Fredericton is popping some Alka-Seltzer after enjoying a lively weekend with the 2008 ECMAs (The s stands for corporate sponsors—theres a separate sponsor for every award! Weve had to abbreviate the award names for space.) The Joel Plaskett Emergency and its Ashtray Rock album ran away with the night, winning six awards in all: Recording of the Year, Group Recording, Rock Recording, Single, Songwriter and Video for Fashionable People. (Thats in addition to Plaskett recently receiving the 2008 Billboard World Song Contest in the Pop category.) Female Solo Recording of the Year went to Rose Cousins for If You Were For Me and Dave Gunning got both Male Solo Recording and Folk Recording of the Year for Looking Back, Vol. 2: House For Sale. The Rising Star Recording of the Year (and the $5,000 cheque that comes with it) went to Stephanie Hardy for her Brand New Skin. Nathan Wiley grabbed Alternative Recording for his third album, The City Destroyed Me.
Blues Recording recognized Thom Swifts Into The Dirt and The Divorcees won Country Recording for You Aint Gettin My Country. Plaskett PEI proteges Two Hours Traffics Little Jabs won for Pop Recording. Jamie Sparks won the Urban Single Track Recording If You Were and African-Canadian Recording for Its The Music. The duo of Bill Stevenson and Tom Easley took Jazz Recording for For the Record, while Classical Recording celebrated Forbidden City Tour by the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra. Classified won the award for Rap/hip-hop Single Track Recording for Hard To Be Hip Hop. Congratulate Classified in person at his show at the Marquee on Saturday February 16, with Shad, Chad Hatcher, J-Bru, DJ IV and Mic Boyd. Get him some half-priced Valentines Day candy—the perfect gift of a sugar rush for someone just back from the ECMAs.
This article appears in Feb 14-20, 2008.
