How The Reklaws went from the family farm to the big stage

By Ian Hunter

Halfway between Cambridge and Puslinch, you can pinpoint the precise location where two rising stars developed their love for country music.

As kids, Jenna and Stuart Walker dressed up in costumes and performed as characters at their family farm. They would sing Johnny Cash and June Carter songs, with dreams of seeing their name on the marquee of a big concert hall.

That pure adoration for country music would lead them to the bright lights of the big stage where they’d perform in front of millions of fans.

The Walkers are the brother-sister duo known as The Reklaws (which is Walker spelt backwards), who grew up at the former “Yee Haw Adventure Farm” nestled between Cambridge and Puslinch near the small community of Kirkwall.

“It was such a big part of our childhood,” Stuart Walker said. “I think why we do what we do — why we sing country music, why we love to perform — is because of that farm, for sure.”

The Walkers experienced a trip down memory lane as the band prepared the video for their latest single, “Where I’m From”. Their director Ben Knechtel initially planned to shoot the video on-location inside a barn as an homage to the Walker’s down-home roots, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the duo to rethink their approach for the video.

Knechtel suggested using a compilation of home videos as an alternative. As luck would have it, the Walker family unearthed 40 hours of home videos, which led to some powerful moments of reflection.

“It definitely got everybody in our family very emotional watching it,” Stuart Walker said. “I think it’s just an emotional time, this whole quarantine. We will eventually release the video of our parents watching it for the first time, and the waterworks are really flowing in the video.”

For Jenna Walker, as she looked back on the VHS tapes of childhood performances, the home videos were an affirmation that she made the right choice to pursue her passion as a musician.

“That’s why it was so crazy to look back at this footage because it was like: ‘Wow, we really have been doing this our whole lives,’” Walker said.

With touring and travel at a standstill for musicians, The Reklaws planned to be in Nashville writing songs for their new album slated for release this summer. The duo are back in Canada putting together material for their new record, all thanks to power of technology.

The recording process ordinarily includes a few writers, the producer and both Walkers as they record the song. Now they meet on Zoom and use the video conferencing platform to bridge the gap during the long-distance songwriting process.

“Luckily, we’ve been able to do what we’re planning on doing, but over Zoom,” Stuart Walker said. “And the music’s turning out quite well compared to what we expected, because we’ve never done something like that, so it’s awesome for us.”

Jenna Walker said songwriting is a collaborative process, which proves difficult during this time of self-isolation. However, she said this pandemic has given her an introspective approach to songwriting.

“To have more time on your hands, you’re definitely tapping into different emotions and you have time to sit with yourself and sit with what’s important and where we are now,” Jenna Walker said. “We’re learning so much about ourselves and our career, and what we want to do, and our plans, so it’s a different time.”

As the world opens up again and people get back to the new normal, one area that will look completely different is live concerts. The Reklaws are used to performing in front of packed venues with thousands of fans in attendance, but depending on physical distancing measures, those dense crowds could become a thing of the past.

Both Walkers have come to grips with the fact that concerts will look much different, but they vow to bring the same energy to their performances as they did before the pandemic.

“Until it’s normal, we’re just going to keep doing this thing and we’re going to work as hard as we can and we’re going to make sure that we bring the same show regardless of who’s out there and how it’s looking,” Jenna Walker said. “We talk about it all the time, how weird it’s going to be when we get on stage. We’re always nervous no matter what, whatever show we play. Our first show back will be so nerve-wracking.”

It’s been a meteoric rise to the top of Canadian country for the brother-sister duo, recently landing a 2020 Juno nomination for “Group of the Year”. Since winning the Emerging Artist Showcase back in 2013 at the Boots and Hearts Festival, the duo won CCMA awards as Rising Star in 2018 and Album of the Year in 2019.

Those awards helped put The Reklaws on the map, but once their single “Long Live the Night” was adopted as the official “CFL on TSN” anthem, it propelled the band into a whole new stratosphere. Jenna and Stuart mention their 2018 Grey Cup performance as one of the biggest moments of their careers.

“We were sitting there on this tailgate about to go on stage to open up the Grey Cup and the guy goes: ‘You have two million viewers on the screen and 66,000 people in the audience,’” Stuart Walker said.

“That was such a cool moment where it was just like, all the hard work and time spent, and all the people saying that we couldn’t do this because we were a brother-sister duo, and finally we were doing something that cool.”

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