Interview with Meredith Shaw

Published: Dec. 11, 2014, midnight

b"\\u201cAt 14 I booked myself into a studio and recorded a demo and it was sent to a producer in Nashville. He liked it and I flew back and forth to Nashville a few times. So Nashville was the very first place I ever made music in a studio,\\u201d Toronto's Meredith Shaw explains. \\u201cAnd I know I have come back to this place very naturally.\\xa0Every moment of putting these new songs together has felt right. I just feel very at ease and at home.\\u201d\\n\\nHer passion for country music was rekindled over the past few years through writing trips back down to Nashville, working with The Stellas and Carolyn Dawn Johnson - among others. Meredith's\\xa0debut country single is called Better Than This - a song she co-wrote.\\n\\n\\u201cFor much of the past couple of years most of the people I was writing with, talking with, and dealing with on a regular basis were in country music. I know I am in the right place,\\u201d she said adding that she has\\xa0always been drawn to female singers who not only had powerful voices but powerful personalities, regardless of their genre citing the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Stevie Nicks, Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride and fellow Canadians Shania Twain and CDJ as key role models.\\n\\nSongwriter/producer Jeff Johnson has been brought in to produce the music that will eventually become Meredith\\u2019s debut country music album. His track record with breakthrough acts like Wes Mack, and his writing credits with Dallas Smith, Madeline Merlo and Small Town Pistols impressed her.\\n\\nMeredith is the host of the top-rated weekend radio show in Toronto on boom 97.3, a model with a number of successful national campaigns to her name, a business owner of a\\xa0gift and custom greeting card company, and a philanthropist who started the Girls Who Believe Festival to help girls and young women reach their fullest potential through affirmation and mentorship."