Canadian Folk Music Awards Archives

Tannis Slimmon – Folk Roots Radio Interview

Nov 07 2018

Tannis Slimmon has been making music for over 30 years. Tannis grew up in a musical family on a farm in Manitoba before moving to Guelph ON in 1980, announcing herself on the Canadian folk scene as a member of the critically acclaimed Bird Sisters (with Jude Vadala and Sue Smith). Since then, her music career has gone from strength to strength – with three great solo albums (with support from her partner Lewis Melville), taking home Contemporary Vocalist of the Year at the 2008 Canadian Folk Music Awards, for her second solo album, the fabulous “Lucky Blue”. Tannis has also been involved in many other musical collaborations including vocal groups Essentia & Ondine Chorus, The Lucky Sisters and currently Boreal (with Jude Vadala and Katherine Wheatley). Boreal’s annual Songs For The Snowy Season concerts start in late November. For more information on this year’s dates, visit borealsongs.ca. There’s also a new duo – Sweetcorn and Sunflower with fellow Guelph based singer-songwriter Annie Sumi – they’re just back from a tour that took them out to Vancouver Island. Check out the great video session they recorded at BNB studios HERE. The good news, for such an accomplished artist, is that Tannis is now able to make music full-time allowing her a renewed focus on her solo career, and her other projects. We caught up with Tannis Slimmon at home in Guelph to chat about her music. Visit Tannis Slimmon online at tannis.ca. Music: Tannis Slimmon “Our Time Now” from “Lucky Blue” (2007, Self), “Good News” from “In And Out Of Harmony” (2013, Self) and Boreal “Shovelling Snow” from “Winter’s Welcome” (2014, Self).

Folk Roots Radio Episode 351: Ken Yates and The Canadian Folk Music Awards

Folk Roots Radio Episode 350 - Ken Yates Interview & 2017 Canadian Folk Music Awards

Nov 23 2017

The winners of the 2017 Canadian Folk Music Awards were recently announced at a couple of very special gala evenings in Ottawa. On Episode 351 of Folk Roots Radio we feature music from some of the award winners alongside an interview with double award-winning singer-songwriter Ken Yates, recorded at this year’s Summerfolk. Ken took home the awards for both English Songwriter of the Year and New/Emerging Artist of the Year for his wonderful 2016 album “Huntsville”. Check out the playlist below.

Episode 300 of Folk Roots Radio featuring Corin Raymond

Feb 08 2017

On this edition of Folk Roots Radio, we talk to singer/songwriter Corin Raymond who has just received a Juno Award nomination for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year for his wonderful album “Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams”, which just happened to be our favourite recording of 2016. Corin joined us in the mobile studio at the Folk Music Ontario conference this past October for a wide-ranging conversation that covered his songwriting, the joys of collaboration, his 100 Book Blog, and, of course, the making of “Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams”. We also get to play some tracks from the album we haven’t yet played on the show. And, as always, we fill up the rest of the hour with a look at more of the latest new releases.

Jan 31 2017

Corin Raymond is having a great start to 2017, with a Juno Award nomination for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year for “Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams”. The album was also named our favourite recording of 2016. Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams is quintessential Corin Raymond, featuring some fabulous word craft on ten songs, eight co-written with other top drawer songwriters Jonathan Byrd, Sean Cotton, Rob Vaarmeyer, Rakhu Lokanathan and Jaxon Haldane alongside one Corin Raymond original, the glorious “Morning Glories” and a cover of Doug Norquay‘s “Best Demented Cowgirl Face” (one of the best and most intriguing song titles out there). The album also earned two nominations at the 2016 Canadian Folk Music Awards, with David Gillis taking home the gong for Producer of the Year. Corin joined us in the mobile studio at the Folk Music Ontario conference this past October to chat about the making of “Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams”. For more information about Corin’s music, visit corinraymond.com. Music: Corin Raymond “Rain Bed”, “Two Miles Of Train”, “Best Demented Cowgirl Face” and “Under The Belly Of The Night” from “Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams” (2016, Local Rascal Records).

Folk Roots Radio Episode 286: Brian Blain

Nov 01 2016

Brian Blain, self-described semi-retired blues guy, “Blainsletter” blogger and managing editor of the Toronto Blues Society‘s Maple Blues newsletter joins us on this episode to chat about his music. Brian stopped by our mobile studio at the 2016 Folk Music Ontario conference for an immensely enjoyable conversation about his 40 plus years in the music business. We also take a look at the nominees for Vocal Group Of The Year at the 2016 Canadian Folk Music Awards.

Oct 14 2016

Mandolin master and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Collins joins us on this episode to chat about his fabulous new album “And It Was Good”. And it is… very good, and nominated for both Instrumental Group of the Year and Producer of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. We also take a look at some of other nominees for the 2016 awards – this time we focus on the category of Young Performer Of The Year.

Oct 13 2016

Mandolin master and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Collins had already achieved greatness as an in-demand session player and part of Toronto’s famed Foggy Hogtown Boys and Creaking Tree String Quartet before setting out with his own Andrew Collins Trio, to create something very special indeed for their second effort “And It Was Good”… a concept album that uses as its theme, the biblical seven days of creation story, referenced by the eight individual tracks, that merrily criss-cross musical borders. The Andrew Collins Trio – Andrew Collins on mandolin, mandocello, mandolin and little fiddle, accompanied by Mike Mezzatesta (mandolin, guitar, fiddle) and James McEleney (bass, mandocello) with support from the Phantasmagoria String Quartet (John Showman and Trent Freeman on violins, Ben Plotnick on viola and Eric Wright on cello) serve up music that takes in classical baroque, jazz, bluegrass, folk and celtic influences with a nod to the crossover work of the late great Oliver Schroer, in a format that, because of the prominent strings, has been described as chambergrass. And It Was Good is a fantastic album – sublime, even – and an album that deserves to be listened through from beginning to end. The Andrew Collins Trio have received a well-deserved nomination for Instrumental Group of the Year at the 2016 Canadian Folk Music Awards and Andrew Collins along with David Travers-Smith is also in the running for Producer of the Year. The Andrew Collins Trio will be bringing the new album to Hugh’s Room in Toronto on Friday October 21 at 8:30 p.m. For more information and to get tickets, visit hughsroom.com or call (416) 531-6604. Music: Andrew Collins Trio “Light From The Darkness”, “Firmaments” and “And It Was Good” from “And It Was Good” (2016, Self)

Episode 282: Martha Renaud

Oct 10 2016

Singer-songwriter Martha Renaud joins us on this episode to chat about her latest album, “Time & Tide”, produced by multi-instrumentalist J. P. Cormier in Nova Scotia. We also continue our review of the nominees for the 2016 Canadian Folk Music Awards – this time we focus on the category of English Songwriter of the Year.

Sep 25 2016

Singer/songwriter Sharon Goldman from New Jersey joins us on this episode to chat about her latest album, “Kol Isha (A Woman’s Voice)”, an album that it takes as its theme, Sharon’s own life experience – growing up in an orthodox Jewish family on Long Island, New York. We also take our first look at the nominees for the Canadian Folk Music Awards starting off with the category of Contemporary Album of the Year.

Sep 24 2016

This episode of Folk Roots Radio features two interviews. Tia McGraff joins us to chat about what she’s been up to lately including the release of a new single and video, and a couple of upcoming shows in South Western Ontario. And Allison Brown checks in to chat about two specials shows with her band, “The Assembly Line”. We also take a look at the nominees in the New/Emerging Artist of the Year category at the 2016 Canadian Folk Music Awards.

Sep 22 2016

The nominations for the 2016 Canadian Folk Music Awards have been announced. PEI bilingual trio Ten Strings And A Goat Skin lead the nominations this year with 4 nominations for their album “Auprès du Poêle”, Double nominees include: The Strumbellas, Whitehorse, Donovan Woods, Royal Wood, Danny Michel, David Francey, Big Little Lions, The Small Glories, William Prince, Nadia Gaudet & Jason Burnstick, Corin Raymond, Megan Bonnell, The Andrew Collins Trio, Beppe Gambetta & Tony McManus, Fásta, The Yves Lambert Trio, Hillsburn and Shannon Quinn.

Check out the full list of nominees here. We’ll be previewing the nominee categories on upcoming editions of Folk Roots Radio.

Jul 21 2016

Ottawa-based Métis singer-songwriter Amanda Rheaume joins us on Episode 265 of Folk Roots Radio to chat about her great new album “Holding Patterns”. As always, we also take a look at some of the latest new releases.

Jul 19 2016

Ottawa-based Métis singer-songwriter Amanda Rheaume won a 2014 Canadian Folk Music Award for Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year and was nominated for a Juno, for her 2014 album “Keep A Fire” which explored her Métis heritage. Her latest release “Holding Patterns” is a more personal record altogether, featuring folk-country-pop songs that reflect on aspects of her own life experience, alongside “Red Dress” (feat. vocals from Chantal Kreviazuk), a song to raise awareness about Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. All proceeds from “Red Dress” will be donated to the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Amanda is heading to the UK on tour before returning to Canada for a show at the Bruce Wine Bar in Thornbury ON on August 5, and an appearance at this summer’s Kingsville Folk Music Festival. We caught up with Amanda at home to chat about the new album. Photo Credit: Jen Squires. For more information visit www.amandarheaume.com. Music: Amanda Rheaume “Get To The Part”, “Red Dress” and “Wolf Of Time” from “Holding Patterns” (2016, Self).

The 2015 Canadian Folk Music Awards

Nov 09 2015

The folk music community came together in Edmonton this past weekend to celebrate the vibrancy of the Canadian folk music scene as they handed out the 11th Canadian Folk Music Awards. The weekend events included nominee showcases, a live broadcast on the CKUA radio network and the awards gala itself hosted by Connie Kaldor and Benoit Bourque (La Bottine Souriante). This year, artists from Newfoundland and Ontario received the most honours, each taking home five wards. Quebec artists followed, with three awards. Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia were recipients of two awards each with Alberta and British Columbia artists collecting one award each. Congratulations to all the nominees and recipients. Read on for all the details.

Oct 28 2015

Big Little Lions started out as a long-distance songwriting partnership between two established songwriters, Juno award winning Helen Austin from Vancouver Island and Cincinnati-based Paul Otten. In their two-year collaborative career they have produced two E.P.s and a very well-received long-player “A Little Frayed, A Little Torn”, that has been nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award for Ensemble of the Year. Helen, Paul and Helen’s daughter Daisy Squires, a member of the Big Little Lions band, joined us at the Folk Music Ontario conference to chat about their music. For more information visit biglittlelions.com. Music: Big Little Lions “The Road With You” and “Watered Down” from “A Little Frayed, A Little Torn” (2015, Riptide Music Group) and Big Little Lions “The Way Home” from “Paper Cage E.P.” (2014, Riptide Music Group).

Guelph Celtic Orchestra with Shane Cook and Jake Charron

Sep 29 2015

The Guelph Celtic Orchestra open their 2015/16 season with an encore performance from Canadian Folk Music Award nominees Shane Cook and Jake Charron. The show takes place on Saturday, November 7 2015 at 7:30 p.m. at the Guelph Little Theatre, 176 Morris Street, Guelph. Advance tickets are $20 ($30 at the door) for adults and $10 for Children 6-10 and are available from [email protected] and in person at Janus Books, 10 Paisley Street, Royal Plaza.

Sep 25 2015

This week’s Folk Roots Radio features interviews with two artists who have produced wonderful new albums, Brenda McMorrow joins us to chat about her latest western folk meets Kirtan (Indian devotional music) album “My Heart Bows Down To You” and we talk to Ange Hardy, direct from Somerset England, about “Esteesee”, her great new album inspired by the life and work of English romantic poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. As usual we include a selection of the new music we’ve received and continue our on-going feature on the nominees for the 2015 Canadian Folk Music Awards. I really enjoyed putting this show together. I hope you enjoy it.

Sep 18 2015

This week’s Folk Roots Radio features two interviews – Stephen Fearing joins us to chat about his songwriting workshop and concert, taking place on Friday September 25 in Waterloo ON. And later, we catch up with Newfoundland band The Once at this summer’s Hillside Festival. As always, there’s a lot of new music on the show, and we continue our run down of the nominations for the 2015 Canadian Folk Music Awards.

Sep 11 2015

The nominations for the 2015 Canadian Folk Music Awards have been announced. Pharis and Jason Romero lead the pack with four nominations for their album “A Wanderer I’ll Stay”. Their nominations include Traditional Album of the Year, Vocal Group of the Year, Traditional Singer of the Year (Pharis Romero), and Producer of the Year (Pharis and Jason Romero with David Travers-Smith). Amelia Curran (St John’s, NL), Fortunate Ones (St John’s, NL), Jenn Grant (Lake Echo, NS), Whitehorse (Toronto, ON) and Catherine MacLellan (Charlottetown, PEI) each received three nominations.

This year’s youngest nominee is nine year old Vancouver Island artist Stella Swanson for the album “I’m Not A Bunny” in the Children’s Album of the Year category. Inspired by Stella’s pet bunny Romeo, the album was produced by Comox’s Helen Austin, a previous Canadian Folk Music Award and Juno Award recipient and a nominee this year with her group Big Little Lions.

Check out the full list of nominees here. We’ll be previewing the nominees on upcoming editions of Folk Roots Radio.

Dec 06 2014

This week’s episode of Folk Roots Radio featured an interview and impromptu session with Ottawa-based singer-songwriter Jill Zmud recorded at the recent Folk Music Ontario conference alongside a new mystery theme and an extended guilty pleasure segment as a tribute to a couple of great musicians who sadly passed away this week, keyboard player Ian McLagan and saxophonist Bobby Keys.

Oct 25 2013

The Sweet Lowdown are Amanda Blie on guitar, Shanti Bremer on banjo and Miriam Sonstenes on fiddle. Equally comfortable in trad, celtic and bluegrass genres; live they exude such brightness and exuberance that you wish that you could sit and listen to them all day. Their second album, the Canadian Folk Music Award nominated May was released in 2012. We caught up with them at Folk Music Ontario in October 2013.

For more information visit www.thesweetlowdown.ca.

Tag - Canadian Folk Music Awards

Tannis Slimmon – Folk Roots Radio Interview

Folk Roots Radio Episode 351: Ken Yates and The Canadian Folk Music Awards

Folk Roots Radio Episode 301: Corin Raymond Interview & More New Releases

Corin Raymond – Folk Roots Radio at FMO

Folk Roots Radio Episode 286: Brian Blain

Episode 284: Andrew Collins

Andrew Collins – The Interview

Episode 282: Martha Renaud

Episode 279: feat. Sharon Goldman & More New Releases

Episode 280: Tia McGraff & Allison Brown

Canadian Folk Music Awards 2016

Episode 265 – Amanda Rheaume

Amanda Rheaume – Folk Roots Radio Interview

The 2015 Canadian Folk Music Awards

Big Little Lions – The Interview

Guelph Celtic Orchestra with Shane Cook and Jake Charron

Episode 210: Brenda McMorrow & Ange Hardy

Episode 209: Stephen Fearing & The Once

Canadian Folk Music Awards 2015

Playlist: Episode 178

The Sweet Lowdown