Jam! Showbiz
July 5, 2007

Mahood Energized by Calgary
  Louis B Hobson

For Beverley Mahood, Canada's sweetheart of country music, the Calgary Stampede acts like a gigantic magnet.

Each July, for more than a decade, it has drawn her to the Nashville North concert tent.

"I look forward to Stampede because it revives me. I feel so alive when I'm here. When I first did Nashville North 10 or so years ago it was my first big gig," says Mahood, who takes the Nashville North stage tomorrow at 9 and 10:30 p.m.

Six years ago, Mahood decided not to perform at Nashville North.

"I wanted to come to the Stampede as a spectator because I had seen how much fun people have when they're on the grounds.

"I was going to take in the midway, the chuckwagon races, the grandstand show and see an act or two at Nashville North," she recalls.

Mahood was walking past Nashville North when the stage manager spied her and rushed out. The scheduled performer had come down with laryngitis so he entreated her to save the night.

"I got on that stage and instantly felt at home. I knew Nashville North was where I should be if I'm in Calgary during Stampede and vowed never to pass up the opportunity again.

"This is a special city for every country singer because Calgary is where country music is still very much alive," she insists.

"No matter how big Calgary gets, it retains its small town feel. This is where the audiences let you know they're grateful for your performance. It's a real love affair."

For Mahood, country songs "are little stories and they connect so well here because Calgarians are the kind of people who love to hear and tell stories. It's probably because they have so many of their own.

"Even better, they're the kind of people who party as hard as they work. That's the greatest combination there is in an audience for a country singer."

When you see Mahood beaming up there on the Nashville North stage it's because she "enjoys watching the people in the tent enjoying themselves drinking and dancing.

"I get such a high off their high that I am putting more songs in my set this year that they can two-step to."

Mahood, whose songs include Girl Out of the Ordinary, True Love Never Goes Out of Style and The Way a Woman Feels, says her experiences at Nashville North have inspired a song she recently wrote and recorded called They Own This Town.

"The kind of people I sing about in that song may actually be little guys on the totem pole but they feel like royalty," she says. "That's what makes them so special and worth singing about.

"I love writing songs because it is a way to talk to people. It is my way of healing myself and, hopefully, of healing other people."

Mahood moved from Ontario to Tennessee eight years ago but said her heart is still in Canada.