Music – Winnipeg Free Press

Local music industry players win WCMAs

Eva Wasney 1 minute read Monday, Sep. 29, 2025

Those working behind the scenes in Manitoba’s music industry were recognized with Western Canadian Music Awards over the weekend.

Organizers of the Sakihiwe festival, which hosts national and local Indigenous artists in Winnipeg each summer, received the community excellence award.

Paquin Artists Agency won the impact in artist development and impact in live music categories.

And Birthday Cake Records took home the impact in music marketing award.

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Trio of’ Tobans honoured by Western Canadian Music Awards

Eva Wasney 1 minute read Preview

Trio of’ Tobans honoured by Western Canadian Music Awards

Eva Wasney 1 minute read Monday, Sep. 22, 2025

Three Manitobans are being celebrated for their impact on Canadian music.

On Monday, the Western Canadian Music Awards (WCMA) announced Winnipeg-born Juno winner Chantal Kreviazuk as this year’s inductee to the Western Canadian Music Hall of Fame, which recognizes the achievements of artists and bands.

Cross Lake singer-songwriter Ernest Monias — also known as “Elvis of the North” — has received the WCMA’s Heritage Award, given to an individual who has made significant industry contributions throughout a career.

And local promoter John Scoles, owner of the Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club, has earned the Kevin Walters Industry Builder Award for his mentorship and leadership.

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Monday, Sep. 22, 2025

Band leader embraces musical reputation as ‘old man’

Conrad Sweatman 4 minute read Preview

Band leader embraces musical reputation as ‘old man’

Conrad Sweatman 4 minute read Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025

Carter Graham isn’t afraid to be untimely.

The 30-something pianist and leader of soul outfit Vox Populi — which launches its debut LP, Invasive Species, in a concert tonight at the West End Cultural Centre — thinks in musical terms that almost seem old-fashioned today: albums, melodic and harmonic richness, live bands.

“I was told by many people to not even do this,” he says. With the music industry now geared heavily towards singles in an era of algorithmically curated playlists, he describes producing and releasing a full-length record as a quasi-act of “rebellion.”

“I feel like I have to. It’s like, ‘Why do I do music?’ No one would do this job of lugging your stuff out for 50 bucks and getting either heckled or harassed or talked down by drunks if you didn’t love it.”

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Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025

Taking Reel Pride in transformation

Conrad Sweatman 5 minute read Preview

Taking Reel Pride in transformation

Conrad Sweatman 5 minute read Wednesday, Sep. 17, 2025

Reel Pride isn’t entering a mid-life crisis.

At 40, the annual Winnipeg LGBTTQ+ film festival appears as forward-looking as ever — though at the moment, its president, Ray Desautels, is feeling reflective about its arc.

“The festival started at a time when … you didn’t see LGBTQ characters on television, and if you did, they were shown in a very poor light or very stereotypical way,” he says.

“It’s become more, I think, a gathering place for queer people and queer arts … It’s more of an arts festival, not necessarily just strictly the film festival that it used to be. So we’re a gathering place for the queer community and its allies and supporters.”

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Wednesday, Sep. 17, 2025

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Odd Fish follows childhood friends Björn and Hjalti as they open a restaurant and as Björn transitions into Birna.

Photographer focuses on finding the whimsical

Conrad Sweatman 4 minute read Preview

Photographer focuses on finding the whimsical

Conrad Sweatman 4 minute read Wednesday, Sep. 10, 2025

Synesthesia — a psychological condition associated with sounds producing the sensation of colours and shapes — is supposed to affect many of the world’s musical savants.

Interdisciplinary Winnipeg artist Ayoub Moustarzak seems to have this condition in inverse.

“This song was a little backwards. I started with visuals,” he says of his debut single, Breaks Apart, a theatrical ballad featuring pianist Dallas Nedotiafko, released in August.

“(My music) is more of a visual storytelling experience that comes with a song.”

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Wednesday, Sep. 10, 2025

Ayoub Moustarzak photo
Edmonton pop artist Margo.

On the money

Conrad Sweatman 4 minute read Preview

On the money

Conrad Sweatman 4 minute read Friday, Sep. 5, 2025

Three million $2 coins bearing artwork by Daphne Odjig will soon circulate through the country.

Odjig, who died in 2016, was one of the country’s most notable artists and a key innovator of the Woodlands style, an Indigenous art movement that emerged in the latter half of the 20th century. Her celebrated career took flight while living in Manitoba.

The Royal Canadian Mint unveiled the commemorative coin at a media conference at the Manitoba Museum on Thursday, marking the first Canadian circulation coin to feature a female visual artist.

The toonie comes in coloured and uncoloured varieties.

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Friday, Sep. 5, 2025

Calgary trio embraces post-pandemic life on the road

Conrad Sweatman 5 minute read Preview

Calgary trio embraces post-pandemic life on the road

Conrad Sweatman 5 minute read Friday, Aug. 29, 2025

Touring is dead, long live touring.

This seems to be the attitude of Woodhawk, Calgary stoner rockers who have toured Western Canada an estimated 15 times, and crossed Canada five times, in the past decade or so.

And, for all the dire post-pandemic reports about the costs and state of music touring, hopes are high for Woodhawk this time round, hitting the road for the first time in a few years.

They’re promoting their third album, Love Finds A Way, a more optimistic title after Beyond the Sun (2017) and Violent Nature (2019).

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Friday, Aug. 29, 2025

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Woodhawk is touring in support of its new album, Love Finds a Way.

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Metamorphosis of a drama

Conrad Sweatman 6 minute read Preview

Metamorphosis of a drama

Conrad Sweatman 6 minute read Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025

Lara Rae’s autobiographical Dragonfly begins much where the author did — as a boy in 1960s Glasgow with the uncanny sense of not being a boy in the narrow way expected.

“If there’s one cliché I guess I lean into, I’ve loved opera since I was a youth,” says the trans playwright and comedian.

“I mean, it’s the joke in Philadelphia. (The gay character played by) Tom Hanks says that he’s listening to La Mamma Morta and it’s such a cliché that he’s crying over Callas.”

Now Rae is expressing her early love by developing Dragonfly into a 75-minute chamber piece with Manitoba Opera, making it the first Canadian opera centring on a trans person.

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Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
(From left) Composer Maria Thompson Corley will give musical life to Lara Rae’s autobiographical opera Dragonfly.

Making the music seen

Ben Waldman 6 minute read Preview

Making the music seen

Ben Waldman 6 minute read Friday, Aug. 22, 2025

Sam Thompson didn’t know what a podcast was until just about the moment he recorded his first.

Nearly 13 years later, the music-obsessed journalist from Winnipeg is one week away from posting the 1,000th episode of Witchpolice Radio, a weekly local music interview program that’s outlived the iPod itself.

Since the show’s pilot in 2012, “doing Witchpolice” has become a rite of passage for hundreds of recording artists spanning musical eras and genres. Whether the artist makes Portage la Prairie queercore punk like Ticked Off (Ep. 997), cathartic metalcore such as Hopscotchbattlescars (No. 782), or danceable hip-hop fusion such as JayWood (No. 589), Thompson has maintained an open and receptive ear.

“I never thought the show would make it 100 episodes, let alone 500, let alone 1,000, so it’s kind of cool,” says Thompson, who will be on the receiving end of listener-submitted questions for the milestone episode.

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Friday, Aug. 22, 2025

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Witchpolice Radio’s Sam Thompson records his weekly podcast in his bedroom studio.

New music

6 minute read Preview

New music

6 minute read Friday, Aug. 8, 2025

ROCK

The Black Keys

No Rain, No Flowers (Warner Records)

The Ohio alt-rock band the Black Keys are finding their way home on their 13th full-length LP, No Rain, No Flowers.

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Friday, Aug. 8, 2025

Snow in August

Conrad Sweatman 6 minute read Preview

Snow in August

Conrad Sweatman 6 minute read Friday, Aug. 8, 2025

Don’t feel bad if you didn’t see your name on Frozen’s cast list.

Rainbow Stage auditioned more 1,000 people in the open call for its summer production of Disney’s most famous musical of the gen Z and alpha childhood eras, which opened Thursday.

“We wanted to find some diamonds in the rough [and] we wanted to feel accessible to every kid who loves Frozen… And our worst nightmares came true. Everyone could sing!” says Rainbow Stage artistic director and Frozen’s director Carson Nattress.

“It’s been overwhelming in every sense — and then we went on sale and our system crashed, because people are so moved by this story.”

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Friday, Aug. 8, 2025

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
From left: Frozen music director Andrew St. Hilaire, choreographer Jaz Sealey and director (and Rainbow Stage artistic director) Carson Nattrass auditioned more than 1,000 actors for this production.

Winnipeg’s Propagandhi in running for Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize

Jen Zoratti 2 minute read Friday, Aug. 8, 2025

It’s never too late to get your roses: Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes, the 2001 album from Winnipeg punk outfit Propagandhi, is one of 12 albums up for the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize.

A companion award to the annual Polaris Music Prize, which honours Canadian albums of artistic distinction without regard to sales, genre or affiliation, the Heritage prize recognizes deserving Canadian albums that were released before the prize began in 2006.

Two of this year’s nominated albums will receive a Heritage Prize designation. One album will be chosen by the public; the other will be selected by the Heritage Prize jury, which is composed of music media and music historians.

Propagandhi’s third studio album is the only Winnipeg entry on the list, which includes other Canadian classics as rapper Choclair’s 1999 debut Ice Cold, singer/songwriter Jane Siberry’s 1985 album The Speckless Sky and Montreal pop-punk outfit Doughboys’ 1993 major-label debut Crush.

Fringe at its gut-clutching best when it layers on the cringe

Conrad Sweatman 7 minute read Preview

Fringe at its gut-clutching best when it layers on the cringe

Conrad Sweatman 7 minute read Saturday, Jul. 26, 2025

I have just laughed as hard as I have at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in 20 years.

Prodded in the gut until air escaped me in the most embarrassing way.

The offending object was a play by Winnipeg performer Donnie Baxter called Shit: The Musical, which has its last show at 8:45 p.m. tonight.

My bright, witty peer Jeffrey Vallis gave it a one-star review in the Free Press last week.

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Saturday, Jul. 26, 2025

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Shit: The Musical possesses a kind of gonzo spirit.

Winnipeg singer-guitarist gets his own signature Fender Stratocaster

Ben Waldman 3 minute read Preview

Winnipeg singer-guitarist gets his own signature Fender Stratocaster

Ben Waldman 3 minute read Friday, Jul. 25, 2025

For nearly 20 years as a professional musician, Ariel Posen has been honing his unmistakable signature sound. Now, the Winnipeg-raised guitar hero has his own signature guitar, too.

Earlier this month, Posen and the manufacturing giant Fender released the Limited Edition Ariel Posen Stratocaster, an instrument customized to the specifications of the prolific singer-guitarist, who has released two albums — Mile End III and a self-titled duo album with session drummer Ash Soan — so far in 2025.

“It was kind of like the sky’s the limit; whatever you want, we can do,” says Posen of the collaboration with Fender and the company’s pickup designer Tim Shaw, who worked with Posen for nearly three years to get the finished product — which combines his favourite features of Jazzmaster and Strat models — just right.

“It’s a fairly simple instrument, but every little detail I wanted was never an issue. Everyone has their tool of choice in whatever field they’re in, and for me specifically, this is the style of guitar I gravitate to.”

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Friday, Jul. 25, 2025

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Ariel Posen plays the custom Fender Limited Edition Stratocaster designed for him.

Nurse wants paramedics stationed at folk fest in wake of asthma attack

Eva Wasney 3 minute read Preview

Nurse wants paramedics stationed at folk fest in wake of asthma attack

Eva Wasney 3 minute read Friday, Jul. 18, 2025

A Winnipeg Folk Festival attendee is calling for better on-site medical services after she had a life-threatening asthma attack during the outdoor event at Birds Hill Provincial Park last week.

“I almost died; I’m very thankful the ambulance arrived when it did,” Freya Martin said, fighting back tears.

Martin, a Winnipeg intensive care unit nurse, was looking forward to enjoying the opening night of the festival with her family on July 10 when she started feeling a familiar tightness in her lungs.

A lifelong asthma sufferer, she felt no symptoms prior to around 8 p.m. and suspects the attack was triggered by poor air quality owing to wildfire smoke, which had begun to worsen overnight Thursday and prompted Environment Canada to issue air quality warnings for Manitoba.

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Friday, Jul. 18, 2025