Where Calgary Magazine September / October 2018 | Page 22

fully created, Chartier, Van Rosendaal
and their team held meetings with the
community to test the waters. Kate Stevens
was only 15 years old when she went to the
first meeting. At the time, all the venues
along the mile were 18+, which meant no
youth could perform or experience live
music. So she stood up in the meeting and
asked what could be done for underage
musicians.
“They said, ‘I don’t know, what do you
think?’” she laughs. A year later, she was a
part of launching a youth organization with
the society called the Youth Musicians of
Music Mile Alliance (YO MOMMA).
“It’s a community,” she says. “It’s nurtured
so many young artists over the past two
22
where.ca
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018
years and launched so many careers.”
Now at 18, Stevens has been nominated
for the Female Artist of the Year for the
YYCMusicAwards and has spurred youth
nights at venues like The Blues Can. She also
played in front of an audience of more than
2,000 people at the NMC this spring.
Chartier says the Music Mile Society is
just starting, but if they can continue to
foster talent and bring in the next generation
of artists, the mission will be a success.
“If one of my grandkids said to their
friend, ‘Let’s go down to the Music Mile and
see what’s happening,’ I’ll feel pretty good
about that,” he says. “That’s the thing I think
about the most in terms of the work that
we’ve done — if our grandkids and the next
generation see it as we imagined.”
As a venue, the King Eddy now plays more
than just the blues, but Mosker says the
spirit of bringing people together through
music remains the same.
“It had to reflect Canada’s music,” Mosker
says. “Very few audiences nowadays listen to
just one type of music, so we wanted to tap
into that history of bringing so many walks of
life together. Even though it doesn’t look how
it did when it was built in 1905, people still
feel the spirit of the King Eddy. You don’t lose
history like that, you just build on it.”
And that sentiment rings true to
McIlwaine, as she recalls taking up her old
post during the July launch.
“It felt really good to be back up there
again,” she says. “It was packed, just like it
always was, so the band went to town. It’s so
wonderful that they restored the Eddy and
kept the tradition going. The audience felt
like a bunch of old friends.”
"Even though it doesn’t look how
it did when it was built in 1905,
people still feel the spirit of the
King Eddy. You don’t lose history
like that, you just build on it.”