Over the past 20 years, award winning singer-songwriter Chris Picco has established himself as one of Atlantic Canada’s most dynamic and diverse musicians both as a solo artist and as front man for St. John’s based rockers, The Long Distance Runners.
Since 2004 Chris has recorded and released eight critically acclaimed records. His most recent, Split Down The Middle (2023) has earned him a MusicNL nomination for Rock Artist of The Year. His most recent LDR record received several ECMA, Juno and MusicNL nominations in 2016/17 and in 2013 Chris’ solo record The Beach earned him a MusicNL Male Artist Of The Year Award. He has worked as both a session musician and producer and has shared the stage with artists ranging from Wintersleep, Said the Whale, Mother Mother and The Wooden Sky to Jim Cuddy, Bob Snider, Ron Sexsmith, Kyp Harness, and Ron Hynes.
Currently, Chris is busy songwriting, producing and performing material from his new record Split Down The Middle available everywhere you get your music.
Claire Porter is a singer/songwriter who has been described as a mix between Judy Garland and Tom Waits. She writes music about detritivores, love stories and tiramisu.
She was born in Newfoundland, learning folk storytelling traditions. She committed a couple of years to hitchhiking and learning travelling songs. She moved to Montreal to learn jazz and refine her powerful stage presence. In 2012, she started playing with Claire Porter and the Stouts in the downtown circuit in Montreal.
Colleen Power is an award-winning, bilingual singer/songwriter and performer living in St. John’s, and a prolific and creative force in the Newfoundland and Labrador music scene. Always engaging, Colleen comfortably embraces diverse musical styles, with lyrics ranging from heartfelt to comedic, political to personal. She is a multi-talented, uniquely diverse musician with strong Newfoundland content and themes. Colleen is currently host of the Bell Fibe TV miniseries “Sing Me Home”, where she explores six communities in the province with fascinating place names and creates a song for each episode. She is a past commissioned songwriter for CBC Radio One NL, and has written songs for several films and private entities.
Colleen has been performing live regularly, both solo and with her band for nearly three decades and looks forward to performing more live shows and touring her new projects in the future. Colleen’s music, along with her eighth solo project, Tales From Downtown West is available at http://www.SingSongMusic.ca.
Photo credit: Chris LeDrew
DUANE ANDREWS‘ music is the product of a great ear, an adventurous spirit and a love of music that is beyond category. Uniting what would seem to be impossible – traditional Newfoundland music with the swing jazz of the legendary Django Reinhardt, Andrews makes it not just work – he makes it soar. The Juno award winning producer, composer, guitarist and globetrotting performer’s latest album is the best evidence yet of his truly unique musical vision and is the sound of him, literally, bringing it all back home.
A native of the island of Newfoundland, off the east coast of Canada, Duane grew up exposed to the island’s mélange of cultural influences and his development as a guitarist reflects that. After graduating from the Jazz Studies program at St. FXU with honours, Duane spent several years studying contemporary music composition at the Conservatoire International de Paris and at the Conservatoire National de Region in Marseille, France.
Digging Roots breathe life into songs from their land, Turtle Island, to raise their voices in solidarity with a global chorus of Indigenous artists, activists and change-makers.
For over a decade, two-time JUNO Award winners Digging Roots have traveled the world with a joyful message of resistance, celebrating Anishinaabe and Onkwehón:we traditions of round dance and interconnectedness. As Roots Music Canada says, the band is “…badass, empowering and hopeful all at the same time.”
Digging Roots takes you on a journey through tall grass, sweet waters and unconditional love in a joyous and powerful celebration on their 4th album Zhawenim (2022). Led by the electrifying current of husband-and-wife team, ShoShona Kish and Raven Kanatakta, the 6-piece band responds to a majestic and spiritual call from ShoShona’s earthy vocals and Raven’s exhilarating guitar mastery through a fusion of blues, soul and rock n’roll. For long time fans or new audiences, their constantly evolving live show opens a space, wherever they may be in the world, for healing, compassion, unconditional love and Baamaadziwin (the good life). Constantly interweaving between drum culture and guitar dialects, Raven and ShoShona were raised in cultural families that have continued to resist oppression and colonialism.
More than a band, Digging Roots have taken their place at the frontline of the fight for equity and representation in the arts, with involvement in industry advocacy and organization to empower arts communities worldwide. ShoShona is the founder of the International Indigenous Music Summit and the music label Ishkōdé Records.
Raven, who studied at Berklee College of Music, “grew up in a small Anishinabe Rez called Winneway in north-western Quebec. It’s formally called Long Point First Nation. It’s where my grandfather and father taught me to hunt, trap and fish. I also spent my summers on my mother’s Mohawk Rez of Kahnàwa:ke.” ShoShona’s “family is from Batchewana and a part of the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge.”
Craig Young hails from the southwest coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. He has worked with many country artists, including Jason McCoy, Eli Barsi, Gord Bamford, George Canyon, Carolyn Dawn Johnson and Terri Clark as well as living and recording as a session player in Nashville for eight years. While there he also embraced bluegrass music and has taken a deep dive into that genre. He has won four Canadian Country Music Association awards in the All Star Band- Guitarist category.
Craig’s album “Black Diamond Strings” was released July 2013 to much acclaim, winning the MusicNL award for Country, followed with the album “Charlie’s Boogie”, a collaboration with guitar slinging, gypsy jazzer Duane Andrews, which won an East Coast Music Award in 2014 for the “mostly” instrumental album.
Known for his guitar prowess and powerful vocals, Craig has recently moved back west to perform and teach, building a studio where he records and produces projects for other musicians. He is currently touring Alberta and BC and working on a new solo project, due out in the coming year.
Darcy Scott‘s passion for creating rhythm began as a child beating on bowls in his Nan’s kitchen and has led to performing as a percussionist, guitarist, and singer-songwriter on stages throughout his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Participating in open mics, songwriters circles, traditional bands and rock camps provided early opportunities for collaboration that further fueled his creativity.
During the winter of 2019, he recorded his first song – Happy Place – which debuted in the Top 100 of the CBC Searchlight Competition. That same year, he was awarded the top prize in the Newfound Talent Contest at the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival where he had the privilege to perform his original song – Hold On – to an enthusiastic main stage audience. These early wins lit a fire in the young performer and he has not looked back. His follow up singles – Canadian Folk Singer and 1000 Words – landed in the Top 100 of CBC Searchlight in 2020 and 2021 and led him to being named a Rising Star for 2022 by MusicNL.
His debut EP, Wasted Spaces, was released in the spring of 2023 to the delight of his growing fan base. A respected musician and songwriter, Darcy’s songwriting and stage presence have been called engaging and beyond his years. Wasted Spaces is a collection of stories inspired by his ability to observe and interpret the world around him. From the melodic hook in the EP’s title track to the haunting message in Nobody Has the Time, if this first release is any indication, we are watching a great musician in the making.
Dave Penny has established himself as a Newfoundland and Labrador comic songwriter/storyteller, which over the past 25 years has brought him around the province as well as parts of Ontario, PEI and New England. He chronicles current events, or makes up stories loosely based on personal experiences or news articles using his unique brand of clever satire. Whether the issue is localized to Newfoundland and Labrador, such as a state of emergency following a record snowfall, or a more global issue such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Dave ties them with humourous narrative and catchy melodies. His 2017 release, All Turned Around, was nominated for a MusicNL and a Canadian Folk Music award for Traditional Artist of the Year.
In October 2020, Dave released Chip Wagon Ahead, another album of original songs, which has been nominated for a MusicNL award for Celtic/Traditional Artist of the Year. Dave has teamed up with veteran multi-instrumentalist Daunt Lee and regular host of Folk Club, whose intricate guitar arrangements and mandolin accompaniment add to the uplifting spirit of Dave’s comical songs and driving accordion. The two have been playing at folk festivals and small venues for the past six years and together have released two singles, Who Stole the Rack for Mini Spoons? and Zombie Bullet.
