BIO
Christy Vanden was born to traveling musician parents in the interior of British Columbia and grew up home schooled, moving from place to place.
Her family made yearly winter road trips from Canada to Baja California Sur, Mexico in their Volkswagen van, where she learned to play on her tiny orange classical guitar given to her by her mother Leslie.
From age seven onward, she was mentored by her talented father Dave, who inspired her to play the guitar in the first place.
Between Christy's mother and her sister Amanda, she learned how to sing, and picked up harmonies by listening in on her parent's band rehearsals.
During high school years, Christy kept her music private, recorded GarageBand tracks non-stop for an entire year, and upon graduation, developed herself into a busy college student!
Focusing on Liberal Studies and archaeology, she went to Greece on a study abroad trip and an excavation, and became a library assistant at North Island College Library...
One day while testing out guitars at Long & McQuade in Courtenay (where Christy later became a popular female guitar teacher), Christy met Brodie Dawson, the 2014 VIMA Vocalist of the Year.
Liking Christy's style, Brodie offered to showcase her in her band as guitarist for the summer of 2014 - they played their second show at the 2014 Sunfest Country Music Festival on the main stage in Duncan, British Columbia where there was a showing of 40 000 people over the weekend!
During 2015, Brodie had Christy join her on a recording of Brodie's song "All This Time", which was nominated in the 2015 Vancouver Island Music Awards for Roots/Blues Recording of the Year.
Later, the two formed a powerful touring trio with the talented veteran singer/songwriter/guitarist Tracy Riley of Yellowknife.
As She Could Be Trouble, the trio toured B.C and Alberta at over 70 venues between early 2015 to the end of 2016, resulting in a live release CD titled Nineteen Hours. The title of the CD was the number of hours it took for the trio to record 10 tracks between two days!
She Could Be Trouble was nominated at the 2016 BCCMA Awards for Group of the Year and the Ray McAuley Horizon Award, nominated for Group of the Year at the Vancouver Island Music Fest as well as were accepted into the first round of Juno Nominations for 2017.
​
Christy spent 2018 in Vancouver teaching and touring as lead guitarist and backup singer with Canadian Idol contestant Karen Lee Batten, who headlined Williams Lake Stampede and the BCCMA Artist Showcase tent at the Cloverdale Rodeo. She played with CMAB multi nominated country rock artist Garrett Gregory at Williams Lake Stampede, as well as Rock the Park Parksville in 2023.
She recently opened for Juno award winner Fred Penner at the Lewis Park Canada Day 2023 celebrations with Brodie Dawson, and did a collab with Young Mommy, a Canadian rap artist based in Sacramento, California on her newest track, "Imma Woman".
Now a solo artist at 29, Christy feels she is finding her place in music and is continually improving her art and deepening her songwriting.
She was nominated in the Comox Valley Record's Reader's Choice Awards for Best Musician, Best Performer, and Best Music Teacher, placing 2nd for Best Musician in the Comox Valley as well as 3rd for Best Performer!
Her solo instrumental EP, "Unexpected Road", will be released independently in 2023 at Aurora Studios in the Comox Valley...stay tuned!