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Not just any family can produce the beautiful, heartfelt harmonies that are found with the Wilkinsons.
Daughter Amanda, 23, describes her clan as "somewhere in-between the Osmonds and the Osbornes," and they'll be on the Big Valley Jamboree's mainstage today to prove it.
The musical threesome recently moved back to Canada after spending eight years in Nashville, and got its foundations from the roots of the family patriarch Steve.
As a general contractor, Steve built every house the family lived in. And according to Amanda, his daughter and the group's female voice, "he would basically work so he could be a musician. He would do it on the weekends and has been songwriting since he was about 14.
"He would play and when we got to a certain age, where we were like 'Dad, we want to sing.' We just bugged the crap out of him and that's really where the evolution started," says Amanda of herself and younger brother Tyler.
After years of performing for singing competitions and small-town fairs, Steve made the difficult choice to move his family to Nashville and take a serious shot at the music industry. "My mom said, if you go down there and nothing happens, at least you took that leap of faith and tried," Amanda says from Grande Prairie, where the group performed two nights ago.
Two weeks after arriving in Nashville, the Wilkinsons got up for a songwriting night at a local club and by Monday morning the first of seven records labels had called them with an offer.
Since moving south of the border, the family from Belleville, Ont., has released four full-length albums and will be heading into the studio again next week to record their upcoming release in October.
But this will be a special project, slated to complement another unusual undertaking documenting the chaos currently unravelling in the lives of the Wilkinsons.
About six weeks ago, CMT began filming a 10-part series based on the family, which is building the log homestead of their dreams on 40 acres of land they bought in southern Ontario.
"They just thought the chaos that's happening with us was worthy of television. Anything involving nail guns and chainsaws and family fights and trying to build this house and dealing with the music business at the same time was worthy enough of capturing on film," says Amanda.
"It'll be really, really cool 'cause people will see sort of why we moved back to Canada and a lot of it's just the struggles with Nashville and the fact you lose your identity there because you become a part of the machine."
So once again, the family's trusting its instincts and, for Amanda and Tyler, that also means striking out on their own creative paths.
Amanda's self-titled solo debut is slated for release in September, with her first single already charting in the top 20.
And Tyler recently released an EP with the band he fronts, called Motion Picture Ending.
And after producing the Wilkinsons' last record, Highway, Steve has decided to focus on that side of the industry a little more.
But even if they stop recording and performing together, they'll always be a family.
"I think at some point, it's inevitable. It's not always going to go on just given the confines of what we are. But, as long as we enjoy what we do together and there's stuff to be said, we'll put together a project, even if it's just for us.
"Heck, just for us to play for our families so they can enjoy the music that we play together, it's still a cool thing," insists Amanda.