Awards heaped on Roddickton native

Good news comes in fours for Karla Pilgrim.

The Roddickton musician won female artist of the year and country artist of the year at the MusicNL awards at the St. John's Arts and Culture Centre on Nov. 15 for her July 2009-debut album I'll Think of You. Upon returning to the Rock from a year's work in Iqaluit she learned last week that she was nominated for the East Coast Music Awards (ECMAs) country recording of the year.

"The wish for every writer and every artist who wants a future in the music industry, these are the things that have to happen really to ensure your longevity," Ms. Pilgrim told the Pen.

"I just play and do what I do for the love of it; but it's nice to be recognized by your peers, because it is voted on by the industry, so it was a nice surprise, especially after being away for the full year and not promoting. That's why this came at a perfect time; I had already planned to move home, and then these awards came up."

Karla Pilgrim is not an overnight success.

Her passion for music began at Roddickton's Apostolic Faith Church, where her father was choir director and her mother a pianist.

She credits this musical upbringing to her recent success.

When asked what made the music scene in her home town, she replied: "Three words - church, church and church," she laughed.

"From the day I was born I was either under the piano in a bassinet or when I got old enough I was singing on my own, doing solos in concerts or in a choir. I think it's the best training ground there is."

In 2001, Ms. Pilgrim discovered her love of writing when she first attended college in Stephenville, where she would use up boxes of paper printing lyrics from full albums of musicians she heard on CMT or on tape.

Writing her own music was a natural progression.

That progression led her to Afghanistan, where she played for the Canadian military in 2007 alongside The Fables and J.P. Cormier.

"That was a pretty wild experience, I'm fortunate to say I've been over there and experienced that," Ms. Pilgrim said, adding that the other two acts had numerous albums released at the time while she had none. (After a performance, while the other acts signed CDs, she signed posters.)

During those performances she played mostly cover songs, but she did perform songs that would later end up on I'll Think of You, an album that was a year in the making.

But the experience differed from her dream of recording her first album.

"This is my first time doing a full-length album and my first time working in the studio like that, and at the beginning I felt that everything was really bad, I was stressed out about it, I shed tears over my fear that the album, if it kept going the way it was going, was going to sound like crap," Ms. Pilgrim said.

She then resolved to trust her instincts, collaborating with many of the province's famed instrumentalists, including Sandy Morris, Chris LeDrew, Craig Young, Byron Pardy, Greg Walsh, Paul "Boomer" Stamp and Paul Kinsman.

Once she began acting naturally, the music flowed.

"I didn't think anyone else would think it was something special. But it was special for me because it was my first experience doing an album."