Northern Lights

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

Originally a duo, Avec pas d’casque sold 500 copies of their first album, which was produced and recorded in their home in 2004 and sold at concerts. Their first official CD, Trois chaudières de sang, appeared on the 2006 Dare To Care label. In 2008, with their new member, Nicolas Moussette, Avec pas d’casque launched their second album, Dans la nature jusqu’au cou. This new album appeared on the Grosse Boîte label, the francophone division of Dare To Care.

The group was named based on a phrase used by Jean Dion, sports journalist for Le Devoir, who used the expression “avec pas d’casque” to describe a hockey player who wasn’t wearing a helmet.

http://avecpasdcasque.bandcamp.com

Sonia Aimy with a velvety voice comparable to any of the greats in the music scene. Nigerian- born via Italian songwriter, singer and actress.  Sonia Aimy is the quintessential virtuoso of world music. Her music juts out brilliance unrestrained evoking the sound of highlife, afrobeat, jazz and call-and-response traditional African griot style. Sonia’s style, however is still effortlessly “afrojazz and folk”. Touching hearts and souls have always been her passion since she started singing at the age of 11 in her native city Benin City in Nigeria where she received early education from her mother in traditional folklore.

As an actress Sonia has worked for numerous national theatres in Italy including Teatro Stabile per I Giovani of Turin, Teatro di Roma, AlmaTeatro, Teatro Stabile di Torino, Paolo Rossi, Zelig laboratorio, etc.

http://www.soniaaimy.com/

Considered one of Montreal’s most electrifying guitarists by local press and groove aficionados, Cécile Doo-Kingué blends blues, soul and afro-folk to create a unique sound. Born in New York City, first generation from Cameroon, she has lived in France, USA and is now an adopted Montrealer. This meeting of cultures is reflected in the eclecticism of her music. She has rapidly become one of the city’s most respected musicians. Her bewitching and incomparable fretwork as well as her deep and suave voice are no longer secret to Montreal’s night-owls.

http://www.cdkmusik.com/

A Canadian singer-songwriter from Calgary, Alberta. Her music, which blends hip hop and alternative rock, has been described as “hip hop aggro groove”. Her songs have been included on the soundtracks for the TV series The L Word and the movie Thirteen. She was nominated for the Juno Award for New Artist of the Year in 2004.

Starr is vocal about her Aboriginal heritage both in her music and her life. In 2006 she mentored aspiring Aboriginal musicians at the Manitoba Audio Recording Industry Association’s Aboriginal Music Program (AMP) Camp. Starr has also been open about her bisexuality, making her popular in the queer community.

Following a self-released demo called Learning 2 Cook in 1995, she released her debut album Tidy in 1996, mixing rock, punk, pop, and hip-hop, along with her trademark spoken-word poetry. On that album, she rapped in three languages: English, Spanish, and French.
In 1997, Starr appeared on the Lilith Fair tour. In the late ’90s and in 2004, she toured Canada with Veda Hille and Oh Susanna as part of the “Scrappy Bitch Tour”.

http://kinniestarr.net

As if opening for PAUL MCCARTNEY and BON JOVI weren’t enough…she also shone brightly for over 3 billion around the world in the 2010 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies in Vancouver. Sierra Noble breezes through Celtic, Bluegrass, Jazz, World beat and other styles of music with stunning ease on her fiddle, her breadth of experience in her 22 years of life is impressive.

Her talent has taken her around the world to Asia, Europe and across North America. She amazes audiences with compelling contemporary performances which feature exceptional instrumentals, beautiful innovative vocals, and her infectious down to earth charm.

Sierra’s shows feature her first love, compelling and lively fiddle playing. She has created an atmosphere where stunning instrumentals and hook laden pop songs exist in perfect harmony.

http://www.sierranoble.ca/

The Boxcar Boys are a Toronto-based group of five young performers featuring Juno-nominated Rob Teehan on sousaphone, clarinetist and tunesmith John David Williams, jazz master Karl Silveira on trombone, folky fiddler Laura Bates, and soulful Ronen Segall on accordion. They deliver a veritable gumbo of wild gypsy, old-jazz, klezmer, and folk music always performed with a good-time New Orleans spirit. 

With an ever expanding repertoire of new quirky original tunes and fun favourites (everything from high-and-lonesome country hits to obscure 1930s Dixieland numbers), they perform regularly around town anywhere good music is found!

http://www.theboxcarboys.ca/  

Contorting the violin into new traditions, violinist/composer Jaron Freeman-Fox dances down the fine line between the beautiful and the ridiculous, while redefining what the violin can do.  Having played on over 30 albums (Jayme Stone, Autorickshaw, David Celia) and constantly touring as a side-man with bands such as Delhi 2 Dublin or The David Woodhead Confabulation, Freeman-Fox fuses his roots of Celtic and bluegrass fiddling with his study of Indian classical music and jazz, while playing the 5-string violins of his late mentor; fiddle pioneer Oliver Schroer.

In 2010 Jaron released his celebrated instrumental debut album Manic Almanac : Slow Möbius and formed The Opposite of Everything who have been playing constantly ever since.  Now based out of Toronto Ontario, Jaron is currently touring full time, in high demand as a session musician and collaborator, and working on a new album with The Opposite of Everything for release in 2012.

http://theoppositeofeverything.com/yay/

Leslie Feist, Ron Sexsmith, Hayden, Tegan & Sara, Serena Ryder, and Luke Doucet are not just aware of Lindy’s music – they are fans. Or you can shoot even higher with the experiment. Jacob Dylan dubbed Lindy, “the best singer songwriter north of Cleveland”, while Gordon Lightfoot once called Lindy “the greatest folk vocalist in Canada.”

Since 2006, Lindy has been the lead singer and co-songwriter for the indie rock band Major Maker. Major Maker took Canada by force in the summer of 2007 when two of their songs, ‘Rollercoaster’ and “Talk To You”, aired in national television commercials. Following the success of Rollercoaster, Major Maker released the People Carrier EP in Canada which hit # 2 on the highly influential CBC Radio 3 ‘Top 30 Chart’.  Lindy is a musician’s musician. Just ask any of Canada’s most beloved indie darlings. It is not an overstatement to call his voice one of the most distinctive, haunting and precious voices that Canada has to offer.

http://www.myspace.com/lindymusic

Music can soothe even the Savage Beast. Yet, once in a blue moon, the very same Savage Beast can be found gyrating in a funk induced frenzy, rarely seen in today’s modern hipster living. Enter Ottawa’s Tympanic, a Disco-Rock hybrid of Boombastic proportions, who are, at your service, handing out the tickets to a Turbo-Groove filled Paradise.

Drawing from diverse influences that range from Jamiroquai, the Dave Matthews Band, Earth Wind & Fire and the Roots, Tympanic’s music has grown into the soundtrack for today’s Saturday Night Fever.

So go on, crack a beer, touch the people around you. Laugh. Mingle. Connect. Now throw some Tympanic on. The heads bop. The hips shimmy. The smiles swell. Viva La Revolucion.

http://tympanic.ca   

Once upon a time, there was a young man named Matt Sever. He lived in Austin, TX, and he worked as a journeyman electrician. He gave up wiring houses in the blistering heat to take up music full time. So they called him Matt The Electrician, and he did not mind this, for he was proud of himself, for there is no shame in a hard days work.

When he quit his job as an electrician, to spend more time writing and playing songs, and the name stuck with him, because everyone needs an electrician sometimes. He writes songs filled with humour, poignant observation, anger, sharp wit… even though he’s not wiring houses anymore, Matt the Electrician can still jolt you.

http://www.matttheelectrician.com/

One of our favourites of all festivals.  Magoo has been writing songs and playing in clubs, concerts and festivals since 1975. In the 1980′s, working with a promoter in the US, he opened shows for Taj Mahal, Roger McGuinn, and The Band among others. He formed the Nu Magoos, and enlisted one Kirk Elliott. In 1987 they were commissioned by Scholastic Publications to write and record music for a soon to be released book entitled ‘Sing a Song of Mother Goose’, and the family duo Kirk and Magoo was hatched.

Magoo possesses a lot of hats, and he wears them all quite well. Singer/songwriter, host, family performer, guitar teacher, backyard shed builder, and fashion plate (clothing to match the hats) all come quickly to mind. He has hosted the legendary Blue Skies Music Festival in Clarendon Ontario for 31 years, is a Past President of the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals.

http://www.magooman.com/magoo.htm

Michelle Rumball is truly great singer. With a voice that’s sometimes whispery and wavering, sometimes plangent and clear, but always poignant and evocative. As NOW’s Kate Pederson wrote, “I’d pay to hear her sing the phone book.” And she’s earned every inch of that voice through her varied experience and training. From Scarborough, Rumball sang in church choirs in her earliest years. She dove into the industry when she fronted The Grievous Angels from the mid-to-late ‘80s. The band’s second album, the Juno-Award-nominated One Job Town, had many critics singling out Rumball’s voice for special mention. After leaving the band, Rumball journeyed the American South, met Townes Van Zandt, spent several years living there, soaking up every tuba run and trumpet blast, continued searching for her voice by studying with several master teachers.  Michelle has since returned to Toronto and taken on the mantle of singer/songwriter.

http://www.michellerumball.com/home.cfm

Her second album,Eastbound Platform, was produced by David Baxter in 2010 and nominated as New/Emerging Artist of the Year by the CFMA (Canadian Folk Music Awards). Jadea tours internationally, across Canada and in the United States opening for the likes of Ramblin Jack Elliott and Catherine MacLellan. In 2012 she was featured on Stuart McLean’s VINYL CAFE and recorded live by CBC at the Stuart McLean Folk Festival in 2010. Jadea’s stage persona has been compared with such established female vocalists as Neko Case and Kathleen Edwards, yet, it is Jadea’s distinctive voice and the convincing harshness which engages and captivates her listeners.

http://www.myspace.com/jadeak   

Peter has been playing Sudbury for years and we are happy to finally present him for his debut Northern Lights appearance.  CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award Winner Peter Katz was supposed to make a solo acoustic record… but, when the likes of Academy Award Winner Glen Hansard (The Swell Season, Once), Canadian Folk darlings The Good Lovelies, and steel-town siren Melissa McClelland agreed to sing along… plans changed.

Nevertheless, ‘First of the Last to Know’ marks the true arrival of Peter Katz, solo artist. Even with the good company on the record, Peter’s voice and acoustic guitar remain the focal point throughout. After years of touring solo while selling a full-on band record, Katz got tired of the same feedback: “We wish you would make a record that sounds like you playing live”. This summer he brings his newly recorded album ‘Still Mind Still’.

http://www.peterkatz.com/

The Almighty Rhombus is made up of: Clayton Drake, Cameron Drake, Carter Drake, Mike Kenny, and Neil Bednis. The band features members of other local acts such as: The Birthday Cakes, Bunnies in Berlin, Meadowlark Five, Beam Cannon, and Bricollage. Their songs are tiny nuggets of pop perfection, recalling the early music of the Beatles, informed by modern revivalists like The Strokes.  The Almighty Rhombus emerged as the winning band in NLFB’s 2012 Meltdown competition.

http://thealmightyrhombus.bandcamp.com

Now somewhat of a staple in the local music scene, Spencer is originally from the town of Marathon, ON. In his late teens he discovered his passion for the guitar and started a band called Smalltownriot (originally DitzBimbo). He played mostly full-tilt punk rock for a few years, but eventually began to delve into acoustic guitar and focus more on his singing voice. Major influences and inspirations vocally have included: Elvis Presley, The Doors, and the Beach Boys. Since being in Sudbury, Spencer has been a contributor to many musical projects. Examples include playing with the now defunct indie group Willett as well as extensive touring with Canadian alternative-country favourites Ox.  Expect to hear some rock n’ roll, country, folk, indie and more, with intriguing lyrics and great melodies.

  http://spencerjose.bandcamp.com