Live Music and Concerts

Paris Pick, Rick Massie and the Japanese Taiko Drumming Ensemble are just a few of the many well-known Yukon musical performers. The territory is also well-known for hosting some amazing live music festivals and concerts too. Musicians and music-lovers have long understood the magic and inspiration the sounds of the Yukon can produce and celebrate that with visitors from all over the world.

A harpist playing a harp

Concert Showcases Top Harpist

Get ready Whitehorse for a spectacular concert with visiting Pedal Harpist Meta Epstein, along with Ben Johnson and Barry Kitchen.

Uncle Jimmy Roberts and the Hammerstones were locals whose sound was heavily slanted towards indigenous fiddle tunes

Live music returns to Dënäkär Zho

COVID-19 pretty much shut down live music in Dawson in 2020. This year the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (Dënäkär Zho), in partnership with the Dawson City Music Festival, has been trying hard to bring some of it back over the last few months.

The quintessential listening room

What to expect from an upcoming concert at Hamilton & Sons? Well, quite frankly, stories and dynamics and comedy, but all sort of wrapped up in a pretty riveting musical delivery.

Yukon’s very own chamber orchestra will take the stage at the Yukon Arts Centre for a musical exploration of the theme “Canadiana.”

The many of voices of “Canadiana”

On the longest night of the year, Yukon’s very own chamber orchestra will take the stage at the Yukon Arts Centre for a musical exploration of the theme “Canadiana.”

Ring in the Holidays with Song

For many, the holiday season would not be complete without their favourite Christmas music. The Whitehorse Community Choir has the perfect solution for those who are loathe to see December pass without beautiful renditions of “Silent Night” or “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” The choir’s winter concert, Tis the Season, will be sure to fill …

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Dawson entertains itself at monthly coffee houses

It’s Coffee House/Open Mic time at the KIAC Ballroom once again. This is a monthly event that usually takes place on the first Saturday of every month from September through to May. It is one of those things that the community does for itself, as contrasted with all those special events (partly for visitors) that …

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This is Groan Boy

Dawson Bealieu, known by his stage alias Groan Boy, is instantly recognizable in his blue blazer—the same one he’s wearing on the concert flyers plastered all over town. In recent months, he’s had a schedule that would exhaust the most zealous workaholics, but he still managed to bring an awful lot of enthusiasm for an …

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New Kate Weekes CD reflects singer-songwriter’s growth as a musician

When Kate Weekes plays in Whitehorse on May 2, the audience will hear something new and maybe surprising, even if they’re already fans. Having lived in the territory from 2003 to 2014, the singer-songwriter still spends several months here each year. Many Yukoners are familiar with her work. However, her new CD, Taken By Surprise, serves …

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Digging into commitment

Jack Garton stood in a cemetery on Galiano Island, talking on his cell phone about his latest record. It seems like a weird place to field media requests, until you consider that Garton’s day job, as cemetery sexton, seems to have influenced the album in a way.“I think a lot about how fragile our lives are …

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In paradisum electronica

Everybody knows the Yukon has its share of folk music and roots rock, but they don’t often think about electronic music.

The Dark Fruits

Ripened with age

The Dark Fruits kind of accidentally ended up with an album. Three years ago, singer Jeff Wolosewich booked time at Jordy Walker’s studio, planning to record a single song. The next thing he knew, he’d laid down bed tracks for more than 20 songs.“The guys (Walker and musicians Micah Smith and Patrick Docherty) just played …

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The Aurora Trail offers a second set of house concerts

The second half of the Aurora Trail lineup of the Home Routes program began in February, with three house concerts planned between Feb. 1 and April 14. Home Routes sends performers out to do about a dozen house concerts, six times a year, in 11 different touring zones from the Maritimes to the Yukon. We …

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Music to warm your soul

Donovan (comes to our neck of the) Woods  His music soothes the soul like that first warm beverage on a busy morning; his lyrics surround your senses with the sort of calm that’s equivalent to a warm, lingering hug from someone you love. Once described as “Canada’s best kept secret,” Whitehorse will be privileged to …

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The Vinyl Cut

Take a listen to Antarticus’ album—you almost won’t believe it was released this year. The prog-rock record is packed with extended solos, synthesizers and sci-fi/fantasy themes. As if that’s not old-school enough, it’s also being released on vinyl. “I think it makes sense for our style and mentality,” said bassist, keyboardist and vocalist Mack Smith. …

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Enjoyment is the whole point

Vocalist-bass player Katie Thiroux brings her jazz trio to Whitehorse for a Jazz on the Wing concert

All work and a play

On a Thursday afternoon at Takhini Elementary School, a class played dodgeball in the gym, seemingly unaware that, on the other side of the heavy blue curtain pulled across the school’s stage, was Paris. It was obvious as soon as you stepped behind the curtain. There was a tree-lined street with tall, black gas lamps …

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Using their indoor voices

Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous mainstage is indoors this year. “(Being inside) is definitely a change and I hope that people embrace it,”

Lonnie Powell

Gluing it together

Lonnie Powell’s passion for percussion dates back to a childhood night in B.C.’s Kootenay region, when he attended a wedding reception with his mother and watched a “really animated” drummer strut his stuff.

Inspiring on stage

On January 15, Tentrees was joined on the small Hamilton and Son stage for his 90-minute performance by Amelia Rose Slobogean (fiddle) and Graeme Peters (guitar). The trio explored some of their new works and shared their crafting experiences and inspirations of the pieces, displaying a rare chance to see the creative process through someone else’s eyes.

Ready for Christmas Eve

The cast including shepherds, angels, wise persons and citizens. PHOTO: Dan Davidson   What would Christmas Eve be without carols and a pageant. All are invited—shepherds, angels, wise persons, citizens, family and friends—to St. Paul’s Anglican Church A traditional Christmas Eve in Dawson City begins with an ecumenical carol and pageant service at St. Paul’s …

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Swinging Hard

After more than two decades as a jazz guitarist, Sheryl Bailey still invokes the name of a player who first inspired her love of the genre, but who died when she was just two years old. “I got into jazz when I was about 15. I heard Wes Montgomery on the radio. I just fell …

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Bah! Humbug!

Christmas —’tis the season to be jolly, for many; but for others, not so much (think “Grinch”!). Perhaps … just maybe … a little balance to the celebrating is in order? This year on Friday, November 30 and Saturday, December 1, the Whitehorse Community Choir will take the stage, at the Yukon Arts Centre, to …

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Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody is a 134-minute chronicle of the formative years of Queen, and a loosely based bio on the late Freddie Mercury. It is directed by Brian Singer and stars Ramie Malek, Lucy Boynton and Gwilym Lee. First Thoughts … It’s all the greatest hits of Queen … how can you not love this. The …

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Fiery energy and spirit

Fate has a habit of steering flute and saxophone player Jane Bunnett in unexpected directions. If tendinitis hadn’t forced a break from her intense piano practice regime, for instance, she might not have gone to San Francisco and met Charles Mingus’s pianist, Don Pullen, who would become her mentor, friend and musical collaborator. If she …

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Give in to your temptation

Martin’s solo career launched when The Tea Party went on a hiatus in 2005, before getting back together in 2011. The break provided an opportunity for the three bandmates to reset and explore different opportunities after a long stint together. Martin and Burrows had a band when they were 10 years old, and met Chatwood …

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Amsterdam to Tucson to Yukon

Cory Weeds credits the influential jazz label, Criss Cross Jazz, for his initial introduction to long-time friend and musical collaborator, David Hazeltine. In the mid-’90s, the Vancouver sax player, impresario and Juno-winning producer had finished his studies at the University of North Texas and returned to his home roots. Before long, he was spearheading a …

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Canadian concert series comes to Whitehorse

Aurora, a Canadian company that produces and distributes medical marijuana, is putting on a national series of free concerts to celebrate cannabis culture and the imminent legalization of marijuana through music and arts.

Paradise is ‘plugging in’

The Yukon’s annual electronic Paradise Music Festival is back and is set to take off July 27–29 at Kettley’s Canyon, at Marsh Lake.

Riverside rave

Beginning on May 31, guest DJs will perform on the Whitehorse Wharf, providing a summer dance floor for Yukon families and dance music fans.

Jen Hodge

Big, driving quarter notes

Jen Hodge had just spent five hectic days in Asheville, North Carolina, rehearsing every day and performing late into every night as part of the massive celebration of swing music known as Lindy Focus XVI. Despite the grinding schedule, the Vancouver jazz bassist and singer considered the Christmas-week event “a really incredible experience” that allowed her …

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Welcome 2018, farewell Commissioner Phillips

According to the Yukon Commissioner’s office, the New Year’s Levee is an old tradition that dates back to King Louis XIV of France and was first introduced in Canada when fur traders would pay respect to their government representatives on New Year’s Day. The annual event has evolved from these beginnings and the levee this …

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Rocking the live music scene

When Barry Bellchambers acquired the Whitehorse Lions Pool in 2004, filled it, and created the Yukon Convention Centre, he had a vision of bringing live music to the Yukon. Classic rock bands like April Wine, Nazareth, Randy Bachman, Steve Earle, and Dr. Hook all performed in Whitehorse as part of Bellchambers’ efforts. That era of flying …

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Not your grandma’s chamber music

Musical ear candy – that’s how Daniel Janke describes the Problematic Orchestra. “It’s pretty wacky music,” he said of the 20-person chamber music group he directs. “Some of it is very playful, as the title implies. “It’s not often you get a chance to enjoy such a large ensemble, and one that performs in almost …

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Bob Williams

A beloved musical tradition

Bob Williams knows the residents and staff at Copper Ridge Place quite well. That’s because the longtime Yukoner, musician and volunteer has been playing music at the continuing care facility since it was built eight years ago.

Vulnerability and shared space

Anyone who has attended a Kim Beggs concert, or listened to one of her CDs, knows that the subject of death often shows up in her lyrics. It certainly did on October 12, during the sixth of 41 stops on her current two-month marathon tour. Earlier that day, the Whitehorse singer-songwriter and her tour partner, …

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Tradition and values

The email said Jeremy Pelt was between engagements in Europe and China, with just a “sliver of time” of time for a phone interview from his New York City home. For the first few minutes, the answers were terse, non-committal, perhaps a bit jetlagged. Or maybe he just wasn’t into it. Asked about his earliest …

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Good vibes: Blue Feather Music Festival

Blue Feather Music Festival is entering its 17th year and is still holding true to its roots, providing healing, sharing culture and providing positive opportunities for youth to grow.

No earbuds aboard

Have you heard the one about the farmer’s daughter, the music teacher, the composer and the jazz singer? It’s not a joke. They’re all the same person: Karin Plato. Although she has called Vancouver home since 1985, Plato grew up on a grain farm near the tiny (current population: 129) community of Alsask, Saskatchewan. That’s where …

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From the North to the South

We deserve a pat on the back. That’s part of the point of From the North says Kim Winnicky, executive producer of the arts performance and show, a Canada 150 project being produced by Music Yukon. “We (in the territories) don’t often get a chance to celebrate ourselves.” Beginning this month, the show’s all-northern team …

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It’ll be Hip

Special Olympics Yukon will introduce an event of the season and it’s looking hip! Two hours of Tragically Hip by cover band The Hip Show.

Dena Zagi

In The People’s Voice

Ross River musician Dennis Shorty grew up in a musical family that spoke Kaska and performed at social events. Now he is sharing his love of the language through the musical duo he formed with his wife, Jennifer Froehling, is called Dena Zagi, meaning “people’s voice”. In August, they toured in Germany with their first …

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Return to the Yukon

It’s been 30 years, or thereabouts, since I first ran into the iconic Canadian folksinger-songwriter-poet who goes by the simple – but exotic-sounding – name of Ferron. There was no reason she should remember me. I was just a volunteer driver for the Edmonton Folk Festival, shuttling performers to and from the airport. But I …

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RCMP Musical Ride returns

“The best place to view the ride is from up high,” says Inge Sumanik. “But, for me, it is standing next to the fence and feeling the ground shake.” “The ride” that she refers to is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride. Since 1876, the RCMP have displayed the riders’ abilities to control the …

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Music gets the campfire cooking

They decided it would be fun to spend the summer playing as many of the Yukon Parks cook shacks as possible. Music in the campground.

A Quarter Century of Fusing Delicious Food and Great Music

It’s a summer Friday night in Haines Junction, and almost anybody who loves good food, good music and the spectacular St. Elias Mountains knows right where they’d like to be. As the dinner hour draws near, so do the patrons of the Village Bakery and Deli, tucked into a tree-lined corner just a stone’s throw …

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Taking the Sound of the Yukon to a National Stage

On July 1, the community choir, along with the Persephone Singers and the Chamber Choir, will take their sound to Ottawa. As part of the annual Unisong Choral Festival, they will sing with and for choir members and audiences from around the country and the globe.

Back in Town

Among Whitehorse’s talented music scene are Madi Dixon and Sarah Ott. Since their early teen years, Dixon and Ott have been staples of the local artistic community, performing as part of grand scale events and intimate gigs alike, and each possessing a multi-stylistic skill set. The duo will be playing selections of indie, folk and …

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A Good Old Time in Haines Junction

Bluegrass music goes back to the Appalachians. The 2017 Kluane Mountain Bluegrass Festival headliners are The Boxcars from east Tennessee.

Out of the Shadows

Multifaceted, multicultural and full of ingenuity – the arts and music community of the Yukon is widely appreciated, well-funded and extensively advertised. At least, some parts of it. At the colder, less hospitable edges of the creative community, less radio-friendly fringe groups vie for funding, airplay and stage-time. Among these groups is the raucously passionate …

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There is always time for Soda Pony

It is a typical Sunday evening in Whitehorse, and the Whitehorse two-piece alternative rock band Soda Pony is hard at work rehearsing and perfecting material for their upcoming CD release show in June. They have just finished the recording and mixing process of their second full-length album, aptly called Sophomore, and are eager to showcase …

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Drop In, Turn On and Jam Out

On some days, the wind blows from the north. A Whitehorse legend that drifts down the road is this: music and art are taught with passion and respected for their true value. Are there really open mic nights happening all over town? Was it true that graffiti doesn’t get covered up after two days? After …

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Getting Down to Motown

A nun, another nun, and a mystery illness all contributed to the development of Lucie Desaulniers as a singer. Growing up in the small Manitoba community of St. Jean Baptiste, not far from the U.S. border, Desaulniers attended a Roman Catholic school attached to a Grey Nuns convent. That’s where she met a “really cool” …

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Indian Dance + Celtic Beats

On Saturday, Dec. 17, Yukoners will have a chance to immerse themselves in an uplifting show Bhangra: The Dance of the Punjab, which will feature bhangra dancing to traditional Irish and Scottish music by the Whitehorse band Crooked Folk, as well as group dances from Gurdeep’s bhangra dance class students. The evening has been organized …

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What is the Aurora Trail?

The folk/roots duo Twin Peaks, comprised of Naomi Shore and Lindsay Pratt, opened Dawson’s Home Routes season on Sept. 26. The show in Dawson City was their second-last stop on a tour that had seen them perform in Dease Lake, Atlin, Teslin, Crag Lake, Whitehorse, Haines Junction, Faro and Mayo, with one more concert planned …

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Rising From The Ashes: Heavy Metal Returns to Whitehorse

“I want to hear something different.” These six simple words were an unexpected call to action that local promoter and musician Joel Gilchrist received from Karla Watts, a bartender at the Jarvis Street Saloon. “I want you to put on a metal show,” she told him. “You’ve gotta bring the metal scene back.” Live heavy …

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Katelyn Clark and Julie Ryning

13th Century Music

Katelyn Clark and Julie Ryning , as musica fantasia, released their first album. They stopped in The Yukon as part of the album tour.

My Dad, the Outlaw

Gabriola Islander Bob Bossin brings his one-man musical Davy the Punk to The Old Fire Hall next Thursday, Sept. 22 and to Dawson City the following week. The show is based on Bossin’s 2014 book of the same title. They tell the story of his father’s life in Canada’s gambling underworld of the 1930s. Both …

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Leaving the Road

When Oliver Jones was a mere 65 years old, he and his wife both felt it was time for him to retire after years of playing piano on concert stages throughout the world. So he did. Briefly. Now, 16 years later, the legendary jazz pianist is about to retire again, insisting his current tour of …

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Pritchett Rocks Country

Having a ringside seat at an Aaron Pritchett concert might just get you one of his trademark cowboy hats simply for being there. “When I get excited about having a great show, I tend to throw them out into the crowd to give them a little memento,” the country crooner says. “I’ve been through hundreds …

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A Big Night in a Small Town

The Teslin Arena is going to be rocking on June 25. Canadian country acts Aaron Pritchett, Cory Marquardt and Roger Gabriel are coming to town to put on a country music show. It benefit the Teslin Minor Hockey Association and the Teslin Recreation Society. About 450 people live in Teslin. This is the biggest event …

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Looking after each other

in 1996, the Mount Lorne fire hall opened it’s doors with a 1977 Ford cabover truck with an 800-gallon tank and a 125 horsepower pump

Folk VERCH-uoso

If you’ve got a yen to hear some some good old-fashioned country fiddle playing, you won’t want to miss April Verch. Verch, along with bandmates Cody Walters (banjo and electric bass) and Alex Rubin (guitar and mandolin) will be stomping, singing, fiddling and strumming their way into Whitehorse Friday, March 4th. A self-described “Ottawa-Valley Girl,” …

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Donnell Leahy

Joyful Performance

Donnell Leahy remembers exactly how he felt when he made his stage debut as a fiddler at the age of four. “Mom and Dad had a band when we were growing up as kids. They played locally at round dances and square dances and weddings and things,” he says. “One night they took me up …

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Back on Bourbon Street

James Danderfer didn’t intend to be a clarinet player. In Grade 6 he selected the drums as his preferred musical vehicle, but the band director overruled him. “He looked at my choice, then he asked to look at my hands, and then he asked to look at my teeth,” the Vancouver musician says. The verdict: …

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Warm drinks, cool tunes

During the late 1600s, over 2,000 coffee houses existed in London, England. For a country whose popular culture is associated with tea, it is remarkable to discover that London had such a earnest affair with coffee. Aside from the warm beverage, the coffee houses were places where people of intellect would discuss ideas. If you …

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Taking His Music Around the World

Homegrown singer-songwriter Gordie Tentrees is releasing his sixth album, Less is More, with a Northern tour this month. Tentrees is playing in Skagway, Dawson City,Keno City, and two shows in Whitehorse. This Northern tour follows his recent tours through British Columbia, the United States and Australia. In the next six months he plans to tour …

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Inside Rhythm

Forget the metronome, and don’t even bother trying to play like someone else, no matter how much you admire them. “When I was young, I figured that out real quick, because it was uncomfortable; it didn’t work,” says legendary drummer Louis Hayes. “You’re influenced by all sorts of things, and you can do certain things …

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The (Tom)boy is back in town

The term tomboy usually refers to a girl who has “male”interests, and has a preference for “male” clothing. You know, the type of girl who likes to wear sweats, plays soccer with the guys and wants be an auto mechanic. That was then. Now, gender fluidity is becoming more common. Some people don’t even want …

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Book of Truths

A few years back, Craig Cardiff noticed he was only going through the motions at his shows. The folk musician from Waterloo, Ontario says he was on autopilot. He thought to himself, ‘This isn’t how it should be going.’ He says no one should be on autopilot, and a musician performing live, especially, should be …

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Slynking into Paradise

Evan Chandler spent his first 27 years in Brisbane, Australia, before he started thinking it would be “cool” to see what life is like in another country. But two years ago, when he decided to move to Canada, expanding his musical reach was just one element in the mix. “I chose Vancouver because it’s right …

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A Subversive Singer-Songwriter Comes to the Yukon

While Martha Wainwright began her current tour a year ago to promote her latest CD, Come Home to Mama, she says the North American portion of the tour has evolved into something a little more wide-ranging. “At this point we’ve moved from promoting the latest album to doing songs from the previous two or three …

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Bring Your ‘A’ Game for BYTE’s Battle of the Bands

Rocking out in true Yukon fashion, Bringing Youth Towards Equality (BYTE) is hosting it’s annual Battle of the Bands, a no-holds-barred performance extravaganza. Open to musically-inclined youth under 30 years old, the Battle of the Bands features music from every genre possible — there are no limits. Hip-hop, funk and metal bands are on the …

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Breaking the Silence

Tom Jackson’s words come in a slow, measured cadence when he talks about hunger and poverty. It is the second day of Jackson’s current Christmas concert tour, ‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime. His Twitter feed for the day reads, “Poverty is often silent. It’s time to break that silence.” On the phone from Parry …

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The New Amanda Stott Brings Her New Voice

Five years ago, Amanda Stott was that young, farm girl with the powerful voice. Today, her voice is just as powerful, but it now has more texture and taken new directions as musical influences have reached her beyond the farm.

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