Information/Write-up
The Flummies are an aboriginal group of musicians from Happy Valley, Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador. "Songs of Labrador" was their second album
The Flummies are renowned for their work to record and preserve the rich and diverse Newfoundland and Labrador culture. Their first release was a 7" entitled "Songs From Labrador" on Kenamu Records / World Record Corp. WRC5-4642. Other albums include: "Labradorimiut", released in 2000, "Way Back Then", released in 2001 "25th Anniversary Album", released in 2003, and their latest album, which won the Aboriginal Recording of the Year at the 2009 East Coast Music Awards, "This is the Life for Me", which was released in 2008.
The Flummies are prominently known for recording and preserving the historical, cultural and traditional songs of Labrador. The indigenous influences of the Innu, Inuit and Metis people have been intertwined over the last century, to produce music that people connect with.
The Flummies have recorded seven full length albums and 2 special EP recordings. The band's first recording happened in 1986 with four tribute songs to Labrador's culture and natural wonder. They later went on to record award winning albums in 2003 and 2009 at the East Coast Music Awards.
The Flummies, in recent years, have performed throughout Labrador and the Province and have in many remote Inuit communities throught Canada's North mainly in the territory of Nunavik.
In 2021, the band received the Lifetime Achievement Award by MusicNL.
Their music is a mixture of accordion jigs and reels with some local favourites and other country sounding tracks. The group released Brothers on the River, their 10th studio album, in 2021.
The album is dedicated to Alton Best, who played with the group until he was 77 years old.
The group's win follows the Nain Brass Band and the Nain Moravian Church Choir's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.
Leander Baikie said the group members are grateful but don't think about awards. Instead they record music, play, and go to many small communities.
While they travel throughout the North, he says, they are treated almost like rock stars.
"Just amazing to see how many people are so excited to see a band from this province," Baikie said.
"Play the accordion music and get them all dancing. And you know, that's the best part of being a musician that gets to travel is just spreading the love and the cheer."
Gary O'Driscoll: lead guitars, vocal harmony
Harris Learning: bass guitar
Greg O'Blenis: drums
Richard Dyson: accordion
Alton Best: acoustic guitar, vocal harmonica, background vocals
George Shiwak: vocals, background vocals
Recorded, produced and engineered by Gary O'Driscoll for Chapeau Rouge Music at Homespun Studios, Goose Bay, Labrador, August, 1988
Cover design by David E. Willoughby
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