‘We’re over cloud nine’

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This article was published 14/03/2023 (1241 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The accolades are beginning to pile up for the Bros. Landreth.

The Winnipeg roots-rock duo of Joey and Dave Landreth added a second Juno Award to their collection Saturday night at the opening-night ceremonies in Edmonton, when the majority of the 2023 Junos were handed out.

The win for their 2022 album Come Morning follows on the heels of the February success of their 2015 song, Made Up Mind, which earned Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bonnie Raitt a Grammy Award for best Americana performance.

”We’re over cloud nine over here,” Dave Landreth said Monday between flights back from Edmonton. “We’re so humbled and honoured by all these accolades.”

The brothers felt they had created something special when they put Come Morning together in 2021 and released it last May.

“This album means so, so much to us, and I think people do get it,” Dave says. “The Juno is a validation and affirmation that we’re on the right path.”

Their debut album Let It Lie, which included their original version of Made Up Mind, won the roots music Juno in 2015.

The Landreths were more anxious about the Junos this time around, Dave says, because they had greater expectations in 2023, owing to the 2015 Juno success.

The contemporary roots category was one of the first awards named Saturday so they didn’t have too much time to get too nervous before learning of their fate.

“We thought it was a fluke we got nominated (in 2015),” Dave recalls with a chuckle. “We were there for the free steak… then they call our name and we walked up there and bumbled like idiots.

“This time, we had a speech ready but we left it at the table and we walked up there and bumbled like idiots.”

Jordan St. Cyr, who lives in Nashville but is from Niverville, won the Juno Award for best contemporary Christian/gospel album of the year.

His self-titled 2022 debut album already had six awards from the Gospel Music Association’s Covenant Awards and two nominations for the United States-based GMA Dove Awards for best new artist and video of the year.

“To be able to write, record and release songs of faith, ones that encourage our hearts to know we don’t walk this road alone, is everything,” St. Cyr posted on Facebook. “I’m grateful to God everyday that this is what I get to do.”

Six other Manitoba artists earned nominations for Junos handed out Saturday, including pop starlet Faouzia, rock group Indian City, Winnipeg banjo musician Allison de Groot, Brandon-born violinist James Ehnes, Winnipeg Christian music duo Love & the Outcome and Fisher River First Nation choral composer Andrew Balfour, who along with Vancouver vocal group Musica Intima, was nominated for classical album of the year, small ensemble.

The most noteworthy Juno Awards, as well as the induction of Nickelback into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, was scheduled to take place Monday night in a gala televised live on CBC.

The Bros. Landreth will follow the Juno triumph with a busy year of touring, with planned trips to Australia in April, the U.S. in May and festivals across North America and Europe in the summer.

The challenges of touring in 2023 are steeper than ever, Dave Landreth says, whether it’s being away from their families, rising fuel costs or the ongoing presence of COVID-19 that could postpone shows.

And Juno Awards don’t ease the miseries of modern air travel. No private jets or first-class seats for the Bros. Landreth and their shiny new trophies.

“More like middle seats in front of the bathroom,” Dave Landreth says.

Alan.Small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @AlanDSmall