Val Halla

Still making my way through all my belongings in Storage to find what needs to be donated and what needs to come home to Sasky. This shirt is cracking at the logo now, but such an iconic piece I don't think I can part with it! I remember watching Jordin play for the Brandon Wheat Kings when they'd come play the Regina Pats when I was still a young buck! Watching him play in Nashville was so cool and I will never forget the night they had "Tootoo whistles" available which were being marketed to the southern fans to be like Inuit dog sledding whistles. They featured him on the jumbotron that night at intermission and he spoke about growing up and practicing on the ice outside first thing every morning. When he said the temperature it would often be in the winter he said it in Celsius first... then he translated that into what it would be in Fahrenheit and the whole crowd made a noise like they had just seen a massive hit! "OOOOOOOoooooo!!!!!" Lol 🤣

Always loved watching this legend play 🤘

#22

Now the real ritual begins!!!! 🥰🥰🥰😍😍😍

Already had to jump through a lot of hoops to get an online feed in Nashville.... but we made it fam! 🙌 let's goooooo

I was all set to sell this and then made the mistake of playing it... its a 2009 Bullet Squire strat made in China and for some reason it plays better than any strat I've ever played.... why??? How can this be??? I usually hate playing strats to be honest. I actually can wrangle this thing with ease.... why? A made in China 2009 squire? The pink one?! Lol.

Should I keep it? I guess it matches my pink case I already had LOL.

I have Soooo much crap to bring back to Canada already though... ughhhh.... to sell or to take with ?

America... you so crazy. THIS isn't what a Jazz cigarette is.... ask Canadians what a Jazz cigarette is 🤣

But hey.... I'll smoke this any way to stay awake on the Interstate lol.

Yesterday's interview with MBC Radio Saskatchewan about heading back to Nashville, the legendary Blue Bird cafe, and my new music video released last night (and today on YouTube) for "Tennessee Lights", a track my dear ol' dad who is no longer with us, had played the fiddle on

Thurs Dec 7th Chat - Val Halla Music on Tennessee Lights - MBC On-Demand A Conversation with Val Halla Music about Tennesee Lights, and the video is out today for this single today...Val touches on her father playing on this song, shooting the video in Nashville, going back to collect things left there since CoVid, and, she also has a couple of nuggets on the legendary B...

New music video coming this week for "Tennessee Lights". Did a little interview with MBC Radio Saskatchewan to talk about some of my time in Nashville and my late father playing on the tune. ❤️ keep listening for the replay of it this tuesday!
Nashville is always beautiful this time of year with all the christmas lights and i'm a sucker for old architecture & romantic streets i'll be seeing again soon... but the ones i wrote this song about were ones you can see from a particular hill in the city that was right outside my door for a time, when John Rich was my (controversial) neighbour at the bottom of Love Circle. 😘 lights i would sit and stare at alone many nights and wonder why the air was so still....

Going to be doing a workshop over at the Newo Yotina Frienship Centre this *wednesday* showing support as an ally and as a musician to the 2SLGBTQ+ Support Group, talking about songwriting and music as a medium for self expression, advocacy, resistance, and change.

Please email Lindsay if you have any questions or would like to register to attend!

More great workshops and local artists still to come in the new year as well, so please pass on to anyone who may be interested in or benefit from belonging to this free support group and awesome programming from the Friendship Centre !

For our Two-Spirit/LGBTQ+ support group! We are excited to have a guest musician this Wednesday! Please join us for singing, songwriting, and uplifting communication. If you would like to attend please email: [email protected]

I got told tonight by someone who has continually talked down to me online for years that i "have a reputation for going off on people". I just had to laugh I guess.
Since elementary school i've been sticking up for people. And ive been calling out abuses of power. There was only one time someone called me a "bully" and it was a girl who was picking on a younger smaller kid who i told to stop, & she was bigger than me too so she ran at me & tried to head butt me in the stomach. So i used a move i learned in wrestling to put all my weight on her back & pinned her down to the ground under me. She was so upset she got up crying & walked away swearing at me. Then her mom & aunt saw me in the mall & called me a "little b*tch". I was 12. Lol.

Other than that our class was awesome. We were all friends & i still try to keep in touch with our gr 8 classmates.

Maybe i do have a "reputation". But im no bully. i acknowledge my mistakes. I apologize when ive been wrong. But i definitely dont stay silent when i see injustice. Whether its directed at me or anyone else. Some ppl appreciate that about me theyve said. & some ppl hate me for it.

I guess i have to keep my distance when someone tells me outright they have a problem with me using my voice. 99 times out of 100 they usually follow that by sliding in one more problem with me: i didnt say hi to them. They didnt like me from a bar 10 years ago because i didnt remember their name. Their friends dont like what ive said on facebook so "everyone knows" im just "on a half cooked crusade" lol. The real "problem" comes to light.

Its never really about somethin that couldnt be healed. I always try to see if thats possible. But it becomes clear usually it has nothing to do with me, & everything to do with someone ignoring their own feelings of inadequacy by trying to pick me apart..

Ive been blessed to know great ppl & to be able to see the greatness in them. Thats the best part of friends! I cant imagine what it'd be like to WANT to despise someone over wanting to find common ground.

Many friends i dont see anymore. Life moves fast after school. But i never forget any of them. I couldn't. They're too amazing to me 🥰❤️

Well i've held it... who's next? Lol

I've stayed a fan this whole time, and always will 🤘 plus as if i'd ever cheer for the Bombers 🤮 Alouette, gentille Alouette! Alouette, je te plumerai !

Really? They couldn't find a Boom stand for Kelsea Ballerini on CMA's ? She's playing a geeeetar come on now!

Just on the bandwagon once in awhile but tonight i'm here for it! Got this shirt in a thrift store in Gruene, Texas because when I was young I was a big Ivan Rodriguez fan 🥰

have fun tonight Texas!!!!🙌

Yesterday I learned a personal hero of mine started his journey home. Richard Roundtree was known to many for his Hollywood role as Shaft🕺🏿I only knew him as "Tree", a charasmatic new friend I made on one of many trips to L.A., chasing my music dreams. Tree told me he had always had a passion for photography & graciously offered to shoot some photos for my MYSPACE artist page I was only just getting going at the time. At his home he showed me years of amazing photography he had done, especially on older film cameras with hollywood starlets of decades gone by. Posters from his movies were on many walls, & i knew i was seeing an inside glimpse of hollywood history someone far more versed in it than I, deserved to see. Nonetheless, I enjoyed we had a friendship completely outside of that business, & never even asked to get a pic WITH him. One may exist somewhere, perhaps with Lisa Long, & i do wish I had one now just to have on my wall to remind me of those days. He introduced me to "Grappa" wine, which he said the italians drink as cheap wine but because of his travels there & the memories, he adored it & always wanted grappa after a meal if he could find it at a restaurant. He introduced me to the music of Prince beyond what I knew of from the radio, & i'll never hear Musicology & not think of Tree. He was full of spirit & joy & compassion. He was always a gentleman, so it was no surprise his cocktail of choice was gentleman jack on the rocks. To this day I haven't watched a Shaft movie, but I did look up his other work & respect his talent in his discipline immensely. I will watch his movies now though. I think I just always wanted him to know I appreciated his friendship for what it was without his fame. He had taken me under his wing a little bit, not intensely, not overwhelmingly. But i know I had him in my corner at a time when I was a bit green & naive, & at a moment i needed someone to have my back. I think he saw that & knew how to get me pointed in the right direction. So he did. Because he was a good guy. & I will never forget him. ❤️ RIP. these are some of those photos 🥰📸

Wicked watercolor gift from my bro Kevin Wesaquate 🤘 i haven't been very on the ball about posting to social media with all the cool places we've been with the Sask Cultural Exchange Artist Tour where i'm lucky to have been cruising around the province with 4 other amazing artists of different disciplines for the laat month. Our last tour stop is tomorrow, then i'll get caught up on posting some highlights, but had to give some props and thanks for this piece here, cause i just love it!!! and brother Kev is full of talent!

Check out his artistic works and the Indigenous Poet's Society he formed & runs! Big thanks Kev for this cool purple Bison. Its going in a frame when i get home! 🤘

In case you missed it, there has been an ongoing public outcry about searching the landfill in Winnipeg where police already acknowledge the remains of murdered indigenous women are very likely to be located. This was a conclusion made through their own investigation into these women's murders.

In ongoing (and consistent to their white supremacist and bigoted marketing model) Just Bins Waste Disposal fashion... the most recent Just Bins advertisement currently being played on Z99 asks the listener if they need anything hauled off to the dump? That they can get a waste removal bin dropped off and the hauled off " *no questions asked* " and " *no cops* ". ?????

I can't believe I have to keep saying this...

but I continue to see people supporting this "meme page" because they want to be able to point and laugh or complain about Regina, yet they also don't want to have to take ANY responsibility for the fact they are supporting people who almost daily make use of social media to bully people, harass people, incite intimidation, threats, violence, and CONSTANTLY allude to things that have sentiments of and instigate & congregate ideologies of white supremacy, bigotry, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and don't forget hatred and devaluing of journalists.

They continue to say "its random" or "they go after everybody" or "i don't support all of the things they do or say, but i just like the memes" or whatever other turn a blind eye excuse yall need to make to not have to take any accountability YOURSELF for the dynamic and energy in our local community YOU are supporting by "looking the other way".

The worst part of it is, half of yall still supporting them can't even be honest about it. You saw them go after me, and others, people with mental illness, people with addictions, and you have seen their followers make disgusting and hateful comments many many times.

Yall then show up in my inbox trying to claim you're trying to "be a friend". Yet you are those same people I then see on their site as "top fans" and encouraging the mob mentality.

This continues to happen with several people I considered "friends" until they end up blocking or ignoring me rather than having to respond to how any of this is actually "ok" or ethical.

Cowards.

Hypocrites.

I know what community means, and it doesn't mean tearing each other down.

So don't pop into my inbox or ask me for a favour EVER again, if you care so little about our COMMUNITY, that you're going to continue to support the people who enjoy tearing it down.

NONE of this is "random" and it ISN'T innocent!

Do you know who runs that social media page even?

Because I do !

SO before you go defending who it is, if you don't even know who it is, or what they stand for, maybe you should consider that before choosing to cut me down, and choosing to hold them on high.

USE YOUR CRITICAL THINKING and stop being so easily manipulated by a young entitled privileged white kid who pretends he's from North Central.

His family doesn't even live in Regina, they actually live an hour outside of Regina in one of the "random" communities he claims they "randomly" made fun of and tried to associate with drug and alcohol use and went after the town's deputy mayor.

It wasn't random they went after that town where his family lives - a predominantly indigenous town -

it wasn't random that he goes after and bullies people,

and it isn't random that they run gross and disgusting advertisements or make slanderous and hateful posts.

WAKE UP and quit LYING to yourself just so you can like some "memes". FFS...

This is a picture from when I was in Selkirk for my Michif family reunion this summer and this first pic is of Manitoba's first ever First Nations Premier newly elected Wab Kinew with Scott Norquay - descendant of the first ever Métis Premier John Norquay (& Vice Chair of the Selkirk Red River Metis Local!) I forgot to post my pics from our family reunion back in the homeland - the old homestead at Red River that only 9 acres has survived to remain in the family, but by god, Craig & his family have still got it! It was also Canada Day long weekend so I skipped into Selkirk with cuz' Joen as she was volunteering with the Selkirk local that day when Mr. Kinew stopped by for a pic at the time I didn't realize would have historic flavour!
Thats myself, cousin Joen, and Scott in the next pic.
Métis Fiddler extraordinaire Morgan Grace Music and her father Keith Ginther, the Chair of the Selkirk Local (and who came to perform a show for us in Regina with Métis Nation - Saskatchewan Western Region III last year) were also on hand as the MC's of the City of Selkirk Canada Day celebrations down at the river front!
There was jigging, live music, children's entertainers, and visual artists working on public murals and works. Not to mention all the vendors! It was awesome to see so much Indigenous culture being celebrated on July 1st! Everywhere we went we ran into cuzzins!
Our family reunion was one heck of a concert in of itself with cuzzies Craig Smith on drums, Ben Loutit on bass, and his father Willie Loutit slaying the ivories! Brian Mayo on the guitar, & Garnet Knight on the fiddle! And so many more! Also included a picture of cuzzin Stu standing on the land where his family grew up where now all that is left of their old homestead is the water pump in the field! There were even more pics & relatives & family jammers, & i have lots of videos but will have to create an "album" on facebook I guess to get it all!

Glad I was reminded of this glorious weekend in the place my grandma's family has called home for many many generations, & excited to see the first ever First Nations Premier lead the next Manitoba Government and wishing him lots of success!

Going to be performing as part of the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation events at Métis Nation - Saskatchewan Western Region III regional office/hall in downtown Regina on Friday, and then at the Willow Bunch Local 17 in Willow Bunch, Sask on Saturday Sept 30th.

Also performing at both events will be singer/songwriter all around great human LJ Tyson from Prince Albert. There will also be a fiddle player performing with us at both shows. In Regina we are lucky to be joined by Donna Hiller-Turk from Forget, SK on fiddle, and in Willowbunch are equally as lucky to be joined by Tristen Durocher from Buffalo Narrows, SK. on the fiddle!

And my good buddy Connie Mussell is going to be at both events leading a beading workshop! So stoked!

There are lots of great activities and educational opportunities planned on both days, and these events are welcome and open to everyone. I hope to see some familiar faces out and spending some time this weekend finding ways we can all come closer together, not just on the colonial side of things, but welcoming non-Indigenous people to come closer and gain wider understanding of indigenous culture and society as well.

There will be food provided at both events and Metis children who attended residential schools and day schools as well will be remembered, including a short documentary film that looks at the Ile a la Crosse school where survivors are STILL being neglected by the Canadian government, and were left out of the residential schools settlement because the school was run and funded solely by the church.

Clearly there is much more work to be done on both the aspects of "truth" and "reconciliation".

So please join us at one of the events if you are able to, and know that everyone is welcome and appreciated who wants to get together in the spirit of understanding each other better as humans. 🧡

Someone is at it again (probably that loser from the JustBins page who hates that I know who he is and why he craps all over the town of Lebret all the time pretending he is doing it 'randomly' lol). ANYWAY, no i haven't started doing "adult content" but i'm glad I posted one single photo of myself in a bathing suit online in the last 10 years and that seems to be enough to be a possible consideration for an # # # star 🤣 Just hoping that whatever or whomever is at the other end of that link, is looking pretty fine so they don't give me a bad rep 🤣
But sorry kids, not me. Please do report the fake profile unless they start sending me royalties, then i'll call you guys off and we'll let it ride 🤣🤣🤣🤣

For the record i only have 1 main instagram profile and it is this one just . There is also which is "authroized" as in, it was the brainchild of myself and another and we thought it was going to be a place for posting photos that other peeps grabbed at shows etc, but nothing much has come of that yet and everyone is busy so social media is hard to keep up with for me.🤷‍♀️ -
😻 I WISH i was that on the ball and unabashed to start doing adult content! LOL. Just kiddin. But there's probably more money in it than music! Haha. I'll stay broke though and saving the nudity for the man of my dreams if he could hurry up and come and see it before i get too wrinkly 🙄😮‍💨

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Growing pains. I learn the most when i'm vulnerable. Lately i've been learning that I didnt learn much emotionally by being on the run since I was a teenager.

Time to slow down and get in tune 🎧

Super excited to be heading back out on the road in the next two months for the Saskatchewan Cultural Exchange Society (SCES)'s " *Artists on Tour* " workshop arts program *coming to a school near you*!!!

(and if you haven't booked this educational Arts Tour into your school yet, send the info to an administrator at your child's school at once and get one of the few spots on the tour that still remain!!! )
Contact: Carol Rose GoldenEagle - Outreach Coordinator
[email protected]

There is a flat base rate for the program but it is HEAVILY subsidized by SCES so that a full day of arts programming with 5 different artists in 5 different disciplines becomes an enriching experience for students to be immersed in the arts and directly in contact with a variety of artists and ways to connect to their own creativity and expression through different workshops that rotate throughout the day

The talented people I will get to share the highway with, and make our way through the schools with are:

Leon Willey, Theatre Artist
Kevin Wesaquate Visual Artist
Lindsay Cottin Dance Artist
Danica Lorer Storyteller
and myself - doing music and songwriting!

We will be going to schools all over the province, so please do check in and see if your school (through an administrator) can line up a spot on this tour (Currently more October dates available than September dates).

I love getting to share music and songwriting with kids who always have amazing heaps of creative energy, and I always hope that I can leave them with something that they can either rely on as resources and tools when needing to express themselves or find an outlet for extra ideas and energy, or that they can use in a cathartic process either studying and practicing an instrument, learning to raise up one's voice literally and figuratively, and using journaling, writing, and creating to express feelings, ideas, emotions, and process this crazy world around us!

So grateful for this opportunity and I hope to see some of you I haven't seen in awhile once we get out there, and hoping we will be coming to YOUR community this year!

Here's a little screen shot of what the workshop schedule looks like just to get a better idea or grasp of what I'm describing!

Just practicing for when he's ready for it 👩‍🌾😉

A bad name. (bad name)