Carmen
Lindsay,
singer
songwriter, interviewed for Dreamers and Doers at the Stony Plain Cowboy Poetry
Gathering.
Q: How did you get started?
A: I grew up exactly 27 miles east of here, in the city of
Edmonton. But I am of the
generation where everybody had grand parents in the country. So I always heard about the country and how wonderful it was.
And as soon as I could move out of the city I moved to the country and
now I’ve been there half my life and I love it out here.
Q: What is your tie to music?
A: I knew when I saw Gordon Lightfoot at 14, I just knew that was
what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. And when I heard Grant Parsons, I knew it was going to be
country.
Q: Where did you learn to play?
A: I’ve had way too much training to do this.
Way too much, I have 9 years of conservatory of Toronto.
First class honors, competitions and everything.
And then I went to the BCFA and then the GM Jazz College.
Then I ran off with a rock and roll band and then I became involved in a country
rock band and that’s where I’ve been virtually ever since in the
country/rock, country/folk sphere.
Q: I am very fortunate to have found cowboy poetry because I was
diagnosed with MS. My friend after the first year dragged me out of bed
and said do this poetry. And
because of my friends, I am here doing poetry, 12 years later, standing up.
So I am glad.
Arts and Culture in Alberta are, well, this is very important part of culture in Alberta. This is respect for our parents, respect for our elders. It is a hard thing when people you know and love have reached a point in their life where they’re about to go over to the other side, but it is a treasure to meet them and listen to their poems and listen to their stories of how the country was built.