An 11-year-old Airdrie singer-songwriter recently dropped her new single, Fly High, a song written about a family friend with a heart-breaking story.
Hayley Isabel began writing the song several years ago, but it finally came to fruition after working together with her vocal coach, Brian Farrell, and Airdrie musician, Kyle McKearney.
McKearney, who produced the song, is a 2023 Canadian Country Music Award (CCMA) winning musician.
He recently released his album A Traveller’s Lament and invited Isabel to open up for him at the album release party.
“He never saw me perform so he took a pretty big risk asking me if I wanted to open for his record release,” Isabel said. “It was a really big honour and it opened so many doors for me.”
The young country artist began working with McKearney prior to the release party on some of her songs and set list.
Isabel credited McKearney for pushing her out of her comfort zone, which ultimately resulted in a better version of her song, Fly High.
McKearney did the instrumentals for the single, including guitar, banjo, and mandolin.
“It was a really amazing experience with him, he makes it a very comfortable environment where I'm not afraid to try things out,” Isabel said.
“There was one thing he wanted me to try out and I was nervous, I was like, ‘Ok, I don't know if my voice can do that.’ And he was like, ‘Well try it.’”
She belted out her song and was able to become more confident in hitting certain notes.
Fly High was written for seven-year-old family friend, Quinn, who has been in and out of the Children’s Hospital since birth.
According to Isabel’s mom, Shayna Mackoney-Skauge, Quinn has an extremely rare life-threatening condition that affects many of her vital organs.
“Quinn struggles each day for what most of us take for granted, a breath and a beating heart,” Mackoney-Skauge said. Quinn is also featured in the music video produced by McKearney.
Isabel first saw McKearney perform at the CCMA’s, where she fell in love with his sound.
She had given him her business card several times after his performances, but it wasn’t until they had a conversation backstage at a Christmas show in Winnipeg last year when she handed him her business card that he responded.
Her persistence landed her the gig of opening for his album release party, which she credits for opening many doors.
While the singer has big dreams for her career, she feels she may not have complete control over exactly where she ends up.
“I do know that I want to be a fulltime singer-songwriter and I want to do this as a living,” she said. “Of course, I would love to fill stadiums and everything, but knowing that I'm doing music, I'm really happy.”
While she began singing at a much earlier age, Isabel started working with her vocal coach, Brian Farrell, when she was nine years old.
It was at an event put on by Farrell where she became intrigued about songwriting.
“I watched this girl for the first time, named Kaiya Gamble, she's an amazing singer-songwriter from Calgary,” Isabel said. “She was 14 at the time and she sang this song called Polaroid and I just fell in love with it. I was so inspired that night and I was like, ‘I want to do this. I want to write like Kaiya Gamble because she was just so amazing.’”
This past summer, Isabel has hit many stages across the county, usually with her guitar teacher to back her up.
Her favourites, she said, were the Diamonds in the Rough Showcase stage at the CCMAs and the Calgary Stampede Window to the West stage.
