Whitehorse musician Kim Beggs is nominated for two awards at tonight’s WCMAs, which take place in her hometown.

Whitehorse is known for its vibrant arts scene.

The Yukon city, which hosts the 2011 BreakOut West festival and Western Canadian Music Awards, punches well above its less-than-30,000 population in terms of national and international recognition of its musicians, in particular.

Double Western Canadian Music Award nominee Kim Beggs is a prime example of why.

Her latest album, Blue Bones, is nominated in the Roots Solo Recording of the Year, and the video for her song “Longest Dream” nominated for the Multi-Media Award.

A handy sort, Beggs wrote the songs, and did the animation and directed the video using her love of beadwork as a launch pad for the concept.

The entertainment industry infrastructure being pretty much non-existent in the North, it’s typical of the region’s artists to be jacks of all trades.

She is on lunch break from her day job working as a carpenter on a job site outside of town when reached for the interview.

“We do a lot of things to make ends meet here,” says Beggs with a laugh. “I’m quite visually oriented and figured I should know something about video making before working with a director making one, so I took animation and camera classes and then figured, ‘Heck, may as well make it myself.’”

“I’m planning on doing another one this winter. You’ve got nothing but time up here then, unless you’re in the music business, which means you have to steal time.”

“Longest Dream” is a lovely tune and video about Beggs’ younger brother, who passed away from cancer.

The song is one of many “bluegrass bramble” tracks offered up on Blue Bones, which fuses classic hillbilly country with Canadiana. In this case, not the usual grim prairie tales, but rather “dark tales of northern life.”

Produced by Juno award-winner Steve Dawson, the album boasts guests spots by folk/roots royalty such as Austin, TX., Gurf Morlix, Laurie Lewis and others. It received fawning reviews in publications across North America and in the U.K., and Beggs played many festivals during the past season.

Having the WCMAs in her hometown is exciting and she can’t help but wonder if some of the showcasing artists will, like herself, become transplants to the territory.

“The Yukon is a very special place that sometimes grabs you and you can’t leave, other times you need time to deal with the love/hate aspects of the dark and cold.”

“They say you need to stay here through all four seasons to really get it. A lot of artists ‘become’ here because of the amount of time you get to hone your craft and grow.”

Case in point is her latest venture, The Kim Beggs Show, an artist-to-artist talk show with jam sessions that broadcasts on the local community access TV station.

Like her animation, she says it is a work in progress that can only get better. As long as she can find people with enough time away from all of their careers to appear in studio.

“It’s the land of opportunity up here, I tell ya,” says Beggs.

She suggests that people get their first exposure to the area via the musical postcards that are the local music festivals, and recommends Frostbite (frostbitefest.ca) and the Dawson City Music Festival (dcmf.com), which takes place next July 20-22.

The WCMAs take place Sunday night in Whitehorse.

--Stuart Derdeyn

Hi Everyone,

Here are the August stats for Canadians' airplay on folkdj-l playlists. This information has been sifted, with permission, from international lists compiled by Richard Gillmann. In August, Richard's lists were based on 13,436 airplays from 148 different DJ's.

The number in brackets indicates the number of plays that album, song or artist received in the month. Great Big Sea's album "Safe Upon The Shore" was the top Canadian album at #2 on the international list. Their song "Yankee Sailor" took the top Canadian song spot at #11. Great Big Sea earned the hat trick with the top Canadian artist slot, coming in at #4 on Richard's international list.

August: Top Canadian Albums

1. Great Big Sea "Safe Upon The Shore" (55)
2. Kim Beggs "Blue Bones" (18)
Ruth Moody "The Garden" (18)
3. Frazey Ford "Obadiah" (16)
4. Amelia Curran "Hunter Hunter" (13)
Oliver Schroer & The Stewed Tomatoes "Freedom Row" (13)
Craig Werth "The Spokes Man" (13)
5. Dala "Girls From The North Country" (11)
The Wailin' Jennys "Live At The Mauch Chunk Opera House" (11)
Will White "Rise Above" (11)

August: Top Canadian Songs

1. Great Big Sea "Yankee Sailor" (9)
2. Great Big Sea "Have A Cuppa Tea" (8)
3. Frazey Ford "Hey Little Mama" (7)
4. Great Big Sea "Gallows Pole" (6)
Great Big Sea "Good People" (6)
Great Big Sea "Long Life" (6)
5. Kim Beggs "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" (5)
Frazey Ford "One More Cup Of Coffee" (5)
Great Big Sea "Safe Upon The Shore" (5)
Craig Werth "The Spokes Man" (5)
Will White "I'll Never Do Time Again" (5)

August: Top Canadian Artists

1. Great Big Sea (60)
2. Kim Beggs (22)
3. Joni Mitchell (21)
4. Dala (20)
Frazey Ford (20)
The Wailin' Jennys (20)
5. Ruth Moody (18)
6. Neil Young (17)
7. Amelia Curran (16)
8. Gordon Lightfoot (15)
Craig Werth (15)
9. Fred Eaglesmith (14)
10. David Francey (13)
Oliver Schroer & The Stewed Tomatoes (13)
11. The Duhks (12)
James Keelaghan (12)
Garnet Rogers (12)
12. The Cottars (11)
Finest Kind (11)
Lynn Miles (11)
Jory Nash (11)
Will White (11)
13. Bop Ensemble (10)
Kate & Anna McGarrigle (10)
Naming The Twins (10)
Stan Rogers (10)

- - - - -

Richard Gillmann compiles monthly surveys of international airplay on the folkdj-l listserve. Archives of these can be found at http://folkradio.org Richard's complete lists can be found on his own website at http://www.nwfolk.com and I have used this source for the information above.

Richard created a couple of programs to analyze all playlists posted to the Folkdj-l list. These programs require that playlists be submitted in a particular format to be counted. Because of this he estimates his programs pick up 60-80% of the total airplays posted. Richard tallies the most popular albums and songs as well as total play for individual performers. As can be seen, Richard cuts off his album and artist lists at 10 plays and the songs list at 5 plays.

Richard has consented to my pulling Canadian stats from his lists for which I offer a grateful tip 'o the hat.

cheers, Vic

The Globe and Mail, Monday, August 16, 2010

MUSIC By ROBERT EVERETT-GREEN

Beggs did a lot of carpentry before she moved to Yukon, and began making her own music with a pawn-shop guitar. She has patiently built up her songwriting craft, without losing her open-hearted spirit or her direct and vunlnerable singing style. Beggs visits Hugh's Room in Toronto on Tuesday (with Jon Brooks) with a clutch of truth-telling songs from her wonderful recent disc, Blue Bones (on Black Hen Music).