Complete Awards Show Line-up Announced!
Four time nominee Catherine MacLellan . along with Group of the Year nominee Bluestreak and Lifetime Achievement award recipient Haywire will headline when K-Rock 105 and Ocean 100 present the 2006 Music PEI Awards Show Gala on November 10th at 8pm at the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown. Seventeen performers will take to the Confederation Centre stage as Music PEI salutes and recognizes the 2006 award nominees.
This has been a busy year for Catherine MacLellan. She released her latest album, Church Bell Blues in April and has been on the road regularly promoting it around the region and throughout eastern Canada with a two week tour of Ontario/Quebec. She has also showcased at NxNE in Toronto, the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals conference in Ottawa and at the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax NS. Her third album is scheduled for release in the fall of 2007.
This year?s show will also highlight one of the region?s (and PEI?s) finest bluegrass bands, Bluestreak. The band?s popularity on the bluegrass festival circuit is attributed to their great live performances. The group recently expanded to five members with the addition of fiddler Nathan Condon, another MUSIC PEI Award nominee. Second Nature, their second album, won the bluegrass album of the year award at the 2005 awards show in Summerside. The band is up for Group of the Year this year.
Haywire will also headline this year at the 2006 Awards show with a classic rock performance. They will also be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2006, selected by the Board of Music PEI.
Two other performers this year will be reggae, punk and funk band, Fugato, a two-time nominee for their EP Grass Radio; and Summerside classic rock quartet, Edge. They?re nominated in the rock category for their album, Revelation. The show includes a new taste of music to PEI ? that of Urban Hip Hop sounds with 2006 ECMA nominee Eric Broadbent. His album is nominated for Urban recording of the year, the first time this category has been activated at Music PEI?s Awards Show.
Eddy Quinn & Fiddlers Son will also perform this year along with past award winners Cynthia Macleod and Lester Stubbert (Lester is nominated for Recording Studio of the Year.). Long time Island favorite and crowd pleaser, Neil Matthews, will also be on stage performing a song from his country nominated CD, Down Home Island Favorites while jazz guitarist, Ian Toms, who counts Lennie Breau and Pat Metheny among his influences will add some jazz to show. His first album has been nominated in the jazz category.
Gordon Belsher, a 30 year music business veteran whose album Call All The Neighbours has been nominated will also perform. Gordon has performed with many Island artists in a supporting role over the years. These include Cynthia MacLeod and Richard Wood.
Fiddlers Nathan Condon, Kate Bevan-Baker and Courtney Hogan are all 2006 nominees who will also be on the main stage. These performers signal a new generation of young fiddlers who are about to make their mark on PEI fiddle and roots music. Their ages are twenty-one, seventeen and fifteen, respectively, possibly the youngest group of nominees ever in Instrumental, New Artist and Roots Traditional (Solo) categories.
Songwriter and folk album nominee, Nikkie, will move from the Songwriter Circle spotlight of 2005 to the main stage Awards show. Her album When You Find It is nominated in both categories. Timothy Chaisson?s is one of PEI?s favorite singer/songwriters and his new album Even has launched two #1 singles on the widely syndicated East Coast Countdown show since its release. Timothy is nominated for Male Vocalist and will show why during his performance.
