‘Small-town’ girl expands country roots with latest single

Dayna Reid is a self-proclaimed “small town girl”.

The 24-year-old Elmvale Aboriginal woman, who grew up in the small village about 25 minutes north of Barrie, uses her small-town childhood to inspire her music, including her latest single The Way You Lie, which is on the program for release on Friday, 28.

Pursuing a career in music has always been her dream, she admitted.

“I’ve always wanted to be a singer, but growing up, especially in a small town like Elmvale, I didn’t really know how I could get my foot in the door and actually pursue it as a career.” She explained.

And growing up in a small town is what inspired most of Reid’s songs in the first place.

“This small town experience gave me new ideas about how to approach my songs. That’s what she is me It’s about being grateful for your experiences, but also wanting to see what else the world has to offer,” Reid said. “I was grateful for growing up there. I don’t think you ever run out of things to talk about.”

Thinking it was too much of a pipe dream, Reid said she went to university with plans to pursue a career supporting people with special needs.

But after entering the Aurora Competition in 2019, Reid had the opportunity to work with multi-Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) award-winning artist Beverley Mahood, and began to realize that she might actually be able to create one to start a career in the music industry.

“She kind of took me under her wing and here we are now, to actually be able to make music as my dream, which is awesome,” she said.

Reid released her debut EP titled in September 2022 back to the trailer, followed by the release of their first single, she is me in January.

This single gave Reid her first Top 40 hit on radio and eventually led to her being named iHeart Radio’s Future Star and Stingray Radio’s Trending Track.

“It opened so many doors for me. I knew I wanted to release it, I wanted to make a song that people could relate to. You could also connect with me through it,” she said. “To hear the song on the radio, if you had told me a few years ago that this was going to happen, I would have said, ‘Yeah, right! ‘ It’s pretty cool.”

Reid, who is also a Top 8 semifinalist in the SiriusXM Top of the Country competition, co-wrote many of the songs on her new album.

“I would describe my music as leaning more toward late ’90s and early ’00s country music just because of the storytelling and the melody behind it,” she said. “This is the music I grew up with, and this is the music I feel really natural singing and listening to.”

Like most country artists, Reid said she always looked up to Dolly Parton and would like to one day serve as an inspiration for other young artists, just as Parton did for her.

“If one day I could influence other people the way my role models influenced me… by singing what is lyrically true for me but also being true to who I am – and I think that about Dolly – I would love for that to be able to.”