Biography
Tannis has been named Contemporary Vocalist of the Year by the Canadian Folk Music Awards.
Her latest album ‘Lucky Blue’ is making waves with a 2008 Independent Music Award for the opening track ‘Ernest, Charlie & Allan’ and a nomination for ‘Best Album’. The album has also been selected as one of the top 10 ‘Critics’ Albums of the Year’ by Canadian Folk Music Magazine ‘Penguin Eggs’ and has won a 'Golden Quill' award for songwriting. Producer Lewis Melville was nominated for Canadian Folk Music Award’s Producer of the Year.
With musical roots firmly planted in the soil of the Canadian Prairies and the ever-burgeoning music scene in Guelph, Ontario, and with a passion for lyrical vocal harmonies, Tannis Slimmon has been singing, songwriting, recording and touring locally and internationally for over 25 years.
After working with numerous bands including the critically acclaimed female trio The Bird Sisters, her solo career was launched in 2001 with the release of ‘Oak Lake’, followed up in the summer of 2007 by ‘Lucky Blue’, a rich offering of songs and artwork influenced by recent travels to Mali, West Africa and Cuba.
You will find Tannis’ name on over 70 albums, contributing songs or singing harmonies for others including Willie P. Bennett, Valdy and Rheostatics.
Tannis plays guitar and mandolin. She has performed at theatres, folk clubs, festivals and community centres across Canada and into the US. Her music can be heard on public and college radio across North America.
Instrumentation
Tannis Slimmon solo:
vocals, acoustic guitar, mandolin
Duo with Lewis Melville:
Lewis - backing vocals, acoustic & electric guitar, mandolin, banjo
With band "The Uplifters":
Lewis Melville - backing vocals, acoustic & electric guitar, mandolin, banjo
Michael Herring - acoustic bass
Dave Clark - drums, percussion
Jason Kenemy - keyboard, accordion
Discography
Tannis Slimmon - "Lucky Blue" (2007) (Outside Music Distribution)
Tannis Slimmon - "Oak Lake" (2001)
In addition, Tannis appears on 70 other albums:
With The Bird Sisters for 3 albums:
"She & She & She" (1995), "Different Stories" (1992) and "FLO" (1990)
With Benji for 2 albums:
"Benji II" (1999) and "John Charlton" (1998)
Contributing songs to 15 compilation albums:
"Music In Movies" (Twisted Pines Festival compilation) (2008)
"North To Ontario 2007" (2007)
"Afghanistan - On Guard For Thee?" (DROG) (2007)
"Not There" (Guelph) (2004)
"City of Music - A Guelph Compilation" (2002)
"Sixty Second Songs" (DROG) (2002)
"Work Songs" (DROG) (2001)
"Music for Peace" (DROG) (1999)
"Food Songs" (DROG) (1999)
"Take Back the Night" (1999) (with the Bird Sisters)
"Hillside Festival Volume 1" (1999) (with Benji)
"Live @ The Winnipeg Folk Festival Volume 1" 1997) (with the Bird Sisters)
"Truck Songs" (DROG) (1997)
Muddy River Stringers - "A Christmas Wish" (1996)
"SXSW Live Volume 1" (1993) (with the Bird Sisters)
Singing harmony vocals on:
"A Buried Heart" project The Streets Where You Live (also on Women & Songs 6)
Astronauts' "Mr. Whatever Is Here Tonight"
Robert Atyeo's "Angels on a Cliff" and "Heart Like A Rubber Ball"
Danny Bakan's "...And Truth Is Spectacular"
Bare Naked Ladies' "Gordon"
Willie P. Bennett's "Heartstrings"
Max Bent's "The Blues You Have"
Big Smoke's "StevenSteve and the Big Smoke", "Moose Lodge" and "Moose - The Compilation"
Laura Bird's "The Water In Between"
Black Cabbage's "A Recording by Black Cabbage"
Don Bray's "Chosen" and "Taxi Moon & I"
The Buddagrass Family Unit's "Introducing The Buddhagrass Family Unit"
Nick Craine's "November Moon"
Douglas John's "Rainbows" (with the Bird Sisters)
DROG's "Truck Songs" compilation album with Big Smoke, Crows Feet, Lewis Melville, Two Thirds Water and John Charlton
DROG's "Music For Peace" compilation album with Josh Finlayson and Benji
DROG's "60 Second Songs" compilation album with Danny Bakan and Michael Johnson
Vicki Fraser's "Dynamite Opening" and (with Vicki Fraser) "The Goods - a Guelph compilation"
Eve Goldberg's "Crossing The Water" and "A Kinder Season"
James Gordon's "Mining For Gold: Twenty Years of Songwriting" and "Looking For Livingston" (on vinyl) and "Farther Along" (with the Bird Sisters)
the kramdens' "Radio For Now"
Grit Laskin's "A Few Simple Words"
Beth Martens' "Where There's Beauty"
Lewis Melville's "Niagara", "Not Really A Bluegrass Album" and "Noah's Work"
Muddy River Stringer's "Life's Too Short"
Rosemary Phelan's "Wake The Nightingale"
Rheostatics' "Whale Music" and "The Whale Music Concert - Sets #1 and #2"
Mike Sharp's "June"
Jim Slansky's "Passenger"
Charlie Sohmer's "Dying To Have A Good Time"
Gwen Swick's CBC compilation series recording
Dave Teichroeb's "Dog Tales" and "Yesterday Motel"
Pat Temple & The High Lonesome Player's "Stone Boat"
Tony Turner's "The Lost Sketches"
Two Thirds Water "Glass Bottom Boat"
Valdy's "Viva Valdy - Live At Last"
"The Woodchoppers Association & Abdoulaye Kone"
"The Woodchoppers Association & Jah Youssouf"
Luther Wright and the Wrong's "Roger's Waltz"
And playing mandolin on:
Needy Fingers' "Trials of this Lonely Man"
The Woodchopper's Association's "You Buy From Me - a benefit album for Cambodia" (with Lewis Melville and Lyn Vasey)
Movies:
'The Road To Baleya' (A documentary DVD: Canadian and Malian musicians come together in an extraordinary journey of musical collaboration in West Africa. Emphasizing music as a cross-cultural communication form, Road to Baleya travels into the rich traditions of one of the world’s poorest countries.)
Links
| http://www.tannis.ca |