CKUA gets an email from F&M

We're on the road out in La Belle Province and Ontario. We just want to thank you for your recent support! Our new record, "Wish you Were Here" was officially released Yesterday (itunes, CDBaby, website, indie stores) and has debuted at #4 on the National Earshot Folk charts!

Ann Vriend on Awards

Ann Vriend's Website

Awards are great, and I've noticed among my peers that having that on your website/email signature/resume does validate things to certain people-- both industry people but also just the average person, especially those who may not have heard of you before; there are so many bios that wax eloquently with superlatives about someone's music, but awards or even nominations for them are a more concrete indication that someone other than you and your mom think your music is great (same with press quotes).

F&M on Awards

F&M's Website

Music awards are strange things.  How can anyone definitively say one artist or song is better than another? Yet, just like any other career, musicians can benefit from this type of recognition. It can help them build up a resume or assist them financially so they can continue to pursue a creative career. However, often times the real benefit of awards goes to the community. Just by attending an award celebration, a musician can feel part of something positive and gain opportunity to network with other professionals who are doing something worthy of industry and peer acknowledgement. This is what F&M has found to be true. Here are a few our rambled thoughts.

Joe Nolan on Awards

Joe Nolan's Website

Music Awards are something I have a double opinion on... there are pros and cons to having them.

Awards shows can be great. I have applied to a couple in the past, for example the Western Canadian Music Awards (now Breakout/West Awards). This is a great event that brings together some of Canada's finest musicians and songwriters. It is always nice to see some recognition for artists who are worthy and deserving of an award for the time they have spent honing their crafts. I was fortunate enough to win an award at the 2008 Edmonton Folk Festival, chosen by Penguin Eggs magazine as one of the top 3 singer/songwriters at the Festival.

Althea Cunningham on Awards

Althea Cunningham's Website

The idea of music awards is an excellent one and there's no denying it. Who doesn't want to be recognized by their peers on a national/ international level? Winning an award can create an endless stream of opportunities and open up doors you never thought possible, in
every part of the industry from celebrity artists to producers, collaborators and beyond.

Woodpigeon on Mentorship

Woodpigeon's Website 

My biggest mentors in music are good folks who probably don't even fully know how important their input was to me at the start of this musical journey I'm on. I've always counted on my mentors, and valued their input and opinions from the very start.

Brian McLeod on Mentorship

Brian McLeod's Website

Mentorship is universal. All endeavors, professions, art-forms, and spiritual paths involve mentorship: receiving support and guidance from those have already walked the path. It is like asking for directions to a destination from someone who has already been where you want to go.

Althea Cunningham on Mentorship

I have never had a mentor in my songwriting career - I had to learn by trial and error, and from celebrity musicians by listening to their music & attending a lot of concerts.

Even when I started to write songs and was curious about structure, style, arrangement, lyrics and beyond, there was no local or national support at all - unless you were a member of a performing rights society, but when you are just starting and don't meet their criteria, who can you turn to?

Trevor Tchir on Mentorship

Trevor Tchir's Website

I was very fortunate to benefit from the mentorship of several talented and generous musicians when I was just beginning to write songs, record albums, and put together gigs.

I was thrilled, as a young guitarist, to take lessons from Bill Bourne over two summers.  While the time I spent under his tutelage was brief, it has had a lasting impact, not so much for the finger picking patterns he shared, but for the feel, the intuition, the philosophy he had in his relationship to the rhythm of a song and to the listener.  I was deeply impressed. 

Colleen Brown on Mentorship

Colleen Brown's Website

I have been privileged to have had several great teachers along the path of my education in music and the arts. Starting with my mother and brother (omnipresent supporters along with my whole family), to my elementary school teachers who encouraged me always to be as involved as I could be, to high school teachers who doubled as directors in our many musical theatre productions, to private instructors who fostered my performance and songwriting abilities - I've long been surrounded by creative people who are interested in ideas, creating, and the crafting of song.

F&M on Mentorship

F&M's Website

In the arts, true success is usually the result of the artist being supported, guided and advised by many types of mentors along the way. Success in the arts is a joint effort.

Ann Vriend on Mentorship

Ann Vriend's Website

I never had a mentor really, when I was starting out...but I really could have used one.  However, the last couple of years I have toured with other full-time singer/songwriters, and that has really been the best way to learn what is really going on on the ground. 

Before that, I got lots of advice from people in the music industry, but it turned out a lot of what they had to say was out of date or not as relevant or helpful as compared to other artists doing the same exact independent thing as me, on the ground, on the road.