Local Musician Reaches Milestone With Their First Big Gig

It was a surreal moment for local artist SJ Riley, performing her first large-audience show at the PTBOLive Summer Concert Series in the Peterborough Memorial Centre parking lot on Friday.

Sarah-Jayne Riley better known by her stage name SJ Riley, had her latest song “Mansion of Broken Hearts” filmed at a haunted house in Lakefield. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

Riley opened the show for country music star Chad Brownlee with a six-song set — five originals and one cover song — including her signature-titled songs, “Whoever This Was Written To” and “Mansion of Broken Hearts.”

The singer/songwriter had only performed two shows prior to this performance, one at The Black Horse Pub (July 11) and The Garnet (July 17) earlier in the month.

"When you think about gigs like this, until you’re on stage doing it, how absolutely fun it is,” she said. “I had a blast.”

SJ Riley with her band, the “SJ Riley Band” performing on an overcast evening on the Enbridge Energy Stage. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

Playing live was a breath of fresh air and a sign the world was giving a sense of normalcy according to Riley.

“I think it’s the first step to a time where people come together again,” she said. “There’s nothing like coming together with a group of people and sharing an experience.”

During the pandemic, SJ Riley was doing acting gigs and filming music videos at Treblecock Studios located in downtown Peterborough.

Several of her music videos were produced by the local studio to occupy her time until live concerts were allowed again due to the pandemic.

“Peterborough is fantastic,” said Riley. “The people of the city are amazing, the artists in this city here are amazing, there’s so much here so I’m just absolutely honoured to be a part of it.

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