The Jerry Cans
Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada | Established. Jan 01, 2014
Music
Press
Dear Sir or Madam,
This letter attests to the Dawson City Music Festival Association’s strong support of the Jerry Cans in all of their forthcoming musical endeavours.
The Jerry Cans offered one of the most memorable performances at our 35th annual Festival. Following the Festival, I received exclusively positive feedback with regards to the Jerry Can’s live performance at both our mainstage and at collaborative sessions at our other Festival venues. Their performance is high-energy and their sound is unarguably unique.
The Jerry Cans perform many of their songs in Inuktitut and are passionate about preserving the language even as the north and their home community of Iqaluit evolve. They are also committed to representing northerners and to challenging some of the misperceptions they have encountered about life in the Arctic. Their music evokes the contemporary north and the spirited people that choose to reside there and encourages a greater appreciation and understanding of northern peoples and cultures.
The Jerry Cans merchandise sales were unprecedented and a set a Festival record. I am confident that any new recorded material from this group will be memorable, commercially marketable, and artistically sound. Their commitment to their craft, professionalism and charming attitude make the entire group an absolute pleasure to work with and I am sure that, should they pursue it, they will have a successful career in the music industry.
I look forward to hearing any future recordings, and encourage you to contact me with regards to my support of these remarkable Canadian artists. - Jenna Roebuck - Director, Dawson City Music Festival
Nunavut, the northernmost territory of Canada, has fewer people than Dover, Delaware, but as
much land as Western Europe. It's not surprising, then, that I've never heard of any Nunavut
bands until now...they're busy getting from gig to gig! Luckily, the Jerry Cans, a Nunavut band
who perform high-energy songs in the Inuit language, came down to Toronto to support their
debut album, Nunavuttitut (Nunavut Style). I was impressed with their set, and continue to be
impressed with the album, which features a mix of Inuit, country and rock styles -- with most
songs in Inuit and a few in English. The English ones are a nice mix of fun and protest. One
rails against high food prices, a big problem in Nunavut, by observing "I went in to buy my
flour, I went in to buy my eggs/I'm surprised I could walk out of there cause they charged me
my arms and my legs." In other sharply-observed songs they skewer the Nunavut Government
and PETA. In one bilingual lyric they ask "If I can't hunt well, will you still be loving me,"
showing that while the particulars of life might be different, young men worry about the same
things everywhere. Solid bluegrass-style fiddling and down-home button accordion team up
with electric guitar, bass, and drums, and the vocals combine Inuit throat singing, bluesy pop
crooning, and even old-school rap. The bright, sparkling arrangements remind me of Spirit of the
West and similar Canadian folk-pop groups -- good, clean fun from the Far North! - Huffington Post
For anyone who thinks of drum dances and ayaya songs when they envision Arctic music, meet
the Jerry Cans. With their rip-roaring Celtic rhythms, this band of Iqaluit young folks, most of
them white, are bringing Nunavut’s grandmothers and grandfathers to their feet, stomping along
to “good ol’- fashioned seal-clubbin’ songs” and sometimes – no joke – crying for joy. Because
when the band picks up their guitars and fiddles, they make music in the language everyone here
loves: Inuktitut.
In January, when the Jerry Cans held the release party for their first album, Nunavuttitut
(Nunavut Style), the crowds braved minus-40 temperatures to fill Iqaluit’s legion hall. Plenty
of kids arrived to sing along to a set of original and cover songs – including Michael Jackson’s
“Beat It,” with throat-singing – but frontman Andrew Morrison also remembers, “There were so
many elders that somebody asked for an elders’ square dance, just for them, so they wouldn’t get
knocked around.”
That, more than anything, is why the Jerry Cans are getting attention. They appeal not just
to teens but to old ladies in sealskin kamik boots, and play not just rock and ska but beloved
Nunavut fiddle-and-accordion classics that have seldom been recorded. And it all happens in a-
revved up and mongrel Iqaluit style that some say is leading a revival in Northern music.
The band’s mash-up of musical influences flows from their roots. Nancy Mike, their accordionist
and only Inuk member, grew up in Pangnirtung, a hub for Inuktitut folk music, where for years
the now-defunct Pangnirtung Music Festival was an excuse for families from all over Baffin
Island to get together and make music.
With the exception of violinist Gina Burgess, who moved from Halifax last year to join the band,
the rest of the Jerry Cans – Morrison, bassist Brendan Doherty and drummer Steve Rigby –
are from Nunavut’s fast-changing capital, where people from all over the Arctic and the world
collide. “In Iqaluit, we’ve got such a unique music scene,” says Morrison. “It’s such a small
community, [so] everybody just plays with everybody else, and we all come from different
musical backgrounds.”
Morrison, Doherty and Rigby met back in grade school, when Iqaluit was still a part of the
Northwest Territories. They grew up listening to Nunavut rock bands, along with traditional
performances at community cultural events. They picked up instruments and experimented with
hard-rock and metal before heading south for university. When they returned, Nunavut was a
new territory and Iqaluit was well on its way to becoming a full-fledged, cosmopolitan city.
The boom in their hometown was great for musical inspiration – Nunavuttitut’s strong reggae
tones come, in part, from jamming with ex-pat Jamaican penny-whistlers in Iqaluit – but it had a
troubling side: English was rapidly taking over. Morrison resisted the change. “It’s empowering
for young people to be able to be proud, to sing along in their own language,” he says. And
while most of the members are capable in Inuktitut, Morrison now has an incentive to become
thoroughly fluent. Last summer, he asked Mike’s father for permission to marry her. The answer
was yes, on one condition: “that I learn how to speak.”
He’s learning in the catchiest possible way. “Mamaqtuq” – meaning “delicious” – a song about
seal-meat stew, was on heavy rotation on CBC radio last summer, and when the band played
Yellowknife’s Folk on the Rocks festival, the crowd pumped their fists and sang along like
Inuktitut was their native language, too.
But while the band’s embrace of Inuktitut is “definitely a political choice,” Morrison says,
“most of all, we have to have fun about it. Because often, I think, the Nunavut represented in
newspapers from the south is not a fun place, and that’s far from the truth. If you’ve been up
here, you know you cry harder up North, and you laugh harder, than anywhere I’ve ever been in
the world. Or you go crazy.” - UP Here Magazine
To Whom It May Concern,
This is my personal recommendation letter for The Jerry Cans. As the Festival Coordinator and Co-Artistic Director of Folk on the Rocks, Yellowknife, NT, I recently had the please of hosting and working with The Jerry Cnas for our 32nd Annual Festival.
The Jerry Cans greatly added to what was arguably the most successful Folk on the Rocks festival to date. As part of our roster of Northern performers, the group was the big 'sleeper hit' of the weekend. Exceeding audience expectations, they proved to be one of the most well-received acts alongside the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Ron Sexsmith, Pura Fe, Timber Timbre and many other nationall and internationnal recognized acts. As a homegrown group from Iqaluit, NU, they cleverly marry their Northern roots with their favourite forms of modern music.
They performed three acts throughout the festival weekend; one preliminary kick-off event on the eve before the festival, a Saturday afternoon set in the beer garden and a Saturday evening main stage set, all ranging from 45 minutes to an hour of original material. They were incredibly professional and timely in all our dealings leading up to and during the festival. With their audience, they were engaging, charming, gracious, energetic, shard and a lot of fun.
I highly recommend you consider this bunch of fine musicians for your festival. They bring a rare quality, undeniably authenticity and sheer joy.
Sincerely,
Pearl Rachinsky
Festival Coordinator/Co-Artistic Director
Folk on the Rocks, Yellowknife, NT - Folk on the Rocks Festival Coordinator
At the opening of Toonik Tyme on April 12, be prepared to rock to music from Iqaluit’s homegrown band, the Jerry Cans.
When Andrew Morrison, Steve Rigby, Nancy Mike and Stuart Crose, members of the Jerry Cans or, as they’re known in Inuktitut, Pai Gaalakkut, start singing “Mamartuq,” audiences in Iqaluit go wild.
Sometimes you’ll see people climb on stage with the band to act out the music, which, in this song, involves shooting, butchering and eating a seal.
“Mamaqtuq Mamaqtuq [tastes delicious] nattiminik uujjuq [seal meat stew] mamaqtuq mamaqtuq nattiminik uujjuq,” goes the refrain,
It’s a song best understood if you speak Inuktitut and live in Nunavut.
But even if you can’t understand the words and have never tasted seal meat, the rollicking accordion music, beefed up with guitars and drums, played in a style which the band jokingly calls “Ol’ Fashion Seal Clubbin’ Music” on its Facebook page.
They don’t take themselves too seriously. The band’s name came from some jerry cans they tried to rig into a drum kit.
The sound was terrible, but the name stuck.
But things are beginning to happen for the band.
They will perform at Toonik Tyme’s opening. Then, next week they play for delegates at the Nunavut Mining Symposium in Iqaluit.
They’re also booked for Iqaluit’s Alianait festival this summer, as well as Igloolik’s Rocking Walrus festival and the Folk on the Rocks festival in Yellowknife.
In late July, they’re heading to Greenland to test the waters there.
They’re starting to make real money, which they stick into a band fund to pay for things like their upcoming trip to Greenland.
If you ask band members Morrison and Mike about who influences their music, they point to growling balladeer Tom Waits, the veteran Iqaluit band Uvagut and the late Nunavik Inuk singer-songwriter, Charlie Adams.
While their music sounds like an improbable mix, that’s typical of Iqaluit, said Morrison, 25, who grew up, like his fellow band member Rigby, as a transplanted southern kid in Iqaluit.
“The music culture is small. Everyone comes from different places, lots of people from the South, coming together [with Inuit] and bringing everything together,” Morrison said. “The direction is a bit of everywhere.”
Mike, a third year nursing student at Nunavut Arctic College, plays the accordion in the Jerry Cans.
That’s an instrument that Inuit women once played more often than men. Now, the accordion is thought of as more of a man’s instrument.
Mike wants to change that.
“I think to bring back women playing accordion again makes me feel special,” Mike said.
For inspiration, band members just look around town, which explains why they have created at least a dozen songs with local themes.
One is about shopping at the Northmart, played in a 1950s’ crooner style. Another, about fishing in the spring, has a jazzy, reggae beat.
Morrison, a Trent University graduate, said he also wrote a song about his “hilarious” experience as a Government of Nunavut bureaucrat, where he enjoyed 45-minute coffee breaks and 90-minute lunches.
“It’s another crowd pleaser,” he said, adding that he played that song last week in front of an audience that included Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak.
There’s no lack of “cheeky political” subjects to feed the Jerry Cans’ songwriting.
Among the band’s other new songs, a “1970s style, sexy song about being in love with bingo.”
Many of the songs are written in Inuktitut.
Morrison hopes everyone in English-dominated Iqaluit, where nearly half the city’s residents are non-Inuit, can make a more of an effort to learn Inuktitut.
And music, said Morrison, is great way to do it.
A CD lies in the Jerry Cans’ future but “when things happen, they happen,” Morrison said. - Nunatsiaq News
Discography
2014- April tentative release of "Aakuluk" Sophomore Album
2013 - "Nunavut Style" Twelve Song LP **Canadian Folk Music Award Winning Album**
2012 - "Dear Paul" 3 Song Demo
2011 - "Legion Recordings" 10 Song Live album
2010 - "Its a Cuppa Tea" 3 Song Demo
Photos
Bio
"It's a little like what would happen if The Clash had grown up speaking Inuktitut in Nunavut" - Penguin Eggs Magazine
"Bringing Nunavuts grandmothers and grandfathers to their feet, stomping along to good ol- fashioned seal-clubbin songs and sometimes no joke crying for joy" - UP HERE Magazine
Growing up in Iqaluit, The Jerry Cans have had a mish mash of a musical upbringing with influences ranging all the way from old rock n' roll, community square dances, to seal hunting. Starting to jam together over the long dark Nunavut winters in a garage that had heat most of the time, The Jerry Cans developed a unique style incorporating their wide range of musical influences ranging from the King of Nunavut accordion Simeonie Keenainak, to Nunavut legends Charlie Adams, and Uvagut band to more southern influences include The Clash, The Pogues, and the late great Jonny Cash. This wide variety of influences has allowed the Jerry Cans to develop a unique sound fusing Inuktitut country rhythms with traditional throat singing, reggae, and blues.
Over the past two years the band has coalesced into a dance party machine, traveling throughout the north lighting up festivals, community halls, garages, and Northern store fronts, working to properly represent life as youth in Nunavut. In doing so The Jerry Cans challenge negative and misinformed portrayals of our beautiful home territory.
The Jerry Cans are proud to speak, learn, and sing in both English and Inuktitut and are working hard to encourage young Nunavummiut, people from Nunavut, to do the same. Through performance and workshops members of the Jerry Cans are busy promoting music education, leadership, along with Inuit cultural and language pride. The band views this work as an important part of their music and wherever the band goes they encourage audiences to learn more about the history of the land they live on.
We would love very much to come and share our music with you wherever that may be! If the season is right we can even trade some Arctic Char for whatever fish you have in your river. On the other hand instead of always asking for invitations we would also like to invite you to come visit us! We welcome visitors with open arms and tables full of delicious country food!
Nunavuttitut!
Nunavut Style!
The Jerry Cans
Band Members and Instrumentation
Andrew Morrison - Lead Singer, Guitar
Nancy Mike - Inuit Throat Singing, Accordion, Back up Vocals
Gina Burgess - Fiddle/Violin, Back up Vocals
Brendan Doherty - Bass, Back up Vocals
Stephen Rigby - Drums, Back up Vocals
Band Members
Links