Noosa Al-Sarraj, who performs under the alias Winona Wilde, will be performing her brand of feminist country/folk music and showcase her songwriting abilities at the Parkside Gallery on June 22.
“I sing songs that are folk-country genre but I like to change the content so it’s a little bit more modern and maybe sometimes a little funny, sometimes a little sad,” said Al-Sarraj, adding a bit about her feminist twist. “I think that sometimes that really ruffles peoples’ feathers and it’s kind of funny, especially in smaller towns, but I like to give that little heads up so you know it’s something a little bit different from what you get on the radio.”
The biggest influences on her music are Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn and Jason Isabelle because they’re “awesome”.
Al-Sarraj has been working on a seven-week North American tour in support of her third record, Wasted Time, that she said was in the shape of a “W”, taking her through Ontario to Texas up to the Yukon and now down to B.C.
“It’s been so great so far, we’ve been everywhere from a haunted theatre in Arkansas. I played with my hero, Jonathon Bryd, in North Carolina. That was really cool,” she said.
It’s not the first time she has performed in 100 Mile House. She played a show here in 2016.
The Peterborough, On.- based artist has so far released three full-length albums starting with her 2013 debut Wild North.
Her sophomore effort, You Lose Some, You Lose, released in 2015 was critically acclaimed with the song Pop & Chips for the Apocalypse winning the 2015 BC Musician Magazine Songwriting award and was the winning song at the 2017 Kerrville New Folk Festival.
The first song, Pincushion Soldier, on Wasted Time also garnered some acclaim, winning the Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award.
She described her latest record as darker and more serious than her previous work.
“I like to explore people’s stories but the stories are more like for example; a woman who gets postpartum depression and drowns her baby or a woman that gets date-raped and shoots her aggressor. So it’s just more stories that are a little heavier and not commonly discussed,” Al-Sarraj explains.
She said she was meaning to take a heavier turn for a while but it took some time, maturity and courage for her to follow through on writing serious things, especially for someone who likes to be silly and make people laugh.
Al-Sarraj started music when she was three, starting with the piano lessons and then on to the choir. She said music always landed in her lap and that she really needed it.
“I was a very lonely kid and my family was from Iraq so we were the only brown family in Peterborough and having the connection with music was beautiful,” she said.
The show is $10 per person and the doors open at 7:30 p.m. The show starts at 8 p.m.
Al-Sarraj says the best way to purchase her music is at the show but fans can also buy it from her website or other online outlets such as I-Tunes, Bandcamp and Amazon.