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.

“We are devastated to cancel this national celebration of music, but at this time of global uncertainty, he health, safety and well-being of all Canadians must stand at the forefront of any decisions that impact our communities,” according to the statement that CARAS posted online at https://junoawards.ca. “We know this is the right decision based on the information we curtly have ad are continuing to receive. The situation surrounding COVID-19 continues to evolve rapidly and we urge everyone to follow the guidelines and protocols put forth by public health officials.”

Unfortunately, cancellation of the televised awards gala and Junos-related events preceding it was made after artists and other participants had already begun arriving in Saskatoon for JUNO Week festivities that were to have begun on March 12.

CARAS noted that it will “explore options to coordinate an alternative way to honor this year’s JUNO Award winners and special award recipients.”

As previously reported on AcousticMusicScene.com in late January, among the coveted awards are those for Contemporary and Traditional Roots Albums of the Year. In the running for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year are Coyote (Catherine MacLellan), Easy Keeper (Del Barber), Little Bones (Irish Mythen), Passages (Justin Rutledge), and Mohawk (Lee Harvey Osmond). Traditional Roots Album of the Year nominees include Once a Day (April Verch), By Appointment or Chance (Miranda Mulholland), Sketches (Natalie MacMaster), Sugar & Joy (The Dead South), and Assinbone & The Red (The Small Glories).

Nominees in other award categories that may be of interest to AcousticMusicScene.com readers include those for Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year and Blues Album of the Year. Nominated in the former category are Celeigh Cardinal for Stories from a Downtown Apartment, Digawolf for Yellowstone, nehiyawak for nipiy, Northern Haze for Siqinnaarut, and Riit for ataataga. In the running for Blues Album of the Year are Pocket Full of Nothing (Big Dave McLean), Mad Love (Dawn Tyler Watson), Hand Me Down Blues (Durham County Poets), That’s Where It’s At (Michael Jerome Browne), and The Northern South Vol. 2 (Whitehorse). In addition, Toothsayer by Tanya Tagaq is among the nominees for Instrumental Album of the Year; a throat singer and composer, Tagaq is a Polaris Prize recipient and Canadian Folk Music Award-winner.

Canadian Folk Music Awards Weekend is Also in Doubt Amid Rising Coronavirus Concerns

In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, organizers of the Canadian Folk Music Awards are in consultation with their various stakeholders regarding its awards weekend, April 3-4, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. “The health and safety of our patrons, artists and staff is our primary concern,” according to a post by the CFMA board of directors on its website. “We will announce any decisions regarding whether to proceed with caution and protective measures, or to cancel our event altogether as soon as possible.”

As reported on AcousticMusicScene.com last November, Dave Gunning, a singer-songwriter who hails from Nova Scotia, tops the list of nominees for the 2020 Canadian Folk Music Awards with four nominations. Jenn Grant (also a Nova Scotia-based singer-songwriter), The Small Glories (the Winnipeg-based duo of Cara Luft and JD Edwards), and Vishten (an Acadian trio from Canada’s East Coast) each received three nods, while more than half-a-dozen other artists/acts received two nominations apiece. They are among the many artists and groups from throughout Canada vying for awards in 19 categories.

Here’s a link to the Nov. 22, 2019 article: https://acousticmusicscene.com/2019/11/22/nominees-named-for-2020-canadian-folk-music-awards/

In the running for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year are Inuusiq (The Jerry Cans), The Weather Station (The Weather Station), Watershed (Amelia Curran), Bone On Bone (Bruce Cockburn), and Medicine Songs (Buffy Sainte-Marie).

Traditional Roots Album of the Year nominees include Jayme Stone’s Folklife (Jayme Stone), What We Leave Behind (The East Pointers), Illusion & Doubt (The Dead South), The Willow Collection (Cassie and Maggie), and Rove (Coig).

The Dead South (a Regina, Saskatchewan-based folk-bluegrass ensemble) and The Jerry Cans (a band from Iqualui, Nunavut, who fuse folk and country music with traditional Inuit throat singing) also are among the five nominees for Breakthrough Group of the Year. Amelia Curran, an award-winning singer-songwriter from St. John’s, Newfoundland, also is among the nominees for Songwriter of the Year — as is Rose Cousins, an award-winning singer-songwriter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia; both are previous JUNO Award recipients.

Medicine Songs by Buffy Sainte-Marie, a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known for her thought-provoking lyrics and her passionate advocacy for Aboriginal people, also is among the nominees for Indigenous Music Album of the Year. In addition to a music career spanning more than 50 years, Sainte-Marie has been a social activist, educator and philanthropist and has sought to protect indigenous intellectual property and championed indigenous artists and performers. In recognition of those efforts, she received the Alan Waters Humanitarian Award during last year’s JUNO Awards ceremonies.

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