Who are 'The Reklaws'? Canadian Country music siblings collaborated with former 'AGT' star
NORTH DUMFRIES, ONTARIO: North Dumfries, Ontario-based country music duo 'The Reklaws' was founded in 2012. Stuart and Jenna Walker are the siblings that make up the pair and will feature in the 'America's Got Talent' Season 19 audition, airing on Tuesday, June 11.
Freshman Year, Sophomore Slump, and Good Ol' Days are the three albums they have released. With 'Feels Like That', 'Can't Help Myself', '11 Beers', and 'Honky Tonkin' About', the pair has had four number-one successes on the Canada Country chart. They have also gained many gold and platinum-certified songs.
'Hometown Kids' was the pair's first national country music success in 2017. They issued the EP Long Live the Night in 2018.
The title track from the EP was made available as both the "regular" version and a reworked version with a Canadian Football League theme that was used as the theme song for CFL on TSN games. After its 2018 release, the EP Feels Like That was nominated for a 'Juno Award' in the Country Album of the Year category.
They played in the 2018 Grey Cup kickoff event and went on to win the 'Rising Star Award' at the Canadian Country Music Association Awards later in the year. In January 2019, the song 'Feels Like That' became the pair's first Number One Canadian country hit.
The Reklaws' first full-length album, Freshman Year, was released in August 2019 by Universal Music Canada. The album featured the top 10 successes 'I Do Too' and 'Old Country Soul', together with previously released songs 'Hometown Kids', 'Long Live the Night', and 'Feels Like That'.
In 2019 and 2020, TSN's broadcast of the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship will include their song "Roots" as the official theme music.
'The Reklaws' collaborated with 'AGT' famed Drake Milligan
The Reklaws collaborated with Dean Brody on the song 'Can't Help Myself' in February 2020. With 1782 plays in a single week on the Nielsen BDS charts, the song became the number one hit on the Canada Country chart and the record for the most played song on Canadian country radio ever.
The songs 'Where I'm From' and 'Not Gonna Not' from 'The Reklaws' second album, Sophomore Slump, were released in October 2020.
Along with fellow Canadian country musician Sacha, they independently released the promotional track 'What the Truck' in May 2021. With almost 450,000 streams in its first week of release, the song broke the record for most Canadian country music streamed in a single week.
After that, it became the Canadian country song with the quickest million-stream domestically. In September 2021, they appeared with Brett Kissel on their new labelmate Nate Haller's track 'Somewhere to Drink'.
They jointly released the song '11 Beers' in March 2022 with Jake Owen, an American country musician. November 4, 2022, saw the release of their third studio album, 'Good Ol' Days', via Starseed Records.
They recorded a version of Serena Ryder's 'What I Wouldn't Do' with an all-star lineup in 2023. The song was released as a charity single to support Kids Help Phone's Feel Out Loud campaign for youth mental health. They worked with Drake Milligan on their single 'Honky Tonkin' About' later that year.
Who is 'The Reklaws' Jenna Walker married to?
Jenna of 'The Reklaws' is married to Ryan Watson in a beachside wedding close to her family's Southampton, Ontario, home in June 2022.
Her words, "He is the love of my life, I've known it forever."
With 175 of their closest friends and family present, including Stuart, Jenna's brother and bandmate, who was one of Ryan's eight groomsmen, Jenna and Ryan exchanged vows.
The waterfront location was important to the couple, who got engaged in July after roughly six years of dating. Not only do both of their families own cottages nearby, but it's also the same beach where they spent their childhood summers and met twenty years ago.
With her wedding gown by Grace Loves Lace, the '11 Beers' singer added a touch of blue to her ensemble as she made her way down the aisle. The couple prepared their own vows to be married by a local officiant, and they also asked Shannon McNevan, Jenna's manager, to say a few things.
The 'Dave Murphy Band' was a live cover band that the guests danced to as they dined at Offshore Bakery, the couple's favorite local restaurant. The pair, who originally connected through Ryan's sisters, who were Jenna's childhood pals, had long been looking forward to their big day.
Even though Jenna knew Ryan was the one when she was nine years old, their relationship took some time to develop. Ryan was a full-time professional hockey player, and Jenna had relocated to Nashville to follow her musical ambitions.
Together, they were on the road as 'The Reklaws', supported by Stuart. Only six or seven years ago, over a family dinner in Southampton, did their long-term obsessions transform into a relationship after Jenna's mother Florence started a game of hide-and-seek between them.
Jenna and Ryan first kissed while hiding behind the couch together, and the rest is history—a romantic proposal near Lake Louise in Alberta is scheduled for July 2021. The fact that their wedding day coincided with 'The Reklaws' release of their new single, 'Hay Is for Horses', added even more significance to the occasion.
The singer attributes the strength of their relationship to their "continuous support and push" for one another, as well as their shared desire to see each other succeed.
'AGT' Season 19 contestants 'The Reklaws' moved from the family farm to the big stage
'The Reklaws' siblings grew up in North Dumfries, Ontario, and are two of seven children. Their parents, Todd and Flo, owned and Yee Haw Adventure Farm, where they used to perform for guests.
Their band name came from their mother, who thought the Reklaws sounded more fascinating than the Walkers, Sibling Rivalry, or Bro-Sis. They were nominated for the CCMA Discovery Artist Award in 2013 and went on to win the Emerging Artist Showcase at the Boots and Hearts Music Festival.
They talked with numerous Nashville composers before signing with Universal Music Canada.
Halfway between Cambridge and Puslinch, you can locate the exact place where two rising artists discovered their passion for country music. Jenna and Stuart used to dress up in costumes and play roles on their family farm.
They would perform Johnny Cash and June Carter songs, with the hope of seeing their names on the marquee of a large concert hall. Their unwavering love for country music would propel them to the bright lights of the big stage, where they would play in front of millions of fans.
'The Walkers' are the brother-sister team known as The Reklaws (that's Walker spelled backward). They were raised close to Kirkwall, a tiny village that lies between Cambridge and Puslinch, at the former Yee Haw Adventure Farm.
'The Walkers' took a journey down memory lane while filming the video for their current single, 'Where I'm From'. Their filmmaker, Ben Knechtel, had planned to shoot the video on location inside a barn as a tribute to 'The Walkers' down-home heritage, but the COVID-19 outbreak caused them to reconsider their strategy.
Ben proposed a compilation of home footage as an alternative. As fate would have it, the Walker family discovered 40 hours of home movies, resulting in some moving moments of reflection.
When Jenna looked back on the VHS tapes of her childhood concerts, she realized that she had made the proper decision to pursue her love as a musician. With touring and travel as a stop for musicians, 'The Reklaws' intended to spend time in Nashville creating songs for their new album, which is set to be released this summer.
The pair is back in Canada, putting together material for their upcoming album, owing to the power of technology. The recording process often includes a few authors, a producer, and both Walkers as they record the song.
They now meet on Zoom and utilize the video conferencing tool to bridge the gap during their long-distance songwriting sessions. Jenna explained that songwriting is a communal activity, which is challenging during this period of self-isolation.
However, she stated that the pandemic has caused her to take a more reflective approach to music.
As the world reopens and people return to their new normal, live performances will appear entirely different. 'The Reklaws' are accustomed to performing in front of packed arenas with thousands of people in attendance, but depending on physical distancing measures, such dense crowds may become a thing of history.
Both Walkers acknowledge that concerts will look very different, but they promise to convey the same intensity to their performances as they did before the outbreak. The brother-sister combo has had a spectacular climb to the top of Canadian country music, recently receiving a 2020 Juno nomination for 'Group of the Year'.
Since winning the 'Emerging Artist Showcase' at the Boots and Hearts Festival in 2013, the pair has received CCMA Awards for Rising Star in 2018 and Album of the Year in 2019.
Those honors helped put The Reklaws on the map, but when their single 'Long Live the Night' was chosen as the official "CFL on TSN" anthem, it catapulted the band to a whole new level. Jenna and Stuart see their 2018 Grey Cup performance as one of the pinnacles of their careers.
Watch 'The Reklaws' audition for 'America's Got Talent' Season 19 on June 11 on NBC at 8 pm ET.