showing 1 to 10 of 33
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Best Artist / Band Most Likely To Make It Big
on November 7, 2019 at 1:00AM
Gold Winner Makayla Lynn
Silver Winner T. Thomason
Bronze Winner Jody Upshaw
“Twenty-nineteen has been crazy in a lot of ways,” begins Lynn, her Nashville accent riding hard on crazy’s second syllable. “I’ve been splitting my time between Nova Scotia and Nashville and between a whirlwind of emotions.” While already being on Rolling Stone’s radar and spending time in the capital of country music might make some people think she has already made it big, Lynn keeps her eye on a higher prize: “It’s one thing to build yourself up in your hometown—and I’ll never take that for granted—but then to go to another place and be such a small fish in a big pond; How hard it makes you work, and how inspiring it is, is what I love about it.”
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Best Artist / Band To Dance To
on November 7, 2019 at 1:00AM
Gold Winner The Mellotones
Silver Winner Asia & Nu Gruv
Bronze Winner Roxy & The Underground Soul Sound
In Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 book about success, Outliers, he discusses the rule of 10,000 hours—as in, it takes that much time spent doing something to become a world-class expert in a particular skill. Venerable cover band The Mellotones acts as an unsuspecting case study for the rule presented by Gladwell, having honed an impeccable live show over the past 20-plus years. The group’s bassist Mike Farrington says it all comes back to “picking the kind of music everybody likes—right now, we’ve been doing an instrumental of the Jackson Five’s ‘Want You Back’—it’s one of the best riffs of all time. The second people hear it, it’s guaranteed to fill the dance floor.”
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Best Artist / Band To Enjoy Quietly
on November 7, 2019 at 1:00AM
Gold Winner Rose Cousins
Silver Winner Old Man Luedecke
Bronze Winner Kim Harris
This is the third year in a row Rose Cousins has nabbed this award, with 2017’s Natural Conclusio clearly still getting a lot of spins around town. “I’m always happy to be considered. I’m away from Halifax so much so I’m glad to be thought of,” she says, mentioning she has new music dropping soon as well as a single arriving on November 8. “I love creating environments where people lean in and listen—I’m not creating a show where people dance—and I just wanna say, thank you for leaning in and listening.”
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Best Artist / Band To Turn Up Loud
on November 7, 2019 at 1:00AM
Gold Winner Adam Baldwin
Silver Winner Hello Delaware
Bronze Winner Jessie Brown
Though Baldwin’s kept a full calendar in 2019 touring as a guitarist for Matt Mays, he still found time to drop the Dire Straits-influenced EP No Rest For The Wicked, best played blaring to make its old-school rock ’n’ roll vibes take full flight. He describes the heart of his live performances as follows: “I’m a bar band guy: That’s the stuff I like to do, play some ol’ three-chord bar song that’s fun to play, that people can shake their asses to a little bit.”
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Best Blues Artist / Band
on November 7, 2019 at 1:00AM
Gold Winner Garrett Mason
Silver Winner Joe Murphy & The Water Street Blues Band
Bronze Winner Shirley Jackson and her Good Rockin' Daddies
A siren song of sadness ringing from Bearly’s every Tuesday night, Garrett Mason’s brand of blues is dependably lovely and lonesome in equal measure. The son of local blues royalty Dutch Mason and a Juno winner in his own right, he prefers to let his guitar—and wicked fretboard dexterity—do the talking. Seeing how he’s won this award five times, we gather that’s how you like it, too.
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Best Classical Artist / Group
on November 7, 2019 at 1:00AM
Gold Winner Symphony Nova Scotia
Silver Winner Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra
Bronze Winner The Halifax Music Co-op
“I think that we really try to program an orchestra for the community, not to be elitist but to have programming that appeals to diverse audiences,” says Symphony Nova Scotia’s CEO Chris Wilkinson. “What makes me really happy is if I’m in the lobby and it’s a whole different audience. We have our core classical audience and then we have people who come in for shows like Video Games Live or Thorgy and the Thorchestra.” And by pushing boundaries with shows like Thorgy’s—which the symphony created with the RuPaul’s Drag Race star—this is an orchestra that does just that.
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Best Country Artist / Band
on November 7, 2019 at 1:00AM
Gold Winner Makayla Lynn
Silver Winner Brooklyn Blackmore
Bronze Winner Samantha Power
“The most common thing you hear is you gotta find what makes you different than any other girl in Nashville,” says Lynn, who has been busy splitting her time between Nova Scotia and Nashville. She recalls advice she got earlier this year at a Country Music Television panel: “‘Stick to what you are and people will get there’—I held onto that and I’m gonna take that and run. It’s that balance of trying to branch out because I’m figuring things out in a lot of ways and also stick to what makes me me.”
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Best Cover Artist / Band
on November 7, 2019 at 1:00AM
Gold Winner The Mellotones
Silver Winner Signal Hill
Bronze Winner Shameless
“We play great tunes and have been playing them for a long time,” says The Mellotones bassist Mike Farrington of the group’s success. Having made a mark around town for over 20 years (catch the band at Bearly’s Thursday nights), Farrington says it’s all about picking “the kind of music everyone likes. It has to turn us on first before it’ll ever make it to the setlist.” No hit song stays in the roster for long. “We just keep trying to improve, otherwise you get stale.”
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Best DJ
on November 7, 2019 at 1:00AM
Gold Winner DJ IV
Silver Winner Pineo & Loeb
Bronze Winner DJ Fadzwa
DJ IV has been king of this category for a while, but now he’s ready to pass the torch. “To Coast readers, who I can't thank enough for voting for me year after year, putting me in the gold category for nine years now. Let's make next year really special and place me on The Coast's BOH retired list and together we can pass the torch along to the next generation of amazing DJs that Halifax has to offer,” he says. “Salute to all my fellow hardworking DJs who put in the work, making Halifax such a great city for entertainment.”
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Best Electronic Artist / Band
on November 7, 2019 at 1:00AM
Gold Winner Neon Dreams
Silver Winner Rich Aucoin
Bronze Winner Scientists Of Sound
“I think we really changed the way we write music in the past year, especially on the last album. We started to understand our fan base and almost write to them directly,” says Neon Dreams’ Adrian Morris. “This album really separates—it’s like a whole new chapter.” Ditching writing around a beat and starting songs on guitar adds to the new vibe. While 2019 saw the band slim down to a duo, inspiration hasn’t drained; Frank Kadillac’s travels through studios in Denmark, Korea and Nicaragua all influence the act’s latest songs.
