Charlottetown almost missed out on Chantal Kreviazuk show

Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk is on stage Wednesday night at the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown, on tour promotingher brand-new album, called Hard Sail.

It's her first new studio album in seven years, and as she told CBC's Bruce Rainnie of Compass, she kept touring, but it was also time to focus on family.

"There was a live album, I did a symphony album (2012's In This Life), and that was really exciting as well," she said. "I think I put one or two new songs on that one, but I wanted to be home around my kids more consistently, so I was continuously performing but more than anything I was doing a lot of writing, hoping that others would sing my songs."

That part of the plan worked out very well, as stars such as Drake and Kendrick Lamar covered songs she had written.

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But she was still looking forward to making a new album.

"Over time I sort of curated my own writing, I'd say 'That's not for someone else, that's for me,'" she said. "And after awhile it felt like I was accumulating an album of songs that were very true to who I was and I got a little inspired."

In concert, she's finding it hard to resist playing every new song. "It's the album I want to play top-to-bottom of any of my albums," she said.

However, it's a tour that almost didn't happen, after her 12-year-old son developed a lung virus.

Her husband, singer Raine Maida, was already on tour, and the decisioncame down to whether one of them would cancel their shows, or to leave their sick child with a new-on-the-job sitter.

"When he heard me say that I might cancel, his eyes, I'll never forget it, he welled up and he just started to sob," said Kreviazuk. "He was saying, 'What about all the people that you'll be letting down that have got tickets, that are coming to your show?' It was incredible.

"I said, 'Oh honey, that's so, so sweet. They understand, they have kids too, we'll figure it out.' And he said, 'No Mom, you have to go.' And it really was this moment for him, I felt him expand in that moment."

Kreviazuk will be reunited with her family soon. After Wednesday's Charlottetown show and Thursday's performance in Moncton, the tour is over, except for a couple of stray December shows.

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