Living the life of RyLee
RyLee Madison's rise to the top ranks of Canada's country artists contains all the tragedy and hope of a fine ballad, writes Patrick Langston.

Patrick Langston
The Ottawa Citizen

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

RyLee Madison, nominated for Country Artist of the Year at this year's East Coast Music Awards, plays with Julian Austin, who won the award, at Barrymore's Thursday.


If it weren't so close to being a bad joke, you'd say that RyLee Madison got into country music by accident. In fact, a head-on collision outside Truro, Nova Scotia in 1988 was exactly what bounced the young, Halifax-born Madison, en route to her first assignment as a commercial designer, into her current blossoming career as a country singer-songwriter.

The accident, which shunted her into five years of physiotherapy for a damaged spine and a legacy of recurring back pain, wasn't one of those wake-up calls you read about. Told by her doctor to forget about earning her keep hunched over a drafting board, she had no idea what to do with the rest of her life. She'd loved and performed country music as a teenager ("I was country when country wasn't cool"), but had opted for the security of design work instead.

During physiotherapy, Madison says, "I started singing karaoke because I wanted something to pass my time with.

"It certainly wasn't because I was focused on being a musician. I was just looking for something to take my mind into another spot where I wouldn't dwell on what I was going through."

Madison's karaoke nights rapidly morphed into regular club dates and a growing reputation in the East Coast country music community. Small but vibrant, that community still looks back proudly to megastars like Hank Snow and Anne Murray while boasting of such current Canadian chart favourites as Shirley Myers and Julian Austin (Madison and Austin perform at Barrymore's Thursday as part of the Atlantic Scene festival.)

By 1999, Madison had outgrown the club scene. Packing up her writing and singing skills, she made the obligatory assault on Nashville. Encouraged by Music City's response, she returned home a year later to work on her debut album, the life of rylee. Released last year, the disk netted Madison a nomination for Country Artist of the Year at the 2003 East Coast Music Awards (Julian Austin wound up nabbing top country honours). The album has already put two singles, It All Comes Back 2 U and Family, on the Canadian charts, with a third, Simple Life, scheduled for release in May.

Madison, who has co-written with such Canadian notables as Lennie Gallant and Diane Chase, points to the East Coast love of storytelling as a major force in her music. Family figures prominently as well: "My grandparents were very much into storytelling around the campfire. The value of that was firmly implanted in my head."

Madison's rootsy country music also reflects her design preferences: "Vibrant colours, rich, rich tones, the earth tones. I'm not into pastels, and I certainly don't like white."

As for that accident 15 years ago, "it certainly affected how I value everyday living. It tuned me more into everything going on around me. It could be my best friend telling me a story. It could be my neighbour going into the house with visitors coming. I'll pull a song out of it."