Whitewater Wednesday Jam Nights at Flipper’s Pub aren’t just for showcasing local talent.
Entertainers from far and wide, who are spending time in the territory or just passing through, also seize the opportunity to play.
Dana Sipos, from Yellowknife, is here for the summer on a grant to work with producer Bob Hamilton at Old Crow Recording.
“I’ve heard about Bob Hamilton for years,” Sipos explains over coffee at Java Connection. “When Debbie Peters came to Yellowknife to give some workshops, she recommended working with Bob. He’s a visionary.
“I sent him some recordings of my songs, just me and my guitar, and he heard so many other instruments accompanying them, some of them I’d never even heard of,” she enthuses, sharing the thrill of her first professional recording sessions.
“By coming here to record, I get to stay in the North, I can explore Whitehorse and I can get the best product possible.”
Originally from Southern Ontario, Sipos has considered Yellowknife her home base since her first year at Dalhousie University, when her mother moved north. “I love it there. It’s a barren rock that’s close to my heart. The North has really inspired my songwriting, especially the impact that climate change has been having on the environment here.
“The Yellowknife music scene is great,” she says. “It’s small and very supportive and they’ve helped me come a long way in my musical career. In the summer, there’s always music going on and everyone has little projects they’re all working on.”
She pauses, reconsiders, and laughs: “I thought it was a good scene before I came here. There’s not as much government support for the arts there as there is here. NWT has one grant deadline per year, not like Yukon’s two artist awards and four touring grants deadlines. When we heard about the $100,000 touring fund in Whitehorse, we were all amazed.”
Despite her appreciation of the Whitehorse arts scene, Sipos prefers her hometown. “I know that if you like the outdoors, it’s easy to fall in love with Whitehorse. But Yellowknife is harder. It’s not as pretty a town. The landscape is flat and you feel more isolated because you are.
“It’s really the end of the road. But because it’s harder to love, I think that’s why I love it more. It produces a hardier stock. And it has a really funky arts community.”
She sums up her feelings with a laugh: “Whitehorse actually has a nice Vancouver vibe that I like a lot. Of course, it comes with Starbucks and doggy clothes.”
Since coming to Whitehorse, Sipos has been performing at local jam sessions in the bars. “I played at the Gold Pan Saloon in the Gold Rush with Bob and his friends, and from there I heard that Flipper’s Pub was a lot of fun on Wednesday night. I’ve met a lot of other musicians there. There’s a good network of people there.”
Her performance on Whitewater Wednesday is highlighted by an a cappella song, accompanied only by a kazoo, making her one of the few kazoo players to ever perform at the jam. “I never leave home without my kazoo,” she says with a huge smile.
“It’s fate that we found each other. One of my songs on the CD I’m recording has a kazoo solo. I actually say I’m a kazoo player, instead of a guitarist.
“I’m self-taught on guitar and I feel I’ve exhausted my ability on it, so I want to move onto other instruments. Bob’s been showing me some upright bass and he got me to play banjo on one of my songs.
“I really enjoyed playing banjo. I play mostly folk music, but I’m getting a bluegrass influence on my music that’s coming from Bob.”
Sipos will be around until the end of the summer as she finishes recording, mixing, mastering and preparing the artwork for her CD. Until then, keep an ear out for her and her kazoo at Whitewater Wednesday at Flipper’s Pub or the other jam nights around the city.
You can check out Dana Sipos’ music at www.myspace.com/seapost. Look for her forthcoming CD in the fall.
Five things you should know about Dana Sipos:
- She’s a recovering vegetarian. Since her grandparents are chicken farmers, that made her the family enemy.
- She was born with six toes on one foot, but had one removed at birth.
- She’s legally blind without her glasses or contacts, but she thinks that’s made her sense of hearing better.
- She has a degree in Environmental Studies and International Relations from Dalhousie University, which she says is a fancy way of saying, “a useless degree”.
- She’s started writing mini-books recently.
