Saturday, September 2 – 8:00 pm
Like so many country artists Michelle Wright cut her teeth playing six nights a week in clubs across Canada. In 1988, after teaming with Savannah Records President Brian Ferriman, Savannah Records released her first CD, Do Right By Me, in Canada, and Michelle and her band set off to tour North America. Do Right By Me was a major hit in her homeland, with seven chart singles and over 40,000 copies sold. That success opened many doors, including at the brand new Arista/Nashville label. Arista/Nashville made Michelle one of its flagship artists,
and in 1990, they released her first U.S. album, Michelle Wright. American audiences responded immediately and enthusiastically to “that girl singer from up north with the snow in her videos,” and her first single, “New Kind Of Love,” became her first Top Thirty American hit.
In 1992, Arista released Now & Then. Now & Then, which produced a total of six singles included, including “One Time Around,” “Guitar Talk,” “He Would Be Sixteen,” and the song that changed everything, “Take It Like A Man.” “Take It Like A Man,” was released in February of 1992 and in less than a year, Michelle became the first Canadian-born artist in the modern era of country music to have a Top Ten hit in America, a Number One video on CMT-USA (also for “Take It Like A Man”) and to win a major U.S. music industry award (the Academy of Country Music Top New Female Vocalist award in 1992). The song also catapulted Michelle to superstardom, receiving a total of twelve music industry awards, including the 1993 Canadian Country Music Association’s Fans’ Choice Entertainer Of The Year award and double platinum honors for Now & Then the same year. The career that followed is one that many artists dream of having. She has walked to podiums in music centers like Los Angeles and Toronto to accept more than forty major awards, including her 2011 induction into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. A total of twelve album releases have sold millions of copies and produced twenty-five Top Ten radio hits. Michelle enjoys an international career that has seen her grace concert stages across North America, Europe, Africa, South America, Australia, and Asia.
In August of 2022, BFD/Audium Nashville released Wright’s tenth studio project, Milestone. Working with producer Bob Funk (the husband of one of the newest inductees into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, Patricia Conroy), she recorded nine brand new songs, including the lead single, “Small Town. The second single, “Heartbreak Song,” lays bare the misery of surviving the end of a relationship. The song was cowritten with Texas Hills’ Adam Wakefield, who also appears in the song’s music video. Milestone showcases the distinctive musical style that has been the hallmark of her career. One of the highlights of the new release is Wright’s new recording of the classic “Take It Like A Man.”