Canadian Folk Awards ride the tide in Edmonton
If you’ve listened to pop radio lately, you may have noticed a lot of ukuleles, mandolins, accordions and various odd drums in songs that sound like souped-up folk tunes. They’re taking over!
Not much of this neo-folk-indie-pop sound will be represented at the annual Canadian Folk Music Awards taking place in Edmonton this weekend, but things may be changing. All it takes is one song.
“In our case, if you look at the artists nominated, we have some 600, 700 entries and the top draw artists are the Amelia Currans and the Catherine MacLellans, who’ve won Junos in the past, and they’ve struggled. They’re off the radar,” says CFMA director Andy Frank. They make music the way it’s always been done, he adds, do it yourself, honest production, marketing, grass roots record labels. When it comes to doing what you have to do crack through the hit parade, “They don’t play that game.”
Curran (above) and MacLellan are each nominated for three awards this weekend. The B.C. duo Pharis and Jason Romero, who play on homemade banjos, lead the pack with four nominations. Three Edmonton artists are up for trophies this year: Laura Vinson, Lizzy Hoyt and Rebecca Lappa. Following a total of 14 showcases Friday and Saturday at the Northern Lights Folk Club, the awards gala will take place Sunday, Nov. 8 at the Citadel Theatre, hosted by veteran Canadian folksingers Connie Kaldor and Benoit Bourque and featuring performances from nominees.
Natalie MacMaster
Look in the categories like new/emerging artist for buzz bands like Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer; or the “pushing the boundaries” award for bands like Whitehorse. Holding up the traditional side are artists like Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy. Buffy Sainte-Marie, who’s enjoying a career resurgence thanks to her 2015 Polaris Prize-winning album Power in the Blood, appears to fill both roles – contemporary and traditional. And if your favourite Canadian folk act is missing from the nominee list (see below), chances are they’ve been there at some point in the CFMA’s 11 year history. Organizers try hard to represent an accurate balance of all that’s going on. The first hurdle is to know the meaning of the word “folk” – which can almost be defined by what it’s not, Frank says.
“It’s such a broad term and that’s why we have 19 different categories,” he says. “Because it’s all over the place – which is fine with us. We have your contemporary artists putting out hit songs, and we have traditional Cape Breton fiddlers and everything in between. It’s quite prolific. But at the same time it’s not something you heard on a lot of on adult alternative stations. It’s a tough battle to get the best of our scene out beyond CBC and CKUA.”
Frank, who produces a weekly roots radio program on The Grand 92.9 FM out of Fergus, Ontario, says it’s up to the artists to submit eligible recordings. Besides not having a fans’ choice or international artist award, the CFMA doesn’t cherry pick through worthy contenders who may or may not be interested in being associated with the scene despite the presence of ukuleles, mandolins, accordions or odd drums in their music.
Whitehorse
Frank says, “The artists ask themselves, is this something I want to be part of? Some people are still adverse to be associated with the word folk. You still have that, even though the negative stereotype of folk is long past, the Kumbaya stereotype. If you go to the Edmonton folk fest and look at those headliners, that’s the scene we’re representing.”
The success of acts like Mumford, Vance Joy or the X Ambassadors and so on isn’t some fluke. There was a similar rise of hit-making singer-songwriters during the folk boom of the 1960s and 1970s, the Elton Johns, the James Taylors, the Carly Simons, and it’s clear the public is ready for the wave to crest again, if it hasn’t already.
Says Frank, “Everything is cyclical.”
The Nominees:
Young Performer of the Year:
Robbie Bankes – Through February Snow
Coastline – Coastline
Rebecca Lappa – Tattered Rose
Mira Meikle – MIRA
Benjamin Dakota Rogers – Strong Man’s Address to the Circus Crowd
New/Emerging Artist of the Year:
Crooked Brothers – Thank You I’m Sorry
Fortunate Ones – The Bliss
The Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer – A Real Fine Mess
The River and the Road – Headlights
The Young Novelists – made us strangers
Oliver Schroer Pushing the Boundaries Award:
Kevin Breit – Ernesto and Delilah
The Jerry Cans- Aakuluk
The Shoeless – The Shoeless
Dana Sipos – Roll Up the Night Sky
Whitehorse – Leave No Bridge Unburned
English Songwriter of the Year:
Catherine Allan and Andrew James O’Brien – The Bliss (Fortunate Ones)
Jon Brooks – The Smiling and Beautiful Countryside (Jon Brooks)
Amelia Curran – They Promised You Mercy (Amelia Curran)
Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland – Leave No Bridge Unburned (Whitehorse)
Jenn Grant – Compostela (Jenn Grant)
French Songwriter of the Year:
Jocelyne Baribeau – Entre toi et moi (Jocelyne Baribeau)
Louis-Jean Cormier – Les grandes artères (Louis-Jean Cormier)
Benoit Pinette – Panorama (Tire le Coyote)
Dany Placard – Santa Maria (Dany Placard)
Geneviève Toupin – Willows (Willows)
Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year:
Miranda Currie – Up in the Air (Miranda Currie)
The Jerry Cans – Aakuluk (The Jerry Cans)
Raven Kanatakta and ShoShona Kish – For the Light (Digging Roots)
Buffy Sainte-Marie – Power in the Blood (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
Laura Vinson and Free Spirit – Warrior (Laura Vinson and Free Spirit)
World Group of the Year:
Ayrad – Ayrad
Alex Cuba – Healer
Lemon Bucket Orkestra – Moorka
Monsoon – Mandala
Ventanas- Arrelumbre
World Solo Artist of the Year:
Kiran Ahluwalia – Sanata: Stillness
Jean-François Bélanger – Les vents orfèvres
Elage – Diame
Emmanuel Jal – The Key
Wagner Petrilli – Confissão
Traditional Album of the Year:
Matthew Byrne – Hearts & Heroes
Le Vent du Nord – Têtu
Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy – ONE
Pharis & Jason Romero – A Wanderer I’ll Stay
Jayme Stone – Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project
Traditional Singer of the Year:
Michael Jerome Browne – Sliding Delta
Matthew Byrne – Hearts & Heroes
Tamar Ilana – Arrelumbre by Ventanas
Annie Lou – Tried and True
Pharis Romero – A Wanderer I’ll Stay (Pharis and Jason Romero)
Contemporary Album of the Year:
Jon Brooks – The Smiling and Beautiful Countryside
Jenn Grant – Compostela
Catherine MacLellan – The Raven’s Sun
The Once – Departures
Gabrielle Papillon – The Tempest of Old
Contemporary Singer of the Year:
Amelia Curran – They Promised You Mercy
Peter Katz – We Are the Reckoning
Sarah MacDougall – Grand Canyon
Catherine MacLellan – The Raven’s Sun
Jory Nash – The Many Hats of Jory Nash
Instrumental Group of the Year:
Coastline – Coastline
Shane Cook and Jake Charron – Head to Head
Lemon Bucket Orkestra – Moorka
Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy – ONE
Monsoon – Mandala
Instrumental Solo Artist of the Year:
Jean-François Bélanger – Les vents orfèvres
Adrianna Ciccone – The Back of Winter
Nick Hornbuckle – 12×2(+/-1)
Patti Kusturok – Milestone
Wendy MacIsaac – Off the Floor
Vocal Group of the Year:
Fortunate Ones – The Bliss
Good Lovelies – Burn The Plan
The Lucky Sisters – So Lucky
Pharis & Jason Romero – A Wanderer I’ll Stay
The Young Novelists – made us strangers
Ensemble of the Year:
Big Little Lions – A Little Frayed, a Little Torn
The Once – Departures
Jayme Stone – Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project
The Sweet Lowdown – Chasing the Sun
Whitehorse – Leave No Bridge Unburned
Solo Artist of the Year:
Michael Jerome Browne – Sliding Delta
Amelia Curran – They Promised You Mercy
Lizzy Hoyt – New Lady on the Prairie
Catherine MacLellan – The Raven’s Sun
Oh Susanna – Namedropper
Children’s Album of the Year:
Ginalina – Forest Friends’ Nature Club Album
Henri Godon – La vie rêvée!
Hilary Grist – Tomorrow is a Chance to Start Over
Stella Swanson – I’m Not a Bunny
The Swinging Belles – More Sheep, Less Sleep
Producer of the Year:
Daniel Ledwell – Compostela (Jenn Grant)
Jory Nash, Chris Stringer – The Many Hats of Jory Nash (Jory Nash)
Les Cooper – Burn The Plan (Good Lovelies)
Murray Pulver, Dave Zeglinski, Steve Bell – Pilgrimage (Steve Bell)
Pharis & Jason Romero, David Travers-Smith – A Wanderer I’ll Stay (Pharis & Jason Romero)
