WIB Mb 2010 Line up!

Introducing The Women in Blues Manitoba 2010 Line up!

Tracy K

Tracy K

Gracing stages for more than two decades Tracy K possesses the charisma, talent and versatility instinctive of great performers. Well known on the Canadian Blues scene, she will be a featured vocalist with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra's 2010/11 cabaret series. Tracy K’s talents have earned multiple awards and she is notably Canada's first female to be named 'Harmonica Player of the Year'. Her "Right Hand Band" that formed in 2000 was nominated as “Best Electric Act” in 2006 by Winnipegblues.com and have appeared in two Hollywood movies as well as countless festivals, showcases and clubs. Tracy K performs in duo with her guitarist Tony Desmarteau, a masterful guitarist compared to Lenny Breau with a side of Chet Atkins and Skunk Baxter.

Tracy K also performs acoustic real folk-blues with duo partner Jamie “Snakeman” Steinhoff on slide, dobro, and fingerstyle guitar. He lends his gritty baritone to the mix with great song choices from the 1920s onward. They were solicited for a private performance in the Caribbean as well as co-written and performed an epigrammatic tribute song, “This Axe is Your Axe” for CBC’s Jowi Taylor’s Six String Nation Guitar tour. The duo has shared workshop stages and concert billings with the likes of John Sebastian, Bill Bourne, Tim Williams, Fred Eaglesmith and Matt Anderson to name a few. Aside from house concerts and cabaret style venues, they were notably well received at their 2008 Ontario Contact showcase which spawned tour dates.

Tracy K grew up in the tiny prairie town of Beausejour, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She was raised on sixtie’s radio and sibling record collections, while childhood piano lessons and playing around on her brother’s guitar awakened the songwriter within. As her musical interests developed with the British Invasion and psychedelic era, blues became her foundation. Citing Sonny Terry as her first harmonica influence, Tracy K started blowin’ harp while backpacking Europe in 1982 on an old harmonica given to her by a Canadian soldier in Germany - a lifelong passion was born. Back in Winnipeg, she attempted a teaching degree in music and art, but was diverted by her musical calling. Tracy K spent the rest of the decade in Toronto, gaining experience in the studios and on the stages of the bustling “Queen West” indie music scene. Motherhood prompted a move back to the prairies in 1991 for an eight year maternity leave where she raised three children. In 1998 she began her solo musical journey, devoting and dividing her life to her children and developing her career. In 2004, Tracy K moved to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and recorded her second album. “Her songs are very well written, a seamless blend of blues, country and rock - not a surprise, perhaps, given the Thunder Bay / Winnipeg focus.” - John Valenteyn, Maple Blues Magazine, 2007.

Tracy K’s duo and her Right Hand Band were both recorded live in Ottawa by CBC Canada Live in 2008. A few of Tracy K’s many personal thrills include being the first female featured at the Toronto Blues Society’s Harmonica Workshop; performing at their prestigious Women’s Blues Revue; writing a song for a movie; writing a song based on the novel “Icefields” for CBC’s “Canada Reads, Ontario Rocks” 2008 radio concert; opening for harmonica legend James Cotton and sharing a playbill with one of her first female blues influences, the great Koko Taylor. Her fans keep hearing her on the radio, sometimes live, sometimes from one of her cds, and they tell her about it. They think she's famous - she thinks she's blessed.

AWARDS

2007 Ontario Independent Music Award for BEST BLUES

2007 International Songwriting Competition Award Recipient in BLUES and PERFORMANCE

2007 Toronto Blues Society Talent Search First Runner Up

2006 WinnipegBlues.com HARMONICA PLAYER of the Year

2006 WinnipegBlues.com FEMALE VOCALIST of the Year

2006 Winnipegblues.com ELECTRIC ACT of the Year Nominee

DISCOGRAPHY

3 Singles for “Prairie Fire Project”, Canadian Diabetes, 2003

"Stop!Wait a Minute" - written by Tracy K

"Broken and Blue" - written by Tracy K

Fire in the Sky - written by Tracy K

www.tracyk.ca

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Kathy Kennedy

Kathy Kennedy

Through her life and music, Kathy Kennedy has proven that her fate is not her destiny. Kathy is a gutsy and dynamic performer with two decades of professional experience as a powerhouse vocalist, band manager and event promoter. Although Kathy is a confident and talented blues performer, her journey was far from easy. Born in Calgary, and raised on the Manitoba prairies, she grew up in the all too familiar alcoholic home. When her mother left her father at a very young age, her mother continued the cycle of dysfunction, and Kathy swore to not repeat the same life of wasted time and condemnation. In foster homes, and back home to the same old scenario again, living on welfare and survival mode continued to cultivate unstable surroundings. This offered nothing but the assurance that she was on her own, and it was the love of music that kept her distracted from challenging surroundings. Years later, when her connection with her mother finally had a chance to begin, she was tragically taken in a car accident. This only left Kathy wondering why it takes so long for so many to find the support they need to help get past their challenges. "Help is not always easy to find, and the family does not come first in the system." The lack of education and self confidence, but still amazing unaccredited strength in her mother, gave her the realization of self worth and how important it is. Her mother is greatly missed.

It was her older sibling’s records that sparked the desire to sing at age five. Her shyness would never let anyone know, but being persistent, her first solo performance was at 13. At 16, she bought herself a handful of singing lessons to learn how to control a surprisingly loud voice and never looked back. Her first experience with the blues came from a live blues band at the King Eddie in Calgary. Although she couldn’t get the name of the singer, it was truly an experience that left her with the feeling that someone finally understood. "The blues is the universal understanding of life and the heart and soul of it." It is simply the greatest gift she has experienced. Not being exposed to the blues at a younger age was a cryin’ shame but she made sure to get familiar with the style. Upon her return from a gig in Dubai, UAE, she decided to move to Ottawa to experience the blues in the notorious blues club, the Rainbow Bistro. The talent was intimidating, but she believed that the best way to learn the style is to surround yourself with the very best. She wasn’t necessarily welcomed with open arms as a rock and pop singer, but eventually she was approached by some well known blues artists for vocal lessons. She began to do her own blues gigs and was well received in true man’s world. She also sang with several passing artists while on her shift waitressing at the Rainbow. She spent many nights there watching, learning and singing the music that she loves. She moved back home to Winnipeg after seven years, and put together the first Women in Blues Manitoba Concert in 2005. She made sure to get herself out there to get some fast exposure to the music scene. It has proven to be the most welcoming and supportive music scene she has experienced.

Kathy is noted for her contribution to Winnipeg’s Blues Music Scene. She wanted to acknowledge the worth of Winnipeg’s Home of the Blues and began the “Save the Windsor” Campaign at the rumored threat of demolition of the Windsor Hotel. After a couple months of searching out the fate of the Windsor, the rumor turned out not to be true. She compiled a book of her hard work containing media coverage, a petition of 3500 signatures, letters of support from famous musicians and city council, to acknowledge the worth of the blues refuge and what it means to Manitoba’s music community and around the globe. It was given to the now owner, Wayne Towns to express community interest in historical status to detour the thought of demolition in the future. He is still contemplating historical status, and acknowledges the value of the Windsor Hotel. Kathy believes it is vital to support blues clubs that are still standing.

She has single handedly promoted three Women in Blues Concerts and continues. The first live recording is now a permanent fixture in Manitoba’s Music Experience Museum alongside many Manitoba greats. She has dedicated her time organizing concert plans, all for the love of the blues and keeping the genre alive from the heart of Canada.

Karen Kane - Music Producer/Recording Engineer

(Big Daddy G, Tracy Chapman)
"Kathy Kennedy has extraordinary song writing and singing talent.”

Miche Pouliot - drummer extraordinaire

(Natalie MacMaster, KD Lang, Jann Arden, Bruce Cockburn, Colin Linden, Sue Foley)

"I enjoyed every show I did with Kathy. Her love of the music, and her genuine respect for the craft came forth in every note she sang. And then of course, there’s her power-house voice...brace yourself for one of Canada’s best kept secrets.”

Drew Nelson - Ottawa Blues Legend

(Dutchie Mason, Sue Foley)

"Kathy Kennedy’s voice can be soft, sultry and hushed, but when she wants to belt it out you should hope that the building is well constructed. We’ve had to record her ten feet away from the microphone to avoid too much distortion. Kathy is a highly dedicated and talented artist and I hope she gets the recognition she so rightly deserves. She has a rich, beautiful voice, is a sweet person and apleasure to work with."

www.katblues.ca

www.myspace.com/kitkatkennedy

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Claire Still

Born in The Pas, a small northern Manitoba mill town from a farming and construction family, Claire thinks of the town as both a tragedy and a gritty comedy. She expresses herself as a worker and has found her identity through struggling to make a living in many different blue-collar jobs. She started working in corrections as a jail guard at age 22 but could not deal with the inequality and the larger social problems causing institutional life to be the answer for a lot of people who didn’t need to be there. “I knew I would do something bigger then open and shut cell doors and shove people into smaller and smaller areas of confinement to deal with them, and then sooth them when they wanted to hang themselves.” After leaving the jail she worked as a bulldozer operator and laboured in a sawmill. It was at this time when she completely quit playing music out of pure physical exhaustion. “I can remember lying on my back greasing a truck with my hair tied in a pony tail soaking in a puddle of used oil.” In February of 2006 Claire witnessed a huge portion of the sawmill roof collapse while on shift. “If there was any doubt in my heart of the absolute value and honesty of the guys I worked with trying to support their families, and the community, it vanished in those moments.” She says and describes her feeling of outrage and anger at how worker’s lives could be compromised so easily at the hands of budget restraints and the resulting deterioration of industrial infrastructure.

“I guess through music I want to place the spotlight on the real causes of our pains and struggle as regular working people and point towards my vision of how they are solved.” “I think the blues genre is the musical manifestation of oppression in its core.” “Its inventors were people who were denied access to formal music schools because of their colour and subsequent social status.” “But from that very exclusion they created something greater and more significant than could ever be formally manufactured and studied in an academic faculty.” “I think its because real meaning comes from real suffering and I want to prove it to my audience.” Her mission is not only to preserve and pass the blues style onto future generations, but also to build and pass along with it, the social movement and ideals that it was born from.

Claire Still - Box O' Wine

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Angel Calnek

Hailed as one of the finest female singers in Winnipeg, blues woman Angel Calnek’s four decades of folk, bluegrass and country blues performances are evident in the soulful ease of her live performances.

Calnek has shared stages with the likes of Odetta, James Keelahan, Stephen Fearing, David Lindley, The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, Rita Chiarelli and bluegrass legend Mr. Bill Munroe. She has been featured on multiple recording projects, local and national TV and radio broadcasts.

An artist of Manitoba’s first CD compilation of female blues artists, Women in Blues Manitoba was released in February 2009. Calnek performs four of the album’s twelve blues tunes including a tribute to the late Kristi Johnston, one of Canada’s finest blues women.

A killer rewrite of “Star Baby” was featured on “Guess Who’s Home” – “A Tribute to the Guess Who”. A compilation of local bands released in 2005 by transistor 66 Records. Calnek’s raunchy version still receives extensive radio play on both college radio and the CBC.

Accompanied by guitar player partner Darrell Sandmoen, Calnek takes you deep into the soul of the blues with heartfelt passion and raunchy down- home gospel blues feel. Blessed with a voice that is powerful and full of soul, she will make the hairs on your neck stand up. Complimented by Sandmoen’s brilliant electric, acoustic and slide guitar skills, their unique style skillfully honours fine blues performers of the past, like Sippie Wallace, Leadbelly, Willie Dixon, Memphis Minnie, Jimmy Reed and Jimmie Rodgers.

Currently, this duo from the Interlake of Manitoba perform with their band Hillbilly Burlesque, resurrecting old blues standards and creating unique alt country blues originals, that show a substantial and faithful fan base.

"Crazy Life" - written by Angel Calnek

"Eden" - written by Angel Calnek

www.angelcalnek.com

www.myspace.com/hillbillyburlesque

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Note:

Women in Blues Manitoba has been a labor of love. I believe this project needs to happen as often as possible on whatever level is possible. These are Manitoba's Blues Women. I believe they are exceptionally talented and unique, and there is no other comparison in the country. Have you heard of them? If not, why not? There is no reason for it except that it is not mainstream music that these women cover, write and perform. Their CD, WIB Mb #1, has reached international radio play. The music they perform gave birth to all mainstream music, and that which without the blues, would not exist. What is the blues? First thoughts often frequent Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Ray Vaughan who have gracefully crossed over and have been heard on mainstream radio. But what about Bessie Smith, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Big Mama Thornton, Sue Foley, Nina Simone, Shemekia Copeland, Maria Muldaur, Rita Chiarelli, Janiva Magness, Lou Ann Barton, Angela Strehli...and on and on. Have you heard of these infamous and timeless women? So many have not and it's a crying shame. It's always time to expose the blues and keep the flames burning and our Manitoba torch women deserve to be heard as often as possible.

I have promoted three concerts since 2005 and working on #4. All concerts have had a great attendance and response. For these talented women, it is something local to really look forward to. It's the chance to shine and to be inspired to be the best they can and realize their capacity. The audience is out there! WIB has received significant community support which raised enough funds to make Manitoba's first Women in Blues CD! There are many opportunities to be had and lots of great music to be heard!

Thank you for listening.

In the Blues,

Katblues Productions