Beggs, Kim - Wanderer's Paean

Tracks

		Track Name	Length
	1	Walking Down to the Station
	2	Wanderer's Paean
	3	Lay It All Down
	4	Up From the River
	5	Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow
	6	Lips Stained Red with Wine
	7	Heartache Shoes
	8	Feel a Little Glum
	9	Pioneer and Doctor
	10	All the Good Times are Past and Gone
	11	Banks of the Yukon
	12	Close By
	13	Shipyards' Song

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Information/Write-up

3rd Place Winner for International Songwriting Competition 2008: Americana
Finalist for International Songwriting Competition 2007: Americana
Nominee for Canadian Folk Music Award 2007
Nominee for Western Canadian Music Award 2007

Yukoner Kim Beggs infuses sweet old-time roots country with dark tales of Northern life

Whitehorse, Yukon may be a long way from the American south, but its notable for the same sort of hardscrabble lifestyle and unshakable sense of community that influenced early Appalachian music over a century ago.

It was that very sense of community that prompted Toronto transplant Kim Beggs to make her home there just over 15 years ago, and it's that same sense of banding together in the face of adversity that has inspired her distinctive sweet dark old-time tinged roots music a style that draws inspiration from old country and bluegrass, but which is unmistakably influenced by the expansiveness and desolation of the North.

Combining delightful acoustic arrangements with a voice that's been described by Acoustic Live in NYC as a cross between Nanci Griffith and Iris DeMents Beggs reflects on the journey through life and death, the wanderers spirit and the loss of loved ones. Closer to home, she sings of the destruction of the Whitehorse shipyards and the struggles of a family member with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. The latter provides her with an opportunity to speak to audiences about the importance of community in supporting women through pregnancy. Yet for all the allusions to tragedy, the songs never sound heavy thanks to Beggs uplifting melodies. On her sophomore CD, Wanderers Paean, a whos who of fine acoustic players fleshes out the lovely old-time sound. They include Handy Award-winning bluesman Rick Fines on guitar, Shania Twain accompanist Burke Carroll on pedal steel, The Creaking Tree String Quartets John Showman on violin, and another Yukon starlet Kim Barlow on banjo. Tying the sound together is Juno-winning northern producer Bob Hamilton (Kim Barlow, Jerry Alfred, Undertakin' Daddies) who also plays dobro, mandolin and upright bass and sings harmony.

Wanderers Paean, released in the fall of last year, earned Beggs the 2006 Porcupine Award for Find of the Year and was named one of the Top 10 albums of 2006 by Doug Lang of Vancouvers CFRO radio. The folk publication Penguin Eggs called it a tasteful confirmation of a distinct talent and declared "Lips Stained Red [with Wine]" a contender for 'song of the year' by any reckoning. Another song, Walking Down to the Station made it to the semi-finals in last years International Songwriting Competition, and Shipyard Song was featured in the CBC documentary Shipyards Lament. Wanderers Paean has been either in or near the top 10 Canadian albums at U.S folk radio since the beginning of this year, and from February through May it also charted in the Top 10 on the Galaxy Folk/Roots channel.

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