Alissa Arnason

In the stark landscape of the Saskatchewan prairies, Alissa Arnason spent countless hours dreaming, writing, drawing, and singing within the simple confines of suburban Saskatoon. Music was the language of her family: some of her earliest memories are of her father performing on stages across the province; later, she recalls endless evenings singing with her family around kitchen tables and campfires. At fourteen, Arnason picked up her brother’s guitar and found an immediate portal to a lifetime of self-taught musicianship. Arnason’s independent releases include albums Gentle Step (2011) and Stone & Feather (2014), singles Working For Myself (2012) and Lighthouse (2021), and EP Olivia Cayce and Alissa Arnason Sing Patsy Cline (2023). Arnason’s latest single, Lighthouse, was recorded and produced by Jayne Trimble in Vancouver BC, and released on Trimble’s label World Peach Records in June of 2021. The release gained Arnason attention including a mention in The Sound Café online magazine, a live single release show, a review on Roots Music Canada, features on Record the Reverie and Indie Music Woman SPOTIFY playlists, an interview on Broadtube online music magazine, and international radio play. In 2022, Arnason was the subject of Before I Made It, a short-form, introspective documentary about being working-class and redefining what it is to ‘make it’ in the music industry. In 2021 she was one of the featured local artists chosen for the Capitol Theatre’s Homegrown Season, in which she performed a live-streamed ticketed concert in the historic Capitol Theatre in Nelson, BC to audiences at home. Arnason was a two-time chosen recipient of Tiny Light’s Ignites - Artist Development Series in 2021 and 2022. She has been selected for the second time for the Columbian Kootenay Cultural Alliance (CKCA) and Columbia Basin Trust Touring Grant and is embarking on a Western Canadian tour with At A Glance Agencies in the fall of 2024. Currently, Arnason lives in Nelson, where she has played dozens of live performances in the year 2024 alone including her fourth return to Rossland’s Blizzard Music Festival, Tiny Lights Festival, Dollyfest, Dawson City Honky Tonk, Pachena Bay Music Festival, Woodstove Festival and Shambhala Music Festival.