Troy Kokol

"Troy Kokol - Honky Tonk In Heaven....Damn! This track just screams for a case of Lone Star and a table full of good friends tradin’ lies in a bar with drop dead hot waitresses, and a lot of classic country tunes on the jukebox. They still have jukeboxes, right? This tune is the best excuse to uncap a long neck that I’ve heard this year." - Bob Segarini

Last Updated: Wednesday, August 1, 2007 | 5:28 PM ET

CBC Arts

Newcomer Shane Yellowbird, from Hobbema, Alta., has earned five nominations for 2007 Canadian Country Music Association Awards, equalling the number for veteran country star George Canyon.

Shane Yellowbird, a relative upstart in country music, has a hit with Pickup Truck.
(Shane Yellowbird)
Yellowbird, whose feel-good tune Pickup Truck is the No. 1 music video on Country Music Television, released his debut album, Life is Calling My Name, in November 2006.
Now Yellowbird, a Cree whose parents participated in the rodeo circuit, has earned nominations for album of the year and the Rising Star Award, the CCMA announced Tuesday.

His album has been named for album of the year, and Pickup Truck has nominations for single of the year and earned a SOCAN Songwriter of the Year nomination for Joni Delaurier and Troy Kokol.

Nova Scotia-born Canyon, a perennial fan choice award winner at both the CCMA and East Coast Music Association Awards, has been nominated for male artist of the year and the fan choice award.

His Somebody Wrote Love is nominated for best album, and I Want You to Live, with its video showing soldiers serving overseas, has been nominated for both song of the year and video of the year.

Carolyn Dawn Johnson has four nominations for CCMA Awards.
(CCMA)
Other multiple nominees for the CCMA Awards, to be presented Sept. 10 in Regina, include Paul Brandt, Doc Walker, Emerson Drive, Brad Johner and Carolyn Dawn Johnson, each with four nominations.

In the male artist of the year category, Canyon is competing against Calgary singer-songwriter Brandt, Vancouver-born Aarong Pritchett, hot soloist Johner, formerly a member of the duo The Johner Brothers, and Glasgow-born, Canadian-bred Johnny Reid.

CCMA award nominees
Male artist
Paul Brandt
George Canyon
Brad Johner
Aaron Pritchett
Johnny Reid
Female artist
Lisa Brokop
Terri Clark
Patricia Conroy
Jessie Farrell
Carolyn Dawn Johnson
Group or duo
Ambush
Doc Walker
Emerson Drive
The Road Hammers
The Wilkinsons
Roots artist
The Cruzeros
Sean Hogan
Corb Lund
Prairie Oyster
Jimmy Rankin
Rising Star
Jason Blaine
Jessie Farrell
Jo Hikk
Brett Kissel
Donny Parenteau
Shane Yellowbird
Indie male artist
Gord Bamford
Brad Johner
Corb Lund
Johnny Reid
Shane Yellowbird
Indie female artist
Lisa Brokop
Diane Chase
Patricia Conroy
Lisa Hewitt
Beverley Mahood
Indie group or duo
Ambush
The Cruzeros
The Poverty Plainsmen
Prairie Oyster
The Wilkinsons
Best single
Driving With the Brakes On, Doc Walker
I Want You to Live, George Canyon
I'd Rather Be Lucky, Brad Johner
Moments, Emerson Drive
Pickup Truck, Shane Yellowbird
Best album
Countrified, Emerson Drive
Doc Walker, Doc Walker
Life Is Calling My Name, Shane Yellowbird
Love & Negotiation, Carolyn Dawn Johnson
Somebody Wrote Love, George Canyon

Johnson, a Deadwood, Alta., native and multiple CCMA award winner, is named for female artist of the year, with Vancouver singer-songwriter Lisa Brokop, veteran star Terri Clark, Montreal's Patricia Conroy and newcomer Jessie Farrell.

The nominations for the top indie artists of the year — with Johner, Reid, Yellowbird, Brokop and Conroy turning up again — are so similar to the lists for male and female artist of the year that the CCMA is considering changing the criteria for the indie awards.

Heather Ostertag, chair of the CCMA, said the overwhelming move to independent recording by Canada's country artists has meant many well-established stars are turning up in the indie categories, originally created to give recognition to newcomers.

"It's one of the big discussions we have to have in Regina this year," she told CBC News. "Perhaps we might have to change the criteria for this award … so it focuses more on the emerging artists."

The other nominees for male artist of the year are Gord Bamford and Corb Lund, while Diane Chase, Lisa Hewitt and Beverley Mahood are on the nomination list of indie female singers.

Winnipeg band Doc Walker, a Fan Choice nominee, is also up for group or duo of the year, with country trio Ambush, Emerson Drive of Grande Prairie, Alta., Ontario's The Road Hammers and The Wilkinsons of Belleville, Ont.

Ambush and The Wilkinsons are also among the indie group nominees, with The Cruzeros, the Poverty Plainsmen and veteran band Prairie Oyster.

Country Music Week will be held Sept. 7-10 in Regina.

"We are excited to return to a community that the CCMA has not been to in 30 years," Ostertag said.

The award ceremony on Sept. 10 will be broadcast on CBC and CMT - CBC.ca

Back in September, shortly after former premier Ralph Klein delivered his first lecture as “chair of media studies” at Calgary’s Mount Royal College, I asked him a simple question: “What media do you read and watch?” Klein’s answer sent waves of laughter through the theatre. He doesn’t read newspapers or watch TV news, he said, except for Breakfast Television on CityTV. “And movies,” he added.

I asked a similar question of the current premier on January 25. At a packed pre-election press conference at the Calgary Jubilee Auditorium, Ed Stelmach had just announced a new cultural policy that included a 30 per cent funding increase for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. It was taken as good news by those assembled, who included not only the usual scribes and politicians, but also actors, writers, and theatre directors. “Anybody who knows the Alberta government understands that Ed Stelmach had to stand up to a lot of redneck attitude from his own caucus [to create this policy],” said One Yellow Rabbit co-artistic director Michael Green. “That in itself is reason to be optimistic.”

Even former premier Peter Lougheed—Alberta’s patron saint of arts funding—was in the front row with his wife Jeanne, beaming and shaking hands with Stelmach in front of the TV cameras. “Jeanne and I are delighted,” Lougheed told me afterwards, adding that the new policy shows a “resurgence towards a priority” of arts and culture in the province. “The whole spirit of it makes it a good day, and that’s why Jeanne and I are here.”

I once heard the joke that for Stelmach, “the arts” is defined as two farmers who meet for coffee in the premier’s hometown of Andrew, Alberta—and “fine art” is when one of them offers to pay. I wanted to see how much truth there was in that joke, so at the media scrum after the press conference I asked Stelmach about his own artistic tastes. Here, verbatim, is what I asked: “Who are some of your favourite—you, personally—your favourite Alberta artists? Some writers you enjoy reading and music you enjoy listening to and that kind of thing.”

Stelmach struggled hard to answer the question. He didn’t—or perhaps couldn’t?—name a single Alberta artist, even though minutes earlier the room had been filled with them. Here are portions of Ed’s non-answer, which clocked in at two minutes and 10 seconds. “In terms of reading,” he began, “I have a particular interest in reading Alberta history..... There are so many different communities across the province, different pioneering families. [I enjoy reading about] what they contributed. [I] do, of course, support a lot of the local artists.”

Stelmach then recalled his school days, when he joined band in Grade 6 and “worked my way up” playing the tuba. “I’ve got a love of music,” he said. “To tell you the truth, in this kind of setting, that’s one thing that you can do: participate in choir practice and it takes your mind off all of the various issues in politics.” (Stelmach sings in his church choir in Andrew.)

The premier continued: “But to name one particular Alberta artist, that means I’d be forgetting about somebody else. We have a number of really good budding artists that we’ve actually had sing at premier’s dinners [and] various functions across the province of Alberta. But in terms of artists, mostly history and local authors that pick... a very specific topic in a small community.... It’s an area that I know that we have not developed in the province of Alberta, in terms of the very rich history the province of Alberta has contributed to our economic well-being.” End answer, and not one artist named.

My journalistic colleagues thought Stelmach’s squirming was a riot. Writing in the Calgary Herald the next day, columnist Don Braid said it was the “best moment” of the morning. “The premier giggled like a Miss South Carolina contestant facing one of those deep questions about life,” he wrote. (Braid also got his facts right, which is nice. Herald columnist Robert Remington incorrectly called me a journalism student after I asked Klein about media in September. This time, Braid correctly identified me as a “sharp young reporter.” Much better.) Edmonton Journal writer Todd Babiak—who is arguably one of the province’s better known writers—called it “the most uncomfortable moment” of the event.

To be fair to Stelmach, I should point out the press conference was geared for awkwardness. Culture minister Hector Goudreau held a press conference in Edmonton at the same time, and the two were connected by videoconferencing. That meant when a reporter in Calgary asked Stelmach a question, the premier had to avoid looking at the reporter during his answer, and instead look straight ahead into the lifeless lens of a video camera. Naturally, Stelmach had trouble doing this. His staff had to keep directing him back to look at the camera instead of the people in the room. But even then, shouldn’t it have been pretty easy for Ed to mention local institutions like the Edmonton and Calgary orchestras? The Edmonton Fringe Festival? Ian Tyson?

After the press conference, I caught up with Liberal MLA Harry Chase in the lobby. He was feeding reporters the Liberal critique of Stelmach’s new policy—it doesn’t “begin to account for the inflation since 1988 when funding for the arts was put on a starvation diet,” he said—so I asked him the same question: who are your favourite Alberta artists? His answer: country songwriters Joni Delaurier and Troy Kokol, singers Corb Lund and Shane Yellowbird, and writers Aritha van Herk and Todd Babiak. “These are true Alberta artists, and thoroughly enjoyable,” said Chase. Six names in less than a minute. Not bad. - FFWD - Calgary

POSTED AT 3:26 PM Thursday, September 13

Two City of Calgary employees are making names for themselves in the country music scene.

The two wrote a number one country hit, and were nominated for a country music songwriting award.

By day, Joni Delaurier is a communications specialist with the City of Calgary. Troy Kokol works just one floor below.

After hours, the duo writes songs.

The first one they wrote together has become a number one hit.

"Pick-Up Truck" was recorded by rising country artist, Shane Yellowbird. (Ed. If you haven't heard this tune, it's awesome - check it out)

Troy says, “We thought it would be great if we cracked the top ten or something like that, but once we saw it debuted at number 27, you know, in four weeks we were in the top ten and we stayed in the top ten for twelve weeks.”

The song was nominated in three categories at the Canadian Country Music Association Awards. Songwriter of the Year, Single of the Year, and Video of the Year.

Yellowbird won the Chevy Rising Star Award.

Delaurier and Kokol are thrilled with the entire experience.

Joni says, “We feel we did win. We may not have walked home with a trophy but we just had a blast. It was kind of a Cinderella thing for us.”

Troy says, “The doors have opened up, wide open, so our lives will never be the same.”

Both say the City has been very flexible in allowing them to pursue their dreams.

Mayor Dave Bronconnier sends his congratulations to the pair. “I think it really goes to the creativity we have of our employees, whether they be Olympic athletes that we saw earlier this year with the Olympians or whether it be of course, singer/songwriters right here in the planning building department.”

Kokol and Delaurier are not only songwriting partners and co-workers; they're also a couple and appear to have a bright future in the music industry.

“Joni's going to be working on a new album for a new band next week and we have at least a dozen people we have to call, follow up on, that are looking for materials.”

But for now, the two will keep their day jobs.

The CCMA Songwriter of the Year Award went to Mitch Merrett, Aaron Pritchett & Deric Ruttan for “Hold My Beer.” - ctv.ca

Shane Yellowbird
Life Is Calling My Name [306 Records] 2006
Produced by Bart McKay
Review by Cheryl Breo

"Life Is Calling My Name" is the debut album for Canadian country singer, Shane Yellowbird, but from his powerful sound and his careful choice of songs, this will be just the first of what will become a long list of hits for this real rope-riding, rodeo cowboy, who almost didn't choose music as his career.

Shane was born with a stuttering problem and it was a speech therapist who suggested he "sing" his words, as therapy, and its affect instilled a love for music in a young, soon-to-be country artist.

This album is filled with positive, upbeat, happy songs, songs about everyday, ordinary things, but made extraordinary by Shane's powerful voice.

"Easy (Jess Leary, Craig Wiseman)" and "Get Away With You (Dillon Dixon, Noah Gordon)" are mellow, melting love songs that conger up smoldering images of a candle lit room, a desert island, - anyplace in this world where two hearts can beat as one, and be lost in love.

"Here (Gregory Becker, David Brainard, Dan Couch)" and "Drive Me Home (Brandon Kinney, Jeremy Stover, Willie Mack)" are true country songs, each approaching love from opposite directions. In "Here", Shane's smooth vocal brings life to lyrics like "here, lying by your side, running my hands through your auburn hair: baby I've got everything I need, "here" looking in your eyes." Every woman dreams of being loved like that. "Drive Me Home" has Shane singing of love almost lost by foolish pride, by the words "I'm sorry", being the words she never heard, and his realization that their love is a fragile, precious gift, making him turn that car around, and "drive him home".

"Pickup Truck (Troy Kokol, Joni Deslauriers)" is such a light hearted, make you laugh love song, - love - cowboy style, loving their pickup trucks and using all those worn out, goofy "pick up" lines they're sure are going to get them the girls. Shane sings this one with a definite lilt of humor in his voice.

The two standout tracks on Yellowbird's album are the title track, "Life Is Calling My Name (Billy Yates, Byron Hill)" and "What A Beautiful Concept (Trey Bruce, Rodney Clawson)". "Life Is Calling My Name" is a song that we all should listen closely to. The moving, strong lyrics remind us that we all need to stop and evaluate what really matters in life, not rush through it, "because a chance like this doesn't come everyday". "What A Beautiful Concept" is a really remarkable song with remarkable lyrics, sung straight from Shane's heart, about loving the person you are with for who they are, never trying to change them into who you think you want them to be because in the end, loving who they are is the most "beautiful concept".

Shane Yellowbird definitely has hit the ground running in his debut album. His smooth, yet strong voice, with just a hint of a young George Strait mixed in, makes for a winning combination. I'm sure this is only a stellar beginning for this young, country star. An absolute "must have" for your collection. - thatscountry.com

..."Watching You Walk Away is a phenomenal song. I love it." - Calvin Daniels - Yorkton This Week