Saskatchewan Country Music Association celebrates 30 years
Chris Picks Music is a weekly playlist of songs that have aired on CBC Radio's Morning Edition
The snow has melted and it'll soon be time for seeding, so let's assess last year's crop of homegrown country music.
This week, the Saskatchewan Country Music Association (SCMA) celebrates its 30th anniversary.
The national success of Saskatchewan's own Jess Moskaluke, the two-time Canadian Country Music Association Female Artist of the Year and last year's Album of the Year winner, is an inspiring point of pride for our province. Moskaluke is not nominated in any of this year's SCMA award categories, but there are a number of great nominees filling out the ranks. I've added 18 of them to the playlist this week.
Lisa Moen and Tenille Arts lead the way with six nominations each in this year's SCMA awards, including Female Artist of the Year.
Moen has been lighting up the stage for 17 years, so her song "Country Girls Rock and Roll" seems perfect for this week's playlist. It also has her and co-writer Garth Howell both nominated for Songwriter of the Year.
Arts's latest single, "I Hate This," which has been streamed over 2.5 million times on Spotify, must be the antithesis of how she feels about her music career right now. She's been on a whirlwind performance and publicity tour over the past year. She's performed twice on the American TV show The Bachelor and was also asked by Reba McEntire to open a show for her.
Those five brothers from Shaunavon, Sask., the Hunter Brothers, finished a cross-country tour with Paul Brandt and Moskaluke earlier this year. They followed that up with a date singing the national anthem at the home opener for the Toronto Blue Jays.
This week, "Lost", the first single from their album State of Mind, has them sitting in the number one position on Canadian country music radio.
The Hunter Brothers are up for five SCMA awards, including Group of the Year, so it only seems appropriate that "Lost" has found its way onto the playlist.
Amy Nelson, who has been nominated in four categories in this weekend's SCMA awards, has a new album in the works due to be released at the end of April. It's called Good Intentions. I've added what will be the leadoff track, "Dontcha Dare Do It," to the playlist this week.
Based in Saskatoon, Mabaleka is a country-folk group based around Malusi and Khosi Mabaleka, siblings born in Zimbabwe. They find themselves nominated for Group of the Year at the SCMA awards. Their song "Crashed Upon the Waves" makes the playlist.
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