Annette Campagne
Annette Campagne proves she is the quintessential Canadian artist; the bilingual, straight-shooting poet of a prairie girl who has seen the world but who revels in her prairie roots. She's the hip, urban musician standing in a field of wheat singing about heartbreak and the thrill of new beginnings; about the refusal to compromise; about fury and forgiveness. Annette Campagne's new album is smooth and soulful with a hit of big sky country. It is the work of an artist whose mettle has been tested. She's a little wiser. She's direct and she's circumspect-'you pick yourself up off the floor and shake the dust off of your senses'.
Friday, October 21 - 9:00pm at Centre De La Francophone
Saturday, October 22 - 1:00am at Gold Pan Saloon
Jordan Cook
Jordan Cook has just released his new full-length album, Seven Deadly Sins. The songs were jammed out over a period of years with amazing musicians, like bass player Ben Shepherd (Soundgarden), drummer Matt Chamberlain (Pearl Jam, David Bowie), and input from producers like The Matrix (Korn, Avril Lavigne) and Howard Bilerman (The Arcade Fire). Seven Deadly Sins was then recorded with some of Cook’s most trusted musician friends. The album wasn’t so much born, as it evolved.
Whether it was being the first Canadian rocker to tour China, or being declared the revelation of Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival, the former child prodigy is out to wake people up. It’s probably why Maclean’s Magazine named Cook in the ‘100 Canadians to Watch’ and the late, great guitar god Jeff Healey once publicly introduced Cook as the finest player in the world today.
www.jordancook.com
Friday, October 21 - 12:00am at Jarvis Street Saloon
Saturday, October 22 - 1:00am at Foxy's
Sunday, October 23 - After party at Jarvis Street Saloon
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Foam Lake
A band named after a place where a mother grew up and a grandfather lived and died, Foam Lake is four blood brothers who have been playing together longer than they can remember. In late 2008, after the sudden demise of a band half the brothers were members of, the Ross brothers decided it was time to make it official and Foam Lake was born.
Currently, both Tyler and Kalen are members of the rock trio the Warbrides, Paul is a member of the alt/country/shoegaze collective Slow Down, Molasses, and Barrett is active in both the Peacoats and Chiba. In their previous band (The Blood Lines), Barrett and Paul toured across Canada, parts of the US and China, including showcases at the CMJ festival in New York, NXNE in Toronto, and a spot at the Beijing Pop Festival. They also managed to land on the cover of the New York Times as a result of their trip to Austin's famed SXSW festival.
Friday, October 21 - 10:00pm at Roadhouse Bar and Grill
Saturday, October 22 - 9:00pm at Foxy's
Sunday, October 23 - After party at Jarvis Street Saloon
Little Miss Higgins
From the Great Northern Plains of Western Canada, Little Miss Higgins struts and serenades her way, guitar in hand, lips blazoned red, onto any stage. As if she just drove in off the back-road of another time with gravel dust and a sunset trailing behind her, this pocket-sized powerhouse plays music brewed up in old-time country blues sprinkled with a little jazz and maybe a hint of folk. Whether it’s songs about passion or songs about panties, she writes about real things in a rooted and poetic way.
This is all too true on her fourth release, “Across The Plains” (2010). A testament to the roots of the music Higgins plays, much of her singing and guitar playing is accompanied by an old-school horn section, guitar, mandolin, banjo, upright bass, muck-bucket bass, and chunky percussion. As well as writing and performing on all the songs, Higgins coproduced the album alongside fellow musician and producer Jaxon Haldane.
www.littlemisshiggins.com
Friday, October 21 - 11:00pm at Trippler's Pub
Saturday, October 22 - 11:00pm at Whitehorse Visitor Information Centre
Shuyler Jansen
Nothing is as it seems in Shuyler Jansen’s songs. I knew that from the first time I really heard his voice on an album called Pulse of Light/Dark Landscape that his band Old Reliable released in 2002. The songs were driven by a desire to know the unknowable; to break down what one sees on a daily basis into its essential elements; to journey to a place you’re not sure is safe.
It has all led up to Voice from the Lake—two years in the making, but by far Jansen’s strongest statement yet as a solo artist. He chose to record in Vancouver again, although this time, significantly, with the city’s finest purveyors of pop-rock, John Collins and Dave Carswell, otherwise known as JC/DC, the sonic architects of modern classics by the New Pornographers, Destroyer, Tegan & Sara, Nardwuar & the Evaporators, and others. The album’s release on Vancouver’s Scratch Records also marks the label’s 20th anniversary. Jansen joins a roster that over those two decades has included Black Mountain, Frog Eyes, and Thor.
Friday, October 21 - 11:00pm at Gold Pan Saloon
Saturday, October 22 - 11:00pm at The Rock Pub
Jen Lane
Jen Lane earned her first Prairie Music Award nomination at just 17 years old. She got her first Western Canadian Music Awards nod at age 24, but just as she was getting ready to capitalize on her burgeoning momentum, she was sidelined by an accident that left her with a badly broken foot.
Now, with the release of For the Night, Lane is finally claiming her rightful place among the elite of Canadian roots country singer songwriters.
It takes a lot to stand out in the crowded world of Americana female vocalists, but Lane pulls it off with aplomb on For the Night, proving that her two previous award-nominations were no fluke. The album combines some seriously catchy songs with a laid-back cool that evokes Lucinda Williams and a pure, wistful voice that at times recalls Edie Brickell.
www.jenlane.com
Friday, October 21 - 9:00pm at The Rock Pub
Saturday, October 22 - 8:00pm at Gold Pan Saloon
Sunday, October 23 - After party at Jarvis Street Saloon
Jeffery Straker
Singer-songwriter-pianist Jeffery Straker performs over 100 shows per year across Canada. He recently recorded for CBC radio’s ‘Canada Live’, had a music video rise to the top 10 (#6) on Canada’s Much More Music and in May 2010 toured his music with the Regina Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players. His album ‘Step Right Up’ was the #5 selling album in his home-land of Saskatchewan in August 2010, ahead of both Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga. He’s sure neither of them cared. But he is sure that he, in fact, did. He has just launched a new album, ‘under the soles of my shoes’ in June 2011 and is touring Canada in support of it. Tour stops include shows ranging from intimate house concerts to a show with the full Regina Symphony Orchestra (Oct 1, 2011) and many in between. Canadian Musician Magazine recently said, “Very much an artist to watch”. The Chicago Free Press has written “: “Rufus Wainwright, as well as k.d. lang are among the Canadians making essential and beautiful music. Add the name Jeffery Straker to that list”.
www.jeffstraker.com
Friday, October 21 - 9:00pm at The Roadhouse Bar and Grill
Saturday, October 22 - 11:00pm at Trippler's Pub
