Ladies of the Canyon Scale Folk-Country Heights
When together they sound like they're from Nashville's Music Row, their influences are from California's Laurel Canyon -- and yet they hail from Montreal.
What can't be disputed though is that together the four ladies making up roots/country band Ladies of the Canyon have found a natural home for their harmonies.
"We learned a lot about self-confidence in being who we want to be and sounding how we want to sound," vocalist/bassist Anna Ruddick says. "When you're starting out a lot of people you work with tell you to do one thing or the other thing, to try to focus on being radio-friendly with your sound choices. But we really just did what we wanted to do, it was being passionate about our music and being self-confident and hopefully people will like it. We're not trying to please everybody."
The foursome, who released their debut album 'Haunted Woman' on June 1, got their start performing in various bands around Montreal. Ruddick played in a jazz group weekly at Grumpy's Bar where singer/guitarist Maia Davies tended bar. From there friendships developed with singer/guitarist Jasmine Bleile and singer Senja Sargeant.
"We became fast friends right away, we would go to Jasmine's house every Friday night and drink wine, writing songs in her living room," Ruddick says. "We all ended up in each other's band and it turned into a band with the four of us, so that was it."
After joining forces though they were still left without a name, something required on the eve of their first gig.
"Maia just went through her record collection looking for a Bob Dylan title or a Bob Dylan lyric and Ladies of the Canyon (the title of Joni Mitchell's 1970 album) fell into her lap off the shelf," Ruddick says.
The name might also be influenced by acts like
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