Nunavut’s Jerry Cans up for two folk music awards
Band nominated a second time for Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year
As part of a cross-country tour this past summer, Iqaluit band The Jerry Cans stopped in Kuujjuaq last August to play its annual Aqpik Jam. (PHOTO BY ISABELLE DUBOIS)
Iqaluit’s folk-favourites are up for two national music awards this year.
The Jerry Cans, or Pai Gaalaqautikkut, have been nominated for two 2015 Canadian Folk Music Awards, the organization announced earlier this week.
The high energy folk rockers, are up for an award under the Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year for the group’s most recent album, Aakuluk, released in 2014.
In that category, the group faces off against veteran Cree singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie, Raven Kanatakta and ShoShona Kish, Laura Vinson and Free Spirit and Miranda Currie.
The Jerry Cans are also nominated for the Oliver Schroer Pushing the Boundaries Award, which honours “innovation in creating new folk sounds,” the CFMA says.
The folk award nominations aren’t a first for the Iqaluit-based band, though; the Jerry Cans’ throat singer-accordionist Nancy Mike won the Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year award in 2013.
The band also includes vocalist-guitarist Andrew Morrison, bassist Brendan Doherty, drummer Stephen Rigby and fiddler Gina Burgess.
The group spent the summer touring festivals across southern and northern Canada; a show on Parliament Hill on Ottawa, and a gig at an Alaskan folk festival.
This year’s CFMAs will be handed out Nov. 6 to Nov. 8 in Edmonton.
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