Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/10/2013 (3532 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MANITOBA acts did their home province proud at the 2013 Western Canadian Music Awards, picking up nine awards at Sunday night’s ceremonies in Calgary. Local artists and industry companies landed 31 nominations in 20 categories.

KEN mode was the inaugural winner in the newly minted Metal/Hard Music Recording of the Year category for its fifth album, Polaris Music Prize-longlisted Entrench. The trio also won the inaugural Juno Award for metal in 2012 for Venerable.

Del Barber picked up his second Roots Solo Recording of the Year award, this time for his latest album, Headwaters. In 2011, Barber won the WCMA in the same category, as well as Independent Album of the Year, for the Juno-nominated Love Songs for the Last Twenty.

Don Amero was in Calgary to pick up Aboriginal Recording of the Year for his latest album, Heart On My Sleeve. The record earned a Juno nod earlier this year and picked up hardware at both the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards and Indian Summer Music Awards.

First-time winner Mahogany Frog was also in attendance to receive its Instrumental Recording of the Year award for its sixth studio album SENNA.

Steve Bell, meanwhile, won his third WCMA on Sunday night, this time for Spiritual Recording of the Year for his Christmas album, Keening for the Dawn.

Rounding out this year’s artistic winners are Erin Propp and Larry Roy whose debut, Courage, My Love, was named Jazz Recording of the Year.

Manitoba’s music industry also won big at the Industry Awards, which were presented at an invite-only brunch on Oct. 5. For the 10th year in a row, Paquin Entertainment Group was named Booking Agency of the Year. Manager of the Year went to Paquin’s president and CEO, Gilles Paquin, whose roster includes Del Barber, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Randy Bachman.

Newcomers Procter Bros. Industries snagged the WCMA for Video of the Year for JP Hoe’s Nothing’s Gonna Harm You.

— Staff

If you value coverage of Manitoba’s arts scene, help us do more.
Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism. BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project.