Rosebud’s musical Dearhearts

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

Rosebud’s musical trio The Dearhearts is competing in CBC Music’s Searchlight – The Hunt for Canada’s Best New Artist Contest. The grand prize includes $20,000 in equipment, and an appearance before a panel of established Canadian musicians.
The Dearhearts – Alix Cowman, Lauren de Graaf and Lauren Hamm – started making music together as students at Rosebud School of the Arts. They all sing, plus Cowman plays ukulele, de Graaf plays the banjolele (a combination of banjo and ukulele), and Hamm plays guitar and mandolin. After Cowman won a recording scholarship with Rosebud’s doGhouse Studios, the three recorded together. They hadn’t intended to continue, but enjoyed working together so much they just didn’t stop. Their self-titled album was released in October 2014.
Cowman learned about the Searchlight competition “by fluke,” she says, and decided it was a perfect opportunity to help The Dearhearts achieve their goal of reaching a wider audience with their music and broaden exposure to their album. It’s certainly working – their Facebook page gained more than 40 new likes within the first week, and their music was featured on both CBC Saskatchewan’s The Afternoon Edition and CJLO Montreal’s The Best of the West.
The Searchlight is at the end of the regional competition phase, when Canadian music fans could vote online for the Dearhearts – or a total of 10 entrants – daily. The voting officially ends at 1 p.m. – on April 20. On April 21 the finalists will be revealed, and will only be one step away from making it into the national round.
If The Dearhearts are one of the Top 10 groups in their region, based on online voting, they’ll be entered into the second phase, the national contest. National winners will be chosen by a panel of judges, with online voting as one of the judging criteria.
You can listen to the Dearhearts’ Searchlight entry, “July,” at http://music.cbc.ca/#!/artists/The-Dearhearts. Follow their competition progress and their other activities by liking their Facebook page.
In the meantime, The Dearhearts – who just returned from a month-long tour of house concerts in Alberta and Saskatchewan — will continue singing for audiences around the province. This spring, Cowman and de Graaf will sing and act together in the play Wildwood Fire, on Rosebud’s BMO Studio Stage. In July, The Dearhearts will perform at the Alberta 55+ Games in Strathmore.