Mallory Chipman is the kind of artist who makes audiences feel like they’ve stumbled into both a concert and a campfire confession. From Alberta, Chipman has built a reputation as one of our country’s compelling genre-bending voices, weaving together country, folk, roots, jazz, and cinematic folk-rock into something unique. 

A multi-award-nominated songwriter, producer, educator, and co-founder of the alt-country duo The Goddamsels who have played The Cove, she’s toured across Canada and Europe, shared stages with artists ranging from Heart to Madeleine Peyroux, and earned praise for her “acrobatic” vocals and deeply story-driven songwriting. Whether she’s singing about prairie skies, heartbreak, road life, or the strange beauty of the natural world, Mallory brings an emotional honesty that feels both timeless and sharply modern — the kind of performer who can make a festival crowd cheer one minute and go completely silent the next. Get immersed in her sound with her duo partner on Thursday, June 11, 2026 from 5-8pm on The Cove Inn patio stage! Details and reservations here. 

Seamus Cowan: You’ve described life on the road in a way that sounds equal parts magical folk tale and mildly unhinged sleep-deprived adventure. What’s the strangest place you’ve ever had to spend the night while touring?

Mallory Chipman: You’ve got that right! Being on the road is a liminal journey where there is never a dull moment in the most beautiful, strange, and surprising of ways. While there have been a handful of interesting places along the way, hands down the weirdest place I’ve ever stayed was on an elk ranch in the southern prairies. It was a comedy of errors that day — the venue of the show was permanently closed day-of due to an eviction notice, but, as the old adage goes, the show must go on! And it was a funded concert series, so the organizers pushed to make it happen all the same. Thanks to their commitment, we wound up playing at a nearby elk ranch for an audience of mainly ranch hands. We slept beneath the ceiling taxidermy, and much to my relief, the beady-eyed raccoon above me when I opened my eyes was not my sleep paralysis demon, rather part of the decor.

Q: Your music jumps between folk, country, rock, jazz, and beyond. If your playlist got into a bar fight with itself, which genre would win?

Mallory: Ha! It’s true, I love music from across all genres, and the multitude of music I listen to all makes its way into my work. The storytelling of folk and country, the grit of rock, the spontaneity of jazz. If it were a bar fight though, I think folk music would win, provoking of the combatants into a thoughtful stupor until they all find themselves, knives sheathed, kneeling fist to chin like Rodin’s ’The Thinker’.

Q: You write so vividly about nature and the prairies — but be honest: how “country” are you really? Could you survive one full week fully off-grid?

Mallory: I definitely could! And I think I probably have a handful of times while camping in no-service areas. I grew up between Edmonton and Banff and the stretch of prairie in between has always been home to me. I definitely appreciate all of the conveniences of city living! But the years I spent living on Tunnel Mountain, or the hundreds of hours spent in the North Saskatchewan River Valley birding, catching frogs and cray fish, laying on my belly watching beavers build their dams — they’ve been formative to me. I know this makes me sound like a total tree hugger, but I don’t see myself as ‘apart’ from nature, really. Maybe I’m more “valley” or “mountain” than “country”, but I come by it honestly. 

Q: You’ve opened for legendary artists and played huge stages, but what’s the most intimidating audience you’ve ever faced? Tiny coffee shop? Music professors? Drunk uncles at a backyard party?

Mallory: The most intimated audience I’ve ever sung for wasn’t the audience at all, really. It was my first time playing with a symphony orchestra as a special guest, in our very first rehearsal. The conductor had been flown in from Chicago. His resume was stacked, he’d directed massive productions all over the world and was rumoured to have extremely high standards. I wasn’t sure how true this was until he fired the piano player about 15 minutes into the first rehearsal. My vocal part was coming up in the program only a few minutes later and I was so petrified that the orchestra and the conductor might think I was a fraud. This was new for me; I was used to playing with a typical guitar, bass, drums set up. I made it through the first song, shaking in my boots, and the conductor turned to me and said “finally, someone I don’t have to fire!"

Q: If Hollywood made a movie about your touring life tomorrow, who would play you — and what absolutely ridiculous title would the movie have?

Mallory: Ooh, a young Meryl Streep please! How about You’re with the band? I AM the band!