Caroline Parke, a stay-at-home mom/ranch wife and singer-songwriter from Tulliby Lake, is nominated for six songwriting awards by the International Singer-Songwriters Association (ISSA) on April 2. Parke needs your vote by April 30 to make it to the top 10 in each category and be invited to the ISSA Awards in Atlanta, Georgia on Aug. 6. Supplied Photo
Caroline Parke is a rising country music star who hopes to step onto her first red carpet with one of the most dramatic backstories in the business.
The Tulliby Lake ranch wife, mother of four children and aspiring singer-songwriter, is nominated for six songwriting awards from the International Singer-Songwriters Association (ISSA).
The nominations include international female vocalist of the year, album of the year, and female single, related to her 2021 album Pause and Pine and a new 2022 single, Don’t Look Back.
Parke married into a farm family 10 years ago and took to writing as a way to cope and recover from a life-threatening assault in September 2019 by a knife-wielding woman at night on her back porch.
“I started writing at the end of October that year, then I released my first album of 15 songs the following May,” said Parke.
She says most of the songs on that album, called The Road, are happy songs, which may seem crazy given her state of mind after the attack.
“I was standing on the deck and she came out of the shadows and tried to stab me in the face with a knife, like 10 times,” she said, while her 911 call recorded the sounds of her fight for life.
Parke remembers feeling disoriented and dizzy half the time after that and couldn’t parent her kids.
“I was in a trance and I would strum my guitar and I would just re-create a happy time in my life and write a song about it,” she said.
“It was a really amazing process. I’m glad I did that because it brought me back to my family.”
Parke says she feels lucky to be alive, noting it took her a year of recovering with music to get back to normal.
“I started using songwriting to escape reality because my brain was not working well. I would just have 20 minutes during the day when I could relax, only when I was holding my guitar,” she said.
“A big part of mental health is how I got into this.”
Her newest album, Walk With Me, recorded in Holden Alberta, arrived in the mail on April 4.
It came two days after she saw her name nominated over and over again on the ISSA website, including for female rising star, songwriter of the year and female emerging artist.
Parke, however, needs your vote by the end of April to make the top 10 fan base shortlist in each category to be judged and welcomed at the ISSA Awards in Atlanta, Georgia on Aug. 6.
Fans can vote once a day at poll-maker.com/QTQKDZZX8.
Parke describes her songwriting style as leaning toward old-time country music or country-folk where she is often pegged, although she’s an eclectic consumer of music.
“I love everything from soft rock to Bossa Nova and everything in between. I’ve just been a music fan all my life,” she said.
Parke is a late-blooming artist who didn’t pick up any instruments until she was 24. A visit with her old-time country music-loving grandpa in Crowsnest Pass helped to flip a creative switch.
He had poor eyesight and Parke secretly copied and retyped all his songbooks for him in bold letters, and in the process, recognized some of the songs from her childhood and started singing them with her first guitar.
“The first country song I sang was Tall, Tall Trees by Alan Jackson. I might as well have been a seven-year-old kid trying to strum that song,” said Parke with a laugh.
She’s gone from singing for an audience of her grandpa’s pals at the Coleman Legion to her first nomination for emerging artist of the year and songwriter of the year at last year’s ISSA’s.
Her new outstanding Pause and Pine album has 10 original songs on it inspired by her Green Acres lifestyle with her husband, Cameron.
“We had four kids in five years, so I’m out in nature. I’m out with my kids living a beautiful life. There’s no shortage of inspiration,” said Parke, who doesn’t know what writer’s block is.
“I can’t stop writing. I have two half songs right now in my notebook,” she said.
Parke is also looking forward to her first paid gig when she will perform at the Vermilion Legion on June 18 after recording more than 40 songs.
Given her brush with death, she wrote the Pause and Pine title track to feel grateful for what she has every day with the line, “Don’t pause to pine, what’s done is done” to remind her.
