Music

Devin Townsend, Sarah McLachlan, Dallas Smith, and Michael Buble ensure B.C. isn't shut out at Juno Awards

by Charlie Smith on March 16th, 2015 at 9:48 AM
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      Four Lower Mainland musicians were honoured with Juno awards last night at the FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton.

      The Devin Townsend Project won for Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year for  Z². Townsend, described in a previous Straight article as a "master of extreme metal", is from New Westminster.

      Sarah McLachlan took home the Juno for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year for Shine On. She was also a runner-up as Artist of the Year to The Weeknd.

      Langley's Dallas Smith won for Country Album of the Year for Lifted.

      The Juno Fan Choice Award when to Burnaby's Michael Bublé, whose 2014 show in Vancouver was described by the Straight as "nothing less than fucking perfect". Two other bands with deep B.C. connections, Hedley and Nickelback, were runners-up in this category.

      Hedley's dapper frontman, Jacob Hoggard, hosted the show on CTV. To close the broadcast, he sang an Alanis Morisette ditty, changing the words to rue his band's loss and note Nickelback's absence from Hamilton that evening. Nickelback was also a runner-up for Group of the Year.

      A bunch of other musicians with connections to the Lower Mainland ended up as bridesmaids.

      Former North Vancouver resident Bryan Adams wasn't chosen as Artist of the Year. 

      Meanwhile, Vancouver's Mother Mother was a runner-up for Group of the Year, which went to the Arkells.

      Mother Mother's producer, Gavin Brown, and recording engineer, Lenny Derose, were also runners-up in their categories.

      Another Vancouver musician, James Hill, was a runner-up with The Old Solo for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Solo. Catherine McLellan won the Juno in this category for The Raven's Sun.

      Harpoonist & The Axe Murder was another local act that didn't make it to the winner's circle. The duo's (Matt Rogers and Shawn Hall) A Real Fine Mess was not chosen as Blues Album of the Year. Instead, it went to Steve Hill for Solo Recordings, Vol. 2.

      Vancouver native Trevor Guthrie's Soundwave was a runner-up in Dance Recording of the Year to Kiesza's Sound of a Woman. Guthrie's producer, Thomas "Tawgs" Salter, was one of the runners-up for Jack Richardson Producer of the Year.

      Dane Collison, also from Vancouver, was a runner-up in Video of the Year for SonReal's "Preach". Kiesza's "Hideaway" was the winner.

      Jonathan Crow, who's from Prince George, was up twice for Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble. One of the albums was recorded with fellow Prince George native Paul Stewart. A third Prince George musician, Karl Stobbe, was also nominated in this category. But the Juno went to James Ehnes for Bartok: Chamber Works for Violin Vol. 3.

      Love Bug creator Raffi—clearly B.C. teachers' favourite for his vigorous support of their strike last year—lost out to Fred Penner's Where In The World for Children's Album of the Year. Vancouver's Bobs & Lolo were also nominated in this category for Wave Your Antlers.

      The Junos also honoured Morissette, who was admitted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and Rush for winning the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award. One of the presenters of the latter award, Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, pointed out that the band raised $500,000 to assist his city's residents after a devastating flood last year.

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