Riffs through the Wilderness
Brenda Berezan was an aspiring songwriter when she moved to the Yukon wilderness. Having taken a break from music to run a business and raise
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DISCourse
DiSCourse Columnist Barry “Jack” Jenkins keeps close tabs on the Yukon music scene. If you are producing a Yukon CD, please contact him at [email protected]
Homegrown Hip Hop
Jonathan Steel, known by his nom-de-rap MC TurMoiL, has released his first CD, Black and Green. He’s also released a video for the album’s hit
Blues under the influence of pneumonia
Blues band Black Iron Blossom came out of nowhere. I hadn’t even heard of them before the normally quiet Sam Gallagher stopped me in Mac’s
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Patrick Jacobson releases Patrick Jacobson
A recent arrival in Whitehorse, Patrick Jacobson is already making waves. Having moved from Vancouver just a couple of months ago, Jacobson has released his
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Pirate Rock
Paris Seymour, better known by her stage name Paris Vagabond Gypsy, is one of a kind. In the year-and-ahalf since the pirate-costumed, bass-playing, ukulele-strumming, singer-songwriter
A Biker at 30
Amelia Merher, also known as the ukulele-slinging songwriter Big Mama Lele, has ambitious plans for her 30th birthday. “I’m putting a new spin on fatbiking,”
Grand Canyon
Whitehorse-based, Swedish-Canadian songwriter Sarah MacDougall has a new album, Grand Canyon, with some dark, intense lyrics, mixed against pop-inspired folk music. It’s not a departure
Puppet Dreams Coming True
Nicole Edwards was raised on the Muppet Show, and she dreamed of duetting with Kermit since she was a kid. As an adult, she decided
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Getting Real and Local with Christmas
It’s that time of year again. The season that we all go a bit funny in the head and start manifesting an unusual disregard for
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The Midnight Sons Band: Working Hard and Going Far
The Midnight Sons Band is making a mark on the Whitehorse music scene and is now looking to build a national fan base.
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Honest, Aggressive Rock n’ Roll
The best album I heard last summer, and probably all year, came out of Dawson City. Hope, the debut album by The Naysayers, totally rocks.
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Mushing Around the Vastness of the World
Listening to Kate Weekes’ new solo folk album, Frost on Black Fur, is like mushing around the vastness of the world at great speed as
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School’s out for the Summer
Amelia Merhar, better known in the Yukon music scene as Big Mama Lele, ended her Graduation Tour on May 10 in Fairbanks. The occasion? She’s
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Blue Hibou collaboration spans the country
With Kim Barlow’s recent departure from the Yukon, the local music scene appeared to have lost its most well-known singer-songwriter. However, Blue Hibou, Barlow’s collaboration
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Heading to the Belly of the Blues
Brandon Issak releasing a new album and travelling to Memphis, Tennessee to participate in the largest blues gathering in the world.
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Son Rise: The Midnight Sons get ready to rock Western Canada
They got together in February, and now The Midnight Sons are heading out of the territory to spread their style of minimalist, rootsy folk-rock across
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Sizzling: Meat the Vegans’ debut album is a blue rare combo of punk, heavy rock and reggae
Vegetarians beware. Whitehorse’s groove-rocking quartet Meat the Vegans has just released their first album, 100% Fat. With a raw punk-inspired sound and graphic artwork to
The Inside Scoop on Speed Control
Speed Control is developing a reputation as the hardest working band in Whitehorse. After spending much of the winter performing multiple shows per day, the
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Yukoner Produces CD-less CD
It is becoming the way of it. Downloading music from the Internet is rapidly taking over how people listen to music. The new reality is
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Cate Innish Gives “Playing Music” New Meaning
Cate Innish is up for a new challenge. As we take down the hand drums she’s been using to accompany Peggy Hanifan at Whitewater Wednesday,
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Elvis Sightings Wherever CDs are Sold
He’s big, he’s bad and he’s back with a new CD. Love him or leave him, you cannot ignore him: Elvis is in the building.
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Let Automat6n Take You for a Loud Ride
If there were a word to describe Automat6n, it would be “luxuriant”. If you have a taste for simple production, this may not be the
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Hungry Hill Shares a Love of Bluegrass
Like the music of the delta that moved against the flow of the Mississippi and arrived in places like Chicago and Kansas City with blues
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Activist Yukoners Behind a Musical Movement
I’m calling you out. A great theme and a great refrain from a jam-packed CD from the National Microphone Association, an experiment in collective activism
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Yukoner Roxx Hunter Lived by his Guitar in China
Rob Hunter, also known as Roxx Hunter, has been abroad a few times, traveling to Finland, Mali and Oman. Most recently, the globetrotting guitarist spent
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Bliss and Melancholy
Ummagma is a strange combination — a Yukon-Ukrainian collaboration of uplifting ethereal pop vocal mixed with rock guitar. Their music crosses genres between electronic dance
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A Born Singer
I should know better than to schedule these interviews for Thursday afternoons, but luckily Seki, a Whitewater Wednesday Jam Night regular, understands. We reinvigorate ourselves
YWIM Take it Outside
Summer’s here and the time is right for a musical evening garden party. On Saturday, July 5, Yukon Women in Music are coming out of
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Kyle Cashen’s Immediacy Of Music
Kyle Cashen, part of the Whitehorse power trio Friend Called Five, has released a long-awaited, full-length CD of original songs under the banner of Crash
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The Beat Bombshell
Do you have a good résumé? Now before you send me an e-mail looking for a job, hear me out. In this day and age
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YWIM: Our Best and Newest
It’s been a long time since I was in public school. As I remember, we had a music program … we sang and entered choir
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Expatriate Cellos and the Way of the Party
As I start this article, I should reveal to you that this CD is not for the weak. There is much reference to making merry,
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“… just a tiny thing with a huge voice”
Krystal Dawn, recently returned from touring the North Klondike with Yukon Women in Music, has been gracing musical stages from an early age
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George McConkey Breathes Life Into the Harmonica
George McConkey has a new album out that displays his song writing ability and features some great classic tunes. More on that later, first, a
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Playing Strings by Heart, Not by Ear
Watching Ivan Zenovitch play is as exciting as listening to him. His fingers dance across the neck and strings of his guitar in amazingly complex
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Twisting With the Blues
As you may know, the poetry of the blues is full of metaphors that allude to acts involving one’s naughty bits. Often lyrics will allude
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Attitude Without Platitude
Rap and hip hop has been repudiated by some for being overtly violent and misogynistic. While some of this reputation may be deserved, I think
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Worshipping at the Altar of Black & Silver
It has been many years since the music I worshipped was at the altar of black and silver. In those days, I had really big
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‘Metal Love’
Adam Cripps is a “leet” bass player. Best known as the bass player and the “C” of CHS, Cripps can lay down a furious heavy-metal
Gordie Tentrees Takes the Road to the Studio
Gordie Tentrees has released his third studio album and is planning to celebrate with a tour of northern communities. More of that later, for now
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Sarah MacDougall
Sarah MacDougall, who was born and raised in Malmö, Sweden, began her first band at 11. “My friend Sarah and I had a duo called
A Creative Exploration of Vocal Jazz
Fawn Fritzen‘s first album, Bedroom Voice, demonstrates what can happen when a talented artist meets an engaging producer. It’s what happened with The Beatles and
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Song Rise Filled with Diversity and Talent
Yukon Women in Music (YWIM) have released their fourth album, which is as musically diverse as their membership. Founded in 1998, the YWIM collective brings
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Funksoul That’s Breakin’ the Mould
The album gave me a flashback, if these things are possible. The way a smell might trigger a powerful feeling of nostalgia, the sound brought
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Toe-Tappin’ Tunes from One Generation to Another
If you were to draw broad strokes, you could say that the music contained on this CD is classic old-time mountain music. The “primer coat”
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Riding a vinyl renaissance
It’s a strange time to start a music label. With the challenges of Internet piracy, online sales on sites like iTunes, and artists offering their
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Brenda Lee takes on the classics in Five O’clock Bells
Whitehorse jazz guitarist and vocalist Brenda Lee recently released her first album, a collection of jazz standards, called Five O’ Clock Bells. Originally from Northern
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A Rock Star Who’s the Real Thing
Home-schooled in an outfitters camp, in Swift River, raised in a fundamentalist family and painfully shy, Trevor Dolhan may seem like an unlikely rock star.
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Northern Opry Project takes the Yukon back In time
Lovers of old-style country music will gather together this month to recreate the golden age of country radio. Singer-songwriter Kim Beggs and music fest organizer
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See Hank Karr’s Yukon
Hank Karr‘s music is a part of the Yukon landscape. It’s only natural that he would present his music on a DVD, where it can
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YWIM New Album Features 14 Talented Yukon Women
Storytelling has always been an integral part of Yukon history and tradition, in all its forms and mediums. That’s why this year, the non-profit Yukon
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Diyet’s Poetic Lyrics are Heartfelt and True
With these lyrics from Home, the opening track of Diyet‘s debut album, The Breaking Point, the singer/songwriter from Burwash Landing sets the mood for this
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Outside Influences for Kim Beggs
Kim Beggs returned to the Yukon between touring, with a bunch of new songs and a new CD, Blue Bones. In January, Beggs went to
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Susie Ross is Laughing Again
Singer-songwriter Susie Ross knows about weird dates, so much that she wrote a song about them, First Date, a fan favourite at Whitewater Wednesday Jam
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The Queen of Whitewater Wednesdays
New venues, new jammers. Since Whitewater Wednesday moved to the Gold Pan Saloon in the Gold Rush Inn, we’ve been impressed by both the veteran
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Sasquatch Prom Date CD Keeps the Party Going
Sasquatch Prom Date is the great dance party band in Whitehorse. It’s a must for any festival looking for a high-energy closer, and (full disclosure)
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Ben Mahony Settles Down to Business
Ben Mahony’s long-awaited full-length CD, Yukon Love Ghosts, is here. A follow up to his Action/Reaction EP, which was recorded with his band The Big-Eyed
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Dancing to Graeme Peters’ Pain
Someone must have hurt Graeme Peters really badly because he’s gone completely emo on us. Emo, for those of you unfamiliar with punk subgenres, is
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On the Verge of Creating Something New
As Bryan Adams said, “Everywhere I go, the kids want to rock.”Solid Fuel’s first recording is proof of that. Solid Fuel is a band of
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Sad to the Bone
I’ve had the pleasure of watching Kim Beggs develop as an artist from the beginning. From her first performances supporting Kim Barlow and Anne-Louise Genest,
It’s About the Words / It’s About the Bass and Drums
I first heard Andrea Burgoyne at the Whitewater Wednesday Jam about two and a half years ago. Since that time, I’ve had the privilege of
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A Kinder, Gentler Daddy
I don’t normally like country music, but I do make a few exceptions. Kevin Barr is definitely one. Best known as the lead singer of
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From Nashville, In Overdrive
Speed Control is all about the performance. The Whitehorse pop-punk trio – guitarist Graeme Peters, his brother and bass player Jody Peters and drummer Spencer
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Celebrating the Positive Things in Life
To those of us who know her, Nicole Edwards is an amazing person. She has a beautiful smile, a happy demeanour, a warm personality, and
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Too Good to Be a One-shot
One of the characteristics of the Whitehorse music scene that I love is the amount of collaboration that goes on. Almost all artists have worked
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Colour Blind
Les Walker is back with a new band, Common Knowledge. The former lead vocalist for Fullers Earth progressed to a more radio-friendly alternative rock sound
Defending His Home
Remy Rodden is best known as a children’s performer and environmentalist, having previously released Think About the Planet, a children’s album. With his new CD,
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Getting Behind BC/DC
I wanted to get the story behind BC/DC which is, according to its website, “the world’s third most popular and dangerous band.” The website also
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Taking On the World?
Recently at Whitewater Wednesday Jam Night at Foxy’s Cabaret, there was an extra excitement in the air. People crowded inside in eager anticipation, all of
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Lofty Romance at Street Level
Jude Waldman may be a relative newcomer to the Yukon music scene, but as a singer-songwriter he’s already a veteran, playing his folk blues at
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Winter Warmth from Bahamas
In the cold of February, Whitehorse is due for some well-deserved warmth from Bahamas. Not from a misdirected trade wind, but from the musical act
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One-upping the Past
There’s a small rebellion brewing at this week’s Battle of the Bands, sponsored by Bringing Youth Towards Equality (BYTE) in partnership with the Frostbite Music
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Country Punk Comes to Call
Luther Wright is coming North next week to hang out with “real” people. This is Wright’s second Yukon visit as frontman for the legendary Canadian
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Lessons from the Road
Gordie Tentrees doesn’t stand still for long. Hot on the end of his Scandinavian tour (captured live on Naked in Scandinavia), Tentrees is heading on
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Tunes for Food
Foxy’s All Star Musical Food Drive includes a line-up established and up-and-coming bands of diverse musical styles.
Barlow Times Two
Have you ever had a relationship so intense that you have to live on opposite sides of the country? If you have, you’ll understand why
On His Own; Almost
With the release of his new album, Rich in Every Way, Daniel Halen shows just how much a musician can accomplish on his or her
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Hard-rocking Bluesman Goes Solo
Brandon Isaak is known as a hard-working, hard-rocking blues showman. Whether he’s playing with his Vancouver-based jump band The Twisters or at the Gold Pan
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Beautiful Lyrics, Honest Delivery
I don’t know Sarah MacDougall well. Somehow our paths haven’t crossed. But after listening to her new CD, The Greatest Ones Alive, that will have
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Journey Across Land & Time
It seems like an unlikely pairing: Grant Simpson (jazz musician, vaudevillian and musical director of the Frantic Follies for over 30 years), and Kate Weekes
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Pure, Uncut Metal
I should start this off with a declaration of my prejudice: I don’t get heavy metal music. For me, bluegrass is faster, punk angrier, indie
Music to Get Lost In
There’s a new sound on the Whitehorse folk recording scene: the august arrival. Formed in 2009, the band band consists of Sarah MacDonald on vocals,
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Bringing it Home
On his new CD, Down Home, Ryan McNally really is back home. After rocking out with his rockabilly band, Sasquatch Prom Date, and fusing folk
Kate Weekes, Building on Northern Tradition
Home Sweet Home is a new band with an old sound. Made up of three very talented Yukon musicians, Boyd Benjamin, Keitha Clark and Kate Weekes.
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Stripped Down & Intimate
Gordie Tentrees was one of the first Whitewater Wednesday jammers I ever saw. Back in 2000, shortly after I moved to Whitehorse, Tentrees was still
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Warming it Up
As the temperature drops, Yukoners have to fight off the urge to either hibernate or escape to warmer climes. That’s why it’s good that Willie
Slick, Smooth, Versatile
Royal Wood looks cool—hair slicked back, dressed in vest, tie, white shirt. He has a voice to match, a slick, smooth voice that’s soft, yet
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Big Mama’s Demo Debut
Amelia Merhar plays different kinds of metal. Last year she fronted an all-female heavy metal band, Carnal Romance. Now, in her persona of Big Mama
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Peeking Around the Curtain
Kevin Quain is one Mad Bastard. That is, he’s the singer of the Toronto-based blues-jazz cabaret band The Mad Bastards, the resident band at that
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The Tabor Collection
Buddy Tabor, from Juneau, Alaska, is a great friend of the Yukon music scene. He’s performed at countless festivals, collaborated with local musicians and his
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Miller’s Disc M.W.O.G.I.
After years of playing on street corners and in cafés and honky-tonks, Mikel Miller drifted into Whitehorse in the 1980s. With music inspired by Phil
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Rootsier than Roots Music
The Kim Beggs and Natalie Edelson duo, The Blue Warblers, has landed the two singer-songwriters a West Coast Music Award nomination in an unlikely category:
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Out on His Own
There used to be a band in Whitehorse called Scotch. It was a party band, centred around brothers Ryan and Declan O’Donovan. But in the
From Rendezvous to Recording
There are three ways to get a CD made. The traditional way is to pay your dues, playing live and building up your experience and renown,
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Around the World on Six Strings
Nicholas Mah plays guitar with a grace that seems effortless. Although it might seem out of place that Mah is playing classical and Spanish guitar
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This is Spinal Tap??
Ben Mahony is on a roll. Backed by Rob “Roxx Hunter” Hunter on electric guitar and Ian March on drums, Mahony is cycling through an
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