From a mixed family, her feet in both Anglo and aboriginal worlds, Kim Beggs lives in Whitehorse in Yukon Territory. She grew up in Quebec and Ontario, but she's called remote northwest Canada her home for more than a decade and a half. When we were exchanging e-mails after I'd requested a review copy of her CD (this is her second; I haven't heard the first), she remarked casually that it was -22 degrees Fahrenheit in Whitehorse that evening, then added -- without apparent irony or humor -- that "it's a dry cold." Somehow, the bitter Minnesota night encircling me suddenly felt warmer. Her music richly endowed with sense of place, Beggs is a folk singer in the best old-fashioned sense. She mixes her own strong original songs with charmingly atypical arrangements of otherwise-familiar traditionals such as "Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow" and "All the Good Times are Past & Gone," plus a plain-spoken, seriously moving reading of Bill Monroe's meditation on love and death, "Close By." The arrangements are largely acoustic, an updated approach to the old-time string-band sound, which means fiddle, banjo, guitar and upright bass, of course, but also dobro, slide, pedal steel and lap steel. Her interesting voice -- difficult to describe (let me try anyway: a little girl's with an old soul) but not like anybody's I can easily relate it to -- embeds itself in the lyrics, confiding with blunt honesty some very dark tales without the cliches too often associated with such narratives. Most of her characters are victims of harsh circumstance -- poverty, drug and alcohol addiction, desperate rambling, wounds psychic and physical -- but they bear their burdens with stoicism and without self-pity. She traces their lives elliptically, which is to say she drops in at the apposite moment to provide color and detail while leaving the listener to fill in the stories between the verses. It seems evident at least one or two of these are true and pointed accounts of lost souls whom she knows and loves; no other reading of, for instance, "Heartache Shoes" is possible. The beautifully wrenching title song plays on "paean," a word used interchangeably with "pain." Perhaps less cosmically, her "Feel a Little Glum" -- were this a just world and, say, I my own grandpa -- would be a bluegrass standard. Wanderer's Paean is the full-bodied, fully realized statement of a major artist. One might compare Beggs broadly -- only broadly -- to Iris DeMent or Gillian Welch, but a more accurate comparison might be to a young Sara Carter, if Sara Carter had lived and sung in a much colder climate. I am certain, at the very least, that Carter would be more than pleased with what Beggs has made of her 1928 recording of "Ain't Gonna Work." Wanderer's Paean is the full-bodied, fully realized statement of a major artist. One might compare Beggs broadly -- only broadly -- to Iris DeMent or Gillian Welch, but a more accurate comparison might be to a young Sara Carter, if Sara Carter had lived and sung in a much colder climate. I am certain, at the very least, that Carter would be more than pleased with what Beggs has made of her 1928 recording of "Ain't Gonna Work."

The Whitehorse, Yukon music scene has produced a surprising number of quality artists in recent years, and quite a few of them have been lucky enough to have been produced by Bob Hamilton and to have had their albums released by the Caribou label. Unfortunately, Caribou is currently phasing out its operations, but the labels productions will remain available for the foreseeable future. Wanderer's Paean is Kim Beggs' second CD for the label, and ostensibly one of the labels last releases. It's another one that bears the stamp of Hamilton’s impeccable taste. There's a stark quality to the sound that's partly reminiscent of old-time country, and Beggs' endearing voice brings out the best in her songs. Musicians providing support include Hamilton himself, and singer/songwriters and label-mates Anne Louise Genest and Kim Barlow on vocals and banjo, respectively. It's not surprising that Wanderer's Paean has been nominated for several awards in Canada. Everything about the album, from the songs, singing and production, to the album graphics is tastefully rendered.

Kim Beggs’ latest album, Wanderer’s Paean, is a reflection of the solace and success the Toronto-born roots musician has found in her present Yukon home. Undoubtedly, it’s odd to hear about an artist picking up and moving away from Canada’s musical epicentre but Beggs has done it for the sake of sincerity. Wanderer’s Paean contrasts the lost, lonely feelings associated with Canada’s unending stretches of land with those tight communal bonds that form between small-town dwellers. “Walking Down To The Station” opens the record, introducing listeners to Beggs’s innocent, honey drizzled vocals while capturing the wandering traveller’s carefree spirit. The same sauntering acoustics can be found elsewhere but “Lay It All Down” and “Ain’t Gonna Work” put a bit of spice in their step, making for a couple of enjoyable hand-clapping tunes. If anything, Wanderer’s Paean is one of the few roots records that has honestly, and so beautifully, captured Canada’s rustic back roads.

Said Michael Enright as he introduced Kim Beggs for her performance at the 500th episode of CBC Radio One Sunday Edition Celebration on Nov 25th at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.

Kim Beggs grew up in small-town Quebec and Ontario before ending up in Whitehorse, and her second disc (Wanderer's Paean) is full of intimate numbers about love, rivers, trains and family – tunes only a folkie living in a town of 22, 000 could write.
There's no shortage of hook-laden tunes that are perfect to play around a cottage campfire or during a late night alone at home, but it's the record's intimacy that makes this a great piece of Americana... er, Canadiana?
Beggs avoids muddying these delicate tracks, forgoing drums and complex instrumentation. Instead, she keeps things simple with just a guitar, one harmony and the occasional pedal steel or banjo.

As you might expect of a singer-songwriter who has for the past 15 years called Whitehorse home, Kim Beggs peppers her 2006 CD Wanderer's Paean with odes to wilderness, mountain streams and the Yukon River.
But the journey on which Beggs takes us over the course of 13 songs is ultimately an internal one, as the folksy artist relates personal tales of life, love and loss. On Heartache Shoes, a message to Beggs' brother who recently passed away after a lifelong battle with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, she communicates all three.
"I played a rough version of it for him," Beggs recalls, "and he said, 'Wow, that sounds like my life.' I was able to sing it for him a second time, at his funeral.
EMOTIONAL MOMENT
"Somehow, I found the strength to get through it without choking up. I've tried to rehearse it since, and it's too hard for me to sing it now. But I want to be able to talk about the disorder. I want to sing it again."
We'll forgive Beggs if she decides to omit the song from her set tomorrow night as she and accompanist Bob Hamilton transport us to another time and place through song. Such is the speciality of this wanderer who grew up in rural Ontario and big-city Toronto before finding her rightful place in Canada's True North.
"I crave remoteness," says Beggs, who last month paddled her way to the Dawson City Music Festival. "I crave isolation. Even before I moved to the Yukon I fantasized about being the one person left after the nuclear war.
"I think it's because I grew up in a big family you have to learn to find your own psychological space if you can't find physical space. Now, I'm lucky to have found both."

"Life's a riddle, like a rock in my shoe," chirps the buoyant Kim Beggs on the dulcet twang of Lay It All Down, her voice, a pure quavering pitch, nestled somewhere between hardened heartbreak and hopeful naiveté. On her sophomore release, Wanderer's Paean (released last fall), she sounds seemingly carefree, riding the rhythmic rails of sparkling mandolin and swooning pedal steel with near breathless wonder; her playing rolls along like a dusty iron horse making time and destination unknown.
Beggs is no stranger to the twists and turns of the road. But it would seem that since Paean's release, she's shaken loose that perpetual rock in her shoe, having found solace in solving at least one of life's nagging personal riddles: She now knows music is in her blood. The revelation, like a slow train coming, took its sweet time.
Born in Val d'Or, Quebec, and raised in mining towns, Beggs was constantly on the move across the country's great expanse. Consumed with the persuasive power of song, Beggs, with her guitar in tow, eventually wound up in Whitehorse.
"I just felt drawn to the certain rawness of the reality there, and the extremes: the extreme cold and dark in winter and extreme light in summer. And the extreme sense of balance - if you've been a little selfish, not giving enough, you know it right away. If you're needy, it won't work for you there," she says. Naturally, Wanderer's Paean reflects that very dichotomy as it searches for a light in the darkness, beauty in the face of severity.
Though steeped in the old-time mountain music of the American South, her recent record nevertheless exudes a timeless quality throughout. Beggs - much like Iris DeMent, with whom she shares much common ground - sings about the events unfolding around her: tales of a pioneer looking for a new home, or a weathered soul with cloudy eyes searching for comfort at the end.

"The Yukon River is like a moving lake, a gentle giant that will take you where you need to go ... whether you're paddling or not," is the way Whitehorse songwriter Kim Beggs remembers her recent voyage, by canoe, from Minto to Dawson City.
She usually drives, occasionally flies, but last week the adventurous singer, her pure and expressive voice likened to Nanci Griffith and Iris DeMent, paddled her way north on the Yukon, with her guitar bundled in a buoyant foam case wrapped inside a plastic garbage bag, to perform at the Dawson City Music Festival. It's a trip that would normally take about four days.
"I stopped off in Fort Selkirk for about 10 days to catch up with myself and get started on some new songs," Beggs said in a phone interview from Dawson. "Eventually I met up with some friends who were canoeing to Dawson as well – (singer-songwriters) Natalie Edelson, Kate Weekes and Kim Barlow – and we put on a concert in the Anglican church at Selkirk. CBC showed up to record and film it.
"Then we all paddled on to Dawson, eight of us in four canoes with banjos and guitars and all kinds of instruments."
This time of year, the Yukon is like a highway, she added, "carrying musicians from all over Canada, even from the U.S., up to Dawson City."
Born in Val d'Or, Que., Beggs spent her adolescent years in Toronto before heading into the Yukon wilderness in the winter of 1991.
"I got to Whitehorse and stayed. It felt good to me, it started feeding me. Sometimes I think it's a hard life up here, but Whitehorse gives me what I need." ...

The Yukon's Kim Beggs took her first bold steps in 2004 with the release of her wonderful debut, "Streetcar Heart". For "Wanderer's Paean", she has recruited several of the same strategic characters who added much of the spirit to that first effort. So producer and multi-instrumentalist, Bob Hamilton's sympathetic approach, again, allows Beggs lots of breathing room to sing her heart out. So here and there a country fiddle makes a subtle appearance, as does a steel guitar. An acoustic bass warrants the odd mention. A tasteful mandolin, too. But really the songs-- grand tales, largely set in the north--stand on their own, swaddled in that unique, warm and distinctive voice. The measure of this record is surely the country-folk of "Lips Stained Red [with Wine]"-- a contender for 'song of the year' by any reckoning. "Wanderer's Paean" then, is not a departure from "Streetcar Heart" but rather a tasteful confirmation of a distinct talent.

CIUT's 17th Annual Porcupine Awards! NEW DRAGON MINE The find of the year Award! KIM BEGGS, Whitehorse, Yukon She began playing guitar and performing in public just a few short years ago, but already her quirky country songs beg another listen. Her first CD, Streetcar Heart, was new and exciting. Her new CD, Wanderer's Paean, has marked her as an unmistakable new talent.

Kim Beggs - Wanderer's Paean Kim Beggs moved to Yukon from a mining town in Northern Ontario and, swinging a hammer, worked at building and renovation, while teaching herself guitar. Whoever taught her to sing should get a medal. While she doesn't have what you'd call a big voice, she gets a whole lot out of her high, feathery alto, a cross between Nanci Griffith and Iris DeMent, and her lean, spare delivery. She sings original songs that have an old-timey, traditional sound. She sounds right at home in the middle of the down-home country airs set up by pedal steel, mandolin, banjo and fiddle, creating a warm, earthy spot for the listener's psyche to drop into.

I was introduced of Kim's music from my friend Doug Lang of Vancouver on his radio program "Better Days"CFRO. I was blown away by the music. Kim's voice is of such purity that you are taking away to crystal clear mountain air that leaves you refreshingly inspired. I was in such awe that I bought her new CD.

"She is one of a growing number of singer/songwriters who are putting the Yukon on the roots map. Wanderer's Paean is the follow-up to Streetcar Heart, Beggs' 2004 debut. Like its predecessor it's a stripped-down, low-fi offering of songs that pull at the heart. Beggs' sweet, Appalachian-style voice and guitar are placed against an appropriately sparse backdrop by award-winning producer Bob Hamilton, who handles double bass, in addition to Anne Louise Genest on backup vocals and John Showman on fiddle. Beggs' own material fits seamlessly with the two traditional tracks Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow and All the Good Times Are Past and Gone and Bill Monroe's classic Close By."

Kim Beggs and Friends Offer Serious Reminders
This new CD from Kim Beggs is an interesting departure from her first CD, Streetcar Heart. Wanderer's Paean is a far more serious and mature mix of songs that showcases her love of that particular style of Americana Folk that harkens back to a simpler, harder life and where character and situation clashed to create elementary truth from the most complex of emotions. These songs are the musical equivalent of flipping through an old black-paged photo album with each song a photo, sepia toned with age, full of detail as only an old photo can be. Each song, like those long forgotten images, subjects staring out to the future, formally dressed, static, proud, vignettes of personal history communicating the fear and folly as well as the truth and beauty of the human animal. Beggs is able to create an aura of tactile emotions that envelops each song. It is as if each song has its own atmosphere in which its inhabitants, for those brief few moments, live and move about. This quiet animation allows the listener into an emotional bubble, to breathe the same air and to discover personal and private moments as written by the author. This is the essence and strength of Beggs’ writing. In Banks of the Yukon and Shipyards Song we are able to participate in the cold of the season, warmth of the heart and smell the buildings long gone. Lips Stained Red With Wine is a sad and beautiful walk through memories of one soul, cognizant of her past failings, but never forgetting the future has beauty unknown. All heady stuff. Though songs of desperation and melancholia, like Heartache Shoes, suffuse the CD there are true moments of musical joy. The title song, Wanderers Paean, showcases another of Beggs’ strengths: the ability to drive along a finwaltz and vocalize a fine “hoo hoo hoo” or a “yodleaaheehoo” or even an “eeodelee aayday”. These lines are full of hope and joy, conviction and sentiment as much as any of her fine lyrics. Kim Beggs enunciation and wide, moist mouth combine to create an “eargasm” of tone surviving the harsh electronics of the recording process to envelop the ear. The musicianship is deceivingly simple and the use of vintage instruments in expert hands is only one of the musical treats that this album delivers. I believe the albums timbre and tone is realized by its being recorded at Bob Hamilton’s Old Crow Recording Studio. Being able to translate Beggs’ ideas and vision to final product would be difficult if she had to travel out of the territory. The small galaxy of Yukon musicians who surround Beggs on each song reinforces this idea of a homegrown studio culture and is a tribute to an artist and her appeal. Kim Beggs maintains a website at www.kimbeggs.com. Check it out for her current tour and get your friends and relatives in these areas up and out to see her.

Wanderer's Paean (Caribou Records)
From the Whitehorse studio where Caribou Records co-founder and prolific musician/producer Bob Hamilton gently guides a large crew of exceptionally gifted singer-songwriters, born wanderer Beggs emerges with her second collection of bright, pensive, personal songs — some of them pure Yukon whimsy and good folksy humour, others darkened by ineffable lonesomeness and barely concealed sorrow. Beggs' engaging and unaffected voice is all the adornment these simple, three-chord songs need, though she gets some very tasteful assistance from Hamilton on steel and mandolin, guitarist Rick Fines, label mates Anne Louise Genest and Kim Barlow on backing vocals, and Toronto fiddler John Showman and dobro picker Burke Carroll.

Kim Beggs - Wanderer’s Paean (Caribou)
If you wake up hungover with half a soul on a Sunday morning, you will want to listen to this. It’s like Emmylou and Suzanne Vega decided to hunker down around Michelle Shocked’s camp fire. Like all good Americana, folk / country music, the melodies and structures go where you’d most like them to and it’s a damn fine collection of tunes revolving around what preoccupies us most: who we love, why we love them, why we made them angry and, finally, why they left us. Issues people like Yukon based Beggs, former miner, have been telling and warning us about for years. And we still don’t learn. There’s some trad. country bits (Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow) and traces of the Eagles (All The Good Times) but, even with all points of reference, this is Kim Beggs. Heads up Lucinda Williams. www.kimbeggs.com

WANDERER'S PAEAN
Kim Beggs
Independent
8-out-of-10
Kim Beggs' Wanderer's Paean is another of the Western Canada Music Awards finalists for Best Solo Roots album, and one listen tells you she has a voice that is one so clearly suited to roots music it is hard to envision her playing/singing anything else. This is a CD that has the flavour you might expect from a roots performer from down Tennessee or Alabama way, having that deep south feel. That is interesting when you consider Beggs has lived in Whitehorse, Yukon for the past decade-and-a-half. At the same time one can easily see how the sort of frontier feel of Canada's north would be a fertile place for roots-style songs, and Beggs has written a number of very nice folk tunes here, including Lay It All Down, Lips Stained Red With Wine and the CD's title cut. This CD has been recorded in what I would call a relaxed, and yet intimate manner. Instrumentation is generally minimalist, allowing Beggs unique vocals, and the often powerful lyrics. Sit back and get into the words on songs such as Up From The River, and you get into the heart of roots music, compelling words that tell a story, a story which takes the spotlight over the instrumentation with Beggs. As I mentioned, Beggs has a rather unique voice, almost adolescent in its simplicity, yet again thanks to the realities of roots music, it carries maturity arising from the music itself. It is really a contrast of vocals and material which is compelling here. Beggs shows here that she is a fine writer, yet does mix in some material not her own as well such as the traditional Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow and All The Good Times Are Past And Gone, both adapted nicely by the artist. This is one well worth searching out at www.kimbeggs.com

Yukon resident Beggs is a masterful writer of engaging personal narratives that evoke place and time in a manner of the finest folk traditionalists. Blessed with a fascinating, sweet voice, surrounded by the distinctive and careful instrumentalists--bassist/producer Bob Hamilton, accordionist Andrea McColeman, fiddler Moritz Behm, and pedal steel guitarist Gene Brown, among others--Beggs conjures up a rugged northwest peopled by battlers whose quirky resilience makes these story songs a compelling listening. Standouts are "Old Pal", "I Carry My Guitar," "Her Big Yellow Backhoe," the title track, and a live version of Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane".

"Kim Beggs is another wonderful singer/songwriter from the Yukon's emerging music scene. Bob Hamilton produced her recently released Streetcar Heart (Caribou Records), and it features Beggs' wistful, iconoclastic lyrics and ragged, sweet whisper of a voice backed by a crack northern studio crew. Such songs as Carry My Guitar capture Beggs' blue-collar background and love of the local jam-session scene where the sun never sets. Bus Driver conjures up the darker side of the calendar year and hints at a California/Neil Young fixation that seems so real it hurts, but reaches fruition on her album-capping reading of Young's Like a Hurricane. Much of Streetcar Heart has an old-time, wood smoke country feel, folk art that cuts to the core on songs like Beautiful where Beggs warbles "Amazing and beautiful/She'll cover your eyes with wool/and if you let yourself see her/ you'll get something you won't have to give back." Neil Young, Iris Dement, Gillian Welch, the McGarrigles... add Kim Beggs to that exalted list of unpretentious charmers. Streetcar Heart's hook-laden, homey songs get stuck in your heart, and that's a good thing."