Singer-songwriter Kayla Luky lives in Grandview, Manitoba, a small farming community nestled between the Riding and Duck Mountains. This unique setting gives her sound absolute authenticity.
Too country for country and too country for folk, her songs are soaked in alcohol, dirt and sorrow, honouring the roots of real country music.
2017 Manitoba Country Music Award WINNER Female Artist of the Year
2017 Manitoba Country Music Award WINNER Video of the Year - Back To Dirt
2016 Manitoba Country Music Award WINNER Emerging Artist of the Year
Prairie intimacy: Kayla Luky shines in Hauss Shop house concert
Maury Wrubleski, DiscoverHumboldt.com | Monday, Apr 13 2026
Kayla Luky introduced a Watson audience to her music and her charm on Friday evening.
Amid the quirky music collectibles and unique bric-a-brac of the Hauss Shop — a centre of creativity and occasional makeshift concert venue in Watson — Grandview, Manitoba singer-songwriter Kayla Luky arrived Friday, April 10, for a roundabout, kitchen-party-style evening.
Luky brought with her an impressive collection of exquisitely crafted songs, along with heartfelt, homespun stories behind each one. It was less a formal concert and more a gathering of new and old friends. The evening flew by with songs, stories, audience contributions, laughter and deeply shared emotional connections.
Luky’s voice is clear and angelic, with a touch reminiscent of performers such as Emmylou Harris and Shawn Colvin. Many of her selections drew from her 2017 album, Back to Dirt. She spoke candidly about the challenges independent artists face in getting their music produced and released — especially as a mother of three from the rural Prairies.
The album’s title track stands as a haunting and beautiful testament to fading farms and communities dissolving into prairie dust, delivered with striking dynamics, volume and intensity. Her inspirations are as varied as her songs — from overseeing the ice at the Grandview rink to waltzes set against winter backdrops, to themes of longing for change in the way Prairie northerners await spring.
The set was interspersed with impromptu moments — gift-giving, discovering connections and genuine bursts of humour and reflection that the audience eagerly embraced. Songs like Arizona offered insight into her life in Grandview, featuring lyrically clever twists and prairie imagery that felt like sonic comfort food.
The Dark was a stark, powerful piece, driven by staccato guitar work and a bold, clear delivery. With lyrics evoking salt seeping from the soil like sadness, Luky captured the hardships of early prairie settlement. While her songs are deeply personal, they remain widely accessible. Tracks such as The Other Side of Halfway catch the universal experience of losing a loved one. Her only love song, Sing It on the Mountain, offered poignant reflections on first love and life’s simplest, most meaningful moments, supported by exquisite folk fingerpicking.
Luky closed by reflecting on the full-circle nature of her musical journey — from small venues and coffee shops to brightly lit stages, and back again to intimate gatherings like the Hauss Shop, hosted by Jim and Jodi Haussecker. As she noted, life often moves in patterns, and it is the love of music — and evenings like this — that make the journey worthwhile.