WINNIPEG -- It turns out you can take the country out of the girl after all.
Brandon native Amanda Stott has left her county music roots behind to explore her newfound love of pop on her sophomore album, Chasing the Sky.
"When I got into the music business on the country record, I met a lot of other artists and musicians who introduced me to other artists I hadn't heard before -- even Carole King and The Beatles, stuff I hadn't grown up with -- and I think this new album is a reflection of that," she says. "When I started writing with other songwriters, it wasn't country music, it was a more organic pop sound, that's what I like to call it.
"It's not Britney Spears, it's more Vanessa Carlton."
Stott, 22, hit the scene in 2000 as a fresh-faced 17-year-old with a wide smile and an even bigger voice, belting out contemporary country hits like Black is Black -- no surprise, given she grew up on an organic grain and cattle farm.
A self-titled album and two years on the road followed before her record company, Warner, purged themselves of their country roster, leaving Stott without a label but with an education money can't buy.
Her new disc, in stores Tuesday, is a full-fledged, piano-driven, adult contemporary pop record more likely to be heard on Q-94 than Q-104. But she hopes fans of her first album will give her new direction a chance.
"I'm hoping they won't desert me. I hope they will still listen and enjoy the record because that's where I am as an artist now. You have to be true to yourself, and if I don't then I'm lying to the fans," she says.
It's been five years since we heard from her, but Stott has never wavered from her dream of making music for a living. After graduating from high school, she toured in support of her debut album and appeared in the Manitoba Theatre Centre musical The Wave. When her deal with Warner collapsed, Stott continued to tour, then took some time off to get a break from being in the public eye. She moved to Winnipeg and got a full-time job picking orders at the CDPlus warehouse, where she worked until late last year.
"It was a good experience. I never had a job except singing before. I joked, 'Pretty soon you're going to be shipping out my record,' " she laughs.
Stott was signed to a development deal with EMI three years ago and teamed up with a group of songwriters to work on tracks for Chasing the Sky. She has five co-writing credits on the album and plays the piano on all tracks.
"There's a lot more of me on this record. For the first album I was still in school, concentrating on passing classes and doing homework, so travelling was difficult. Now I'm doing this as a career full time and I've grown up a lot -- but I'm still the same prairie girl from the farm," she says.
Staying the same means not being part of the navel-baring school of female pop tarts. Stott may be older, but won't use sex to sell records, she says.
"EMI knows what I stand for and knows I'm not going to wear belly-bearing tops. It wasn't me when I put the first album out, and it's still not me."
Winnipeggers will get their first chance to check out Stott's new direction Wednesday when she opens for Kalan Porter at the Burton Cummings Theatre. Stott plays a half-hour set beginning at 7:30 p.m.
