Tenille Townes - The Lemonade Stand

 Tenille Townes is a 26 year old singer songwriter from Alberta, Canada.  Interestingly the number of albums she has is different going by what source you look up.  Going by her own website her latest release "The Lemonade Stand" is her debut album.  On the other hand however if you look up her Wikipedia page "The Lemonade stand" is her 3rd album with "Real" made in 2011 and "Lights" in 2013.  However there is no chart position next to these albums and they are also not on Spotify.  Maybe she is classifying "The Lemonade Stand" as her debut as its her first album with a worldwide release and she is signed to a major label with this album in the form of Columbia Nashville.  One more thing to note before I get stuck into the album is that she has raised over 1.9 million dollars for Sunrise House, a shelter for homeless youths in Alberta. A very impressive feet.

I found Tenille through an add on Facebook and thought her voice was amazing. But one thing which really strikes you when you see Tenille perform is that she just seems to be having an absolute ball. She is so happy and it's infectious.  And I would say over half the album you can feel this joy and energy driven right into the recordings.  There are a lot of upbeat songs on the album; From opener "Holding out for the one", "Jersey on the Wall - I'm Just asking", "Lighthouse" and "White Horse" along with various others scattered throughout the album.  At the moment "White Horse" is probably my favourite.

She is very much a country singer and in 2019 she picked up 4 awards at the Canadian country music awards.  You wonder with country superstars such as Taylor Swift and Kacey Musgraves moving away from the genre that there is a gap in the market now for Tenille to fill and with an album like this she is certainly putting forward a good case to fill that space.

There is another aspect to the album with the slower songs on the album such as "I kept the roses" and album closer "The most beautiful things".  While they are good songs I do feel she is at her best with the up tempo songs and having fun.  But at the same time this does bring a certain balance to the album.

Overall whether this is the debut album or her third album, it is a great album to listen to and one all country music fans should really be paying attention to. I hope her older albums do see the light of day if they are any good. As it would be interesting to see how she has developed into the songwriter she is today.