After seven years on her label, Tenille Townes and Sony Nashville have parted ways. Though Townes has achieved much success in her native Canada, including winning 15 Canadian Country Music Association Awards over the past five years, her Stateside career never experienced the same liftoff, even after winning the ACM Award for new female artist of the year in 2020. (That same year, she won a second ACM Award as a featured artist on Miranda Lambert’s remake of “Fooled Around and Fell in Love,” which was voted music event of the year.
) On Monday (Aug. 26), Townes took to Instagram to update her fans in a narrated video over various images, including a Polaroid photo of herself with the words “I’m free” beside a heart, as an acoustic, instrumental version of The Beatles’ “Blackbird” played. “My Nashville record label and I have parted ways.
This is not a sob story, but a story of opportunity. We had a really good run and this is a big shift for me. We’ve been working together for over seven years, but we haven’t been seeing eye to eye on my music and my path and it’s creatively been a struggle waiting on green lights inside a corporate system that doesn’t make a lot of sense anymore,” she said.
“I want the freedom to write and record a song and be able to get it to you guys, and making this decision means I can do that as I take back ownership of what I create. And that feels liberating and if I’m honest it also feels terrifying. Lots of fear bu.