Karen Lee Batten: Langley's country queen, on stage and off

When Gone Country won country event of the year at the BC Country Music Association awards in November 2023, the person who walked up to accept it was a singer. Karen Lee Batten had been on the bill at the very first show in 2013, and by 2023 her company, KLB Entertainment, was booking acts for it. She told the paper the trophy “should definitely have 300 names on that award,” meaning the volunteers.

That night she also picked up business professional of the year and the Don Adams Industry Supporter award, which says a lot about what kind of career this has been.

The singer

Roxanne Hooper’s profiles in the local papers fill in the outline. About twenty years ago Batten was a top-10 finalist on Canadian Idol. She has since been named the BCCMA’s female artist (or female vocalist) of the year eight times, including in 2014, when the Advance Times grouped her with “several Langleyites” who took home trophies. That June she’d also won the BCCMA’s spotlight performance contest to represent BC at Country Music Week in Edmonton.

The 2020s brought new music: “Too Strong” in 2020, the year she won the BCCMA fans’ choice award; “Drinkin’ Song” in March 2021, co-written and produced with Langley’s Mitch Merrett; and a Too Strong EP announced for that fall.

The booker

KLB Entertainment started in 2007. The Aldergrove Star says it books acts for events including the Valley West Stampede rodeo in Langley, and it has worked alongside Langley’s Ruscheinski twins on Gone Country, which is now held at Jamestown.

We don’t have a licensed photo of her yet, so the picture above is the festival’s own artwork. Read the festival’s story in Gone Country, year by year, or meet the rest of the scene on musicians from Langley.