York Street, Wednesday, February 6.You have to understand that this is last glimpse we’ll get of Fredericton for a long time. Patrick Leonard and Maggie Estey, writers, show-goers, coffee-drinkers, will leave the city, the province, the country on February 13, to spend five months in China, possibly the furthest-away place in the world.
In this, our last week, the city stands to swell by about 2,500 people for the 19th annual East Coast Music Awards from February 7th to 10th… most of them musicians. For a town normally notably composed of academics and government officials, this is more than a change of pace; we’re expecting something like a rebirth from ashes.
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A steady snow was all that marked this Tuesday afternoon from any other, a thin curtain drawn across growling city buses, aged ladies staggering with grocery bags and unnumbered other clichés of Fredericton’s downtown. In the sleepy streets the stern weather nixed one predictable cliché; that the calm before the storm of activity that would descend with Eastern Canada’s foremost musical event was a storm itself.
For the occasional shop-window reminder that Fredericton “Does Canadian Music East Coast Style,” the arrival of the East Coast Music Awards to the city went unforetold on the uninterested, snow-gripped streets. It could have been weeks away.
Yet without doubt the thousands of hours of labour required to draw from the city a musical event had tasked many citizens to the brink, and many others, young and old alike, now wait eagerly for the first salvo of events opening Wednesday night.
The ECMAs, of course, are not just about “East coast music.” In volume alone the smaller “no-cases” will rival the sanctioned events, and the faces in the crowd, excusing overlap, will be different for performances by gritty urbanite garage acts than the festival’s Great Big Seas.
That the televised awards are gladhanded to similar faces year on year is no true testament to the spectrum of perfomers that surface for the ECMAs. While the awards seem to constitute what is happening in Maritime musical culture, the festival explores it.
And this, if the various cultures of the Maritimes do covet some blanket identity, is a necessary practice. That the host city has likely more in common with Upper Canada than Sydney or Summerside is little matter if the imperative is finding common ground. Reluctantly watching the beloved awards ceremony with our parents, there seemed something rather dear about the prevalent ideas of Maritime culture greasing the wheels of the ECMAs. Only now, with the event in our home, are we seeing the annual slate for what it is. And it’s exciting. And if at first glance Fredericton doesn’t look excited, it may be because Fredericton is otherwise not an entirely exciting place.
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Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew at the Marquee, Halifax, 2007 ECMAs
Image copyright © 2007 by Shoot The Band and Dan Culberson
Maybe the ECMAs is a taste acquired with maturity and experience, like the opposite sex, or wine other than Boone’s. As a teen growing up in rural New Brunswick, the ECMAs were nothing more to Maggie than an interruption in regular programming on one of only two channels she could get on the family set, starring musicians she didn’t take seriously because they weren’t American.
Maggie, for one, says she had no idea what the ECMAs were about until she came to university in a major Atlantic Canadian city and became interested in live, independent music, least of all that the bands we drank and swayed to on Saturday nights were nominated.
We doubt this epiphany is lost on others; Even though Great Big Sea always wins, at least some of the regular-looking schmucks on the snowy TV screen are now your people. If you don’t watch the Sunday night ceremony with casual interest, you at least take measures to see who won on Monday afternoon.
Further, you have no idea what the ECMAs are about until they come to a city you live in. The televised awards ceremony is the square, stuffy tip in comparison to a rather, uh, celebratory iceburg.
Saint John writer Craig Pinhey says he’s been to every ECMAs for the last seven years, except the ones held in St. John’s in 2004.
“They've all been great, but the Saint John one remains most special in my memory, because the city changed so much,” he says. “Imagine full streets near midnight in Saint John!”
We’ve been to Saint John. We love Saint John. But we have to admit: we actually can’t. ‘Sleepy’ isn’t the word.
He recalls one of those ‘magic nights’ in 2002, specifically a few hours when Saint John band The Organizers, led by Jud Crandall, played Melvin’s Bar on Canterbuty Street.
“Everyone was somewhat tipsy -- or at least we were,” says the certified sommelier and columnist for [here] magazine. “All my arty friends were there. You know - the S.J. writer and artist types, and some of my [here] buds … My brother and his wife were here too and they were quite blown away by the scene. They thought S.J. might just be cool.”
“We were all crammed to the stage and Jud and the guys just totally rocked. When they did ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ the place was jumping. And they played some Jam -- I think it was ‘Start,’ but I'm not sure, and a bunch of other mod stuff, which was what Jud was mostly playing in those days. Maybe some Clash too. It's a bit hazy.”
This year, Craig says, he’s pumped to see Halifax’s The Superfantastics.
Saint John photographer Dan Culberson recalls that during the Port City’s turn at hosting, “pretty much any large room in Saint John was converted into a concert hall that weekend.”
For 40 hours of that year’s fabled 72-hour jam, Dan worked as a volunteer at in the pool hall off of North Market Street where the event was held, with all the pool tables cleared off.
“I don't recall the influx of industry professionals as being a problem at all, but I do remember the late night boozing brought out the worst in some locals,” he says. “The line-ups waiting to get into the 72 Hour Jam after 2 a.m. were pretty rowdy, and sometimes filled North Market Street and part of the City Market that they were using as a sort of shelter. One night there was a stabbing just outside the venue at about 3 or 4 a.m.”
Par for the course, maybe.
“I think it was a fantastic showcase of our little city,” Dan goes on. “I know for Saint John musicians and bands at the time it seemed like a real morale boost, and there were so many people out to events I was really surprised. Saint John residents really came out to support the ECMAs. Unfortunately, I'm not sure they had much of a lasting effect on support for local music.”
Dan attended in 2003 as a delegate and in 2007 as an assistant to the official photographer, both times in Halifax, and you can see his camerawork at past festivities at http://www.shoottheband.ca/. He says he’s excited all over again for the Fredericton incarnation, where he'll be working as a photographer again.
“Fredericton has proven with the Harvest Jazz and Blues that they know how to organize a successful music festival, and I suspect the ECMAs will be a very positive economic and cultural shot in the arm for the city.”
“There's nothing else that I know in this part of the world that rivals it for bringing so many people who live and breathe music together,” he says.
Dan Jones, a.k.a. Giraffecycle.com stalwart Dan J, a notorious supporter of local music in Saint John, recalls the no-case he hosted at the The Deep End, also on Canterbury Street.
He says he has fond memories of the now-closed all-ages venue.
“All of the people involved were or became friends during that time and we did everything from painting, providing art, being security, working the door, doing sound, and all kinds of other activities.”
As for the ECMA 2002 events at The Deep End:
“We were very organized and had a lot of applications to our events. Some spots were invites but most were chosen from independent bands excited to take part in the ECMA madness. For the first couple of nights I was more involved in the sound production but for the long Saturday and Sunday events I was also part promoter and part sound tech.”
He says he’s surprised, looking back, at how many people were involved.
“I'd have to say it was probably one of the most successful events I have been involved over the several years I did promotion and sound.”
The Deep End’s Lease expired, and the venue closed not too long after the ECMAs, marking the beginning of the end for Dan J’s promotion activities.
“I was forced more and more to promote in bars and it just was not the same,” he says.
“It feels good though to look back at the bands that played who were local and regional who either still play or that their members now play in bands who are doing well today.”
By Day, Chris Daigle says he’s a mild-mannered project manager for an IT service provider in Saint John, but that when it comes to music, he wears many hats: first and foremost, a fan of music, but also a singer/songwriter in the Folk/Pop genre. Chris has played throughout southern New Brunswick, including the 2005 Saint John Jazz and Blues Festival, hosting campus radio station CFMH’s Songwriter’s Circle, and opening for the likes of Julie Doiron.
In 2002, he was opening and closing ECMA weekend at Matteo’s, a bar that used to be on the pedway towards Harbour Station.
“I remember the Friday night show quite well as the freezing rain led a lot of people to believe that turnout was going to be poor at all events. However, when I began my set the house was full,” he says.
“There wasn’t a seat to be found in the place and the crowd was very appreciative. This was one of my first bar gigs, and the experience will always stick with me because the true music fans showed up and gave us performers their complete attention. In contrast to the ECMA weekend, any other bar gigs I play it is a constant battle to be heard over the socializing that takes place in the Saint John watering holes.”
He says that Sunday, Matteo’s was the place to be for star-gazing. The bar’s location gave those playing at Matteo’s the chance to spot and chat up nominated artists as they made their way to the show.
“I played the 2nd to last set prior to the gala and distinctly remember folks like Jimmy Rankin, Gordie Sampson and Dahmnait Doyle stopping in the bar and taking a listen while I played. As a relatively new performer it was a good confidence booster to see a songwriter like Jimmy Rankin bobbing his head and smiling while you play your own originals.”
“Having the ECMAs in Saint John was a fantastic opportunity of fans and musicians alike. It gave us all an opportunity to be exposed to the industry on a much more intimate level.”
York Street, Wednesday, February 6.
