Sask.'s music scene is worth celebrating and the Junos are the perfect way to do it
'Saskatoon is big enough to throw a good party and small enough to appreciate every guest it invites'
This piece was originally published on March 3, 2019.
Saskatoon has been selected to host the 2020 Juno Awards. The timing couldn't be better.
When Saskatoon hosted the Junos in 2007, we were the smallest market to have done so at the time. I'll leave it to politicians and economists to debate how much we've grown as a city since then, but as a music community the change is incredible. I've seen it through the eyes of a musician, an entertainment lawyer and a board member and president of SaskMusic.
Our province has produced a remarkable amount of musical success stories in recent years: Colter Wall, Jess Moskaluke, The Dead South, Tenille Arts, Reignwolf, Megan Nash, Joey Stylez, Factor Chandelier, Close Talker, Andy Shauf, Rosie & the Riveters, Bombargo, the Sheepdogs, Kacy and Clayton, Deep Dark Woods and my own band One Bad Son. This list only scratches the surface.
Incidentally, my band experienced our greatest success when we moved back to Saskatoon, years after being told we needed to leave the city to achieve any sort of success.
Not to get all kumbaya here, but there is a sense of community in the Saskatchewan music industry that you simply don't find elsewhere. There are exceptions of course — not everyone plays nice or wants to be part of a larger community — but by-and-large, musicians here genuinely try to lift each other up rather than the opposite.
This makes the Juno Awards being held in Saskatoon a win for the entire province.
Just like Saskatchewan is underestimated on a national scale, Canada is underrated on an international scale.- Kurt Dahl
Despite all of the success stories we've created, the music scene in this province is still underestimated on a national scale. I have said this for years, but it begs repeating: there is more talent per capita in this province than anywhere in the world. It's starting to be recognized throughout Canada and the rest of the world, but the process is ongoing.
When an artist or music industry professional is based in a smaller centre like Saskatoon, opportunities don't come as often or as easily as if you were located in Toronto or Vancouver. There simply aren't as many record labels, managers, booking agents and publishers around to create those opportunities.
Bringing these larger industry players to our city and immersing them in the vast pool of talent here will be a boon for our musicians.
Small-town charm meets big-city ambition
Then there's the city itself. Saskatoon is big enough to throw a good party and small enough to appreciate every guest it invites. There is a certain small-town charm and friendliness here that is balanced with big-city ambition and an entrepreneurial spirit that's hard to find anywhere else.
This is why I chose to move back from Vancouver and raise a family here. As the cliché goes, strangers here say hello to each other on the street.
Some might say that award shows like the Junos — where pieces of art and the artists that create them are compared against each other and one is selected as winner — have inherent flaws and that the true value of art can't be determined by a jury of industry bigwigs.
I would agree with them wholeheartedly.
But I also see the value of recognizing and celebrating the hard work and successes of Canadian talent. Just like Saskatchewan is underestimated on a national scale, Canada is underrated on an international scale. We often stand in the shadow of our bigger (and louder) sibling to the south.
The Juno Awards help shine a light on the amazing talent in this country. For that reason, they are important to me and anyone else making a living in the Canadian music industry.
The 2020 Juno Awards will be an opportunity for us to show the rest of the country what makes the music scene in Saskatoon and Saskatchewan so special. Prairie people are equal parts humble and proud of who we are and where we're from, and this event will give us an excuse to relax that humility a touch. And say hello to all the strangers on the street.
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