Country singer-songwriter Shantelle Davidson makes her home in Fort McMurray Alberta these days, but she started out in Rainy River, a small town in Northern Ontario.

Finding her passion for music in a small community was something that came naturally to Shantelle with encouragement from family and everyone in her small town, "My grandma actually brought me up on stage. She had a band and I sang with her for the first time in front of my whole town, which wasn't a lot of people, as you know, but still, at a young age, that's a lot of people. A lot of my grandma's friends and you know the older ladies just loved me."

There were some big influences growing up, especially in country music being from Ontario she says Shania was definitely up there, and when she started trying her hand at songwriting Avril Lavigne would need to be added to that list.

"I started listening to Avril and I started writing. I was really inspired to write, kind of like you know when you're in your teens as a young woman, you're trying to figure yourself out, so I would do a lot of journal entries and then pick up my guitar."

It wasn't until 2015 when Shantelle really dove into songwriting after meeting Clayton Bellamy and being introduced to other songwriters and having the chance to co-write which she found was a help to her developing into a songwriter.  Also in 2015 was when her first EP was released.

Looking ahead to what the new landscape of performing may look like over the next few months there is one thing she is itching for, "I'm just looking forward to getting up on stage and seeing a crowd of people again even if we're at a safe social distance, that's fine, I'm just I'm really excited to see some faces in crowds."

Shantelle's new song Everywhere was written by two writers from Nashville, "Kalie Shorr and Skip Black wrote this song and when Dan sent it to me I immediately just clung to it, it was like this song was written for me."

Taking time off when she had her daughter was exactly where she needed to be, and now she is ready to get back out there and put the work in to live her passion.

The advice she was given that she would pass along to other artists syncs up with her state of mind these days, "I would have to say you get out as much as you want to put into it, you always have to be on and you always have to be hungry and competitive because I mean we're in one of the most competitive industries out there."

"You wake up in the morning like let's go let's do something like, push the playlists, practice or get on the podcast because the future is just going so fast with technology for artists, you just have to pave your own way and work hard."

Having the chance to open a show for Brett Kissel and work on her latest song with Clayton Bellamy and Dan Davidson is just the beginning for Shantelle, to her the possibilities are endless.

Find Shantelle across social media @shantelledavidsonmusic and on her website shantelledavidson.net.