Grammy-nominated country artist Steven Lee Olsen says he's looking forward to his first-ever show in Sault Ste. Marie on Feb. 12, one of dozens of events scheduled for this year's Bon Soo Winter Carnival.
About 18 years ago, Olsen moved from Canada to live and work in Nashville, Tennessee — a hot bed for country music.
"We just actually moved back to Ontario this year, but I split my time back and forth, so I just kept my Nashville (phone) number," said Olsen in an interview on Tuesday.
Olsen said people in the industry call Nashville a '10-year-town', meaning it can take a decade for an artist to find success. As it happened, he got his first record deal with Columbia records in his 11th year in that city.
"It's definitely been a grind, but the education that I've gotten from the best songwriters in the world — I just would never trade that for anything," he said.
Olsen made good use of his time in Smashville, racking up numerous nods from both the U.S. and Canadian music industries — including a Grammy nomination in 2017 for Blue Ain't Your Color, the song he co-wrote for Keith Urban.
Asked how a Canadian singer-songwriter ended up being nominated for an American music award with a song for an Australian country star, Olsen said it was really special to have his first U.S. number one hit with Urban.
"It's one of those stories that I couldn't have written better myself. I moved to Nashville because I saw Keith Urban on [Country Music Television] one day and he was an Australian guy with a banjo in the middle of a desert and he wasn't wearing cowboy boots or a cowboy hat," said Olsen.
"I just thought to myself, if an Australian kid can go make waves in Nashville maybe this Canadian kid can too. He was kind of the fuel that drove me to Nashville in the first place," he added.
Over the years, Olsen has charted and received numerous nominations as an artist in Canada, but noted his current Country Night in Canada Tour is his first ever cross-country tour.
"We decided to do this tour in the middle of the winter just because there was no other tours coming through and in January and February people need some love too, man," said Olsen.
Canadian singer-songwriter Jojo Mason is opening for Olsen on the tour, including in the Sault.
"He's great. He is so charismatic and he has a brand new song out right now — it's incredible. It's about his brother, it's called Just Like You," said Olsen of Mason.
Olsen will play The Machine Shop on Feb. 12. Tickets are available on his website.