Winnipeg's Sierra Noble willing to 'Try Anything'

I just opened every single door that I could and if that door said yes then I walked through it. If it said no, I looked for another door. And I just kept going.- Sierra Noble

Sierra Noble's musical path is one that would rival any dream-come-true story. From shy kid to fiddle player to singing for the Queen, all in a few short years.

She went from being a girl afraid to speak to being a young woman performing music all over the world.

For Sierra Noble, it's simple.

"I just opened every single door that I could and if that door said yes then I walked through it," she explained. "If it said no, I looked for another door. And I just kept going."

While she's making a career out of singing and is also getting into acting, too, Noble loves fiddle music. In fact, she is in Halifax for the summer solstice weekend, sharing the stage with Ashley MacIsaac for the National Aboriginal Day concert there.

Noble says the singing door was one that she was nudged to go through, by Chris Burke-Gaffney and Keith MacPherson. 

"Chris was trying to get me to sing for a long time," she recalled. "Other people like Keith were telling me that I should give it a shot but I was fine with just fiddling. So Chris got me to try writing a song. When we finished the song he put the mic in front of my face to demo it. They tricked me!"

That song was a turning point for Noble. 

"I got to open for Paul McCartney with that song....and Bon Jovi," she said. "It brought me to New York, introduced me to the New York song circle. It opened up doors I didn't even know were there."

Noble was 17 when they wrote Possibility. It's about love and longing and hope for possibility with someone.

"One of the first emails that I got about this song was from someone who told me that this was the song that got them through their chemo treatments," she recalled. "It gave them hope that there was a possibility that they would get through it. That's really when I learned the power of music."

Life hasn't always been easy for Noble. 

"I was bullied terribly most of my school years, starting in Grade 7," she admitted. "Then when I was 15 I went through sexual abuse and on top of all that I had a full-on touring career." 

She says she wouldn't have gotten through it all without her mother. 

"She just gave up everything for us and it's just the most commendable, strong thing to do. I don't know what I would do without her."

These days Noble's motto is to "Try Anything". And the future looks bright.

She rallies against bullying, or rather in favour of kindness, by speaking at schools. She performs all over the place. And when she's not on stage, she's in the recording studio working on her next album, due out this fall.

Hear Sierra Noble with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra at Club Regent on Monday June 23. Before then, you can hear her in conversation with host Bruce Ladan on SCENE on June 21. The show airs every Saturday from 5 - 6 p.m. on CBC Radio One, 89.3 FM/990 AM/97.9 FM in Brandon.