Wayne Lavallee “Trail of Tears” took home Best folk/acoustic album, Best Male Artist & Best Rock Album at the 12th Annual Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards Nov 2010,  view other winners:

http://www.canab.com/mainpages/events/musicawards_files/2010/winners/2010winners.php

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Like each of Wayne Lavallee’s album releases, Trail Of Tears leads with the strongest song musically though few songs on this outing could be considered weak. Wayne’s new CD is a bit more somber than his first two releases but it also shows a maturing as an artist from subject matter and most certainly in the music layering in each song. Wayne continues to mix traditional Aboriginal rhythms with his folk, roots, rock music style and each song builds up to a variety of musical climaxes as they develop. Wayne has no fear in using a variety of musical instrumentation, as his rhythm guitar is accentuated by tasteful use of banjos, fiddle and even a trumpet. All this lends itself to an original rich sound.

This is one of those CDs where the songs are strong enough to stand on their own, but is best listened to in its entirety. Better yet, for a serious listen, this is a good album to tune into with headphones. Wayne’s high octave voice, the likes of mainstream singers like Geddy Lee of Rush or Jon Anderson of Yes, is singularly unique and he relays his lyrics in a way that communicates the emotions of both the words and the melodies. Of the ten songs on the CD, Wayne writes all but two. He proves he is a more than competent song writer as well as performer, and the two cover songs — Codine by Buffy Saint Marie and Bob Marley’s Buffalo Soldier — are done in such a way that if the listener didn’t know the cover songs, you’d have thought they were originals. Whether competing with other Aboriginal or mainstream artists, this cd can hold its own as a quality music production that is worth the praise from listeners and critics both.

Review by K. Kanten

http://www.ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/wayne-lavallee-our-pick

Eagle & Hawk is also nominated in the Aboriginal category this year. The JUNO Award winning rockers have their ninth release, entitled Into the Great Unknown in the running.

Manitoba-based Arbor Records is up for Independent Record Label of the Year. They have releases by Derek Miller, legendary pow wow drum group Eyabay, Stevie Salas, and Tracy Bone to their credit.

Shane Yellowbird (AB), Leela Gilday (NT), and Wayne Lavallee (BC) round out the nominations for Aboriginal Recording of the Year. Yellowbird is also nominated for Country Recording of the Year, while his manager Louis O’Reilly (SK) is in the running for Manager of the Year.

The awards gala is the pinnacle event of the newly renamed BreakOut West — held October 21 to 24, 2010 in Kelowna. Formerly known as Western Canadian Music Week, the eighth annual event features a conference and three-day music festival with 50 showcasing acts in addition to the two awards shows. The WCMAs present an incredible opportunity for emerging and established artists to be a part of the western Canadian music community. Participating artists and other music professionals have the chance to meet key industry stakeholders creating the opportunity for a new wave of exciting industry developments from record deals to international tours.

For a complete list of 2010 WCMA nominees, please visit www.breakoutwest.ca.

http://www.aboriginalmusic.ca/news/4302

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