Singer/songwriter Jamie Woodfin sees today’s country music diverging along two main roads — one paved with pop and the other with “twang.”
The Ponoka native, now based in Red Deer, prefers going down a path that’s been a little less travelled lately. “I love all kinds of country, but I used to play in a punk rock band, so I have more rock influences.”
Woodfin feels he doesn’t have the voice to be twangy, so he’s more in tune with singers such as Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, even bluegrassy, folk/country artist Chris Stapleton.
“I look to all kinds of different music,” said Woodfin for what he described as his “outlaw country” sound.
And this approach seems to be paying off for the Central Alberta musician, whose single Just Feels Right is getting played by KG Country and other radio stations.
Woodfin, who opened a Brett Kissel concert in February, is performing at the Ponoka Stampede’s beer garden on Saturday, June 27.
He’s also on the bill with Corb Lund on June 30 at a concert in Fort McMurray. And Woodfin sees this as a huge stepping stone in his career.
“Things are going in a good direction,” he said. “All of these openers are a great opportunity to meet the artists and build relationships with them.”
Woodfin started playing the guitar at age 14. His musical ambitions shifted from punk to country as a matter of “matured taste.” The singer said he came to appreciate the storytelling aspect of country songs.
“What always really grabbed me was painting a picture (for listeners), and I think country music is the genre that does that best.”
Although his current single was not written by Woodfin, he regularly enters melodies and song ideas into his iPhone for his own material.
“Sometimes you hear something, a turn of phrase, and you want to capture it,” for a possible use as a song lyric.
Woodfin, who performed at the Rock the Change Suicide Awareness concert at Bower Ponds, is heading back into the studio this month to record a followup single set for an expanded EP that should be available at his shows later this year.
The singer, who once owned his own home-building firm, still has a day job assessing construction tenders for Alberta Health Services. But he aims to be a full-time musician one day.
“I have a lot of shows booked for the summer,” said Woodfin — including at a cabaret at the Battle of the Rockies chuckwagon races in Rocky Mountain House in mid-August.
For more information, visit www.jamiewoodfin.com.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com