Rhianna Rae Saj releases first album after writing songs for other people

Rhianna Rae Saj, a singer-songwriter from Stonewall, is no stranger to writing music and performing. She has received Manitoba Country Music Award nominations, been accepted into the Stingray Young Performers Program for the last eight consecutive years and has played over 60 shows in for intimate audiences, crowds at festivals and music industry folks.

But when she hits the stage at The Park Theatre on January 5, 2019, the biggest difference is that she will be playing original music from her debut album, Begin Again.

Saj started making the reoccurring trip down to Tennessee in 2014 and began building her catalogue of songs, which resulted in her signing a synch-licensing deal with Indie Orange, based out of Nashville & Los Angeles. However, she was told her original songs were too slow, sad and not a great fit for radio — and she was subsequently pushed in a direction she didn’t want to go in until she decided it wasn’t for her. She took a four-year hiatus from writing original music and waited until she was emotionally in a place where she felt it was right to go back into the studio to record.

For Saj, creating Begin Again was a process of learning to fall back in love with what she’s always done through her lyrics: tell stories. 

Her knack for blending her silky falsetto and country/folk strings with endearing stories about ghosts, monsters and gin comes through in this insightful album.

“Some of the songs were dug out from the archives, while others I finished minutes before we laid down the bed tracks,” says Saj. “I completely forgot about radio, being a massive success and just let the songs lead the way.”

Listen to her first two singles, Hyde and Monster, and catch her playing her first album with all her heart at the Park Theatre on Jan. 5, 2019.