What began as an experimental bluegrass side-project by three members of The Decemberists, Jenny Conlee (vocals, accordion), Nate Query (bass, cello) and Chris Funk (vocals, bazouki, dobro, weissenborn), together with fellow Portland musicians Annalisa Tornfelt (vocals, fiddle) and Jon Neufeld (guitar, vocals) in 2007 has morphed, after two albums, into quite a phenomenon. The Black Prairie soundscape is unique...
Bon Débarras (in English: “good riddance” and also “good storage”) is a trio of brilliant young Montréal multi-instrumentalists who play music at full throttle. They bring together traditional French-Canadian music inspired, through immigration, by Irish, Scottish and English music with the influences of modern-day, multicultural Montreal. The result is an original roots music that just pulses with the infectious beat of podorythmie...
African-Canadian/Cherokee singer Dalannah Gail Bowen has been making music for forty years on the Canadian blues, rock and soul scene. Her style has been described as "Billie Holiday meets Howlin" Wolf", and she’s known for having “a truly spectacular set of pipes…Smoky. Earthy. Soulful. Powerful.” (Canadian Musician). She is also an activist and socially conscious powerhouse...
Briga, aka Brigitte Dajczer’s music reflects a fully-embraced, multi-faceted identity: her father is Polish and her mother is Québecois, she was raised in Western Canada and now lives in Montreal. Her repertoire is a hybrid of songs written in French and English, all accompanied by her fervent violin-playing and deeply rooted in the Easter European and Romani folk songs ...
Actual brothers Alex (banjo, vocals) and Ben (guitar, vocals) Morrison hail from a household that was hangout for local San Francisco musicians and known for throwing great music parties. Everyone would bring an instrument and call out tunes. Together with fellow partier Gio Benedetti (bass), Philip Brezina (fiddle) and Ryan Avellone (mandolin) they’ve taken the generous, rowdy house party attitude...
The Mayor of Opelousas, Louisiana (the Zydeco Capital of the World) calls Jeffery Broussard "one of the greatest accordion players to ever grace our beautiful Creole culture and for that matter, the world." Born in Lafayette, Louisiana, Broussard started his music career at the age of eight when he played drums in his father‘s band...
Building their sound on the foundations of blues and American roots music, David Lamb and MorganEve Swan of Brown Bird utilize simple foot-percussion, violin, cello, and upright bass to create a sound full of warm layers, yet wide-ranging and bursting with high-spirited, foot-stomping energy. That’s not to say they’re constrained by musical boundaries or instrumentation...
It has been said of Jason Burnstick that “his voice and guitar together will remind you that you have a soul”. Jason is a musician and composer who performs his own brand of blues and folk, often flavoured with Latin influences, on his arsenal of weissenborns and lap slide guitars. This 2010 APCA (Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Award) Winner, Juno nominee...
For over a decade now, The Cat Empire have carved themselves out a unique place in music – as a band with no guitars, with no easily definable style, and no corresponding haircut, but one that can step onto any stage, anywhere in the world and make the crowd dance . . .
A humble and soft-spoken musician, Chaisson began performing publically during primary school in a family Celtic ensemble before embracing his inner songwriter as a teenager and self-releasing four albums. With 2009’s “Broken Hearted Beat”, an international audience’s ears became tuned to the sound of this golden-voiced young performer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose music borrowed from a wide range of influences...