Peeking at Juno nominees

Page 17

REVIEW

Following are capsule reviews of the 1995 Juno Award Nominees for the Music of Aboriginal Canada category:

This Child

Susan Aglukark

EMI Music Canada 1995

This Child has reached a musical maturity with strong lyrical content that surpasses Susan Aglukark's past recordings. Once described as the Anne Murray of Native music in Canada, Aglukark has become more of a corporate product in a global market in as much as she is an artist creating an identity for herself. There are lots of musical hooks with synethesized orchestrations and arrangements to grab her fans and This Child is geared for both AM and FM radio air-play.

Akua Tuta

Kashtin

Group Concept Musique/Sony-Columbia, 1994

While enjoying a steady success in the international music scene with their unique style and Innu dialect, Kashtin have held onto a simple honesty that characterized their success in the beginning. This release essentially follows the same pattern as their last two releases, but with a more folky twang and just the right amount of production. The title track Akua Tuta made its big debut on Robbie Robertson's Music for the Native Americans, (Capita/EMI, 1994). to accompany media magnate Ted Turner' network broadcast of the same name. The version on the Kashtin album is a different arrangement from its first release and that in itself can speak volumes about the duo's attention to artistic detail and commitments to their fans. There are lots of new twists throughout the album, particularly on the closing track. Kashtin are growing musically and are reinventing themselves rather than copying past success.

No Regrets

Tom Jackson

Peg/Sony Music, 1994

Over the years, Tom Jackson has enjoyed marginal success and become sort of an underground star through the folk festival circuit, live theatre, and TV appearances as a musical guest, but largely through the moccasin telegraph. Following the success of the television series North of Sixty, Jackson has become an international celebrity. He describes No Regrets as his first album even though he has four previous recordings to his credit. This one is the one he has long deserved, with a band, a producer, an arranger, a large label with wide distribution and publicity, and lots of airplay.

His first release on Rayne Records in Winnipeg was a collection of songs presented as a demo tape that contained the ballad The Renegade, The Huron Carol and Sally Anne. Both were released on Winnipeg's Thunder Records and the net proceeds were contributed to Salvation Army operations in that city. Three songs on his new album, Do Me Right, Vampire and Out Of Control, originally appeared on the sleazy Love, Lust and Longing album released on another Winnipeg label, Sunshine Records. On No Regrets, Jackson's more than just a guy with a guitar and lots of guy lyrics full of advice, yearning and promises. He treats himself to the full production that was mustered for the session. The title song, created in part with Erica Ehm (ex-Much Music vid-kid), is injected with lots of cultural references to underline the Native identity of a project released in a vast musical universe. It's 100 per cent Canadian Content, too.

Blue Voice, New Voice

Jani Lauzon

Ra Records, 1994

Jani Lauzon is the surprise nomination this year. She's not signed onto a major label or distributor. The entire project is all but self-made with the artist overseeing everything from the production to the publicity, while maintaining control over her career.

What is most satisfying for her is to see the efforts of her had work recognized on a national level. Her previous independent cassette released in Toronto included Jani and the Soda Jerks, Double Take, The Panthers, Marsha Coffey's Son of Ayash score with Mica Barness and one track on a compilation of local talent called Heart and Soul (Velvet Records).

Aside from her work as an actress, puppeteer and blues/rock artist, her work in recovering cultural identity is expresed on the album in two songs with the Toronto-based Anishnabe Kwe Singers,.

Unfortunately, some of the lyrics may appeal to the woman-haters in some of the male gender, but the music is hot on the up-tempo tracks.