grande Prairie area of Alberta, Canada.
  • Not surprisingly considering she's a country singer from Canada, Townes is a huge fan of Shania Twain. When Tenille was 9 years old she got to not only see Shania in concert but join her on stage, thanks to her sign that read, "Shania, Can I Please Sing With You"? (she sang part of "What A Way To Wanna Be!") In 2023, Townes was an opening act on Twain's Queen Of Me Tour.
  • She writes her own songs, often with co-writers on the Nashville scene. She started writing songs soon after her grandparents gave Tenille her first guitar when she was 14.
  • Her breakthrough song was "Somebody's Daughter" in 2018, which went to #1 on the Canadian Country chart. She wrote the song after spotting a homeless woman off a highway exit.
  • She moved to Nashville in 2013 when she was 19. She made the 45-hour trek from Alberta in her Toyota Tacoma.
  • In 2023 she released a duet with Bryan Adams called "The Thing That Wrecks You." She ran into him while recording music for a Hallmark movie at Adams' studio in Vancouver, where she proffered the idea of doing a duet. To her surprise, Adams agreed.
  • She's won a trove of awards in her native Canada, including five Canadian Country Music Association awards on one night in 2022, including Entertainer Of The Year and Album Of The Year (Masquerades).
  • She's a questioning Christian, sometimes wondering about God's motives in her songs. An example is "Jersey On The Wall (I'm Just Asking)," which tells the story of a high school athlete who is killed in a car crash.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Amanda Palmer

Amanda PalmerSongwriter Interviews

Call us crazy, but we like it when an artist comes around who doesn't mesh with the status quo.

Ben Kowalewicz of Billy Talent

Ben Kowalewicz of Billy TalentSongwriter Interviews

The frontman for one of Canada's most well-known punk rock bands talks about his Eddie Vedder encounter, Billy Talent's new album, and the importance of rock and roll.

Chris Frantz of Talking Heads

Chris Frantz of Talking HeadsSongwriter Interviews

Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz on where the term "new wave" originated, the story of "Naive Melody," and why they never recorded another cover song after "Take Me To The River."

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular Music

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular MusicSong Writing

Starting in Virginia City, Nevada and rippling out to the Haight-Ashbury, LSD reshaped popular music.

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull

Ian Anderson of Jethro TullSongwriter Interviews

The flautist frontman talks about touring with Led Zeppelin, his contribution to "Hotel California", and how he may have done the first MTV Unplugged.

Kelly Keagy of Night Ranger

Kelly Keagy of Night RangerSongwriter Interviews

Kelly Keagy of Night Ranger tells the "Sister Christian" story and explains why he started sweating when he saw it in Boogie Nights.