Country music duo The Lovelocks started their first headlining tour this week and have scheduled a performance in Olds. The band is comprised of fiddler Ali Raney and guitarist Zoe Sparrow, who will play at Tracks Pub on Oct. 21. Showtime is 9 p.m.
The Lovelocks have earned multiple Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) Award nominations, including 2016 Roots Artist of the Year; Raney was nominated for Fiddle Player of the Year. In 2014, the band was the CCMA Discovery Program Award winner.
They've named this western Canadian tour after their EP, Born to Love, produced by Grammy award winner Ben Glover and Juno award winner Mitch Merrett. They are also promoting their latest single, a cover of Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time.
"It's radically meaningful for us. When we met singing in church over 10 years ago, I don't think either of us would have ever imagined we would be in a band together, much less touring across the country together and headlining our own show," said Sparrow.
"So absolutely, it's a significant milestone for us and we're going to enjoy every second of it."
The songs on Born to Love are about love, in many forms, from the passionate kind, to the reminiscent, to even the sassy rejection of it.
"We do try to keep more of an upbeat feel to our music," Sparrow said. "We're really proud with the Born to Love EP and the different angles of love that we've been able to sing about in each of the seven songs."
They also have lots of love for their fans because this EP, and their self-titled debut release in 2014, were crowd-funded through the site RocketHub. In total, they raised more than $65,000 toward the cost of recording both. That campaign has contributed to a deeper connection with them.
"We saw everybody interacting, we saw who was donating and for sure, it honestly means the world when we meet people at shows and online who are supporting our career," said Raney.
"We actually manage all of our social media. We see people's names. We read their comments, their tweets. We're the ones that are responding."
This year, the band travelled overseas to entertain Canadian troops in France, Ukraine and Kuwait. They were joined by a large group of CFL and NHL players as well as Canadian business leaders on the trip.
"We met so many wonderful women and men in the Armed Forces who sacrifice so much to be overseas for six or seven months at a time on deployment, away from their families, away from everything they hold dear," Raney said. "We were super fortunate to be a part of that trip and we would love to do that sort of thing again."
"It's radically meaningful for us. When we met singing in church over 10 years ago, I don't think either of us would have ever imagined we would be in a band together, much less touring across the country together and headlining our own show," ZOE SPARROW, guitarist, on their first headlining tour
