Northern Lights Festival Boréal is pleased to announce its 2012 lineup…

FOR THE FULL LINEUP AND BIOS: http://nlfbsudbury.com/performers

Northern Lights Festival Boréal (NLFB) certainly isn’t calming down after the big 40^th anniversary celebration of 2011. Instead, NLFB has carried this energy into 2012. This year, the Festival has a first-rate lineup that is guaranteed to appeal to all types of people, from throughout the region and beyond. The music certainly reflects the eclectic atmosphere NLFB has become known for, but the calibre and acclaim of the talent for 2012 is undoubtedly on par with the larger music festivals in Canada. In addition to today’s announced list of featured artists, more regional and local artists’ names will be announced in the coming months, along with more information on Family Stage artists and more. Tickets go on sale today at: www.nlfbsudbury.com.

Headliners…

Daniel Lanois has been a legend since the 1980s. After co-producing the rising supergroup U2, and producing Robbie Robertson’s self-titled solo record and Peter Gabriel’s incredibly successful So, he released his own wonderful Acadie in 1989. His renown as record producer to the stars and his own Grammy-nominated albums make his presence at this year’s Festival a major coup!

Joel Plaskett puts on fantastic live shows, as we saw at his last NLFB appearance in 2009. This year he returns with his long time band, The Emergency, and hot on the heals of the release of his critically acclaimed album ‘Scappy Happiness’.

Steven Page has one of the most instantly recognizable voices in Canadian pop music history! Since his departure from the Barenaked Ladies in 2009, Steven has released ‘Page One’ and been nominated for a Genie Award. We can look forward to a mix of his new and old material at Sunday night’s concert.

The 2012 headliners are not just critically acclaimed – they are acts that Sudburians are guaranteed to love. Also, the emerging artists on the lineup are no exception to this, and are destined to be favourite new discoveries for many Sudburians. The Francophone lineup is also both exciting and dynamic, guaranteed to appeal across language barriers. And this year’s annual Meltdown competition brought two very exciting local acts to the NLFB lineup: The Almighty Rhombus and Spencer Jose.

Enhancements to the Festival experience…

Friday evening will have an opening ceremony in mid-evening, to welcome everyone to the 2012 Festival, followed by some very exciting musical performances. Saturday will be business as usual, just better: 6 stages of music, a diversity of interesting food options, artisans, crafters, retailers and green exhibitors. This year, NLFB plans to re-introduce the ‘floating stage’: musical performances aboard the Cortina Cruise boat. What could be more relaxing than rolling on the waves and listening to some fantastic music?

NLFB continues with their ‘green’ initiatives, like encouraging people to bike/walk/skate or take transit to the Festival by having a staffed bicycle valet service on-site. There will also be an expanded ‘Greenville’ section, including a greater number of displays and workshops relating to the environment and sustainability. In the same spirit, NLFB will be the pilot participants in a ‘green event’ audit, developed by Rethink Green.

Other NLFB Events…

As part of Earth Month 2012, NLFB will be presenting Chris McKhool’s ‘Earth, Seas & Air’ show, a highly entertaining look at the environment around us, through song, music and interaction. Chris is a top-notch family performer and a highly-skilled musician. A multi-Juno nominee, he has won the praises of such performers as Mr. Dressup. The show is April 29^th, at the Jubilee Centre (195 Applegrove). The show starts at 2:00PM. Tickets are $15 for adults, and $10 for children (2-12 years). Children under 2 are admitted free. Tickets and information are available at: www.nlfbsudbury.com or by contacting the NLFB office at 705-674-5512. In the past, Chris has appeared at the Festival with his ‘grown-up’ project The Sultans of String.

See You at the FEST!

For more information, please contact:

Max Merrifield or Ashlyne Botelho

Northern Lights Festival Boréal

(P) (705) 674-5512

(F) (705) 222-9574

nlfbmarketing@gmail.com

www.nlfbsudbury.com

Born in Hull, Quebec, Daniel Lanois is a bilingual Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, U2, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Brandon Flowers and Ron Sexsmith.

A number of his songs have been covered by other artists, including; Dave Matthews, Jerry Garcia Band, Willie Nelson, Tea Party, Anna Beljin and Emmylou Harris, and his albums have had some success, particularly in Canada. Lanois plays the guitar, pedal steel, and drums. “Belladonna”, an instrumental album released in 2005, was nominated for a Grammy. Lanois also provided an instrumental score for LOUDquietLOUD, a documentary about the Pixies. He contributed lead guitar on two songs of Bob Wiseman’s 1995 Accidentally Acquired Beliefs.

Lanois premiered a documentary entitled Here Is What Is at the Toronto Film Festival in 2007. The film chronicles the recording of his album of the same name, and includes footage of the actual recording. Soon after, Lanois released a three-disc recording called Omni.

In October 2009, Lanois started a project called Black Dub which features Lanois on guitar, Brian Blade on drums, and Daryl Johnson on bass, along with multi-instrumentalist/singer Trixie Whitley. They released a self-titled album in 2010. Daniel Lanois’ Black Dub also appeared at the 2011 Bonnaroo Music Festival.

http://www.daniellanois.com/

Born in Scarborough, Steven Page is one of Canada’s most successful songwriters, with many hits and millions of records sold. Since going solo from the Barenaked Ladies in 2009, Steven has been busy working on several projects. He first completed composing music for a Shakespeare Festival production, and then set out with the Art of Time Ensemble to perform favourite songs.

His first album of new songs, Page One was released in 2010, followed by touring across the continent. While he continues to compose music for movies, theatre productions, Steven also continues what he is known around the world for… to write a great pop song. His recent single, “A Different Sort of Solitude” was nominated for a Genie Award. The single also brought the song “Manchild” on the flip side, a co-composition with Craig Northey.

http://www.stevenpage.com/

Joel returns to Sudbury after his triumphant show at Northern Lights in 2009. This time he hits our stage with his long time band, The Emergency. These days it seems the only challenge left for the man who never stops moving is to move even faster.

It’s been a manic few months for Joel Plaskett. Out of the doldrums of another long Canadian winter, Joel and The Emergency (Dave Marsh and Chris Pennell) have been working round the clock, sending weekly volleys to fight off the seasonal blues: a brand new song – recorded, mixed, mastered, and released – every single week for the past ten weeks, accompanied by snippets of video documenting the process in-studio. It has been an epic undertaking, which now comes together in the physical release of Scrappy Happiness on cd and vinyl.

His last trip into the studio yielded the triple triumph, Three, for which he received a Juno Award and a Polaris Prize nomination. But the musical distance between these two records shows that Joel is still a long way from resting on his laurels. Whereas Three was luxuriously meditative, and holistic in its conception, Scrappy Happiness laid its rails one quick mile at a time, and the entire record reverberates with the restless energy that fuelled its production. Scrappy? At times, yes, but more than that it is spontaneous – a rich tribute to the days when a new song on the radio was, well, new.

http://joelplaskett.com/

Funny and upbeat, with just a pinch of sass, the Good Lovelies‘ textbook three-part harmonies, constant instrument swapping and witty on-stage banter have enlivened the folk music landscape since they joined forces in 2006.

How the Good Lovelies (Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough and Sue Passmore) got together is a bit of a mystery: Sue remembers meeting her band mates during a limbo competition, Caroline thinks they met at a chess tournament, but Kerri is convinced they first crossed paths during a bar fight… Their tireless rain or shine outlook and undeniable mutual respect have helped the trio weather years of constant touring. With jaunts to Australia, the UK and the US in their 2011 schedule, the Good Lovelies’ road-tested tenacity will bring them further afield than ever before.

Lighthearted songwriting and irresistibly buoyant dispositions have made them the darlings of Mariposa and Hillside Festivals and the Montreal Jazz Festival. They have toured with Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Cafe and appeared on stages and in studios with Broken Social Scene, Kathleen Edwards and Jill Barber.

http://www.goodlovelies.com/site/

Canadian indie pop band, The Hidden Cameras have released five albums since their inception in 2001. Fronted by singer-songwriter Joel Gibb, the band consists of a varying roster of musicians who play what Gibb once described as “gay church folk music”. Their live performances have been elaborate, high-energy shows, featuring go-go dancers in balaclavas, a choir, and a string section.

Upbeat, up-tempo pop songs with joyful, taboo-busting lyrics have always been The Hidden Cameras’ forte, and Origin:Orphan has more than its fair share of them. In “Underage”, Gibb uses jangly guitars that reveal a hint of Afrobeat to craft a tuneful allusion to the advantages of youth. A thrift-store Casio keyboard and a chugging beat straight out of the 1980s makes “Do I Belong?” an ode to the anxieties of life and romance, sound surprisingly optimistic. The Hidden Cameras will bring the joy to our stages and our festival.

http://thehiddencameras.com

One of the favourite groups to play at Northern Lights Festival Boreal since Jackie Washington. Originally brought together as the rhythm section for Canadian folk and fiddle outfit Flapjack in 1998, Sheesham and Lotus immersed themselves in the traditional music scenes wherever their travels took them, from West Virginia to Kasheshewan and California to Nova Scotia. They traded tunes and studied with old masters throughout the American south while becoming top-demand clinicians in old-time dance and music.

Dressed sharply in the old style, they play jaw harps, ham-bone percussion and home-made bass harmonicas in the ragtime and mountain style. They delight with fiddle tunes and blues songs and always have an instrument on hand and a tune to play.

Now Sheesham and Lotus tour as a trio with Sousaphone player Son Sanderson. Son and Lotus used to share the stage together as rhythm section members of the legendary ‘Silver Hearts’ from Peterborough, Ontario.

http://sheeshamandlotus.com

One of Canada’s top indie rock acts.  While on tour with Jon-Rae Fletcher in the summer of 2008, the band – then known as Alphababy – realized that they needed a new change of pace. Taking some of the ideas conceived on the tour, the band returned to Kelowna, locking themselves away for half a year to write new songs in a freezing cold jam space by the Okanagan Lake. The band quickly released an EP, debut self titled album, and now have released their 2nd album, for which they are five months into touring the continent to play for everyone. They have played sold out shows at Millard’s Garage, The Townehouse Tavern and the 2nd River and Sky Camping and Music festival.

http://yukonblonde.com

PEI’s Jenn Grant returns to NLFB after her breakthrough performance in 2009, and sold out club appearances since. With a voice like brushstrokes on a canvas, Jenn Grant’s music has been heard on programs from CBC’s Heartland to Grey’s Anatomy.

On her fourth record Honeymoon Punch, Jenn Grant raises the white flag high. It’s time for peace, but not for quiet. Honeymoon Punch is a spiked Love Potion No. 9, a frisky concoction of spirited, synth-sweetened songs balanced with muted, natural elements – between “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and Radiohead’s In Rainbows, Phoenix and Judy Garland.

Jenn has toured with The Weakerthans, Hayden, Hawksley Workman, Danny Michel, Great Lake Swimmers and other top Canadian artists. She is currently co-nominated for three East Coast Music Awards, one with Buck 65 for their collaboration “Paper Airplane”, from his excellent new record 20 Odd Years.

“She’s one of the best singers in the world right now.” – Buck 65 (Rich Terfry, CBC Radio 2 Drive), The Coast

http://www.jenngrant.com

In the beginning it was a bunch of careless characters who would gather at random throughout the summer; Canailles officially became a band when it moved into the singer’s lounge. Since then, the band drags around their masking tape patched instruments and contagious rhythm to fill nights with bluegrass, folk and Cajun music.

http://www.myspace.com/bellescanailles