Katy Weicker
staff writer
Camosun alumna Jenny Lou recently found herself with nothing but the clothes on her back and her guitar after a house fire in March 2018.
The legend around town is this incident sparked a desire for the country singer to move to Nashville to pursue her dreams of becoming a country singer, but Lou says this is incorrect.
“The Victoria newspaper had written that the house fire gave me the idea to move to Nashville, which is not correct,” she says. “I’ve been singing since I was born.”
Lou, who is originally from Alberta, says that she had always planned on going to Nashville after college.
“[Nashville] is country music city, so I figured that’s the place I needed to be,” says Lou. “And then the fire just helped make it easier because I didn’t have that much to pack up when I moved.”
Lou, who didn’t have insurance at the time of the fire, is quick to give praise and thanks to the countless people in Victoria who gave her support in the aftermath of the fire, including the YMCA, where she worked as a lifeguard, and Camosun. (Lou graduated from the Victoria Conservatory of Music in 2018 with a diploma in vocal performance; this program is offered in partnership with Camosun.)
“Camosun was so amazing, and they gave me money, and gift cards, and clothes,” says Lou.
Another person who was instrumental in helping Lou was her prof at the conservatory, local singer Louise Rose. Rose gave Lou a keyboard, as her piano was among the articles lost in the fire.
“She was one of my teachers, and she gave me new stuff for my kitchen, towels for my bathroom, and sheets for my bed,” says Lou. “She literally gave me everything.”
Six months after the fire, Lou and her guitar made the blind-faith move to Nashville. It’s a move that paid off for the singer, as she recently signed a publishing deal.
“I was singing downtown in Nashville, and the guy who runs the music circuit for all of the Broadway musicians, he heard me singing, and he came up to me and told me to come in the next day at 7 am to his office and sing him my original songs,” says Lou. “So I did, and he liked me, and he offered me the deal.”
The publishing deal means that Lou now has a full-time job writing songs and performing in downtown Nashville on Broadway. This includes a bucket-list venue for the singer, Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge.
“Tootsie’s is, like, the biggest bar,” says Lou. “That’s where all the famous people stop by when they’re in town, so it’s where everybody wants to be performing, and I got it. I’m so happy.”
Lou recently came back to Victoria while she waits to get her work visa sorted. The visit was a full-circle moment for the singer, as she stayed with the family that she was living with at the time of the fire. Though Lou has significantly more now thanks to her decision to travel to Nashville, she is still aware of how little she had when she left Victoria.
“The only thing I had after the fire was my guitar,” says Lou. “So it’s kind of like fate was setting me up for my move.”