One hails from Estevan and is one of the the country and western music scene's fastest rising stars. The other guy, who comes from just down the road in Kennedy, completed an exhausting tour that kept him on the road for over 200 days last year and over 100 days so far this year. She's from Langenburg and is one of this country's brightest new lights on the C & W scene and has the awards to prove it. She's coming home from Nashville to join the other two for a quick Prairie tour with one of the stops being at the Estevan Comprehensive School on Wednesday, Dec. 7, starting around 7 p.m.
Chris Henderson, Blake Berglund and Jess Moskaluke are good friends and musical soul mates, so getting together became a natural progression once they decided they wanted to put some time together to make it happen.
"It's an acoustical tour, the three of us, Grass Roots and Cowboy Boots," said Henderson during a telephone conversation from his home in Regina where he was putting the finishing touches to the tour's logistical arrangements.
"Blake's been on the road full time for a few years now. He released an album a few years ago and won the Saskatchewan Country Music Association Rising Star Award and he's doing a follow-up album. Jess, I figure, will be too big a star to go on the road with us by next year. She won the Canadian Country Music Award for emerging stars and is an Internet sensation and has some major stuff on the horizon. She's ridiculously talented," said Henderson who won the 2010 Next Big Thing Award in Saskatchewan and its $20,000 prize. His first album Follow the Signs has done very well as have some songs from it such as The Difference You Make and All of Me.
He is also working on a follow-up album, something he started while recovering from a broken wrist last summer.
The three intend to do some significant harmonizing of a number of cover tunes that will feature work from such well known groups as The Band and Rolling Stones as well as featuring their own work while backing up one another.
"I've done rock in the past," said Berglund from his current rest stop in Medicine Hat. He had just arrived from Vancouver. "I'm living the dream, which means I live in my van," he said with a laugh.
"Chris and I kept running into one another and we eventually struck up a very honest friendship. He's a guy who will put it on the line and make sacrifices and I respect that. We're just people who pay our way with music."
Moskaluke, who contacted The Mercury from her Nashville digs, said she started out like a lot of young girls, singing in a church choir. She heard one good voice in the choir and aspired to match that other girl's abilities. The rest is history for the 22-year-old.
Winning the CCMA award she said "the second thought that went through my mind, was when can I call my mother?"
In Nashville, she said, it can be frightening but also a place that fuels the fire in people who aspire to make it in the tough world of C & W.
"It's a small town in many respects. Everyone knows everyone else so you make one wrong move or give one bad performance and it could be an essential part of your career. It can be intimidating, but I keep a positive attitude and give my best every performance whether it's a small bar near nowhere or in the studio with a producer. I'm working on an extended play album in Nashville now and recording another in Canada that I wrote," Moskaluke said.
In the meantime, she's added a whole new range to her vocal reach thanks to voice coaching and personally stretching the limits. She noted her vocal coach had been very protective of her voice, but her stubborness eventually won the day. "He told me I shouldn't try, so naturally I did and I incorporate some in my song writing."
The young singer said she's explored cross-over materials in the rock and pop vein, even some rap videos and has enjoyed collecting a pretty loyal fan base. Her heart stays with country though.
"You know we haven't rehearsed yet," said Berglund, noting how the road has taken the trio in separate directions.
But since they've all jammed together numerous times, they have become familiar with the other artists' material and how they work.
"We'll do some duets and harmony work. That's really a lot of fun. We know what we're going to do, it'll just be a matter of putting the sets together," Berglund said.
Henderson echoed that thought. "I have their stuff. We've been around a lot together. When you have voices like those two, it'll work fine. And yes, I expect we'll surprise one another. I bet we'll each pull out something different that we'll want to try with the other two."
While on the tour, the trio will visit some schools, talking with the students and explaining what they do and how they do it. That part will be a bit easier for Henderson who left the teaching profession to pursue a career in music this past year.
"I expect Blake and I will put Jess out of her regular comfort zone just because we know she can kick up some great vocals. So it will be things like that," said Henderson who gained kudos himself from Berglund who noted how comfortable Henderson has been with harmony work, covering melody or the lower range effortlessly.
"This will be a show for all ages and once we've finished our rehearsals we'll be ready to roll. We've all learned a lot on the road," said Berglund.
After the Grass Roots and Cowboy Boots tour, the trio will again split up to pursue their respective dreams. Henderson will be off to Nashville in April to spend time with music publishers and writers to complete some writing work he's committed to. Moskaluke and Berglund will be back on the road or in the recording studios in Canada and the U.S.
Other stops on the Grass Roots tour include Fillmore, Regina, Swift Current, Carlyle, Medicine Hat, Langenburg, Moose Jaw, Oxbow and Lorette, Manitoba. Tickets for the Estevan show are available at Henders Drugs.
