The Prairie Song Alliance Artist Development Pathway

PSA provides a progression of opportunities that reflect an artist’s readiness.  Artists may enter at any stage depending on their experience and ability.  The Development Pathway moves broadly from:

Discovery → Development → Performance → Launch

We first connect with artists at our open mics.  Paul Jensen and Rhea March host low-barrier, community-building open mics at Frank's Community Pub and Rooster Kitchen every week.  Here are the details:

Prairie Song Stage

Frank's Community Pub - Tuesdays at 7pm

- Host: Paul Jensen

- Open to adults of all experience levels

Sunday Song Stage

Rooster Kitchen - Sundays at 3pm

- Host: Rhea March

- Open to all ages and all experience levels

Our open mics are an opportunity to share your favourite covers or your own original tunes.  Depending on the turnout, you'll have the chance to share one to three songs.  You don't need to be perfect or even polished - just come on out!

If we share a mutual interest with an artist we meet in this setting, we begin to provide mentorship and encourage them to develop enough (preferably original) material and stage presence to perform at one of our many Discovery Stages.

PSA is proud to program Discovery Stages for many beloved Edmonton festivals.  Discovery Stages are opportunities for artists to play a short (20 to 30 minute) set of preferably original material in front of a live audience in exchange for tips.  This is called busking.  Our artists perform throughout the year at festivals like:

Whyte Avenue Art Walk

Chalk It Up

Kaleido Festival

Flying Canoë Volant

Deep Freeze

Strathearn Art Walk

Bonnie Doon Art Walk

And many more

Artists who consistently perform well on Discovery Stages, who continue to develop material and stage presence, and who remain active in the community by helping to promote not only themselves but the events they are a part of, will be asked to take part in Showcases.

Showcases are the next natural space for artists to perform after they become comfortable performing regularly in front of an audiences.  Our Venue Partners work with us to curate artist lineups for both regular and special events that allow performers to plan sets of up to an hour of mostly original music to share.  Our Venue Partners trust us, which means artists selected for showcases must be actively engaged in development (i.e. pursuing music more than casually, taking feedback seriously, etc.) and willing to bring complete professionalism to the experience.  

Venue Partners may be local business with whom we have developed ongoing relationships (like Frank's Community Pub, Three Vikings or Little Brick), or a location that has engaged with us to support an event for a specific date or range of dates.

Generally, artists are paid for their performances during showcases, and we also collect tips from the audience.

Artists who contribute to the goal of offering audiences an incredible experience while ensuring that Venue Partners are pleased with the investment they are making in local, live music will be given the opportunity to play their very own show at the very same venues we partner with by booking a Session Performance.  

Session Performances are opportunities for artists to have their very own show at a venue, for which they are paid a guarantee (a promised amount of funds for a performance).  These performances are held in locations where PSA has established relationships with venue owners and the audience, so the level of trust we have in the artists who schedule these dates is even greater.

Examples of these locations - also known as Venue Partners - are: 

Frank's Community Pub

Three Vikings

Little Brick

Artists need to be prepared with two, 45-minute sets of mostly original music that is well rehearsed.  Their stage banter should feel comfortable and they should be able to hold an audience's attention by making them feel at ease throughout the entire performance. 

When artists perform consistently well in these and other settings, they will begin to develop enough of a following to move on to a Ticketed Event.  

Ticked Events are pre-sale performances held at venues which are open only for the performance being offered by the artist.  Ticket sales depend greatly on active community engagement by the artist, which means this skill must be developed throughout the artist's experience to this point.  Artists should feel comfortable with consistent public engagement, whether through social media, an email list, personal contact or other means that feel natural and authentic to them.  

While ticketed events do not generally pay a guarantee, there is a rider that governs what percentage of the door goes to the artist.

In addition, for most PSA Ticketed Events, we record stem tracks.  These are isolated recordings of each instrument and voice played during the performance which can be used to mix a "live from" single, EP or album.  Our goal with this is to help our artists establish themselves with a recording that they are able to release into the world after having worked so hard to develop their signature sound and stage presence.

If all goes well at this stage, artists may even have the opportunity to play on a Festival Stage.  

PSA proudly partners with both Strathearn Art Walk and the Edmonton Folk Music Festival to program the Main Stage (SAW) and School of Song (Folk Fest).  

These are both massive opportunities for artists to get in front of hundreds, even thousands of listeners who are local to Edmonton and who might become their biggest supporters.  

The selection processes and formats for festival stages vary.  In order to play one of these stages, a dialogue between we as programmers and interested artists needs to take place.  Interested artists should always advise us of their hope to take part in festivals.  Similarly, we will approach artists who we believe should consider these opportunities.  In this way, we will work together to ensure that local artists are represented well in some of Edmonton's most beloved settings.