Where Tradition and Youth Converge
The fiddling tradition is alive and well in the Yukon thanks to the Fiddleheads, a group of young fiddlers ranging in age from 7 to 14,
Old Crow Recording
Making her Own Trail
“It’s sort of like a straightforward country approach to old-school, ’30s vocal jazz,” she says. “I would say it’s got folk roots, a bit of blues and bluegrass, but jazz is sort of where I draw inspiration from and is probably the top of my influences.” Producer Bob Hamilton of Old Crow Recording Studio selected …
His Saturn Returned and He’s Heading Out
Saturn is somewhere in its grand orbit when you’re born. When it comes round again, 29.5 years later, astrologers say it can mean big changes in your life. For Whitehorse musician Jona Barr, it was during his own period of Saturn returning that he wrote the songs for the new Old Cabin EP, Saturn Return. …
Hungry Hill Shares a Love of Bluegrass
Like the music of the delta that moved against the flow of the Mississippi and arrived in places like Chicago and Kansas City with blues disciples and refugees with a guitar and a song in their heart, bluegrass in the Yukon is a long, long way from home. Like the blues, bluegrass travels well: it …
Diyet’s Poetic Lyrics are Heartfelt and True
With these lyrics from Home, the opening track of Diyet‘s debut album, The Breaking Point, the singer/songwriter from Burwash Landing sets the mood for this CD. She reflects on her hometown, a tiny, remote First Nations community, with its beauty and its struggles. Her community has a tie that brings her back, and is a …
Singing for Fun
Do you know the francophone vocal ensemble, Les-Ceusses-qui-ont-du-fun-quand-y-chantent (literally, those who have fun when they sing) ? They are Jean-Marc Bélanger, Hélène Beaulieu, Claude Gosselin and Danielle Bonneau. On the release of the group’s first album, an all-Yukon-made Christmas album, I spoke with leader Danielle Bonneau. FT: How were Les Ceusses born ? DB: I …
The New Old Guys
It started with an appearance at the Olympic torch-lighting ceremony in Vancouver last year. Manfred Janssen and Jim Vautour were performing the iconic “Land of Gold”, something they penned together in the late 1970s that many people consider the Yukon’s unofficial anthem. It was the third performer at that event, swing jazz pianist Grant Simpson, …