Renegade Station gets five music nominations

With the Alberta Country Music Association Awards fast approaching in January, Renegade Station is ecstatic after hearing they have five nominations for 2019.

Their names are on the ballot for Group of the Year, Fans Choice, Single of the Year, Video of the Year, and the recently created Community Spirit award.

All band members are from the Town of Stettler.

“It’s amazing,” said Luanne Carl, lead vocals and bassist for the band.

“It’s awesome, it’s such a great feeling. Every year you don’t know [what will happen] you work hard, we play a ton of shows and do the best we can and to be nominated is the icing on the cake. We never take it for granted.”

“We sat with bated breaths listening to the nominations be read via Facebook Live and we are really, really excited so it’s a pretty incredible feeling,” she said.

Alberta Country Music Association (ACMA) Awards night is set for Sun. Jan. 26 in Red Deer at the former Sheraton Hotel.

Renegade Station will be performing alongside other big names in show business.

To vote for a favourite, an industry membership is required.

This usually pertains to other bands and solo artists as well as managers, radio hosts, publicists, etc.

The public has a say in Fans Choice.

“Being that we made the top five for fans choice as well – it’s so awesome. It feels very well rounded and the people are industry peers who feel strong enough about us to nominate us and also our fans so it’s pretty incredible.

The local band has made support for their community a top priority over the years by performing in support of non-profit organizations in the area.

In 2018 and 2019, they have partnered with the Safe Harbour Society in Red Deer to get items for people who are less fortunate. 

Fellow band member Kent Nixon and Carl even created a song called ‘Safe Harbour’.

“The lyrics of the song just go so well with what they are trying to do and what we want to do. We just want to help out and do what we can. It’s really important to us,” said Carl.

Being nominated for the Community Spirit award seemed fitting in this context.

Over the years, they have performed for support for the Fort McMurray forest fires, donated time and at West Stettler Park.

They also worked with the Stettler Concert Music band at the high school as well as donate 26 music stands to the program.

“We try to have something coming up every year,” she said.

The band was not always known as Renegade Station.

The group, consisting of  Luanne Carl, Russ Carl, Kent Nixon and Scott McKnight, began working together in the early 2000s as part of the Stettler Country Music Jamboree as the backup band.

From there, they learned 40 new songs every year in preparation for the 20+ singers who would perform.

“We decided to take the show on the road. We started playing for everything – curling dances, ball tournaments, hockey tournaments, weddings – you name it,” said Luanne.

Roughly five years ago, they felt it was time to ‘take it to the next level’ by recording some songs that allowed them to hone in on their stage presence and establish who they were as a band.

In 2015, they released their first album called ‘Ghost’ under the band name Domino where one of their songs called ‘We Just Did’ reached the top 85 songs in Canada.

This led them on a journey of touring the vast nation with shows in Alberta as well as Ontario and Saskatchewan.

Finally, they changed their name to Renegade Station after finding the generic name ‘Domino’ to be hindering their progression.

“For the last two years we have been Renegade Station and we’ve had the most success we have ever had. It’s almost like we are a new band since 2017,” said Carl.

Their newest single titled ‘Along for the Ride’ has reached the top 70 in the charts already.

They won ACMA’s Single of the Year last year for their song ‘Who’s Gonna Love Me Tonight?’

Fresh music is expected to be released in the new year.

Terri Huxley

ECA Review