This year, events include Songs and Stories at the Westin Calgary Ballroom on April 9. It\u2019s an evening celebrating storytelling and featuring performances by Amanda Rheaume, Claire Morrison, Guillaume Arsenault, Robert Thomas & the Sessionmen, Terra Spencer, and Calgary\u2019s Wyatt C. Louis.<\/p>\n
Awards for Contemporary Singer, English Songwriter, French Songwriter, New\/Emerging Artist, Stan Rogers Traditional Singer and Vocal Group will be handed out.<\/p>\n
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Wyatt C. Louis performs at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival at Gallagher Park in 2024. Greg Southam \/ Postmedia<\/p>\n
Folk Forward will be held on April 10 at the Bella Concert Hall and will feature performances by the Calgary-Montreal collective Calgareal, AHI, Aysanabee, Boreal, Duane Andrews and Yves Marchand. Awards for Album Artwork, Contemporary Album, Indigenous Songwriter, Instrumental Solo Artist, Single of the Year, Solo Artist, and Oliver Schroer Pushing the Boundaries will be handed out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On April 11, Traditional and Global Roots will also be held at the Bella Concert Hall with a concert featuring Cassie and Maggie, Garcons a Marier, Joaquin N\u00fa\u00f1ez & Habana Safari, Kazdoura, Sacred Wolf Singers with Simon Wall, and Scott Duncan & Luka Hall.<\/p>\n
Awards for Ensemble, Global Roots Album, Instrumental Composer, Instrumental Group, Traditional Album, and Producer will be presented.<\/p>\n
On Sunday morning, April 12, Folk for Families will be held at the National Music Centre, featuring performances by Ginalina, James Culleton, Max Francis, and Oh Clementine, while awards for Children\u2019s Album and Young Performer will be handed out.<\/p>\n
A total of 21 awards will be handed out this year. AHI, a Toronto singer-songwriter, has five nominations, as do Nova Scotia siblings Cassie and Maggie. Max Francis, a 14-year-old fiddler from Victoria, earned four. Ontario trio Boreal has earned three, as have Jessica Pearson and the East Wind.<\/p>\n
Calgary\u2019s Wyatt C. Louis is up for New Artist of the Year and Indigenous Songwriter of the Year, while Kyle McKearney is up for Contemporary Singer of the Year.<\/p>\n
Calgareal\u2019s album Vanishing Point is up for the Oliver Schroer Pushing the Boundaries Award.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many facets to folk music, and we need to recognize them,\u201d says Lindsey. \u201cThere are so many different ways that music can be expressed. But even in the folk genre, there are so many w,ays and we want to make sure we are recognizing that very great, different music is being made and putting them into one or two categories just wouldn\u2019t work. It\u2019s really like comparing apples to Alberta beef, perhaps. They are totally unrelated.\u201d<\/p>\n