Northern artist steals the show

Page 15

The north wind blew into Toronto on Nov. 25, and riding in on a gust was a huge talent called Tagaq. The Inuit throat-singer took to the stage during the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards and took the audience's breath away with an aggressive performance of her contemporary take on the traditional women's vocal game.

A standing ovation greeted the performance, but she couldn't see it, blinded by the lights in the John Bassett Theatre. It wasn't until she was off stage that she heard how well received her performance was.

"I ran off like a chicken. People told me later, and I was just absolutely thrilled."

Tagaq (Tanya Gillis) won in the Best Female Performer category for her album Sinaa, on which the eccentric Bjork collaborates and produces a track. Tagaq has been featured on a past Bjork CD.

"I am dreaming," said the northern diamond in her acceptance speech. "I put my soul into it," she said of the CD. She thanked her family, who had travelled from Nunavut to attend the show. Sinaa also won for Best Producer (Juan Hernandez) and Engineer (Jose [Triki] Trincado), and for Best Album Design (Oscar Poza & Montse).

Tagaq's performance topped off a women's medley performed in turn by Asani (Sherryl Sewepagaham, Debbie Houle and Sarah Pocklington), ElizaBeth Hill and Donna Kay. The woman, all of them nominated in some category or another that night (Asani won Best Female Traditional Roots Album) were among a long list of impressive performers that demonstrated the depth and breadth of the Aboriginal music industry.

A demonstration of fiddle virtuosity set the tone for the evening with an opening number performed by Ryan D'aoust, 16, of Norway House, Man., John Arcand, Donny Parenteau and C.R. Noble.

D'aoust, a left-handed player, would go on to win for Best Fiddle Album (Southside Of The Strings), which he dedicated to his late father Stan D'aoust.

"I've been playing the fiddle for about five years," said D'aoust. He put out a demo to raise funds for Southside, his first full CD, so the win was a big nod of approval for his efforts.

D'aoust also was presented the Galaxy Rising Star award, which came with a $2,000 cash prize. He plans to put the money toward the purchase of a piano, and set aside some money for a new CD.

The award ceremony was hosted by the always poised producer of the Sharing Circle, Lisa Meeches, and Gerry "The Big Bear" Barrett, a radio personality working in Winnipeg, who is also a comedian of some note. Barrett relied, however, more on foolishness and funny faces than on wit for his contribution to the evening's entertainment, while Meeches played it straight, albeit a little stiff.

J.C. Campbell performed a ballad from his nominated album Life Up Til Now after losing the nod for Best Country Album to long-time entertainer Hank Horton for Honky Tonk Heartache Blues.

Todd Burnell of Sunshine Records, the label that produces Horton's work, said the artist would be "tickled pink" after "struggling away up in northern Manitoba playing weekend gigs," all these years.

Perennial favorite Burnt Project 1 was named Best Group or Duo. Cape Breton's own Forever nabbed Best Rock Album with Something To Dream Of. The group thanked Eskasoni First Nation for flying them to the event. Forever also won for Best Video.

Soft-spoken Little Hawk won Best Folk Album and Best Album for his CD 1492-1975.

Manitoban Kimberley Dawn won in the best song single category for Spirit Of Our People.

"I was a little bit overwhelmed because I was up against some heroes of mine, Edward Gamblin and Eagle and Hawk, and was really quite willing to step aside for them to take this award. It was quite a shock and I'm very happy to bring it home," she said.

Beatrice Deer won in the Best Inuit Cultural Album category for Just Bea. Blackstone won in the Best Powwow Contemporary category for Back In The Day. And Eekwol won in the Best Hip Hop category for Apprentice To The Mystery.

Joanne Shenandoah of New York State won Bet International CD for Skywoman. And for her, it was just another day at the office.

"Awards are always a strange time, because everybody is like 'Oh, I hope you win,' and they get their hopes up. For me, after so many awards, you know, you begin to not like the word 'nominee' very much, because, you think, 'OK, we probably should go.' And it's exciting for up-and-coming artists and it's important to support the awards, I mean I have 10 Native American music awards... and I've been up for the Grammy a couple of times... life has been good to me... last night was wonderful."

Albertans Carl Quinn, the powwow group Painted Horse, and the Northern Cree Singers all walked away with hardware.

Quinn was recognized as best songwriter for the title song Ni Ototem off of his CD Ni Ototem. Northern Cree won Best Hand Drum Album for Sweethearts Shuffle.

And Painted Horse were very excited about their win for Best Powwow Traditional for Blackfoot Songs.

Members of the group had driven 72 hours from Calgary to attend the awards presentation. They were up against powwow powerhouses High Noon and Walking Spirit.

The Keeper of Tradition Award was presented to northern Alberta's Allan Beaver.

Diga, a Dogrib musician from Fort Rae, N.W.T., was named Best Male Artist.

Diga was surprised at the win, saying he had written an acceptance speech but fully expected to use it after the awards to light a fire. Standing in his flat cap and lumberjack shirt, he thanked Treaty 11, his friends in Yellowknife and the Creator, adding "May his name be revealed some day." This prompted some laughter from the audience, to which Diga responded "No, I'm serious."

The Music Industry Award went to long-time radio host Brian Wright-McLeod, who missed the announcement and had to be brought on stage later in the program to accept his award.

Wright-McLeod is the recently published author of the Encyclopedia of Native Music (UBC Press) and its companion CD The Soundtrack Of A People. Asani was also ano-show when their award was called. They explained they had been rehearsing another number for the show, which turned out to be the first public performance of the new music awards theme song, Celebrate. The location of the awards will now move each year, with Manitoba hosting in Winnipeg in early November 2006.

Manitoba artists received the lion's share of this year's award nominations, and the province was well represented by artists at the awards show and at the tradeshow held that weekend in the Rogers Centre. A Manitoba stage was created where musicians from that province could perform. Eric Robinson, provincial minister of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, has been a huge supporter of the awards in the past and will be instrumental in ensuring the integrity of the awards gala will be protected in 2006.

"Manitoba seems to be just flowering with so much musical and so much artistic levels in Manitoba now," said Kimberley Dawn. "Manitoba is very, very, very proud to be hosting such a... spectacular awards show next year."

Singer, songwriter, musician, playwright, artist, director, and First Nations ambassador Willie Dunn was honored with the Lifetime Contribution to Aboriginal Music Award. Instead of a long, drawn-out speech of acceptance, Dunn said he preferred to put his feelings of gratitude to music. He performed a song for the audience accompanied by guitarist Raven Kanatakta, a fitting conclusion to an emotion-packed evening for the award winners.