Category: 2021 nominee

2021 nominee

Warrior Women

Post author By steph
Post date May 18, 2021

2021 AWARD NOMINEE

YOUTH LEADERSHIP IN MUSIC

Warrior Women

Matricia Brown and Mackenzie Brown make up Warrior Women. They’re a dynamic mother-daughter duo whose haunting melodies and harmonious song writing will give you the experience of a lifetime. Warrior Women write and perform songs written in both English and their native tongue, Cree. Matricia and Mackenzie offer performances ranging from educational performances in schools with children and youth, to traditional crafting classes, to relaxing atmospheric drumming shows offered to people of all ages. Warrior Women was founded 15 years ago. Since the creation of Warrior Women, Matricia and Mackenzie have travelled around Alberta, and the world, drumming, singing and educating the public on First Nations culture, traditions and crafts. Warrior Women has performed for Canada Day celebrations in Edson, Aboriginal Day in Jasper and Edson, performed at schools in Spruce Grove, Edmonton, Jasper, Edson, Hinton, New York, Abidjan Africa, and many more places. Currently mother and daughter reside in Jasper where they perform for Parks Canada Rocky Mountaineer, Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, as well as the Australian Pacific tour company for various tour groups at Jasper Park Lodge. Warrior Women does anything from drum making to participating in big powwow drum experiences, and First Nations awareness projects. Warrior Women has won several awards including the Esquao Award for Community Involvement, Children’s Future, Global Affairs Top 30 under 30 as well as represented Indigenous artists with Global Affairs and the Canadian Council of the Arts at MASA- Africa’s largest performing arts festival in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

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2021 nominee

Jah’kota

Post author By steph
Post date May 18, 2021

2021 AWARD NOMINEE

SOCIAL VOICE

Jah’kota

Justin “Jah’kota” Holness is a 2019 Indigenous Music Award Nominee for best Rap Hip Hop Album of the Year for “WOKE”. His song WOKE also hit #1 on the Indigenous Music Countdown for Aug 3-9, 2019. He made history for being the first Native Hip-Hop Artist to drop a verse in the Senate in 2016. He is an award-winning entrepreneur receiving the 2018 CBC Trailblazer Award for TR1BE Music. He is also an award-winning youth worker receiving the Youth Community Service Award from the Committee of Youth Officers Ontario while working at the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health as an Indigenous Youth Diversion Coordinator. His life purpose is to help young people find their genius and manifest their dreams through art, music, and fashion. Through entrepreneurship, he believes we can achieve self-determination. Jah’kota is a passionate advocate for the rise of the sacred feminine and the re-matriation of our nations.

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2021 nominee

Q052

Post author By steph
Post date May 18, 2021

2021 AWARD NOMINEE

YOUTH LEADERSHIP IN MUSIC

Q052

A strong advocate for Indigenous youth and women fighting alongside his brothers and sisters, he started to write in hope that his truthful music will inspire systemic change. Q stands for Quentin. 052 is the official government name for his reserve. Welcome to Gesgapegiag in Gaspesia. After appearing for the first time with the EP, Lateral Violence, Mi’kmaq rapper Q052 is already launching his first full album REZ LIFE. With as much phlegm and intensity as the first release, the album, finely directed by Emmanuel Alias, takes aim at all the difficult issues Indigenous People are facing across Turtle Island. An old school hip hop, “Punch in the Face”, will be recognized by many Indigenous sisters and brothers. The lyrics confront governments and individuals to demand change. This album challenges the Indian Act system that has been enforced on Indigenous People in this country since the 1800’s but it also challenges people living inside these systems to take action and make those changes themselves. Q052 tells stories of Rez reality and discusses what is usually taboo like lateral violence and suicide. From Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women to the lack of justice for the murders of young Indigenous boys, this album addresses the issues that the authorities have ignored for decades. The songs in this album also bring awareness about environmental protection and the importance of our territory for our existence. Rise up People: the time is now!

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2021 nominee

The North Sound

Post author By steph
Post date May 18, 2021

2021 AWARD NOMINEE

ROOTS ALBUM OF THE YEAR

The North Sound

As The Stars Explode

The North Sound is cold like a Saskatchewan winter, humid like a summer day in the streets of Montreal, and is unpredictable like the weather on a singular day in Calgary. The North Sound is ever-changing with lyrics spanning across haunting metaphors and a sound balanced between today’s modern production and the era of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris blazing the highways. Formed in 2014 by Forrest Eaglespeaker supported by his partner Nevada Freistadt, The North Sound was created as a way to share stories in keeping true to Forrest’s Blackfoot identity and traditions from Treaty 7 Territory. The North Sound has had four singles reach #1 on the Indigenous Music Countdown as well as Saskatchewan’s MBC Radio, won Indigenous Artist of the Year at the 2020 SaskMusic Awards as well as being voted #5 on “Best Albums of Saskatchewan 2020” for “As The Stars Explode”. The album, released October 2020, has received six nominations from the SCMA. Sharing the stage with the likes of Blue Rodeo, Kathleen Edwards, Eagle and Hawk, Derek Miller, Susan Aglukark, Celeigh Cardinal, Logan Staats, and many more, The North Sound has performed at multiple venues and festivals across Canada and the United States sharing a message of tragedy and triumph wrapped up tight in a blanket of gratitude.

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2021 nominee

Nick Sherman

Post author By steph
Post date May 18, 2021

2021 AWARD NOMINEE

ROOTS ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Nick Sherman

Made Of

Made Of, Nick Sherman’s evocative, blistering new album tells stories of the remote north, celebrating the tenacity and resilience it takes to survive it. Co-produced by Matthew Wiewel and Jonathan Danyliw at Sudbury’s Deadpan Studios, Made Of’s haunting hardcore and gospel-informed folk-rock sound enriches Sherman’s fervent vocal performance. In the midst of Canada’s Indigenous renaissance, Nick Sherman emerges as a voice for those whose challenges have brought them down and built them up.

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2021 nominee

Leela Gilday

Post author By steph
Post date May 18, 2021

2021 AWARD NOMINEE

ROOTS ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Leela Gilday

North Star Calling

If you’re from the North, Leela Gilday’s music is home. If you’ve never been, it will take you there. Born and raised in the Northwest Territories, she writes about the people and the land that created her. The power in her voice conveys the depth of her feelings of love and life in a rugged environment and vibrant culture, as if it comes straight from that earth. Leela’s family is from Délįne on the shore of Great Bear Lake. Her rich vocals dance across the rhythmic beats of traditional Dene drumming as smoothly as a bass line onstage the largest venues in the country. And she has played them all. Leela has toured festivals and concert halls with her four-piece band through every province and territory in Canada. She has played in the United States, Greenland, Australia, New Zealand and several countries in Europe. Her live shows are where she connects with fans who have followed her on a 20-year career and where new fans are born. She reaches into their hearts and feels the energy of every person in front of her as she guides them on a journey through song and experience. She believes music has an inexplicable effect on people. It is a place where she can share light and dark and the most vulnerable moments, with a clarity and genuine purpose that reassures her listeners through every word. She is a storyteller, and through this, reflects the world onto itself. Five years after her last album was released—five years of growth, healing and head-down work —Leela’s fifth album “North Star Calling” was released fall 2019. It is more raw, more intimate and more Leela than anything you’ve heard from her before.

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2021 nominee

Julian Taylor

Post author By steph
Post date May 18, 2021

2021 AWARD NOMINEE

ROOTS ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Julian Taylor

The Ridge

Julian Taylor enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2020, when his second solo acoustic album, The Ridge, earned more than two million plays on Spotify, praise from press worldwide, and airplay from America to Australia to the U.K. The title song and first single from the album – which hit #1 on the Indigenous Music Countdown in Canada, among other accolades – premiered at American Songwriter magazine, which said, “Lush… poignant… Lyrically… brilliantly… ‘The Ridge’ exudes innocence.” Exclaim! Magazine said, “Julian Taylor strides along in The Ridge, weaving masterful lyricism with songs as warm as the summer breeze.” Glide Magazine wrote, “The songs on The Ridge deal with themes that are especially poignant at this unbelievable time in history as Taylor draws from love, loss, and a yearning desire for the human race to prevail against numerous hardships.”

Taylor was the artist of the month in November 2020 in The Bluegrass Situation’s Shout and Shine series, and the album was also heavily supported by SiriusXM Radio and Stingray Music. In addition to the recent JUNO nominations for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year and Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year, Taylor was also nominated for two Canadian Folk Music Awards for The Ridge, in the Solo Artist of the Year category and the English Songwriter of the Year category. Taylor was set to perform at the Awards as well.

The introspective, and often tender, content of The Ridge, independently released on Taylor’s own Howling Turtle label, is perfectly encapsulated and enhanced by a brilliant cast of sympatico musicians. The compelling combination of piano, fiddle, and pedal steel is most often provided by Derek Downham, Miranda Mullholland, and Burke Carroll, respectively. It’s also something of a family affair, as Taylor’s band includes cousins from Kahnawake, Quebec, Barry Diabo on bass and Gene Diabo on drums/congas. Also featured are Sheila Carabine and Amanda Walther (DALA) on backing vocals, Kevin Fox on cello, and Saam Hashemi on percussion.

Taylor, of combined Mohawk and Caribbean ancestry, is a major label veteran, Toronto music scene staple, and musical chameleon. His versatility as a songwriter is signature; one minute he’s onstage playing with his band spilling out electrified rhythm and blues glory, and the next he’s featured at a folk festival delivering a captivating solo singer-songwriter set.

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2021 nominee

Mary Bryton

Post author By steph
Post date May 18, 2021

2021 AWARD NOMINEE

RISING STAR

Mary Bryton

Mary Bryton is an 18-year old aspiring First Nations singer songwriter, and musician who is a member of the Whitefish River First Nation. Mary is a recent graduate of the Vocal Arts Program at Canterbury High School in Ottawa and the Grade 8 Voice and Music Theory with the Royal Conservatory of Music.

In 2018, Mary was a recipient of a SOCAN Foundation and SiriusXM Young Canadian Songwriter Award. She is currently studying Music and Education at the Queen’s University DAN School of Drama & Music, and teaching voice and theory at the Russell Music Academy. In the summer of 2019, Mary attended NYU Steinhardt’s intensive two-week Contemporary Vocal Workshop in New York where she completed intimate masterclasses and learned from luminaries in the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions. In addition, she participated in the 2019 Canadian Songwriter Challenge – Indigenous edition organized by MusicOntario where she co-wrote and recorded three songs with guidance from mentors and music industry experts at DreamHouse Studios.

Mary recorded her first music video “Without You” in the summer of 2020. Mary has enjoyed performing the National Anthem in English, French and Anishnaawbemowin at the 2017 North American Indigenous Games and between 2019-2021 at Ottawa Senators games in honour of Reconciliation.

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2021 nominee

Logan Staats

Post author By steph
Post date May 18, 2021

2021 AWARD NOMINEE

RISING STAR

Logan Staats

Once in a red moon, an artist emerges on the scene as if fully formed. Born on the Six Nations Reserve and raised in the small ghost town of Brantford, Ontario, Logan Staats started writing and performing music in his early teens. From a young age, Logan’s haunting and distinct voice has won him multiple opportunities to share the stage with acts like Buffy Sainte-Marie, Keith Secola and Mumford and Sons, to name a few. Still a young man, Logan is regarded as an accomplished, multi-nominated and award-winning artist. Forever a student of great music – Staats enjoys jamming, collaborating and learning from his contemporaries and other recording artists. A great example is a powerful late night live off the floor version of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice” in collaboration with peer Terra Lightfoot. In 2018 and in 2019, Logan achieved mainstream success off of his win on the first episode of the first season of CTV’s “The Launch”. He is best known for his single, “The Lucky Ones” which hit number one on the Canadian iTunes chart right after its release. Logan’s live performances are juxtaposed by a level of self possession and control that wildly careen through emotions of sadness, hope, longing and joy. A product of passion, compulsion and tireless musical commitment – Logan’s songs are his own. Armed with his guitar, he has transitioned from running the weekend bar circuit to playing sold out venues across Canada including his favourite venue, The Sanderson Centre, in his hometown.

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2021 nominee

Kaeley Jade

Post author By steph
Post date May 18, 2021

2021 AWARD NOMINEE

RISING STAR

Kaeley Jade

Armed with a soulful, velvety voice, singer songwriter Kaeley Jade possesses the captivating ability to craft music that is both playful and poignant. Effortlessly blending lush poetry and hooky melodic lines, the Edmonton-based artist creates her own brand of indie pop that is fresh, polished and vibrant. Since dropping her debut single “Years Ago” in January 2020, Kaeley has been making waves in the Canadian music scene. After a strong community response, “Years Ago” was added to the regular rotation on 102.3 NOW! Radio (Jim Pattison Broadcast Group). Her music has been featured on editorial playlists across DSPs including New Music Friday, and Fresh Finds on Spotify, and in publications such as SAY Magazine and The GATE. A Métis artist, Kaeley’s music has been played on Indigenous radio stations across North America. Her single, “Highway 16” broke the top 10 of the Indigenous Music Countdown, and its accompanying music video made it into the top 12 of the Indigenous Music Awards’ Music Video Competition. Kaeley possesses an impressive ability to move from ballads to bops with ease, and there is an authenticity in her stage presence that creates an experience that is both electric and evocative. She was recently selected from applicants across Canada for both RBCxMusic’s First Up Program and for the Indigenous Music’s Market Builder Residency for Indigenous Artists and Industry. She has performed at a multitude of venues including the Big Valley Jamboree and the Tim Horton’s Brier, and with the Edmonton Pops Orchestra. Recorded with the Juno-nominated team at Velveteen Music, her debut EP, Years Ago, is an evocative exploration of the challenges that arise when building relationships, wrapped in a crisp package of indie pop. Reminiscent of artists like Vance Joy and Maggie Rogers, Years Ago brims with powerful imagery and slick vocal lines.