Since her Manitoba Country Music Awards nomination for Cover Artist of the Year last fall, Niverville recording artist Catie St. Germain has been inspired to kick her original songwriting into high gear.
On March 24, she released a new single called “The Taxman.”
“I didn’t take home the [MCMA] award, but as much as I love the cover scene and being able to sing in general, it really inspired me to write some original songs,” St. Germain says. “Hopefully I’ll go back this fall nominated in one of the songwriting categories.”
And “The Taxman” may just help her do that.
St. Germain says the inspiration for the piece came from the everyday life she shares with her husband and their three boys.
“I wrote it in hopes that people can relate to it the way I have in my everyday life,” she says. “We grow up, we find a partner if we’re lucky, we have children, and life gets a little more complicated and at times mundane. We feel busy with kids schedules and sometimes forget to make the time for our spouses. Or, let’s face it, we’re too exhausted.”
The song is about love through all of life’s ups and downs and features whimsical lyrics that reminisce about simpler, maybe more exciting, times.
“I hope it inspires people to find the beauty in the mundane and that everything is just a season,” says St. Germain.
The musician is the granddaughter of Canadian Country Music Hall of Famer Ray St. Germain. She has travelled all across Canada singing to crowds and performs with Réal Comeault as a duo called Whiskey Saints. She is one of the most sought-after cover singers in Manitoba with a vast repertoire of rock, top forty, and country songs that span six decades of music.
St. Germain is relatively new to Niverville, having taken up residence in 2017. To make the leap into recording her own music, she found the town and surrounding area to be filled with local talent ready to help make her vision a reality.
She recruited her longtime collaborator Réal Comeault (from Steinbach) as well as musicians Trevor Lux (from Niverville), Darcy Wall (from Niverville), Daniel Friesen (from Blumenort), and Doug Duerksen (from Steinbach).
“And my friend and fellow Niverville artist JR Charron is the one who introduced me to the mixing and mastering producer Derek Benjamin,” she says. “It truly takes a village and I couldn’t have done this without them.”
As a seasoned singer, expanding her own repertoire of original music was likely going to happen eventually. When performing, her connection with the audience is relaxed. And she’s always found that story telling comes naturally to her.
For her first attempt at songwriting, St. Germain dug deep to make a personal connection to what is most important to her. She found that it required a lot of courage to present the final product to anyone—even her husband.
“The funny thing is, while I don’t always write songs that are super relatable to my personal life, this one had me crying like a baby on my deck while my husband thought I was a crazy person,” says St. Germain. “This was my first attempt at writing a song ever and I didn’t share it with anyone for months before I found some bravery.”
Despite bravely exploring new creative territory, the ambitious artist is not giving up on singing covers. She has plans to perform a set of both originals and covers at this summer’s festivals.
“I have some more songs ready to record, so we’ll be busy in the studio this spring and gearing up for an exceptional 90-minute set at Dauphin’s Countryfest,” says St. Germain. “It’ll be a jam-packed party set with covers and the originals mixed in.”
“The Taxman” is available now on all streaming platforms and St. Germain is working with a company she hopes will help get the song heard on more radio stations across Canada.
