A local artist is celebrating a breakthrough moment after earning seven nominations at the Manitoba Country Music Awards this weekend.<\/p>\n
Zak Cudney, lead singer of Club Wagon Creek, says his band didn\u2019t expect to see their name listed so many times when nominations were announced.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were excited to see our name on there once, and then we didn\u2019t realize you could scroll down and see more,\u201d said Cudney. \u201cWe got nominated seven times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cudney says the recognition from both fans and industry members was unexpected but deeply meaningful.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was cool to see that lots of those nominations, like a couple of them, were from online when your friends can just call in or go online and nominate,\u201d he said. \u201cBut then the rest were all from members of the association, so we\u2019re like, wow, okay, they\u2019re actually listening and they like us.\u201d<\/p>\n
From hard work to hometown recognition<\/p>\n
Cudney says the past year has been one of growth and risk-taking for Club Wagon Creek. The band recently booked a show at Winnipeg\u2019s Park Theatre, their biggest headlining venue yet, where they\u2019ll debut two new singles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have four new singles coming out soon, and the two we\u2019ll be playing at the show just fit the show.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says the decision to step into larger venues and enter the MCMA awards came after years of steady effort and hesitation about whether they were ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just picked up because we\u2019re working very hard,\u201d said Cudney. \u201cWe were told last year to apply and we were like, well, we\u2019re never going to get anything. So this year we applied and we lucked out to get a bunch of nominations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manitoba\u2019s country music community comes together<\/p>\n
Miles Trach, president of the Manitoba Country Music Association, says this year\u2019s awards celebrate not only musicians but the broader community that supports country music in Manitoba.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s bringing the country music community together,\u201d said Trach. \u201cA lot of the artists and people in the industry, they kind of pass one another like ships in the night. This is that one night when everybody in the country music industry in Manitoba can get together and celebrate the achievements of the past year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trach says Manitoba artists are continuing to make their mark both at home and abroad.<\/p>\n
\u201cArtists from Manitoba are going a little farther abroad than I\u2019ve seen them in the past,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re out there on the road, bringing great music to Manitobans and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n
Awards night details<\/p>\n
The Manitoba Country Music Awards take place Saturday, November 8, at Club Regent Event Centre in Winnipeg. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 8:00.<\/p>\n
Performances will include 11 artists, with Doc Walker set to be inducted into the Manitoba Country Music Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
Trach says the night is a full celebration of Manitoba\u2019s talent, onstage and behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s got a lot to do with the entire country music scene in Manitoba, not just the artists,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As for Cudney, the nominations are motivation to keep building on the momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever happens, we\u2019re just really thankful people are listening.\u201d<\/p>\n
-With files from Carly Koop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A local artist is celebrating a breakthrough moment after earning seven nominations at the Manitoba Country Music Awards…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-269238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}