Stratford goes country with Nashville Takeover songwriters’ festival coming this spring
- Lisa Chester
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
Country music fans rejoice. A Nashville Takeover is happening in town April 10-12 as one of thirteen towns nationwide selected for the concert series. The three-day experience will bring fifteen top emerging singer/songwriters from Nashville and across Canada to perform in intimate settings all around town.
Co-founder Scotty James is thrilled by the response from Stratford residents at the prospect of bringing the event to the Festival City. A Facebook campaign across Canada gauging interest in a takeover showed Stratford as one of the most enthusiastic responders and ticket sales are already brisk.
“Scotty put out a big ‘Hey, would you like to vote for your city for this to come’ and they did. We had thirteen cities and Stratford was one of the loudest cities,” said event coordinator Larisa Shoebridge. “It’s not a surprise, you folks are always into music and drama and arts but on the country side, there’s a need, a want and desire there so that’s what we’re bringing to the town of Stratford.”
The concept behind the Nashville Takeover is to bring together musicians and audience in intimate listening rooms where the artist is within arm’s reach and entertains with songs and stories behind the music. There are no large stages or barriers of separation.
It started out as front porch concerts during the pandemic with James performing solo at a time when social distancing and outdoor only gatherings was the norm. One such concert was performed at Hughson Hall Bed and Breakfast in August of 2023 to great success. Later the concerts moved to backyards. This expanded to the Nashville Takeover concept, and after two successful events last year in Collingwood and Port Stanley, the country will now experience what it is like to discover an artist emerging as among the best of the best selected to participate.
“There’s a market for it, for these communities, in these neighbourhoods, so we started doing them all across North America and we’d bring the whole Nashville experience to people’s back yards. Just the essence of Nashville and the songwriters’ rounds inspired it. It really didn’t exist in too many places outside of Nashville, especially in Canada,” said James.
There are three groups of tickets available. The Saturday pass is $59, the weekend pass is $99 and the VIP pass is $249.
“The VIP pass is exclusive performances; they could be a special brunch on Sunday with an artist, it could be taking you away to a mysterious place for cocktails and appies. So that package is actually really quite popular, but the whole premise behind this is intimacy. There’s something very special that happens when you put three artists on three stools with three guitars. Something absolutely magic happens when the whole room turns to a listening room where everybody just goes quiet,” said Shoebridge.
The artists explain where the songs came from, telling stories to the audience. The performers read the vibe of the room and have total autonomy in how to conduct the performance to create a uniquely one-of-a-kind experience.
“We like to chose venues that have some mystique or really funky pieces to them and Stratford is full of them, so I’m having an absolute ball working with possible venues. We are even working with tiny ones like End of Times on York Street,” said Shoebridge.
Who the performers will be is kept secret in advance. Festival goers can trust that who they are going to see is about to become a household name. Scotty James is an award-winning, chart-topping artist himself and is well ingrained in the Nashville scene to know the epic talent that will be coming.
“Scott does a detailed dive on each performer looking for someone that is keen and wonderful and tells great stories. The pool of artists we choose from is incredible. There are so many talented people out there it’s quite mind boggling. I can tell you that at Port Stanley and Collingwood there were artists that played there who are now hitting it quite big, so this is also part of the mystique,” said Shoebridge.
Bringing country music back to the forefront is the goal. There is nothing in Canada like this songwriter’s festival and bringing the Nashville Takeover to Stratford in April brings joy to the organizers.
“It’s something we want to do every year and become a staple in these towns across Canada. We’re the only company doing this at scale. We’re proud to do that and we want to keep doing it and building our community base in each town,” said James.
The Nashville Takeover songwriters’ festival will take place at venues across town on April 10-12. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit https://luma.com/kosmkni3/