Making Musical InroadsIt's music week in the province, but the industry is still finding it difficult to find traction in the Maritime music scene
By Grant Kerr
Telegraph-Journal
New Brunswick's musicians are aching to make a big noise.
But artists are often left feeling like those Who's down in Whoville where nobody can hear them yop.
The second-ever Music New Brunswick Week is in full swing. However, some in the industry are questioning why it's being held in Edmundston this weekend when the event has yet to be held in larger centres like Fredericton or Saint John. The latter have larger populations and bigger media outlets that can give artists better exposure.
There are also suggestions that by not having an awards ceremony for New Brunswick artists, musicians are missing out on an opportunity to get their names heard.
"We have some catching up to do with regards to other Maritimes music associations," said Jeff Liberty, the Saint John-based manager of blues giant Matt Andersen.
"Even P.E.I. has an awards show," he said. "There seems to be as much talent in New Brunswick as other provinces, but we seem a little behind."
Liberty hasn't been much involved with Music New Brunswick, following his own agenda while managing Andersen and Jay Semko, a former Northern Pike. But he realized how much work MNB has to do when he went to the association's website and recognized few of the names who are playing showcase concerts during the three-day event.
"I was thinking, 'Shouldn't I know all these people? Who are these people?' If we (industry insiders) don't know who these people are, how is the public supposed to know?"
Moncton's Lullaby Baxter is in the same boat. As glad as she is that it's happening, the torch singer is giving the event a pass this year because it's too far and too small, "Any of these things take a while to catch on," Baxter said.
Besides, she's trying to jump straight back into the national scene as she did with her 2000 Atlantic Records debut album Capable Egg. Her follow-up release, Garden Cities of Tomorrow, is expected to drop in July, put out by Vancouver's Boompa Records. Before that happens she's lined up a spot at the Montreal Jazz Festival and Toronto's North By Northeast festival. For the moment, MNB can't offer her much.
"I figured it's not that big a deal. Maybe I'm silly."
Music New Brunswick's executive director has heard these criticisms.
But he points out that in four short years, the fledgling agency has come a long way.
"It's going beautifully," Bellefleur said over the phone from his Moncton office. "Initially we were expecting 225 to 250 delegates. Now there will be 375 to 400 delegates. This has blown into something really, really amazing."
This includes talent buyers from all over the Atlantic provinces, as well as Maine and Boston, who are searching for New Brunswick artists.
The showcases, open to the public, are selling well and the workshops and seminars for the artists are booking up. Gordie Johnson, singer/ guitarist/ songwriter/ producer of Big Sugar fame, is the keynote speaker.
Darlings Island's Stephanie Mainville is excited about MNB week. She attended her first ECMAs last February and is looking forward to making contacts this weekend and learning more about the music business.
"When Music New Brunswick offered me a showcase, how could I refuse?" said the chipper fiddler. "Right now I am considered a gospel artist, so playing to a wider audience is a nice opportunity."
She doesn't mind the trip up north, either.
Edmundston has embraced the event, Bellefleur said, and out-bid Fredericton to host it. They were the only two cities to bid.
Music New Brunswick week takes about $100,000 to host and Bellefleur said it's important to expand slowly, given that this is only the encore production. An awards ceremony for New Brunswick artists is a possibility in the future, perhaps even next year.
Such a show is "definitely something that is on our radar, but putting something like Music New Brunswick week on takes a lot of resources"... If it is going to cost $20,000 or $25,000 for a gala awards show, we thought it would be better to invest the money in professional development," Bellefleur said.
Money has been a challenge for the organization. Bellefleur said that the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) has been particularly stingy in helping out the organization.
Over the last seven or eight years, ACOA has pumped more than $6 million into the Atlantic Canadian music industry, only $300,000 of which has come to New Brunswick, Bellefleur said. Nova Scotia alone gobbles up about half the money, he added.
"This is preferential treatment," Bellefleur said of the funding reality that pits one region against another.
"We have had five or six applications in the last 12 months rejected," he said.
"ACOA helped us with a three-year strategic plan and now they don't want to support us. It is amazingly frustrating," Bellefleur said.
Patricia Field, an ACOA spokeswoman from Moncton, said the agency recognizes the importance of music and culture.
In the last five years, ACOA has put about $12 million into New Brunswick's culture sector, she said.
It's not enough, Bellefleur said. He points to three major New Brunswick acts that have all left the province over the last two years to settle in Nova Scotia: Bairdsville's Matt Andersen, Fredericton's Hot Toddy and Sackville's In-Flight Safety.
He admitted that artists leave because the Maritimes' music industry is based in Halifax and that artists always flock to music meccas. But it doesn't have to be that way, he said.
"Our artists should have the option of developing their own careers in their own province. There are people in the Yukon who are living there and making their living from music," he said.
Part of the problem here is a shortage of music managers, agents, promoters and studios, all necessary infrastructure for a successful music industry.
Halifax's Wendy Phillips is waiting to see what will happen at MNB week as well. Phillips handled publicity this past year for the ECMAs in Charlottetown as well as for the Nova Scotia capital's powerful Sonic Entertainment group. Sonic is an artist management agency, concert promoter, recording studio and record company all rolled into one.
Phillips handles publicity for N.B. artists like Hot Toddy and Isaac and Blewett and is aware of artists like Matt Andersen, but few others.
"New Brunswick is a big unknown," she said.
"Maybe it goes back to the infrastructure that's there. Maybe it's not enough right now. There is certainly no shortage of talent there."
Phillips was expecting a call from MNB to attend New Brunswick's music week.
"I would have loved to have come but the invitation never came," Phillips said over the phone from her Halifax office.