Amy Nelson, meet Amy Nelson: 2 prairie musicians get face-to-face after endless name confusion

Breaking into the music scene isn't easy. Getting your name recognized can take years of perfecting your sound, touring and performing.

So what happens when you do all that and find there is another musician with the exact same name?

That's what happened to Amy Nelson — from Regina — and Amy Nelson — from Calgary.

Regina's Nelson has been in the business for more than a decade. She describes her music as being pop-country. She won the 2018 Saskatchewan Country Music Award for the Fan's Choice Entertainer of the Year.

The other Amy Nelson is from Calgary. She been in the music business for about eight years and is in Saskatchewan this week to promote and perform from her first album, Educated Woman. Her music is also in the country genre, but is heavily inspired by music that predates the 1940s.

The two Amy Nelsons were aware of each other, but had never met before until CBC Saskatchewan's Afternoon Edition brought them together for an interview. In fact, Calgary's Nelson had never been to Saskatchewan before this trip.

Both described the confusion that has ensued from their identical monikers.

"My mom was driving in traffic one day, and I had a show in town — in Calgary — at the King Eddy. They [a radio program] were talking about the show, and talking about me, and then they played the other Amy Nelson's song," said the Nelson from Calgary.

"The worry is that people are going to come to the show, expecting what they heard from the other Amy Nelson, and be disappointed."

Colossal mixups

To make matters worse for both musicians, there are several other Amy Nelsons out there with lots of social media followers.

Regina's Nelson says she gets tagged in a lot of social media as the wrong Amy Nelson and that there have been colossal performance mixups.

A few years ago she was in Alberta and had brought an Australian musician over to play the Big Valley Jamboree. Calgary's Amy Nelson was also performing in Alberta that weekend.

Regina's Nelson told CBC that weekend was mixed up at every level.

Her aunt had alerted her that she was listed as having a show early the next morning. But she knew it wasn't her performing.

"They had posted my photo and my bio, but it was the other [Calgary's] Amy Nelson performing," said Amy Nelson from Regina. If that wasn't bad enough, she got an early morning phone call from a technician asking about her sound requirements.

"When I asked how they got my phone number, they said, it was on the contract."

While both have considered changing their name both are sticking with the names their parents gave them for now.

"People are always giving me nicknames or stage names, but for now it's sticking with Amy," says Amy Nelson from Calgary.