CANMORE – When Kyle Pullan joined an American Idol-esque contest in Canmore as a judge, many assumed the veteran musician would turn into the barbed tongue prick of the panel like the stone cold destroyer-of-dreams Simon Cowell.
Every Saturday evening in March at the Canmore Legion, local up-and-coming musicians are on stage in front of three critiquing judges in Valley Sound Off, an elimination-style competition of microphone mastery with weekly challenges.
Having won the Banff music contest Tommy’s Unplugged in 2017, Pullan knows the subtle nuances of what judges seek out when the bright lights are at their hottest, but he also wants to help mentor and offer advice when he can.
“As it turns out, I’m the sweetest guy on the panel,” said Pullan with a laugh. “I just love everyone who is playing and I support them. But where there is room for critique or improvement every week, the judges are voicing something they can bring next week that we want to see them improving on.”
Open to singles and duos, the nine acts in the inaugural Valley Sound Off are Emily Rourke, Jason Letcher, Jean Bilodeau, Kieran Lehan, Lea McCroy, Kael Macleod, Tyler Wood, Carlyn Reilly and duo Sandy Lecour and John Groeneveld.
Based on a point system, the judges and professional musicians – Pullan, Sue Chick Denton and Michael Kragt (Candice Chang judged the first two weeks) – assess five areas of criteria from their table in front of the stage: showmanship, musicianship, originality, audience engagement/participation and style/repertoire.
In the fourth week (March 23), the contest will be shaved down to its final competitors. Then on the fifth Saturday (March 30), the last musician standing wins the grand prize of headlining a show at artsPlace later in 2024 and a professional song recording with Pullan, who used his producing skills to recently score the local documentary The Great Divide.
“So far, everyone is really blowing me away and they’re bringing all that to the table,” said Pullan. “It’s going to be a really tough competition. Everyone has a chance.”
Julie Chang, musician and contest organizer, said the idea of Valley Sound Off spawned from Canmore Idol, a singing competition that ran from the late 2000s to early 2010s.
“I think with everything that’s happened and post-COVID live music just resurrected, I think it’s just more alive now than it ever has been,” said Chang. “The musicians I know in town are just so stoked to play.”
There are also curve balls thrown at the musicians in weekly challenges. This Saturday (March 16), for example, the musicians have to either pick any song from the 1950s or a song from the year they were born to perform.
“So that's kind of fun just to push them every week and get them to sort of rise to the occasion, which has been fun to watch them kind of do on their own,” said Chang.
Chang added the competition has taken a few weeks to gain traction, but her phone is now blowing up with messages about it.
“If this is successful ... we’ll do other ones, like, I want to do a kids one because there are so many talented kids in the valley and I think that sort of needs to be its own thing,” said Chang.
Each Valley Sound Off show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.
Proceeds of Valley Sound Off go toward Canmore Minor Hockey.
