The fan base of an emerging Springhill musical talent can count itself strong and growing.
Springhill High School student Chelsea Atkinson is one of 22 Canadian musicians advancing in the Country Liberty contest to become an opening act at the 2018 Cavendish Beach Music Festival.
Her submission, a cover of Chris Stapleton’s Tennessee Whiskey, helped the clothing company tasked with finding the concert an opening act net over half-a-million page views and lead to the decision to introduce a round-two. With her eye on the main prize, Atkinson says so far the experience has garnered her more exposure as a musician, including radio and television spots.
“I’ve had photographers contact me and different musicians from Moncton and areas like that contact me and say they want to get together and do things in the future,” Atkinson said.
At the start of 2017, Atkinson landed an opening spot with award-winning musician Brett Kissel when he appeared in Liverpool. More recently she was given stage time during George Canyon’s Amherst performance courtesy of another well-known Springhill musician, Chris Brown.
Voting for the contest opened Dec. 20, at https://tradablebits.com/tb_app/441228. Performing at the concert that draws tens-of-thousands music lovers, Atkinson said, would be an interesting twist of fate for the high school student.
“I’ve been wanting to go to Cavendish since I was 10 years old. Being able to perform there would put me over the moon,” Atkinson said.