Wanderer's Paean was one of the pics from this Years NERFA conference, by Acoustic Live in NYC.
“Whoever taught her to sing should get a medal”
Reviewer: Richard Cuccaro--Acoustic Live in NYC
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.
"an unmistakable new talent"
Reviewer: Steve Fruitman-- CIUT radio in Toronto
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.
"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."
Reviewer: Roddy Campbell, editor of Penguin Eggs Magazine
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.
There’s something groovy happening up in the Yukon, and Kim Beggs is part of it. Like fellow northerners Anne Louise Genest and Kim Barlow, Beggs sings compelling tunes about hard lives lived in towns frozen in time. Her sophomore effort, Wanderer’s Paean, demonstrates a roots purity that is seldomfound in similar efforts produced closer to the49th Parallel.
“Lips Stained Red with Wine” or “Feel a Little Glum” could have been written by Dolly Parton or Loretta Lynn in their barely outta-the-holler days. Like many roots players, Beggs takes traditional songs, including “Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow” and “All the Good Times are Past and Gone,” and puts a new spin on them. Bass player Bob Hamilton’s production is outstanding. He is particularly adept at capturing the intensity of the string arrangements without clouding Beggs’ sweet alto.
Beggs picks up where the Be Good Tanyas leave off, but with a more uplifting overall sound. Wanderer’s Paean deserves to be at the top of the CD rack.
International Songwriting Competition Winner! 3rd Place in the Americana Category. the song: "Lips Stained Red with Wine"
http://www.songwritingcompetition.com/winners.htm
Western Canadian Music Award 2007 Nominee for Outstanding Solo Roots Album (Wanderer's Paean)! (WCMA)
Canadian Folk Music Award 2007 Nominee for Best New Artist! (CFMA)
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 it’s 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 DeMent” Beggs reflects on the journey through life and death, the wanderer’s 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. Yet for all the allusions to tragedy, the songs never sound “heavy” thanks to Beggs’ uplifting melodies. On her sophomore CD, Wanderer’s Paean, a who’s 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 Quartet’s John Showman on violin, and another Yukon starlet Kim Barlow on banjo, as well as Anne Louise Genest and Natalie Edelson on harmony vocals. Tying the sound together is Juno-winning northern producer and member of bluegrass band Hungry Hill, Bob Hamilton (Kim Barlow, Jerry Alfred, Undertakin’ Daddies), who also plays dobro, mandolin and upright bass and sings harmony.
Wanderer’s 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 Vancouver’s 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 year’s International Songwriting Competition, and “Shipyard Song” was featured in the CBC documentary “Shipyard’s Lament.” Wanderer’s 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.
About Kim Beggs:
The theme of community is one that runs throughout Kim Beggs life and music. Born in Val d’Or, Quebec and raised in mining towns in Northern Ontario and later in Toronto, she is the second youngest of six children from a mixed-heritage household. Her parents adopted two children of Aboriginal ancestry giving Beggs a strong sense of connection to Aboriginal communities. Beggs studied Family and Social Relations at the University of Guelph and spent summers tree-planting in Northern Ontario and BC. In fact, it was the communal campfire sing-a-longs with her fellow planters that inspired her to start singing and playing guitar. She headed up to Whitehorse in the winter of ‘91 to teach herself her new instrument and visit with her sister for what was supposed to be just a couple of months’ vacation, but the Yukon’s strange combination of rawness and camaraderie grabbed her, and she never did go back to Ontario.
Beggs spent her first couple of years in Whitehorse working in a group home and working with the elderly – two occupations that exposed her to the hard reality of life in the north. She went on to establish herself as a carpenter – a trade she shares with two-time Juno-winner David Francey - while honing her guitar skills in her free time. Around the time she earned her journeyman carpenter papers in 2000, she began performing away from the campfire and writing her own material.
The very first song Beggs wrote, “Lowdown,” was featured as a hidden track on the Juno-nominated album Gingerbread, the second album by Whitehorse’s then-up-and-comer, Kim Barlow. Beggs’ own debut album, Streetcar Heart, came out in 2004, and earned praise from The Toronto Star, Now Magazine and the CBC’s Michael Enright among others. “Carry My Guitar” and “My Woes” were featured in the CBC Television series “Northern Town,” and a live version of “Gidyup Cowboy” was included on the CBC compilation CD TrulySomething2.
Beggs performs every Christmas on the Aboriginal People’s Television Network, and she recently co-wrote and recorded a song for a Yukon film about Dawson City. In addition to singing and songwriting, she also draws, paints, does sculpture and makes films.
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem sung on myspace...
Poem 162 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse (please see my blog): TEES TO TYNE: FIRST IMPRESSIONS - SUMMER 2001
Where traditions are not so rare; Sea, country and works scent the air; A multitude of monuments, Planted tubs and patterned pavements.
The longish pedestrian malls; The remnants of defensive walls; Historic buildings are a gauge Of the respect for heritage.
Wheat, rape and pines in the fields; Estuaries guarded by shields; Long sandy beaches and wide scenes; Romantic-ruin go-betweens.
Rivers in parts licked by trees, Or fringed by boat clubs, wharfs, gantries, And crossed by practical delights - Varied spans, forming pleasing sights.
Fine churches headed at Durham; Football kits ad infinitum; Kept castles - one for study; Masonry behind masonry.
And, with moulding-works out that way, It’s somewhere for a longer stay..?
This is what I call ol'time homestyle country music. But labels don't matter. It's the enjoyment that counts. Thanks. And you're welcome for the earlier comment.
“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. ... I get most joy in life out of music.”
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem sung on myspace...
Poem 2 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse (please see my blog): WALKABOUT WITH MY PEN
Once drove an old sedan, up north, From a place in Sydney to Cairns; Then to Kuranda I went forth, By train, to look without set plans.
I browsed through the trendy market, With fresh fruits of tropical kind; Walked to the creek through lush thicket - Nature’s hand giving peace of mind.
I dined in a scenic cafe; Then, outside, as I wrote for yen, Some passing Kooris called-out: “Hey, You go walkabout with your pen.”
Request or question, I don’t know - Assured voices, elderly men. That’s now several years ago, And I’ve seen the world - with my pen.
"Ticklin' The Strings" by Sweet Hollywaiians
Amazing Japanese hot string band playing 1920's, 30's, 40's style hawaiian, swing, calypso, blues, italian music and originals,featuring vintage instruments.3 songs with Robert Armstrong and Tony Marcus(from Robert Crumb and His Cheap Suit Serenaders)
"The Sweet Hollywaiians have probably the best feel for this 20's music of any string band working today. They manage the rare feat of sounding relaxed even when their playing is hot, are top notch musicians with tasteful arrangements and a full, rich, warm sound.Plus, they have a nice gamut of tunes, from King Nawahi to Giovanni Vicari to Bobby Leecan. See them live, if you can, for an unforgettable experience. If you can't, buy their Cds!" ~ Terry Zwigoff
Hello my friend. I would like to invite you to check out my new poem called "I Am a Storm". Just click the picture below and the storm will take you to my blog. Thank you, -byron
LOYAL EARTH MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL : APR 16 thru APR 20 - Old Rock House, Downtown St. Louis : Visit Loyalearth.com for tickets, full lineup, and more info!
Ha ha...so you've had the chicken sub too? The mega-tour is going swimmingly, and Owen Sound has been the icing on the cake thus far. Thanks again for your help. Happy returns to Canada, it's spring here now.
Ha ha...so you've had the chicken sub too? The mega-tour is going swimmingly, and Owen Sound has been the icing on the cake thus far. Thanks again for your help. Happy returns to Canada, it's spring here now.