As a child, Garnetta Cromwell said she became temporarily deaf from listening to music too loudly. She relied on reading people’s lips to communicate with others.
The songstress also had experience performing at dinner parties her mother hosted, and that fueled her love of performing in front of others.
Cromwell told The Highlander in a recent interview, she’s also faced racism and mistreatment in her career.
To help find her purpose, she turned to weightlifting, where she won gold medals at the Pan-Am Masters Canadian Games. It wasn’t until 2022 that Cromwell returned to music, releasing her debut album in 2023, entitled Time to Shine.
Cromwell and her band, DaGroovmasters, will be coming to Haliburton to play a concert at the legion Sept. 14, promising a groovy night as she sings with her six-piece band. Cromwell’s new single No Excuses for Being Mistreated came out Sept. 6, and she will be performing it at her show in Haliburton.
In terms of what audiences can expect, Cromwell is looking forward to really connecting with the audience. “I’m a friendly person. I’m very personable, so I want everybody in the audience to think they can connect with me and relate to me, that I’m their friend,” Cromwell said.
When people hear her covers, and her own soul music, Cromwell wants them to think it’s the same type of high calibre music as the classic soul music people are used to.
Cromwell and her band have toured across North America and were nominated for a 2024 Maple Blues Award for new artist/group of the year.
Local duo Chad Ingram and Tim Tofflemire will be doing an opening set. It’s the first show of The Haliburton County Folk Society’s season. Tickets and series passes are available at haliburtonfolk.com.
