Sending good vibes and good luck to our incredibly strong Canadian contingent at the Grammys today, including @jackemblem and the team on Charlotte Day Wilson’s record, along with SO many great projects! So incredibly proud of you all, and even getting a nomination is a massive victory in this industry - but sending good vibes for a win!
Biggest congrats and much humility to be along for the ride with some incredible artists nominated for Juno Awards this year!
Laila Biali - “Your Requests” in Vocal Jazz Album of the Year
OKAN - “Okantomi” in Global Music Album of the Year
Hilario Duran - “Cry Me A River” in Jazz Album of the Year (Group)
There is SO much great music going on in this country, and just because some of them did not get nominations does not in any way diminish their incredible cultural value. Music is not a competition like speed skating or long jump - and all of us who have surrendered our lives to this craft are incredibly grateful to people who support us, attend shows, play the songs - we all thank you!!
Please allow this display of affection - I’m just really proud of him and like, this is a pretty big deal because… we left the house. We went to a whole other province with a different climate. I ironed his shirt. I washed my hair and put on lipstick. And I was lurking nearby when he and McKhool were putting this album together during a very challenging time in history and in our lives, and the result, Sanctuary, is so beautiful and inspiring, and soooo much work and love went into it. And we left the house together so it’s a big deal.
2023 Canadian Folk Music Awards Producer Of The Year, Chris McKhool and John ‘Beetle’ Bailey for the album “Sanctuary” by Sultans Of String. This album is so meaningful, and we’re grateful for the recognition. If you haven’t yet, please check out the incredible musicians, from around the world and from here on Turtle Island, who collaborated on “Sanctuary” and “Refuge.” It’ll change your life. @sultansofstring@canadianfolkmusicawards
2022 was hard. Here are some bright spots.
-celebrating a Grammy win for Alex Cuba’s brilliant album Mendó
-surrounded by greatness, Juno “Stories From The Studio” event
-cleaned up, prettied up to go see Hill win her award
-two Juno award winning engineers
-red carpet - looked at the camera, stepped on the tape
-remembering Jack and Shirley Richardson at their favourite beach
-celebrating with Alex Cuba at his honorary doctorate at Queens’ university
-a Halloween wedding - the bride wore red, the mother in law wore a witch hat and all 6 of us celebrated in a beautiful misty bog
-at the National Music Centre with Jacob Jones and Eric Cinnamon, with The Rolling Stones Mobile console
-our assistant, who can’t tune or edit to save his life and has yet to set up a mic stand but he’s a pretty good piano player and matches the Grammy nicely.
John and I had a lot of difficult challenges and hardships and heartbreaks.
But we also had some happiness in our personal life. We now officially have a daughter in law, our kids are a bunch of unbelievably wonderful adult humans, we still have all of our parents and we are so grateful.
Music helped save us too. We’re so fortunate for the artists who trusted us with their work, and what excellent music it is!! We are honoured. Doing what he loves kept my man going through some hard stuff. We thank you with all our hearts!
See you in 2023!
Well this is fun! Grammy Award showed up so we took it for a little family tour - because we definitely wouldn’t have gotten here without the support of our folks! We made this record remotely from small towns in far-flung corners of this incredible country - so it’s only right that we should do our Grammy un-boxing on FaceTime!!
Look what I found in an obscure corner of the internet - proof that we left the Shire, cleaned up and put on some nice clothes, and went to a party! Turns out, we didn’t totally forget how to behave in public! Whew! Despite the intensity and nervousness of being in a crowd after a couple years of being hermits, we had a great time. Seeing people we’ve missed so much was worth it. Celebrating music was worth it. Thank you @thejunoawards for getting us together after a long stretch of uncertainty. Music never stopped, and it never will! ~Heidi
This needs to be said one more time: congratulations Hill, on your Engineer Of The Year JUNO! You’re awesome! Here’s to many more photos like this in the future! @hillkourkoutis
