Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 05, 2014, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE C1 Call 1- 800- 665- 0678 SLEEP & SKI www. russellinn. com for full details. SKI AREA & RESORT $ 49.00/ $ 79.00 Weekday / Weekends/ Holidays ARTS & LIFE arts@ freepress. mb. ca I WINNIPEGFREEPRESS. COM I HOROSCOPE C4 I MISS LONELYHEARTS C4 I DIVERSIONS C7 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014 C 1 I N 2013, in a Juno Awards recap for a different publication, I commented that you had to love a year in which Nickelback wasn't nominated and therefore couldn't cast their long, black shadow over everything. It wasn't just a dig at Nickelback. To many people, Canada's Grammys are an embarrassing celebration of mediocrity. That's why so many music geeks were excited about the possibility of the Polaris Music Prize - a prize that eschewed record sales/ popularity for artistic merit. The Polaris isn't perfect either - awarding prizes for art is a strange, imperfect concept - but it takes the pulse of what's actually happening in the Canadian music scene the way the Junos have never really done. After all, ardent music fans in this country know our musical output goes well beyond Hedley, Celine Dion and Michael Bubl�. Hedley, Celine Dion and Michael Bubl� are all 2014 Juno nominees - because of course they are - but the Junos, to their credit, have made some strides in the right direction. Notably, the awards stopped ignoring metal and electronic music - two genres that are integral to Canada's music scene. Acts working outside the mainstream started earning nominations for album of the year and single of the year. Breakthrough groups were no longer bands three albums deep ( well, that one's a work in progress). Who knows? Maybe they'll even finally decide to televise the rap category this year. The 2014 slate of nominees, which was revealed in Toronto Tuesday, was mostly encouraging: Arcade Fire, Tegan and Sara, Serena Ryder and Drake are among the front- runners, a fact this music scribe can get behind. The alternative album of the year contains some challenging, forward- thinking works, including Royal Canoe's Today We're Believers and Yamantaka// Sonic Titan's Uzu . A Tribe Called Red rightfully got a Breakthrough Group nod alongside its electronic album of the year nomination. Toronto's Born Ruffians, a band whose career I've followed closely, also got the breakthrough nod. The rap category is stacked with heavyweights, including Drake and Shad. The Adult Alternative category - which always felt like a random assemblage of artists - has become one to watch, with Basia Bulat's beautiful Tall Tall Shadow competing against solid releases from Hayden, Ron Sexsmith, the Sadies and New Pornographers leader A. C. Newman. Local metal act KEN mode, which picked up the hardware in the inaugural metal/ hard music category, is up for it once again. Notable 2014 Juno Award nominees JUNO FAN CHOICE AWARD Arcade Fire, Avril Lavigne, C�line Dion, Drake, Hedley, Justin Bieber, Michael Bubl�, Robin Thicke, Serena Ryder, Walk Off the Earth SINGLE OF THE YEAR Reflektor , Arcade Fire; Inner Ninja , Classified ft. David Myles; It's a Beautiful Day , Michael Bubl�; What I Wouldn't Do , Serena Ryder; Closer , Tegan and Sara INTERNATIONAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR Unorthodox Jukebox , Bruno Mars; The Marshall Mathers LP 2 , Eminem; Night Visions , Imagine Dragons; Take Me Home , One Direction; The Truth About Love , P! nk ALBUM OF THE YEAR Reflektor , Arcade Fire; Loved Me Back to Life , C�line Dion; Nothing Was the Same , Drake; To Be Loved , Michael Bubl�; Harmony , Serena Ryder ARTIST OF THE YEAR C�line Dion, Drake, Michael Bubl�, Robin Thicke, Serena Ryder GROUP OF THE YEAR Arcade Fire, Blue Rodeo, Hedley, Tegan and Sara, Walk Off the Earth BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST OF THE YEAR Brett Kissel, Florence K, Tim Hicks, Tyler Shaw, Wake Owl BREAKTHROUGH GROUP OF THE YEAR A Tribe Called Red, Autumn Hill, Born Ruffians, Courage My Love, July Talk COUNTRY ALBUM OF THE YEAR Started With a Song , Brett Kissel; Crop Circles , Dean Brody; Country Junkie , Gord Bamford; Small Town Pistols , Small Town Pistols; Throw Down , Tim Hicks ADULT ALTERNATIVE ALBUM OF THE YEAR Shut Down the Streets , A. C. Newman; Tall Tall Shadow , Basia Bulat; Us Alone , Hayden; Forever Endeavour , Ron Sexsmith; Internal Sounds , The Sadies ALTERNATIVE ALBUM OF THE YEAR Reflektor , Arcade Fire; The Poet's Dead , Rah Rah; Today We're Believers , Royal Canoe; Warring , The Darcys; Uzu , Yamantaka// Sonic Titan POP ALBUM OF THE YEAR Wild Life , Hedley; To Be Loved , Michael Bubl�; Blurred Lines , Robin Thicke; Heartthrob, Tegan and Sara; R. E. V. O. , Walk Off the Earth ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR Love + Fury , Headstones; Coyote , Matt Mays; Arrows of Desire , Matthew Good; Furiosity , Monster Truck; Transit of Venus , Three Days Grace. VOCAL JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR Stealing Genius , Amy McConnell & William Sperandei; Courage, My Love , Erin Propp with Larry Roy; My Funny Valentine - The Chet Baker Songbook , Matt Dusk; Notes On Montr�al ft. Sienna Dahlen, Mike Rud; Triades , Sonia Johnson, Charles Biddle Jr. & Annie Poulain CHILDREN'S ALBUM OF THE YEAR Sing As We Go! , Charlie Hope; What's the Big Idea?!? , Gary Rasberry; Colour It , Helen Austin; Mon coffret � surprises Marie- Claude; Coconuts Don't Fall Far From the Tree , Splash'N Boots CLASSICAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR: SOLO OR CHAMBER ENSEMBLE Prokofiev Complete Works for Violin , James Ehnes; Chopin: �tudes Op. 10 & 25 , Jan Lisiecki; Mozart: Concertos Nos. 13 & 14 , Janina Fialkowska / The Chamber Players of Canada; Liszt at The Opera , Louis Lortie; Beethoven: The Complete Piano Sonatas , Stewart Goodyear CLASSICAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR: LARGE ENSEMBLE OR SOLOIST( S) WITH LARGE ENSEMBLE ACCOMPANIMENT Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 17 & 27 , Angela Hewitt; Britten & Shostakovich: Violin Concerti , James Ehnes; Canadian Concerto Project, Volume One , Nadina Mackie Jackson and Guy Few with Group of 27; House of Dreams , Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra; Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances & Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring, Toronto Symphony Orchestra CLASSICAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR: VOCAL OR CHORAL PERFORMANCE Berlioz: Les nuits d'�t� - Palej : The Poet & the War - Rorate Coeli; Group of 27 , Eric Paetkau - Conductor, Shannon Mercer - Soprano; Ravel, Sayat- Nova & Kradjian: Troubadour & the Nightingale , Isabel Bayrakdarian and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra; Lettres de Madame Roy � sa fille Gabrielle , Marie- Nicole Lemieux & Andr� Gagnon; Handel: Orlando, HWV 31 , Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Alexander Weimann, Owen Willets, Karina Gauvin, Allyson McHardy, Amanda Forsythe, Nathan Berg; A Quiet Place: Music for Healing III , Vancouver Chamber Choir T HE 2014 Juno Awards will have a decidedly Manitoba flavour, and not just because the awards will be handed out in Winnipeg on March 29 and 30. The province's artists garnered 12 nominations over a vast array of different genres for the national music awards. Among the Manitoban acts nominated include KEN mode, who has been nominated for the metal/ hard music album of the year for Entrench . KEN mode won the same Juno in 2012. Indie pop experimentalists Royal Canoe are going up against Arcade Fire, Rah Rah, The Darcys and Yamantaka // Sonic Titan in the incredibly strong alternative album of the year category. Prog- rockers Mahogany Frog are up for instrumental album of the year for Senna while singer/ songwriter Desriee Dorion's Small Town Stories is nominated for aboriginal recording of the year. Little Miss Higgins and the Winnipeg Five got a nod for roots/ traditional album of the year. Erin Propp and Larry Roy's Courage My Love is nominated in the vocal jazz album category. Former Winnipegger Earl MacDonald is up for contemporary jazz album of the year. Marie- Claude is up for children's album of the year. The Junos didn't overlook Manitoba's classical music output either. The Manitoba Chamber Orchestra's collaboration with Grammy- nominated opera singer Isabel Bayrakdarian is nominated for classical album of the year ( vocal/ choral). And Brandon- raised violinist James Ehnes, a Juno Award mainstay, has been nominated twice. He's up for classical album of the year: solo or chamber ensemble, for his album Prokofiev Complete Works for Violin . He was also nominated for classical album of the year: large ensembles for Britten & Shostakovich: Violin Concerti , a collaboration with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Canada's annual celebration of mediocre music takes an encouraging step in the right direction Manitoba artists rack up nominations SCAN PAGE TO SEE VIDEOS OF NOMINATED MANITOBANS Desriee Dorion Junos? Relevant? Interesting concept JEN ZORATTI Royal Canoe ( top) and KEN Mode ( right) are among the Manitobans nominated for 2014 Juno Awards. Continued Please see MANITOBA C 2 Continued Please see JUNOS C 2 SUPPLIED PHOTO SUPPLIED PHOTO C_ 01_ Feb- 05- 14_ FP_ 01. indd C1 2/ 4/ 14 5: 45: 31 PM ;