Southern man

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This article was published 25/07/2015 (3818 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Chris Ising had gotten used to country-music heartache.

The rising-star part that the Winnipeg artist is suddenly experiencing is a whole different experience.

Ising spent years knocking on doors, delivering demos of the songs he wrote or co-wrote to publishing houses and pitching his material to country artists and managers.

He had seen bands take his songs into the studio but break up before putting out a recording, leaving his tunes in limbo instead of on the radio. He sold some songs to publishing houses before the 2008 recession, only to see them go out of business in the tough economic climate.

“One of the best pieces of advice I got early on is you can’t get too excited about things in the songwriting world until that CD comes out,” Ising says. “You can sign all the contracts, but things happen, and bands break up… until it’s up there on the store shelves, it’s never a sure thing.”

So the 42-year-old songwriter took matters into his own hands — he released his first album, Serenity, in the spring.

“Even now, putting out a CD, I figured it was not a bad point in my life,” Ising says. “Why not just take that chance and put it out independently and see what happens?”

And what happened is his blues began turning into green. To his surprise, instead of being ignored, radio stations in Canada and the U.S. have given his first single, I’m From the Country, some attention.

“He shot up our radio station (chart) like wildfire,” says Tina Passantino, station manager of Country Blast Radio, an Illinois-based Internet radio station. “Our listeners told us, ‘You’ve got to listen to his music.'”

Country Blast’s The Josie Show, which is syndicated on the web and on FM stations across the United States, has I’m From the Country in ninth spot on its countdown, alongside such country-music luminaries as Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and Eric Church.

The Josie Show, which focuses on independent country artists as well as stars from major labels, has also handed Ising five nominations for its inaugural Country Blast Radio Awards, which will be handed out Sept. 27 in Nashville. Ising is up for songwriter, album and male artist of the year, while I’m From the Country is nominated for song of the year (male artist) and music video of the year.

He’s already been to Nashville for the CMA Awards in June and he’ll be back on a plane to Tennessee in September, looking for a performance spot to enhance his profile even further.

“The way I look at it, it’s kind of like the North by Northwest events (in Toronto), where you have a whole bunch of indie artists coming to play,” Ising says of the Country Blast Radio Awards. “This is one radio station that really supports the indie artists down south.”

That southern connection has proven to be critical for Ising’s I’m From the Country. In the song, he sings about how he grew up down south, went to college and got a job on Wall Street, but he’s still from the country and still says “Y’all.”

The twist is Ising’s hometown is up north, not down south.

“It gets a little bit of reaction because I’m from Canada; I grew up in Charleswood,” Ising say.

“One thing I tell people, too, I approach everything more as a songwriter…” he explains. “Everything isn’t my own experience, it’s stories that I’m telling.

“There’s a lot of heartache and drinking (in my songs), and I’m not a drinker.”

Since many of his songs relate to the American South, the epicentre of country music, Ising believes he has a chance to make a bigger impact in the music industry than other Canadian country artists. Many Canadian artists, whether in country or rock music, target radio stations and listeners north of the 49th parallel with lyrics only Canadians can relate to, he says.

“To me, there’s a very distinct Canadian sort of Prairie sound, but I was writing with a lot of writers down in Nashville; I don’t have that Canadian sound to a lot of my material,” he says.

“A lot of subject matter would touch on subjects that would appeal to artists from south of the border, so I could compete against the big-time writers.

“It’s harder to pitch a Canadian-oriented song to an American fan base.”

The bigger transition he faces is becoming a performer, where the spotlight always shines, compared with the life of a songwriter.

“I’m still not used to that, when I’m selling CDs and people ask for an autograph on a CD. As a writer, you’re not exposed to that. As an artist it’s something that comes your way all the time.”

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @AlanDSmall