WCMA Nominees at the Cafe

by Michael Donley
The 2011 Western Canadian Music Award nominees were just announced at the end of last week and it`s really cool to see some familiar names getting recognition.   A hand full of these nominees have performed at Streaming Cafe over the last couple years and I thought this would be a great excuse to showcase these talents in a blog!

The associated Break Out West music festival was held in Kelowna, BC last year and we were very privileged to be a host venue for the festivities in which the cafe streamed twelve bands in just three nights... it was a blast! Winnipeg`s Del Barber was one of those shows.

Since Del`s performance at the cafe in Oct of last year, he has had a Juno Nomination for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year for his 2010 release Love Songs for the Last Twenty and in April he appeared as the musical guest and interview on CBC`s The Q with Jian Ghomeshi.
Del has been nominated for two WCMA`s this year: Roots Solo Recording of the Year and Independent Album of the Year. 
Here`s clip from Barber`s Oct 22nd performance at the cafe and we have just featured Del on our weekly ITUNES PODCAST channel.


Jen Lane from Saskatoon, SK who performed at the cafe during the BOWF last October and earlier that year in November was also nominated for a WCMA: Roots Solo Recording of the Year.  Her 2010 release For The Night was produced and engineered by Vancouver`s Steven Drake, known for his work with The Hip, Michelle Wright and The Odds to name a few.
Jen Lane is back to perform at Streaming Cafe September 3rd , so be sure not miss it!


It`s was cool to see that young roots/bluegrass up-and-comers Fish & Bird were nominated for Roots Duo/Group Recording of the Year. Not only have they thrown their own twist on bluegrass, it just so happens that they are performing this Saturday night, July 9th. Go to our event section info on the show!

Edmonton's Manuela performed at the cafe during her "Different Kind Of Fire" tour in February of 2010 and her album by the same name was nominated for a WCMA`s Urban Recording of the Year.


I encourage you to head to the Break Out festival and WCMA festivities October 20th to 23rd in Whitehorse, YT, but if my encouragement isn`t enough to get you to travel to the Yukon then keep up to date with all the happenings at http://breakoutwest.ca.