Could this be our year for a couple of Junos?

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This article was published 31/03/2012 (5292 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FOUR local acts will have the chance to break Manitoba’s Juno Awards slump.

The last time a local artist accepted a glass Juno statuette was 2009 in Vancouver, when Chic Gamine won the Roots & Traditional: Group award and Doc Walker won Country Album of the Year. Additionally, expats James Ehnes and DJ Brace took home a classical award and the instrumental trophy, respectively.

Since then we’ve been shut out in St. John’s, N.L., and Toronto, but we’ve got four chances this weekend in Ottawa with Doc Walker’s 16 & 1 up for Country Album of the Year; the Wailin’ Jennys’ Bright Morning Stars up for Roots & Traditional album: group; rock band Bruthers of Different Muthers’ independent release Speakers of Tomorrow is up for Aboriginal Album of the Year; and KEN Mode is up for the new metal album award for its third album, Venerable.

Several expats will also have the chance to take home some Juno hardware, including violinist Ehnes (Classical Album of the Year: Large Ensemble or Soloist(s)); Twilight Hotel (Roots & Traditional Album: Group); Dave Young Quintet (Traditional Jazz Album); Bob Rock (producer); and the late Ann Southam (Classical Composition). Toronto’s David Travers-Smith earned a Recording Engineer of the Year nod, in part for his work on the Wailin’ Jennys’ Bright Morning Stars, and local imprint Balanced Records is the label behind Ottawa fusion act Flying Down Thunder and Rise Ashen, up against Bruthers of Different Muthers in the aboriginal album category.

KEN Mode and Bruthers of Different Muthers are both playing JunoFest, while the Wailin’ Jennys are scheduled to perform at the non-televised gala tonight.

All our nominees are strong, but there is no such thing as a shoo-in. Here’s how the locals stack up against the competition and some unscientific guesses about their chances of winning:

Country Album of the Year

Doc Walker, 16 & 1; High Valley, High Valley; Jason McCoy, Everything; Jimmy Rankin, Forget About the World; Terri Clark, Roots and Wings.

The main competition: Everything is Jason McCoy’s first solo album since 2003, while the brothers in High Valley won over many with their big smiles and country-pop sound. Both Clark and Rankin have name recognition, but 16 & 1 is the best album on this list.

Doc Walker’s chances: Heavily favoured, 75 per cent.

Aboriginal Album of the Year

Bruthers of Different Muthers, Speakers of Tomorrow; Donny Parenteau, To Whom it May Concern; Flying Down Thunder and Rise Ashen, One Nation; Murray Porter, Songs Lived & Life Played; Randy Wood, The Gift of Life.

The main competition: Flying Down Thunder and Rise Ashen’s fusion of modern electronica and traditional Algonquin chants is intoxicating.

Bruthers of Different Muthers chances: Could go either way; 50 per cent.

Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Group

The Wailin’ Jennys, Bright Morning Stars; Good Lovelies, Let the Rain Fall; The Deep Dark Woods, The Place I Left Behind; The Once, Row Upon Row of the People We Know; Twilight Hotel, When the Wolves Go Blind.

The main competition: With the sheer number of roots and folk groups in Canada, this is one of the toughest categories to win and the Jennys are up against some solid competition, most notably the hauntingly beautiful Deep Dark Woods and the rustic mood-shifting of When the Wolves go Blind by Austin, Texas-based Winnipeggers Twilight Hotel.

Wailin’ Jennys chances: A tough category — 45 per cent.

Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year

KEN Mode, Venerable; Anvil, Juggernaut of Justice; Cauldron, Burning Fortune; Devin Townsend Project, Deconstruction; F the Facts, Die Miserable.

The main competition: Venerable is easily the best album of this bunch and deserves to win, but I fear Anvil’s recent re-emergence thanks to the excellent 2008 documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil and their sheer longevity could win over the judges. It’s not quite in the Jethro Tull-over-Metallica Grammy vein, but it would still sting.

KEN Mode’s chances: They should win, 100 per cent, but if the judges go soft and sentimental with the Anvil vote then all bets are off.

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca