[mplpost] Roots/Traditional - Two Categories please!!

[Maria Dunn]

Dear CARAS:

I am writing to express my dismay that CARAS has moved to reduce the
JUNO categories for Roots/Traditional to one category.

As a 2002 Juno-nominated artist in the Roots/Traditional Solo category, I
believe the nomination has helped boost my profile in my own region and
other regions across Canada and the US, which is valuable to a touring
artist trying to build a reputation in a vast geographical region. The
nomination is recognized as a validation of the high quality of one's work
in Canada and the US.  Limiting Roots/Traditional music to one category will
narrow the number of fine artists that can be honoured with this
recognition.

As a long time (16 years) member of the folk roots music community in
Alberta, through campus/community radio programming and involvement with
folk clubs and festivals, I have seen the folk clubs in Edmonton and area
blossom from concerts that were few and far between and sporadically
attended to four clubs that are consistently full, if not sold out on a
weekly basis. Several area "soft-seater" theatres (300-500 capacity) also
have well-attended seasons with many folk music acts. Over the last 16
years, I've also seen the Edmonton Folk Music Festival grow to the point
where it is an internationally renowned festival and has sold out (something
like 40,000 audience members over a weekend) several times in the last 5
years. Roots/traditional music is *growing* in popularity, not shrinking!
The Juno categories should reflect this.

The folk/roots artists in Canada are a very diverse and talented group,
expressing our distinct Canadian culture, whether it be traditional music
and song from Cape Breton or Quebec, or contemporary songwriting from the
Yukon or the Prairies.
Our songwriters, singers and musicians explore our history in new songs and
preserve it in old songs. They also express our current perspective on the
world. We have tremendous acts that write and perform their music as groups
(La Bottine Souriante, Les Batinses, The Barra MacNeills, Tricontinental) as
well as solo acts, primarily songwriters and singers (James Keelaghan,
Gordon Lightfoot, David Francey, Penny Lang, Mary Jane Lamond), but also
instrumentalists (April Verch, Natalie MacMaster). To force all of these
artists to compete with each other in one category will make judging these
delightful "apples and oranges" even more difficult and reduce everyone's
opportunities.

As a CARAS member, I feel strongly that we should be positively promoting
Canadian music. Roots/Traditional music is our most grass roots Canadian
music, with a growing audience in Canada and worldwide. We have a vibrant
recording industry as a result of so many of these artists making and
selling their recordings. We should be fostering this growth, rather than
limiting it.

I hope that you will reconsider your decision. Please keep the *two*
Roots/Traditional categories. Give our music the higher profile that it
deserves!

Sincerely,


Maria Dunn
-------------------------------
Distant Whisper Music
PO Box 75063
Edmonton, AB  T6E 6K1
distantwhisper@mariadunn.com
http://www.mariadunn.com

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