Hearty parties and musical reunions

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This article was published 02/11/2023 (1072 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba is crazy about loving country music.

The trend goes beyond sold-out concerts for superstars such as Chris Stapleton and Morgan Wallen at the Canada Life Centre or Lainey Wilson at the Centennial Concert Hall.

Songs about heartaches, honky-tonks and hearty parties are gaining ground in the genre’s grassroots too and the latest evidence in country music’s popularity here can be seen Saturday night at the Club Regent Event Centre.

The Transcona casino is the new home of the Manitoba Country Music Association Awards, an annual celebration that began in 2015 and has since outgrown the Park Theatre and the Metropolitan Entertainment Centre.

“It’s been an opportunity for us to help grow the country music community and recognize all the people who put so much work into that,” says MCMA president Miles Trach, who also heads an awards committee that’s been working since January to prepare for Saturday’s ceremony.

Aaron Pritchett, the British Columbia country star who hit No. 1 on the Billboard Canadian country charts in 2019 with Better When I Do, is taking a detour from his cross-Canada tour to host the awards show and he will join 10 MCMA nominees who will perform.

“There’s some really amazing Manitoba talents performing at the awards this year,” Trach says.

Among those taking the stage is Dauphin singer-songwriter Desiree Dorion, who is nominated for three MCMAs: female artist of the year, album of the year and the NCI-FM Indigenous country music award.

“I think about this weekend as kind of a musical family reunion that happens every November,” she says. “Whether or not I take home any awards, it’s one of my favourite weekends of the year, where I get to reconnect with my friends.

“We’re often like ships passing in the night, running into each other at a festival or a gig. It’s going to be a great night.”

Also performing are past MCMA winners such as Don Amero, Jason Kirkness, Kendra Kay and Emma Peterson, as well as three acts vying for the emerging artist award: Catie St. Germain, the Sean Taylor Band and Mitchell Makoons.

St. Germain, the granddaughter of Manitoba music legend Ray St. Germain, scored five MCMA nominations, while several others picked up four nominations each, including Amanda Von Riesen, Brandi Vezina, Jade Turner, JR Charron, Gary Gach and Peterson.

Turner, whose anti-bullying single Deadweight is nominated for song of the year, is also on the list of Saturday’s performers, as is three-time nominee Nelson Little of Portage la Prairie.

The MCMA will also induct Winnipeg steel guitar maker Wayne Link into its hall of fame. His Linkon brand of pedal- and lap-steel guitars, commonplace instruments in country bands and roots acts, go back to the 1960s.

“They’re known all over North America as being some of the best steel guitars you can buy,” Trach says. “He’s been the staple in the country music scene in Manitoba for decades and he was very heavily involved back in the days of The Western Hour (cable-access show).”

The MCMA has also teamed up with Manitoba Music and the Manitoba-based Indigenous Music Development Program for a panel discussion about what country music stations want to hear.

The event at the Royal George Hotel (123 Regent Ave. W.) on Friday at 6 p.m. will have radio presenters Naomi Kay of Now Country, NCI-FM’s David McLeod and Alex DeVries of Dauphin station 730 CKDM, as well as Pritchett and Dorion, discussing how to help your songs become more radio-ready.

“I have no idea what the heck I’m doing there because I haven’t had a whole bunch of commercial success in radio, but that’s also important, talking about the road blocks and barriers,” Dorion says.

“It’s going to be a really interesting conversation, particularly when you have someone like Aaron Pritchett sitting on the panel discussion, who’s had a ton of commercial success.”

An awards kickoff party follows at 8 p.m. with five more Manitoba artists on the bill: Derek Peters, Byron Falk, Banned & Outlawed, Christa Lucas and Martin Desjarlais.

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @AlanDSmall