Manitoba music acts dominate WCMA nominations

There is a four in five chance that the BreakOut Artist of the Year at the next Western Canadian Music Awards will be a Manitoban.

On Tuesday, the Western Canadian Music Alliance announced the nominees for its annual regional award program, and when it came time to recognize new voices on the rise, this province was more than well represented.

Aside from Alberta’s Miesha and the Spanks, every performer nominated for the BreakOut Artist award hails from here. Up for the honour are Boy Golden, the indie country-stoner project headed up by the Brandon-raised Liam Duncan; Field Guide, the increasingly funky indie act of Brandon-raised Dylan MacDonald; Slow Leaves, the award-winning songwriting outlet for Winnipeg folk singer Grant Davidson; and William Prince, the Juno- and multi-WCMA-winning country folk star from Peguis First Nation.

That isn’t the only category in which Manitoba represents 80 per cent of the nominees.

Up for recording of the year are Prince; Boy Golden; Winnipeg-raised guitarist and songwriter Ariel Posen, who has played headline sets at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads festival; and soulful pop singer Begonia, a multi-WCMA winner whose 2023 album Powder Blue made the short list for the Polaris Music Prize.

In the songwriter of the year category, Duncan received another nomination for his song For Jimmy, while Prince’s Stand in the Joy gave the singer yet another nod. For their work on Alberta blues singer Celeigh Cardinal’s song Light of the Moon, Dave and Joey Landreth, of the Bros. Landreth, were nominated with Cardinal. For the Powder Blue track Butterfly, by Begonia, Alexa Dirks, Matt Peters and Matthew Schellenberg are in contention.

For their Impact in Artist Development, four Manitoban organizations have been recognized with a nomination. Misfit Music Management, Birthday Cake Media — which won in 2021 — Paquin Artists Agency (PAA) and the West End Cultural Centre (WECC) will vie for that award with the National Music Centre in Alberta.

The WECC and PAA are both nominated for the impact in live music award, while the WECC is also in the running for the community excellence award alongside two local, inclusivity-focused organizations: Women in Music Canada and the Good + Plenty Arts Collective, whose co-founder Lana Winterhalt is nominated for producer of the year.

In total, the WECC — which won a WCMA for live music impact last year — has four nominations, including impact in music marketing. Last year, that award was won by Birthday Cake.

Other Manitoban nominees include Al Simmons and Micah!, both in friendly competition for Children’s Artist of the Year. For his 2023 EP Six, Don Amero is up for country artist of the year. Bilingual folk-roots duo Fire & Smoke (Claire Morrison and Daniel Péloquin-Hopfner) earned a nod for francophone artist of the year, while British Columbia’s Missy D, repped by Birthday Cake, is also up for that award.

Fontine, the indie folk project of Fontine Beavis, is up for Indigenous artist of the year on the strength of her debut EP Yarrow Lover, released on Birthday Cake’s label with a mix by Boy Golden and production by the tireless Kris Ulrich, another Birthday Cake artist up for a WCMA. Ulrich, who released his smooth rock album Big in the USA last year, is up for rock artist of the year, nominated alongside Posen.

In the roots artist category, Fontine and Prince are up against Cardinal, as well as Jake Vaadeland and the Dead South, a pair of throwback artists from Saskatchewan.

The Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra scored a nomination for jazz artist of the year, while the sprawling, psych jazz collective Apollo Suns received recognition in the instrumental artist of the year category. Founded by Ed Durocher, Apollo Suns won that award in 2020.

Nominated for excellence in visual design is Roberta Landreth, the Juno- and three-time WCMA-winning graphic designer who has worked with dozens of artists, including William Prince, Posen, Steve Bell and the Small Glories.

Super Duty Tough Work, the politic-forward hip-hop collective fronted by Brendan Grey, released its acclaimed LP Paradigm Shift last year, and is in contention for rap and hip-hop artist of the year. SDTW is repped by Misfit Music MGMT, a Winnipeg company founded by Elise Roller.

KEN mode, the hardcore noise rock group of Jesse and Shane Matthewson, Skot Hamilton and Kathryn Kerr, is up for metal and hard music artist of the year, an award the band won at last year’s WCMAs.

The winners will be announced at BreakOut West 2024, an industry event which this year will be held in Saskatoon Sept. 25-29.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com