The Faltering Hearts (NORTHERN ARTIST)

** TO FOTR SELECTION COMMITTEE: The Faltering Hearts are finalising their summer festival schedule and are planning a trip to Yellowknife to play FOTR if selected as Northern Artists. Founder and Northerner Brie O'Keefe has always dreamed of playing her hometown festival - and is hoping 2013 will be the year. We will cover our own travel expenses if selected. We would ask that you review our application as soon as possible as we have other festival offers we are finalising and would like to arrange travel as soon as possible.**

When long-time Northern Canadian Brie O'Keefe moved to London from Yellowknife and into a flatshare with Lyndsey Winship in 2009, she mentioned offhand that she'd recently purchased a ukulele. Neither imagined at 3 years later they'd be the semi-professional outfit The Faltering Hearts.

Both classically trained pianists with extensive choral experience, they teamed up with singer and actress Cecilia Fage (member of Matt Berry and the Maypoles) and quickly began writing their own songs and developing innovative vocal arrangements of country, blues and jazz classics.

Brie O'Keefe grew up across the NWT and Nunavut in Fort Simpson, Qikitarjuaq and Yellowknife. Trained in the Yellowknife Youth Choir, Brie grew up listening to her parents jazz collection and the fiddling, jigging and aboriginal rhythms of the North in equal parts. Brie has integrated this into the sound of the Faltering Hearts alongside lyrics that reflect the pristine beauty of the North.

Songs like 'Bush Pilots Monument' reflect the solace and simplicity of a walk along one of Yellowknife's most historic landmarks and the distance that cold can bring. "Sideways" combines the sound of traditional spirituals with imageries of journeys through Canadian wilderness.

With a more retro element reflecting prohibition era and the smoky atmosphere of speakeasies, The Faltering Hearts cover well known classics by Irving Berlin, Roy Orbison, Fats Waller, the Andrews Sisters and Dolly Parton.

Their sound is characterised by tight, well blended and seamless 3 part vocal harmonies and the simplicity of ukuleles accompaniament. With the occasional clarinet solo, the Faltering Hearts have a diverse range incorporating their Northern heritage and the intersection between jazz, blues and country.