MacKenzie Porter brings Thelma & James home to Alberta for Boots and Hearts West
MacKenzie Porter and Jake Etheridge, who perform as Thelma & James, are pictured on the cover art for “Happy Ever After You.” The duo performs at Boots and Hearts West in Edmonton Aug. 29.
Photo: Universal Music Canada/Big Loud Records.
Alberta-raised country singer-songwriter MacKenzie Porter is heading home later this month, bringing Thelma & James to Edmonton for what festival organizers are calling the duo’s first Alberta homecoming performance.
Porter and her husband, singer-songwriter Jake Etheridge, are scheduled to perform Aug. 29 at the inaugural Boots and Hearts West at Fan Park in Edmonton’s ICE District. The Saturday lineup also includes Shaboozey, Midland, Zach McPhee and Brock Phillips.
The Edmonton appearance follows a busy year for Thelma & James, the musical partnership Porter and Etheridge formed after more than a decade together and years of pursuing separate careers.
The duo released “Home In Your Broken Heart” on July 13, following earlier 2026 releases “Alternate Ending” and “If You Ain’t In Love By Now.” Their breakout song, “Happy Ever After You,” has surpassed 30 million global streams and earned Gold certification in Canada.
Thelma & James also received their first Academy of Country Music Award nomination this year, earning a nod for Duo of the Year alongside Brooks & Dunn, Brothers Osborne, Dan + Shay and Muscadine Bloodline.
They spent the spring opening stadium dates for Luke Combs on his My Kinda Saturday Night Tour, including Canadian stops in Montreal and Toronto, wrapping their first stadium tour as a duo in June.
For Porter, the Edmonton show brings the new project back to the province where she grew up. She was raised on a cattle and bison ranch outside Medicine Hat before building a career that has included success in both country music and acting.
Thelma & James began almost accidentally. Porter and Etheridge’s first songwriting session together in more than a decade produced “Happy Ever After You,” and the response to an informal video of the song helped propel the couple toward a record deal with Big Loud Records in 2025 and their debut EP, Starting Over.
They also appear to be continuing to write.
In a Jan. 14 social-media post shared with Thelma & James, Porter offered a brief glimpse of a songwriting session and wrote, “I think we just wrote one of our favs.”
The post did not identify the song or announce a release date.
The Edmonton performance is scheduled for Aug. 29, the second day of the two-day Boots and Hearts West festival.
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