Tributes to Doherty, Cameron part of ECMA gala
The East Coast Music Awards in Halifax later this month will feature tributes to former Mamas and Papas singer Denny Doherty, blues musician Dutch Mason and Celtic great John Allen Cameron.
The tribute to Doherty, who died in January, has recently been added to the lineup, which also includes plans to honour Mason, who died in December, and Cameron, who died in November.
Celebrated contralto Portia White, a Truro, N.S.-born singer who lived from 1911 to 1968, will also be honoured with the Dr. Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award, given annually to an artist who has made a significant contribution to the musical legacy of Atlantic Canada.
A Nova Scotia award for the arts is named after White, a black singer who had a career in the 1940s with performances in Toronto and New York, and retired from the stage to teach music.
Doherty, the tenor voice in the 1960s folk group the Mamas and the Papas, later became the beloved harbour master on Theodore Tugboat.
Multiple ECMA and Juno award winner George Canyon will be joined on stage by Dave Gunning and Doris Mason to perform a musical tribute to Doherty.
Nova Scotia-born bluesman Mason, known as the Prime Minister of the Blues, will be honoured in song by blues guitarists JP LeBlanc and Charlie A’Court.
The awards show, to be hosted for the second consecutive year by the Trailer Park Boys, will pull out all the stops to honour Cameron, a favourite Nova Scotia son said to have spawned the Celtic revival in Atlantic Canada.
Singer-songwriter Gordie Sampson, Fiona MacGillivray, JP Cormier, Ashley MacIsaac, The Barra MacNeils, Shaye and Stuart Cameron will perform a tribute to the man known as the Godfather of Celtic Music.
Newfoundland’s Rex Goudie, popularized on the television show Canadian Idol, and banjo songster Old Man Leudecke, performing with young singer-songwriters Rose Cousins, David Myles and Catherine MacLellan, have also been added to the playlist.
Other performers set for the gala include:
Halifax-based rockers In-Flight Safety and Joel Plaskett Emergency.
Rap singer Classified.
Halifax singer Jill Barber.
Veteran singer-songwriter Ron Hynes.
Classical soprano Measha Brueggergosman.
The live awards ceremony Feb. 18 will be broadcast on CBC Television.
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