During the JUNO Awards Broadcast that aired live nationwide on CBC and CBC Gem and was viewed globally on CBC Music’s YouTube channel,  Joni Mitchell received thunderous applause as she took to the stage at the TD Coliseum to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award. In introducing her, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said: “Joni’s music didn’t just provide the soundtrack to our lives he shifted culture, inspired generations and redefined what songwriting could be.”

Gracing the stage, Mitchell, 82, said that she was “so happy to be in Canada [with] our wonderful prime minister.” Noting that she now lives in the United States, she continued “and you know what’s happening there. This man is a blessing. You guys are so fortunate.”

Following her brief remarks, the widely acclaimed Canadian-American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist joined Sarah McLachlan, Allison Russell and other artists in a musical tribute to her body of work, which includes such notable songs as “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Both Sides, Now,” “Chelsea Morning,” “Help Me,” and “River.”

Mariel Buckley, whose October 2025 release Strange Trip Ahead (Birthday Cake Records) was named Contemporary Folk Album of the Year, is a Calgary, Alberta-based singer-songwriter. She is the younger sister of singer T. Buckley, with whom she has also recorded and performed together as a duo. Strange Trip Ahead was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee with her Edmonton-based band and produced by Jarrad K at Chateau Noir Studios. Her third full-length album, it was preceded by the critically acclaimed Everywhere I Used To Be (2022) and Driving In The Dark (2018). Although Buckley’s music may be genre defying, her songwriting reflects an intimate folk style. She tours Europe for several weeks this spring.

Morgan Toney, 27, whose Heal The Divide, was named Traditional Folk Album of the Year, is a Mi’kmaq folk singer-songwriter and fiddler from Nova Scotia. A member of he Wagmatcook First Nation, Toney performs and records music blends Celtic folk (reflective of Cape Breton) and the traditional, old songs of his people – a fusion that he calls Mikmatic) and describes as his way of celebrating his language and heritage. Heal The Divide is Toney’s third album. Preceding it were 2023’s Resilience, which was nominated for a Juno Award for Traditional Roots Album of the Year in 2024, and 2021’s First Flight, which was reissued in 2022 on Ishkode Records.

Also nominated for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year were The Hammer & The Rose (Matt Andersen), Purple Gas (Noeline Hofmann), These Dark Canyons (The Young Novelists), and Further From The Country (William Prince). The other Traditional Roots Music Album of the Year nominees included I Lost My Heart on Friday (Aerialists), Gold And Coal (Cassie and Maggie), The Moon’s Daughter (Heather MacIsaac), and Folk Signals (The Southern Residents).

Also of potential interest to AcousticMusicScene.com readers, Steven Marriner’s Hear My Heart was named Blues Album of the Year, while Sarah McLachlan’s Better Broken was named Adult Contemporary Album of the Year. Canadian pop star Tate McRae was the big winner, receiving awards in four of the six categories in which she was nominated: album of the year, artist of the year, single of the year, and pop album of the year.

For more information on Canada’s top music awards, including a complete listing of winners and the 248 nominees across 47 categories, visit https://junoawards.ca.

A Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Joni Mitchell (pictured), the widely acclaimed Canadian-American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who is known for such songs as “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Both Sides, Now,” “Chelsea Morning,” “Help Me,” and “River.”

In the running for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year are Strange Trip Ahead (Mariel Buckley), The Hammer & The Rose (Matt Andersen), Purple Gas (Noeline Hofmann) These Dark Canyons (The Young Novelists), and Further From The Country (William Prince). Traditional Roots Music Album of the Year nominees include I Lost My Heart on Friday (Aerialists), Gold And Coal (Cassie and Maggie), The Moon’s Daughter (Heather MacIsaac), Heal The Divide (Morgan Toney), and Folk Signals (The Southern Residents).

Also of potential interest to AcousticMusicScene.com readers are the nominees for Blues Album of the Year. These include Sing Pretty Blues (Crystal Shawanda), Ooh Yeah! (Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne), The Medicine (Miss Emily), Answer The Call (Secondhand Dreamcar), and Hear My Heart (Steve Mariner).

In addition to her Contemporary Album of the Year nomination for Purple Gas, Noeline Hofmann is among the 10 nominees for Breakthrough Artist of the Year. . Among the five nominees for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year are Conditions of Love Vol. 1 (Rose Cousins) and Better Broken (Sarah McLachlan, while Children’s Album of the Year nominees include Little Leaf (Chris McKhool).

In total, there are 248 nominees in the running across 47 categories for Canada’s top music awards. Eight-time JUNO Award-winner Justin Bieber and Tate McRae lead the pack with six nominations each.

A 17-song tribute compilation, Long Journey Home: A Century After the 1925 Mountain City Fiddlers Convention celebrates the centenary of the iconic gathering of nearly 100 musicians in rural Mountain City, Tennessee. Produced by John McCutcheon (who also sings and plays banjo and fretless banjo on it), the album on Appalsongs showcases old-time fiddling and old time music with a number of today’s most celebrated old-time and bluegrass artists performing their own renditions of ballads, reels and tunes that have stood the test of time. Featured artists, in addition to McCutcheon and Tuttle, include Jake Blount, Old Crow Medicine Show, Tim O’Brien, Sparky & Rhonda Rucker, Becky Buller, Trey Wellington & Victor Furtado, Stuart Duncan, Cathy & Marcy’s Old Time Coalition, Kody Norris Show, Earl White Stringband, and Bruce Molsky.

Molly Tuttle, who is joined by Ketch Secor (who fronts and co-founded Old Crow Medicine Show) on “I’ve Always Been a Rambler,” is an acclaimed guitarist known for her prowess at flatpicking and cross-picking, as well as a singer- songwriter and banjo player. At age 24, she became the first woman to win the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Guitar Player of the Year Award in 2017 and did so again the following year when the Americana Music Association also named her Instrumentalist of the Year. Tuttle has been the recipient of two Grammy Awards for Best Bluegrass Album for Crooked Tree and City of Gold in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Crooked Tree also was named Album of the Year in the International Bluegrass Music Awards, while its title track was feted as Song of the Year and she was named Female Vocalist of the Year. City of Gold, also recorded with her band Golden Highway, also was named Album of the Year during the 2023 International Folk Music Awards presented by Folk Alliance International.

Connie Kaldor is a three-time Juno Award-winning singer songwriter who has been writing and performing her songs for more than 45 years and has recorded 19 albums. Her new release, Wide Open Space, was the #2 album on the FAI Folk Chart in September. A member of the Order of Canada and a Queen’s Golden Jubilee Award recipient, she also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Woodstock Folk Festival in Woodstock, Illinois earlier this year. Kaldor is based in Montreal and tours extensively. She is frequently joined in concert by her husband Paul Campagne and sons Aleksi and Gabriel Campagne. She will be among the official showcase artists during the Northeast Regional folk Alliance (NERFA) Conference in Albany, NY in November.

The September 2025 top albums, songs and artists charts are based on 10, 565 airplays reported on 347 playlists submitted by 93 different folk DJs. The number of reported spins is shown below in parentheses.

Folk Alliance International (folk.org) is a nonprofit organization that aims to serve, strengthen, and engage the global folk music community through preservation, presentation and promotion.

Top Albums of September 2025 

1.Long Journey Home: A Century After the 1925 Mountain City Fiddlers
Convention by Various Artists (131)

2. Wide Open Spaces by Connie Kaldor (71)

3. Look to the Moon by Patty and Craig (51)
3. Stone by Stone by Friction Farm (51)
5. Connected by Darryl Purpose (48)
6. Song of the Bricoleur by Rags Rosenberg (42)
7. Lost & Found by Becki Davis (40)
8. Mother Mind by Tekla Waterfield & Jeff Fiedler (39)
9. Hummingbird Highway by Dar Williams (38)
9. Stay Put by Elexa Dawson (38)
9. The Last Bough by Kyle Carey (38)
12. Kentucky Queen by Carla Gover (34)
12. Songs That Sing Me by Becky Buller (34)
12. Now Then by Robbie Fulks (34)
15. Sweet Resilence by Jane Fallon (32)
16. So Long Little Miss Sunshine by Molly Tuttle (30)
17. Heavy on the Blues by Rory Block (29)
18. The Light Still Shines on the Main by Jory Nash (28)
19. The Ghost of Sis Draper by Shawn Camp (27)
20. The America Chronicles by Kemp Harris (25)
21. Drum School Dropout by Christine Lavin (24)
22. Time Out #3 by The Accidentals (23)
23. New Skin by Judy Kass (22)
23. NERFA Songwriters, Vol. 1 by Various Artists (22)
25. Perennial by Kate MacLeod (21)
25. You Climb the Mountain by The Onlies (21)
27. Bridging Divides by Billy Jonas (20)
28. Wild and Clear and Blue by I’m With Her (19)
28. Squirrels by Jubal Lee Young (19)
30. One Hour Mama: The Blues of Victoria Spivey by Maria Muldaur (18)
30. Crown of Rose by Patty Griffin (18)
30. Callin’ Me Back by Petunia & the Vipers (18)
30. The Woods Have Shown Us by Ponyfolk (18)
30. Seeds of Dreaming by Diyet and the Love Soldiers (18)
35. Bones of Trees by Tim Grimm (17)
35. Personal History by Mary Chapin Carpenter (17)
35. Hard Headed Woman by Margo Price (17)
38. Ghost of the Old West by George Mann and Mick Coates (16)

38. Lost & Found Highway by Joselyn & Don (16)
38. Lift Up the Old World by Hilary Hawke (16)
38. Dark Ages by Eliza Gilkyson (16)
42. Riding High in Texas by Asleep at the Wheel (15)
42. The Way I Tell the Story by David Wilcox (15)
42. American Romance by Lukas Nelson (15)
42. Kerrville Covers by Janet Feld (15)
42. Shadows of a Ghost Town by Meghan Clarisse (15)
47. American Portraits by Marty Cooper (14)
47. Airline Highway by Rodney Crowell (14)
47. Arcadia by Alison Krauss and Union Station (14)
47. The Way the West Was Won by Dallas Burrow (14)
47. We’re Only Human by Hayes Carll (14)

Top Songs of September 2025

1. “I’ve Always Been a Rambler” by Molly Tuttle (23)
2. “No Kings Here” by Tom Paxton (18)
3. “Love, Surround Me” by Patty and Craig (15)
4. “Cuckoo” by John McCutcheon (14)
4. “Me & Robbie Erenberg” by Darryl Purpose (14)
6. “Louder Than Guns” by Friction Farm (13)
7. “Hummingbird Highway” by Dar Williams (12)
7. “900 Miles” by Tim O’Brien (12)
9. “Goodnight America” by Kemp Harris (11)
9. “Bullfrogs” by Rags Rosenberg (11)
11. “It Ain’t Gonna Go Away (Ode to the Epstein Files)” by Cathy Fink
& Marcy Marxer (10)
11. “Memory of August” by Anne Hills (10)
11. “What You Gonna Do With the Baby” by Old Crow Medicine Show (10)
11. “Returning to Myself” by Brandi Carlile (10)
11. “The Last Bough” by Kyle Carey (10)
11. “Tennessee Mountain Fox Chase” by Cathy and Marcy’s Old Time Coaltion (10)
17. “Open All the Doors and Windows” by Billy Jonas (9)
17. “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down” by Sparky and Rhonda Rucker (9)
17. “Oh, Little One” by Jory Nash (9)
17. “House Carpenter” by Jake Blount (9)
17. “At Our Best” by Judy Kass (9)
17. “Dear Time” by Alison Brown and Steve Martin (9)
17. “Wide Open Spaces” by Connie Kaldor (9)
24. “Baling Hay” by Elexa Dawson (8)
24. “Early Fields” by Kate MacLeod (8)
24. “Millworker” by Becky Buller (8)
24. “The Edge” by Becki Davis (8)
24. “Something My Own” by Tekla Waterfield & Jeff Fiedler (8)
24. “Rocky Road to Dinah’s House” by Becky Buller (8)
24. “Bridget O’Brien” by Maggie’s Wake (8)
24. “Feel What Our Hearts Feel” by Darryl Purpose (8)
24. “Savannah Is a Devilish Girl” by Robbie Fulks (8)
24. “American Dream” by Friction Farm (8)
24. “This Car” by Connie Kaldor (8)
24. “Bright Side of the Blues” by Bryan Titus (8)

Top Artists of September 2025

1. Connie Kaldor (71)
2. Molly Tuttle (57)
3. Friction Farm (53)
4. Patty and Craig (51)
4. Darryl Purpose (51)
6. Becky Buller (50)
7. Dar Williams (49)
8. Tom Paxton (48)
9. John McCutcheon (44)
10. Rags Rosenberg (43)
11. Becki Davis (41)
12. Tekla Waterfield & Jeff Fiedler (39)
12. Elexa Dawson (39)
14. Kyle Carey (38)
15. Woody Guthrie (36)
16. Bruce Springsteen (35)
16. Robbie Fulks (35)
18. Carla Gover (34)
19. Jane Fallon (33)
19. John Prine (33)
21. Christine Lavin (31)
22. Jory Nash (30)
22. Cheryl Wheeler (30)
24. Rory Block (29)
25. Eliza Gilkyson (28)
26. Joni Mitchell (27)
26. Shawn Camp (27)
28. Tim O’Brien (26)
29. Kemp Harris (25)
29. Tim Grimm (25)
31. Kate MacLeod (24)
31. Mary Chapin Carpenter (24)
33. Guy Clark (23)
33. Pete Seeger (23)
33. The Accidentals (23)
36. Willie Nelson (22)
36. Judy Kass (22)
36. The Onlies (22)
39. The Kennedys (21)
39. Bill Monroe (21)

More information on Prince may be found online at williamprincemusic.com. Here’s a link for the official video for “When You Miss Someone,” one of the songs on William Prince’s Stand in the Joy album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxVzg0F4fcU.

Mia Kelly, a singer-songwriter from Gatineau, Quebec who writes and performs in both French and English, was the recipient of two Canadian Folk Music Awards. Kelly, who released her debut album, Garden Through the War, in August 2022, was honored as both New/Emerging Artist of the Year and Young Performer of the Year. She was previously named Emerging Artist of the Year by Culture Outaouais and represented Canada as a finalist at the 2023 Jeux De La Francophonie. Visit her website (miakellymusic.com) to learn more about this young artist and to view a few videos.

The Canadian Folk Music Awards were established in 2005 to bring greater exposure to the breadth and depth of Canadian folk music, celebrating and promoting it in all its forms. The annual awards presentation caps a few days of artist showcases. More than 100 jurors — located across Canada and representing all of its official provinces, territories and languages — determine the recipients in each category.

A complete list of winners in the 2024 Canadian Folk Music Awards follows, while
more information may be found online at folkawards.ca.

Children’s Album of the Year:
Ginalina for Going Back: Remembered and Remixed Family Folk Songs

Contemporary Album of the Year:
William Prince for Stand in the Joy

Contemporary Singer of the Year:
Suzie Vinnick for Fall Back Home

English Songwriter of the Year:
Jacob Brodovsky for I Love You and I’m Sorry

Ensemble of the Year:
Genticorum for Au Couer de l’aube

French Songwriter of the Year:
Aleksi Campagne & Michelle Campagne (of Aleksi Campagne) for For The Giving/ Sans rien donner

Global Roots Album of the Year:
Sophie Lukacs for Bamako

Indigenous Songwriter of the Year:
Kaeley Jade Wiebe (of Kaeley Jade) for Turpentine

Instrumental Composer of the Year:
Vinta for Beacons

Instrumental Group of the Year:
Queen Kong for Fray

Instrumental Solo Artist of the Year:
Aaron Colis for Before Daylight in the Morning

New/Emerging Artist of the Year:
Mia Kelly for Garden Through the War

Oliver Schroer Pushing the Boundaries Award:
Kune for Universal Echos

Producer(s) of the Year: (Tie)
Drew Jurecka and Dan Rosenberg for Silent Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango (Payadora Tango Ensemble)

Jill Barber and Erik P.H. Nielsen for Homemaker (Jill Barber)

Single of the Year:
“When You Miss Someone” (William Prince)

Solo Artist of the Year:
William Prince for Stand in the Joy

Traditional Album of the Year:
Jocelyn Pettit & Ellen Gira for All It Brings

Traditional Singer of the Year:
Mary Beth Carty for Crossing the Causeway

Unsung Hero:
John Clarke

Vocal Group of the Year:
The Bombadills for Dear Friend

Young Performer of the Year:
Mia Kelly for Garden Through the War

To mark its 20th anniversary, the Canadian Folk Music Awards return next year to Ottawa, Ontario — where it all began in 2005.

A Winnipeg, Manitoba-based country-folk singer-songwriter from Peguis First Nation, William Prince previously received a Juno Award for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year in 2017 for his debut release, Earthly Days, which was also a finalist for Indigenous Music Album of the Year. His album Reliever was among the nominees for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year in the Juno Awards of 2021, while he won awards for Contemporary Album of the Year and English Songwriter of the Year during that year’s Canadian Folk Music Awards. Prince was also among the nominees for Songwriter of the Year, a coveted award that went to Aysanabee, an indigenous artist who, along with previous Juno Award winner Allison Russell, also paid tribute to the late notable artists Gordon Lightfoot and Robbie Robertson during the awards ceremonies.

Here’s a link for the official video for “When You Miss Someone,” one of the songs on William Prince’s Stand in the Joy album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxVzg0F4fcU

Also In the running for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year were The Returner (Allison Russell), We Will Never Be The Same ((Good Lovelies), Beyond the Reservoir (Julian Taylor), and A Light in the Attic (Logan Staats).

David Francey is an expressive and revered Scotland-born and southern Ontario-based singer-songwriter and storyteller. Besides his Juno for The Breath Between, Francey is the recipient of three previous Juno Awards for Roots and Traditional Album – Solo: Right of Passage (2008), Skating Rink (2004), and Far End of Summer (2002). He’s also won several Canaian Folk Music Awards, while Penguin Eggs magazine named Skating Rink and Far End of Summer as Album of the Year in 2003 and 2002, respectively. . Francey, who launched his career as a folksinger-songwriter at age 45 – after working as a carpenter and in rail yards for 20 years, is also the winner of the International Acoustic Music Awards (2010), and a recipient of the prestigious SOCAN Folk Music Award and the grand prize in the folk category for the John Lennon Songwriting Awards. Francey has also had his songs covered by such notable artists as Tracy Grammer, James Keelaghan, the Del McCoury Band, and The Rankin Family.

Here’s a link to enjoy a live performance by David Francey of the title track of his album, The Breath Between, a poignant, introspective reminder of the passage of time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LM6Sa-A8r8

Traditional Roots Album of the Year nominees also included Paint Horse (Benjamin Dakota Rogers), Roses (Jackson Hollow), Second Hand (James Keelaghan), and Resilience (Morgan Toney).

A complete list of JUNO Awards winners can be found, along with additional information, online at junoawards.ca.

Born in Orillia, Ontario on November 17, 1938, Lightfoot reportedly began singing on a local radio station at age five and sang in his church choir as a child, He penned his first song (“The Hula Hoop Song”) in 1955, while still in high school. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles, California to further his education before returning to Canada in 1959. Inspired, at least in part, by the songs of Bob Dylan (who similarly admired him), Lightfoot became part of and was among the best-known and most widely acclaimed singer-songwriters to emerge from Toronto’s burgeoning folk music scene of the 1960s that was centered around the folk clubs of the city’s Yorkville neighborhood. His first album, entitled Lightfoot!, was released in 1966. The following year, he performed the first of what was to become an annual tradition of concerts at Toronto’s famed Massey Hall and did so continuously until the mid-1980s when it became a once every 18 months or so affair before resuming them annually in 2005.

A prolific songwriter and a beloved chronicler of Canadian culture and history, Lightfoot’s own personal experiences and Canada’s national identity figured prominently in his songs. His 1976 hit “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” one of his most well-known and oft-covered ballads, poignantly tells the story of the last hours of 29 crew members aboard a freighter that sank in a storm on Lake Superior the previous November in one of the most famous Great Lakes shipwrecks. “Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” another of his well-loved songs, paid tribute to those who constructed Canada’s national railroad.

A globetrotting artist, Lightfoot toured throughout the U.S. and Europe, as well as his native Canada. During the 1980s, he beat alcoholism. However, he was to face other serious health challenges – including suffering from Bell’s pPalsy, a disease of the peripheral nervous system. In September 2002, Lightfoot also suffered severe stomach and abdominal pains while preparing to take the stage for a concert in his beloved hometown. He was airlifted to hospital, where doctors determined that he had ruptured an artery that required multiple surgeries. He was in a coma for six weeks and spent nearly three months in the hospital.

With his indefatigable spirit, Lightfoot released a new album, Harmony, in 2004 and made his comeback live performance at Ontario’s famed Mariposa Festival that summer.

Lightfoot’s songs have been covered by such other musical luminaries as Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Richie Havens, Ian and Sylvia (who were part of the 1960s Toronto folk scene with him), Sarah MacLachlan, Anne Murray, and Peter, Paul & Mary (who had hits with “Early Morning Rain” and “For Lovin’ Me”). In the liner notes for his own 1985 box set, Biograph, Bob Dylan wrote: “ Gordon Lightfoot, every time I hear a song of his, it’s like I wish it would last forever.” Lightfoot released his last studio album, Solo, in 2020.

Despite his serious health challenges and a distinctive, warm tenor voice that had grown thinner over the years, Lightfoot was a road warrior who loved to tour and perform live. Indeed, he continued to do so until several weeks before his death. On April 11, he cancelled his remaining tour dates for the year, citing health reasons.

Hailing Lightfoot as “one of our greatest singer-songwriters,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he “captured our country’s spirit in his music – and in doing so, he helped shape Canada’s soundscape.”

A soulful Nashville, Tennessee-based, Montreal-born Scottish Grenadian Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and activist, Allison Russell is also a co-founder of Our Native Daughters and Birds of Chicago and was part of Po’ Girl. Outside Child is her debut solo album and was also recently chosen as Contemporary Album of the Year in the 2022 Canadian Folk Music Awards, while she was named English Songwriter of the Year and New/Emerging Artist of the Year in recognition of it.

Wrought with emotion, Outside Child features 11 original songs “about resilience and survival, transcendence and the redemptive power of art, community, connection, and chosen family,” says Russell, who faced abuse and trauma during her youth that music has helped her to overcome. She is also among the nominees for both Album and Artist of the year in the International Folk Music Awards to be presented by Folk Alliance International on May 18 in Kansas City, Missouri on the opening night of its annual conference.

Maria Dunn is a Scotland-born, Edmonton, Alberta-based singer-songwriter who describes herself as a storyteller through song and accompanies herself on both guitar and accordion. She writes melodic, often socially aware, songs about ordinary people, while her music fuses Celtic folk with elements of bluegrass and country.

Joyful Banner Blazing is Dunn’s first release in four years and her seventh in a career spanning more than 20 years. Produced by Sharon Johnson of the Juno Award-winning band The McDades (as were her six previous independent releases), Joyful Banner Blazing celebrates resilience, grace, gratitude, solidarity, joy, and the love that fires our actions to make the world a better place. Thrice nominated for Junos, Dunn won an Edmonton Music Prize for her previous album, 2016’s Gathering. Her songs have been recorded Niamh Parsons and The Outside Track, among others, while one of them (“God Bless Us Everyone”) appears in the Rise Again songbook.

A complete list of Juno Awards winners can be found, along with additional information, on line at junoawards.ca.

Through its online showcases, Folquebec – an active participant at APAP conferences for the past nine years — aims to offer conference attendees an introduction to Quebec’s traditional, folk and world music scene, according to Gilles Garand, president and artistic director of the nonprofit organization that is now celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Quebecois traditional music, built around dancing, represents a melding of musical influences. It’s inspired by traditions brought to Quebec by early French settlers and later, by Celtic traditions brought to Anglo-Canada by Irish and, particularly, Scottish settlers.

By the early 20th century, a distinctly Quebecois version of traditional music had developed. It drew from such diverse influences as Scottish step dancing, Irish instrumental tunes, European dance forms, old French songs and 78 rpm records from the U.S. and Canada. The fiddle became Quebec’s primary instrument at the time, closely followed by the accordion. Other instruments have since been added to the mix as some contemporary artists have sought to reinterpret and keep Trad music alive.

As emcee of the Folquebec TradFest, Garand introduced five of the Canadian province’s premier folk and roots groups – Bon DeBarras, De Temps Antan, Grosse Isle, Les Grands Hurleurs, and Le Vent du Nord. Each group showcased its talents live from Montreal’s Cabaret du Lion d’Or for 25 minutes.

Bon Débarras, which in English translates to good riddance, is a trio of multi-instrumentalists (Dominic Desrochers, Jean-Francois Dumas and Veronique Plasse) whose original roots repertoire is steeped in in poetry and rhythmic sounds, and blends traditional French-Canadian, Irish, Scottish and English musical influences with those of contemporary, multicultural Montreal. Besides accordion, banjo, guitars, harmonica and vocals, Bon DeBarras’ music features the infectious beat of podorhythmie (foot percussion) –- a staple of Quebecois traditional music.

De Temps Antan is a high-energy trio that is helping to bring Quebecois traditional folk music into the 21st century while adding original music stylings, a contemporary flair and joie de vivre. Since banding together nearly 17 years ago, Andre Brunet (a champion fiddler, who has also performed with Celtic Fiddle Festival), Eric Beaudry (rhythm guitar, mandolin, bouzouki and clogging) and Pierre Luc-DuPuis (accordion) have brought their rousing performances of songs jigs and reels to stages worldwide.

All three members previously were members of La Bottine Souriante, the band most closely associated with the 1970s folk revival in Quebec. With its instrumentation, a vast repertoire of call-and-response songs, and the French-Canadian seated clogging or step-dancing that often accompanies these proto-typical songs, La Bottine Souriante (The Smiling Boot) became a seminal Quebecois folk band that set the standard for De Temps Antan and others to follow.

Grosse Isle is a trio featuring Irish uileann piper Fiochra O’Regan, Quebec fiddler-pianist and singer Sophie Lavoie and noted guitarist Andre Marchand, who blend traditional Irish and Quebecois traditional music with Lavoie’s own compositions. The trio takes its name from an island in the St. Lawrence River where many Irish immigrants to Canada lived,

Les Grands Hurleurs is a trio fronted by Nicolas Pellerin. While rooted in Quebecois traditional music, the trio also fuses elements of classical, gypsy, folk music and electronica and adds its own arrangements to the mix. Currently working on another album for release this year, Les Grands Hurleurs have won three Felix Awards, Francophone Canada’s Juno equivalent.

Le Vent du Nord is a lively, soulful and prolific group of talented singers and multi-instrumentalists that has been expanding the bounds of Quebecois traditional music for nearly 20 years. The globetrotting ensemble has been the well-deserved recipient of multiple Junos, Felix and Canadian Folk Music Awards. Its repertoire includes both traditional folk and original tunes that are performed on button accordion, fiddle guitar and hurdy-gurdy.

Noting that the formation of Folquebec stemmed from conversations at a Folk Alliance conference in 2000, Garand views conferences as “opportunities to share our knowledge and contribute to the concept of cultural reciprocity among artists.” Through its participation, Folquebec looks forward “to developing an ongoing partnership with leaders of North American cultural organizations to bring together our strengths, our resources, our complementarities in the advancement of the performing arts sector, and music in particular, of the broad cultural diversity of human expression through the arts,” he said.

“In this most unusual year of the COVID-19 pandemic, for music professionals, APAP was once again a inspiring meeting place and unique opportunity to meet people, to share and exchange together, discover new talent, new music and explore how to achieve in a virtual way our cultural objectives for the future.”

A Booking Agent and Traditional Music and Dance Aficionado Shares Her Thoughts

In addition to the Folquebec TradFest, two Quebec-based musical acts –- MAZ and Melisande (electrotrad] – were represented during the virtual conference in a pre-recorded showcase presented by the booking agency Canis Major Music. Both acts have previously showcased their talents at APAP under the banner of Folquebec.

Fusing trad, jazz and electric sounds, MAZ is a genre-bending band that is putting a modern spin on Quebec’s traditional music. The quartet, fronted by Marc Maziade, incorporates keyboards, electric guitar and electro beats, along with fiddle, banjo, double bass, vocals and Quebecois foot percussion.

The two bands were featured in a Future Folk and All That Jazz showcase, along with several non- Quebec-based clients of the booking agency that was launched about a year ago by Danielle Devlin, an aficionado of Celtic and French-rooted forms of traditional music and dance, who is also a competitive Scottish highland dancer and hosts house concerts and workshops.

“As a new agency, it was vitally important to me to stay ahead of the curve and double down on marketing, promotion, and bringing my artists to the fore in this unique time when the playing field was completely leveled,” Devlin told AcousticMusicScene.com. “What many saw as a crisis, I aimed to see as a beautiful opportunity, Very early on – before attending my first [of several] virtual conferences – I laid plans to host a themed series of virtual showcases for the artists on my roster, sort of a Canis Major Music festival of artists.” Noting that 18 of the 21 artists on her roster took part in one of four online showcase events for presenters last November that she produced, Devlin said: “Their work and commitment to make these happen made me feel so humbled, honored, and proud to be working with them.”

Future Folk and All That Jazz was among those virtual showcases which she called collectively Extraordinary Times and Artists and which she re-streamed on the APAP conference platform in January –- drawing what she called “a surprisingly good number of new views.” Each of the participating artists and acts also now has a promo reel that Devlin can continue to use in pitching virtual and in-person shows, while the showcases have resulted in real work being booked – both new virtual cultural programming and in-person performance offers, she said.

Devlin is also grateful to organizations like APAP that have recognized the importance of the performing arts in these challenging times and have adapted accordingly by pivoting to hold virtual conferences.

Noting that the platforms used for hosting these conferences have varied widely – in their ease of use as an exhibitor, as well as ease of interaction and access as an attendee,” Devlin said: “If you come with the right attitude, accepting that this is all a very new tech field and that there will be some difficulties, none of the small annoyances or hurdles are really that much of a challenge… Knowing that everyone is in the same boat, and most are not available to book new in-person work, the environment during these events has remained far more low-key and less of a hustle than would be if they were in-person.”

Apparently, however, virtual conferences are no less productive. Since the pandemic forced the closure of venues and cancellation of tours last March, Devlin said she has had “the amazing opportunity to be a part of producing and selling virtual programs” for about half of the artists on my roster – and in good number.” Among them have been concerts, interviews, workshops, and master classes in cooperation with festivals, performing arts centers, and presenting organizations across North America. “These are presenters who have also embraced the possibilities in this moment and who recognize the importance of continuing to support the arts during this crucial and difficult time for all,” she added.

Lisa Richards Toney, APAP’s new president and CEO, expressed similar sentiments during the virtual APAP Conference On its opening day, she noted that the virtual programming was designed to set the agenda for the year ahead and the recovery of the live performing arts. During the conference’s closing plenary session, she told attendees: “This time together has been invigorating, it has been igniting. This is not the end. We are not returning to business as usual… This is the beginning to engaging more equitably, to advancing the field as the richly diverse ecosystem that we are, to building forward with anti-racism as our lens, to addressing the climate crisis, to centering the voices of Black, Indigenous, and all people of color, to better visa and immigration policies, to outdoor programming, to resilience and mental health, to recovering in an altered touring landscape, to public health and re-opening, and to the art of going virtual.” Richards Toney continued: “We’ve got work to do. But we have imagination to uncover and promises to uphold. We are just getting started. We are stronger together, and we are worth it.”

About the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP)

In addition to hundreds of performance showcases, APAP’s first all-online conference in its 64 years featured an array of professional development programming and networking events, a virtual exhibit hall, and pitch sessions.

The Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit national service, advocacy and membership organization dedicated to developing and supporting a robust, performing arts presenting field and the professionals who work within it. APAP works to effect change through advocacy, professional development, resource sharing and civic engagement. More information may be found on its website, www.APAP365.org.

Editor’s Note: With the exception of Grosse Isle, who were new to me, I had seen all of the bands highlighted in this article showcase their talents at conferences and/or perform in concert/festival settings previously –- Le Vent du Nord and Melisande [Electrotrad] multiple times. It was also my pleasure to conduct an on-stage, pre-concert interview with De Temps Antan on Long Island in the summer of 2015. I have been attending and reporting on the APAP Conference annually since launching AcousticMusicScene.com in January 2007.