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.
Acoustic guitarist/composer Gordon Quinton was born in Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland and Labrador and now lives in St. John’s. An innovative fingerpicking and flatpicking guitar stylist, he specializes in original compositions and arrangements of traditional and contemporary folk music. As a veteran artist participating in the province’s cultural life, Gordon today continues on his chosen path of musical exploration and expression, composing, performing and recording as a soloist and with others.
Sherry Ryan, Andrea Monro, and Maria Cherwick bring their beautiful harmonies, instrumentation and songwriting together combined with the music of bluegrass legends Dolly Parton, Bill Monroe and Gillian Welch to name a few. Sherry’s songwriting has been winning hearts across the country and her song ‘Stop The Trains’ was voted best song in the province by The 2018 People’s Choice Awards. She was also awarded 2018 Music NL Female Artist of the Year. Andrea Monro is a singer/songwriter and multi instrumentalist who has performed in Canada and the UK. Her performance highlights include Juno, ECMA and MusicNL showcases, performances for the CBC and The St. John’s Folk Festival. Maria Cherwick is a highly trained violinist and musician versed in multiple styles and traditions. Music has taken her around the world as a performer of both classical and folk music. Maria was awarded 2018 Music NL Side Musician of the Year.
John Koop came to Newfoundland in the 1970s and immediately became involved in the folk music scene. He played bass in Snuffy Jackson’s seminal country band, The Normal Fishing Tackle Choir, and hosted the 1977 and ‘78 “Good Entertainment for Anyone’s Not Used To It” festivals. An active member of the Folk Arts Society, he was an ardent supporter of Folk Night both as a performer and as a fan. A master of wordplay and puns, he frequently performed recitations on stage and hosted workshops at the festival. Prior to his passing in November of 2018, John made a generous donation that largely funded the launch of the Broadside project and this episode is presented in his memory by members of his family.
Lady Lupin is a newly formed folk band in St. John’s, NL that consists of multi-instrumentalists and singers Valmy Assad, Carole Bestvater, Maria Cherwick, and Amy Collyer-Holmes.
A native of Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland, Jim Payne is a leading performer, collector and producer of Newfoundland traditional music. He is also one of the province’s most prolific songwriters, as well as being a singer of traditional songs, a storyteller, writer, actor, and instructor and caller of traditional Newfoundland set and square dances. He has directed, composed and performed music for some of the most popular theatre productions of the past three decades, as well as creating soundtracks for plays, documentaries and videos. He has performed extensively on radio and television in Canada and abroad, in feature films, and has toured throughout North America, Europe, Japan and Australia.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Fergus emigrated to Canada in 1967 and, while living in Toronto, became a founding member of the Irish folk band, Ryan’s Fancy. The group moved to St. John’s, Newfoundland, in 1971 and for the next fourteen years, Fergus toured extensively throughout North America and Ireland as part of the trio. They were featured on the CBC network series, Ryan’s Fancy, for five years, and on the Tommy Makem/Ryan’s Fancy show, which was syndicated throughout Canada and the world. Ryan’s Fancy was also featured in the CBC TV production of The Last Run, which is part of the Newfoundland curriculum for Music (Exploring Music) at the intermediate level.
Ryan’s Fancy recorded fourteen albums during its tenure and songs from these albums can still be heard on local and national radio playlists. As a solo performer, Fergus has performed on numerous anthologies and collections of folk music, and has contributed to recordings by Newfoundland artists such as Great Big Sea, Jim Payne, Minnie White, The Sons of Erin, and Christina Smith. He recently produced a double CD collection called Ryan’s Fancy: What a Time, featuring material culled from the Ryan’s Fancy vinyl recordings of the 70’s and 80’s.
In 1987 Fergus graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a degree in Education. Since then he has been bringing folk music to children both as a classroom teacher and a performer. He has developed a program of songs, stories and slides related to his native Ireland for use in schools and leads a series of initiatives around the province through the auspices of the St. John’s Folk Arts Society called Young Folk at the Hall, designed to get young people playing traditional music.
Fergus has served on the board of directors for the St. John’s Folk Arts Society and spent several years volunteering at the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival. He organizes the St. John’s Canada Day Concert on Confederation Hill, and was Chair of the Education Committee for the 2010 Juno Awards in St. John’s.
Fergus has been a member of the award-winning band Tickle Harbour, and is a past recipient of the NL Arts Council’s Arts in Education Award, as well as Music NL’s Music Educator of the Year Award. In 2004, Ryan’s Fancy received the ECMA’s Dr. Helen Creighton Award, in recognition of three individuals who had “a profound and lasting effect on the Atlantic Canadian music industry”.
Jing Xia is a professional guzheng artist and scholar based in Newfoundland, Canada. Born and
raised in Hunan, China, Xia started to study the guzheng at six years old and has degrees in
Music Performance (B.A.), Arts Management (M.A.), and Ethnomusicology (Ph.D.). As a
performer of all styles, her musical journey on the guzheng has encompassed Chinese traditional
and folk music to intercultural ensembles, improvisation, rock music, and beyond. Xia has been
active in the music scenes in North America and performed in diverse musical events. Her most
recent activities include world-premiering Jubilant Entanglements, a guzheng concerto by
Canadian composer Andrew Staniland with Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra in January
2023. Xia is the winner of the 2022 MusicNL award “Rising Star of the Year,” the 2022 Artist in
Residence at Lawnya Vawnya, and a nominee of two ECMA 2023 awards (Global Recording of
the Year; Roots/Traditional Recording of the Year).
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 article 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.
For the last three years he has teamed up with veteran multi-instrumentalist Daunt Lee, whose intricate guitar arrangements and mandolin accompaniment add to the uplifting spirit of Dave’s comical songs and driving accordion.
