Days Gone By - 2012 MoM Line-up, in no particular order . . .
High Society |
High Society is a four-headed beast with the undying strength of animatronics driven by monstrous animal instincts; with lungs only comparable to the likes of superman filling a voice that plucks your heart strings.
Based out of Vancouver, B.C. the band has been building a regional reputation across western Canada for close to two years playing a blend of R&B, Soul, Folk, Blues, Hip Hop, and Jazz. They are currently getting ready to release a live album in between the tracking of a studio album before heading into the Great White North on their second tour. |
Wax Mannequin
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Wax Mannequin was born in the smoke and industry of Hamilton; a damaged, underdog town; a perfect breeding ground for strange, variant things. Incorporating folk, scrappy prog-metal and a tireless creative ethic, Wax infused his local influences with road-broken experience to forge something new. Solo (accompanied by heavy devices and an angry, nylon-string guitar) or band-backed, Wax Mannequin has toured incessantly within Canada over the past several years, with more recent forays into Europe and Australia.
Oblivious to the trend and trap of the big cities and the cultural propaganda machines, Wax Mannequin now finds himself a forerunner in a strange new movement: roaming recluses and attention-seekers — solo-performers, equipped with laptops, damaged instruments and decaying minivans, making new sounds, informed by hard travel and rough living. Wax’s thought-provoking live performances and acclaimed recordings have garnered the fervent support of the creative underclass in his home country as well as a burgeoning international reputation. After a comparaome travel, teaching grade two students and recording with Andy Magoffin, a wiser Wax Mannequin emerges. He readies himself again for the glories and pitfalls of the trans-Canada, and the trans-atlantic. Wax’s newest release ‘Saxon’ marks a gritty return to the psych-folk roots of this rambling iconoclast. |
“Hypnotic songwriting, a voice to melt you from the inside out, all supported and propelled forward by a trance inducing rhythm section. And they look like guys you’d want to take home and introduce to your grandma, yet underneath this charming exterior, there is an ever so slight gun slinging badassness”
-T.Nile "A lot of gorgeous women like Steve’s music, and he’s a pretty ugly guy. That says a lot about the zoom boom power and raw girth of this man’s words and music" -C.R. Avery |
Miss Quincy and The Showdown |
You'd better hide your sons & lovers, Miss Quincy's bringing her all-girl trio The Showdown to Music on the Mountain. Tipping her hat to earlier times, Miss Quincy draws inspiration from the pioneering women who came before, the blues ladies of the 1930's, dirty guitar licks, and sweet gospel harmonies. Miss Quincy doesn't fit the classic girl singer/songwriter mold and The Showdown isn't your average all-girl band. Instead of singing you pretty pages out of their diaries, they'll be getting down with dirty electric roots & blues.
"Miss Quincy ain’t just another pretty face with a guitar. Did I mention she can sing? Her voice is a welcome change from the over-produced, synthesized female drones filling commercial airwaves these days. It has character and bite, like a good cigar." -The Calgary Beacon "A definite star for the future” -Ralph McLean, BBC Radio |
Stellar Radio Choir |
"Stellar Radio Choir bring forward the lyrics and howl of an agonized bluesman and blend that with the wonderfully unrefined guitar riffs and bass hooks that awesome garage rock is made of. Adding a psychedelic edge with the use of pedals and a passionate stage presence, it is completely fitting and almost necessary that their latest E.P. be titled “Attack! Of The Laser Tiger”. - Jamie Woodward, Green Couch Sessions
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Kate Reid |
Anyone who'd write a song called "The Only Dyke at the Open Mic" deserves a medal. And when she follows it up with "I'd Go Straight for Ridley Bent" and "Co-op Girlz" (about trying to pick up chicks at a health food store), she should be eligible for the Order of Canada. A woman who breaks the stereotypes and makes us all think as well as laugh. I am, not so secretly, in love with this woman!" -Richard Flohil
“....gut-splittingly funny” - Stuart Derdeyn, The Vancouver Province "Kate Reid is, quite simply, one of the best songwriters to emerge from the Canadian folk roots scene since David Francey." -Tim Readman, Penguin Eggs Magazine #44, 2009 |
The Broken Mirrors |
After 12 years touring the world with underground legend CR Avery, lead guitarist Noah Walker has started a new band with some of Vancouver's finest musicians. The Broken Mirrors have the musicianship of Wilco, the energy of The Talking Heads, the style and humour of Beck, and the quirkiness of early Elvis Costello.
"Noah Walker is not jazz, he is not blues or rock n roll but a musical hurricane picking up a little something every time he touches down. It's almost like the guitar is playing him, he plays with precision and depth, and sometimes he plays like he's being electrocuted." - Scott Nolan |
Linda McRae |
"When all the trends fade and become dated, and all the music from the cutting edge becomes dull, Linda McRae will continue to stand tall, singing and playing music with honest soul and humility, cutting through the fog with her timeless clarity. Linda is one of the true, soulful pioneers of honest roots music. Her singing and playing brings honour to her heroes and to her friends and fans."
-Colin Linden, Award Winning Songwriter, Producer, Guitarist (Bruce Cockburn, Emmy Lou Harris, Alison Krauss/Robert Plant) "Her music is wonderfully free of pretense, simply and emotionally played without a lot of clutter and distraction. It serves to underscore her warm and powerful vocals." -The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, OH, Douglas Fulmer |
Random Order |
Random Order has drawn comparisons to bands such as the Au Pairs, The Slits,and The Clash. They have received airplay on radio stations as far away as Galway Ireland [Radio Pirate Woman], Berlin, Germany, Amsterdam Holland and has reached #2 on CLKN 88.1 fm's charts twice and number one on CKMS (Waterloo). They have been described as: Canada's premiere reggae-ska-punk-rawk-world underground supergroup who pack floors quickly with politics you can dance to! However they have been described, Random Order's sound is unique.
Vocalist/guitarist S. Lynn Phillips is the driving force behind Random Order whose vocal style traverses the musical spectrum ranging from playful rap, to soulful reggae, to blow-you-away punk/funk and rawk. Lynn's over-the-top leads have an evident Jimi Hendrix influence! John Juilliard Jowett plays the trombone with a conductor's confidence and a ska player's humour. Adrienne Valentine luvs Jamaican ska which manifests in the toe tappin' bass smackin' head boppin' laid back sanguine bass lines she provides. Cathy Marchese is a hard hittin drummer whose exuberant energy explodes in live Random Order shows. |
Dave Soroka |
Dave Soroka, Rock and Roll Poet, has played in FSJ before. If you haven't heard him, well, you should!
"Well, it was sort of like, as I went around, putting the circuit together, I mean, it's not going to do much good for anyone if I just keep it in my pocket. I can work it, but it doesn't help anybody else. I thought it would be a good idea to spread it around. I got this picture of the interior of BC, y'know, with musicians out on the highway, driving or hitchhiking or whatever, and going from town to town, lotta music in the cafes. I thought it would be just a colourful kinda...see if we can bring back a sort of folk music scene, live folk music scene, maybe I could, y'know have some part in that. It'd be fun." |
The Lovely Bones |
The Lovely Bones, are Seth and Shara and are often known as the brainchild and spirit behind Robson Valley Music Festival, and the leaders of the great and fantastic group Mamaguroove, are coming to MoM with their unique and lovely creative energy. Some of the most determined and artistic people we know, Seth and Shara want to share their love with you. MoM continues to appreciate the contribution that these fine folks have given to the cause . We have common goals about reducing our footprint on this earth, and finding alternatives to the use of fossil fuels.
In addition, in case you didn't figure it out, we love them! |
Jerusha |
Jerusha Turgeon, one of our amazing local Fort St. James talents, is a young woman of many talents. She showed off at least one of these talents during the B.C. Festival of the Performing Arts in Kamloops in June. Jerusha performed in the classical voice category, representing the Nechako Valley Performing Arts.She showed off her talents at last year's MoM, and she will bring one more year's maturity and experience to the fest.
Jerusha is a vocalist, a violinist, a pianist and a gymnast, and she’s only 17. The Nechako Valley Festival of the Performing Arts was held April 8-15 of this year in Vanderhoof, and at it, Jerusha received the highest scores in the classical voice category. |
Sorrows Bend |
Brothers Dean and Karl Mattson have been collaborating for 16 years creating music and visual art that comes from the pioneering roots where they were born and raised in rural Northeastern British Columbia. The tales they tell are the darker seldom told stories of not just the happenings, but of the minds and circumstance that make the macabre unfold through generations.
Years of self discovery and self destruction have evolved into a project that they have now deeply committed to. Sorrows Bend. Sorrows Bend is an ongoing multimedia saga with a common thread of sorrow and loss. Historical fiction blends with the modern psyche to produce beauty in tragedy that all lead back to one place; a bend in the river, and a bend in the mind. |
Karyn Ellis

Guelph Mercury calls her “a revelation”. Globe and Mail says Karyn Ellis is a “must-see” songstress and has “a magical way with song.” Whether singing poignant tunes-of-the-heart or leading raucous sing-a-longs, Karyn is captivating, funny and smart in song and banter. And, that voice! Delicate and dynamic, she delivers thoughtful, crafted lyrics about every day wonders, beauty and hope.
FreeSoul |
With a drum on his back and a guitar and a laptop in his hands, Mike “FreeSoul” Amos fills the room with his energy the moment he enters. He is changing the world with a pocket full of songs and a smile as big as the sky. FreeSoul always makes a spectacle of himself with his masterful command of the guitar fret board, his powerful and evocative song-writing and rich, warm vocals.
Call it folk, funk, rock or hip-hop and you might be right, but call it real. FreeSoul writes from his experience with his big heart wide open, for everyone to see. Life’s not always perfect and that’s okay because there are always friends, light, and love. There’s an underlying theme to FreeSoul’s music. He loves this life and this planet and he wants you to love them as well. In the song “EcoLOGICAL” he ponders the future and asks you to think about what you do and the effect it has on the ecological well-being of our earth. With that idea always in mind FreeSoul is “keeping in real and rocking the beat”. I feel my music should be heard. All we got to do is be love. FreeSoul |
Joey Only |
Joey Only, our friend and outlaw poet, returns to MoM once again with his irreverent genius. Here's what others have to say:
"The voice of the movement," -Dr. Heidi Rimke PHD, professor of sociology at the University of Winnipeg "Imagine world-class shit-kicker Hank III channelling Bob Dylan circa "Subterranean Homesick Blues" while riffing on Geoff Mack’s "I’ve Been Everywhere" . It’s almost enough to make you want to get on a bus," -Georgia Sraight, Instant Playlist review of the song Greyhoundin' Guitar Man off the Transgression Trail album. |
Folky Strum Strum |
Folk - the traditional and typically anonymous music that is an expression of the life of people in a community
Strum - sound the strings of (a string instrument) Folky Strum Strum - “The group has been described by fans as having a unique and soulful sound, that is backed by exceptional songwriting.” with musicians all reigning within an hour and 15mins proximity of Rolla ,BC There is constant talk about style in music. We analyze genres and scenes, we pick apart influences and commonalities. For the most part, and I say this with no great joy, bands can be categorized. But the Folky Strum Strum became more than a genre or scene or a fusion of styles. "They" are, "the touching voice of something beyond human". Hearing their songs live was like tapping into actual meaning. Iyan Bruvold - Singer songwriter, Banjo, Guitar Amy Gothard- Upright Bass Brianne Hudson- Sax, Fiddle Ken Hermanson- Lead Guitar, Lap Steel |
Ari Neufeld |
Ari Neufeld is a friend of MoM. Ari is everything that people say he is, plus more! At first pretentious, but somehow real. Ari is the real thing. And we hope he will continue to consume himself with his Art!
Ari Neufeld is a consummate creative light house. If it can be made with the human body, he’s probably figuring out how to make it. Music. Art. Rhythm. Melody. Rhyme. Visual innovation and diversity. An ever growing commitment to understanding the principles in the nature of creativity, Ari has been working at perfecting his crafts both in and out of the public spotlight nearly his entire life. Ari’s latest album “Ari Neufeld Live At The Dream Cafe” is now available!! To begin your journey, choose your point of interest and see how deep the rabbit hole goes. |
Raghu Lokanathan |
“The melodies are the kind that stick in your head and you find yourself humming in the kitchen. The stories are the kind that make your brain skip” -Dugg Simpson, Vancouver Folk Music Festival
"Whether you’re living in small town misery crying “God help me, I think I wanna kill somebody”(Theme Song), an old school folkie seeking something new, or somewhere(or nowhere) in between, Raghu’s warm welcoming voice and whip smart turns of phrase are sure to draw you into the world he’s created that is far more colourful than the surface level blue." -shane avec I grec, April 2009 |
Crystal Charlotte
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Looking deeply into art presents the opportunity to look deeply into ones own Self. What does a certain artpiece make you feel and think? In my artwork, I try to inspire thoughts and feelings of comfort, peace, caring, and happiness…the very thoughts and feelings I often ask for, from the canvas, when its time to paint. What comes forward, onto the surface of my canvas, is heavily influenced by the stories of my childhood in Fort Saint James; the land and the people in the North continue to shape my art, and I expect forever will…
Crystal will be performing her art live, during the festival. Also, she will be holding at workshop upstairs in the lounge. |
Jodie Ponto |
Jodie Ponto is a Canadian photographer who is digging her fingers in deep to the grass roots of the independent music scene. Inspired by the raw, intense, and fleeting moments that are so often found in live music, she specializes in available light concert photography and has developed an extensive photoblog documenting tours, festivals, and the on and off stage antics of musicians across Canada and beyond.
Keeping with her grassroots spirit, her work features up and coming musicians right alongside the likes of Corb Lund, Fred Eaglesmith, Josh Ritter, and Sarah Harmer. When not overdosing on music she can be found traipsing about various reaches of the globe with her camera in tow, documenting the seasonal beauty of her home & native British Columbia, and making her brains scrambled by spending hours upon hours creating prints in a poorly ventilated darkroom. |
Blackberry Wood! |
Fit to compete with the cast of Moulin Rouge with their zany costumes, Blackberry Wood seems ready to strike up a burlesque hoedown just about anywhere you plunk them down
Blackberry Wood comes down the road like a traveling caravan, with all kinds of wondrous instruments, vocal melodies and fantastically costumed characters. Blackberry Wood has kicked up dust in towns all over Western Canada, the United Kingdom and parts of the United States. Blackberry Wood – a motley crew of guitar, horns, and accordion led by Music Waste's originator Kris Wood – kept up the night's fun energy with a sound best described as bar mitzvah-meets-barn dance. |
Corwin Fox |
Born in Halifax and raised in Ottawa, Corwin Fox went to high school at Canterbury High, a school for the arts, where he studied theatre and learned to play bass and guitar. His first taste of success came with a punk band called “PSd” when they were pelted with garbage in concert and banned from performing at a local high school. In 1994 Corwin joined an art-rock band called Big Fish Eat Little Fish with whom he put out three albums and toured across Canada numerous times between 1995 and 1999.
From 2000-2002 Corwin attended Fanshawe College (London, ON) to take the Music Industry Arts Recording Engineering program. While there, he founded a short-lived record label with two friends called Coqi Records and started a band called Balls Falls which won the award in 2001 for best song from EMI Music Publishing Canada with a song Corwin wrote called “Doctor God”. From 2002 to the present, Corwin has toured Canada, the U.S. and Australia performing solo and with Balls Falls. He has also toured extensively performing with such acts as Wax Mannequin, Kim Barlow, Raghu Lokanathan, Sarah Noni Metzner, Shane Philip, Yael Wand and Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long. In 2009 Corwin began a collaboration with songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Miss Emily Brown called Morlove. Their debut album “All of my Lakes Lay Frozen Over” was recorded in a remote church on a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and was met with critical acclaim. From 2010 to the present Morlove has toured Canada several times and played many festivals (Salmon Arm Roots and Blues, Artswells Festival of All Things Art, Kispiox Valley Music Festival, etc.) and the duo are now in the process of writing their follow up album. In 2006 Corwin was asked for the first time to produce a recording for another artist: Sarah Noni Metzner’s “Daybreak Mourning” (Dog My Cat Records) with which she won Best Solo Artist at the Canadian Folk Music Awards (2007). Since then, he has produced over thirty albums for other artists and worked in the studio on over 100 albums in various capacities as well as composing music for theatre and documentary soundtracks. Of his solo music, Corwin has released two full-length albums, Compassionate Relay (2002), Dream Water Rain Music (2004) and four e.p.’s: Tiger (2005), He Remembers What I Forgot (2007), Cloud Seating (2009) and Minutiae (2011). Corwin continues to write, record and tour, although the bulk of his time is now gladly spent in his studio and hanging out with his kids. |
Doug Koyama |
"Music and singing have always been a part of my life but never more than musical theatre and in the shower. In 2009 I was introduced to Improvised A Capella. A strong desire to sing in a multi-voice setting soon became a loop pedal."
Doug Koyama sings about life, peace, love and truth but you would never know it from the lyrics in his songs. Actual words are replaced by invented language and sounds that, at times, sound more like Spanish, French, Russian or Klingon than English. "Doug possess the heart of a lion and a lamb all rolled into one uniquely gifted and spiritual being. Doug shows what can be done with a fiercely open heart, an open mind and a little technology." –Linda McRae |
Mel Chesnutt

Mel Chesnutt is a self-taught Beginner/Intermediate Hoop Dance Instructor, offering weekly sessions during the winter months in Fort St. James. Her classes are open to all ages 6 and up. Living in a remote community, with an incredibly demanding schedule, Mel wanted an exercise that she could do virtually anywhere at her flexibility. Hoopdance gave her the opportunity to be expressive & creative while providing so many health benefits too!