Wintercount

Praise for "Champion of Lost Causes..." Nov. 2007:

"Strongest independent Alberta release I've heard this year (November 2007). VERY well done; fresh, the production is top notch as are the arrangements; works beautifully to propel the songs..."

Dan Cherwoniak
Producer, Radio Music
CBC Radio - Dan Cherwoniak

"On her latest luscious CD (Champion of Lost Causes), she sings about dead-end towns, escaping our six-month winters and the struggles of surviving as an artist.... bathed in mournful guitars, organs and her haunting pipes, Nixi's tunes sometimes feel desolate and bleak, but she also offers encouraging words, particularly on Souljers..."

Sandra Sperounes
Edmonton Journal - Sandra Sperounes

"Nixi has a breathy voice, reminiscent of Juliana Hatfield. Her sound is delicate and textured, which places her songs above the typical folk-rock crowd..."

-Chart Attack
- Canada College Radio Charts

"A must-see amongst other musicians for her excellent singing and well-crafted songs..."

-See Magazine
- Tom Murray

"Tanyss' voice is beautiful, drowsy and mean...she has a way of drawing her sounds out long and lonesome..."

-Mote MGZN - Gabino Travassos

"...I love the cd and play it a lot. She sounds so sultry and gritty and wise... even better to me than Joanna Newsom..."
-Lark Clark (CKUA)
- Lark Clark

"Tanyss Nixi puts on an exquisite performance..."

-The Gateway
- University of Alberta

Sun Rating: 4 out of 5

Tell me you can't tell this was written by someone from Edmonton: "When your time becomes money it has no other value - the money you make becomes time you don't use. You are motionless deadweight and the life you have wasted is the only one given and it's wasted on you. You like smokestacks and diesel. You like Hollywood pictures. You like fake tans and football and cable TV. And it's what you aspire to that will always define you and it's what you will turn out to be ... and you don't have to live on a house on refinery row."

I listened to this song about eight times, just suspended like some ball of ore between magnetic speakers as Tanyss Nixi went on about how it might be better to be dirty and honest and live in a dumpster, waking up to the sound of birds . . . but maybe not. The song, so late in the year, turns out to be one of the best of 2007. It's called Refinery Row.

The next number on this local wonder is rather bravely sung mostly by Mark Davis, who put out a pair of great ones this year himself. Toilet Town, as it's named, is kind of an updated You're the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly, with really good songwriting here, too, simultaneously hopeful and doomed. But sad songs are not all Nixi plays with, as her more upbeat, loosely folk music demonstrates. Post-punk guitar virtuoso Robin Hunter plays some beautifully nostalgic guitar on Showboat 2 Nowhere, Nixi singing in the style of an especially exhausted Lucinda Williams, without the clothespin on her nose. The music is possessing of fierce energy despite its Twin Peaks, slow-dance tempo, possibly due to the excellent mentioning of a Death Star exploding.

Once again, I must stress the luck we share living in this transitioning, decaying city; its songwriters pick up on this and make beauty of even our ugliest communal neglect. No pain, no gain, in other words. Thanks for making it prettier, Tanyss, smokestacks and all.

December, 2007 - Fish Griwkowsky

Tanyss Nixi
Champion Of Lost Causes
By Amanda Ash, Exclaim!
May 2008

Tanyss Nixi may have been born and raised in a quaint Alberta town but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t exposed to the corporate blemishes that often dot the prairie landscape. From smokestacks to diesel trucks, fake tans to apathetic souls, Nixi’s latest album, Champion Of Lost Causes, doesn’t let anything escape criticism. “Refinery Row” embodies the entire record’s premise, her lyrics constantly flashing before us those everyday images of cable television and things we really don’t need. “Showboat 2 Nowhere” dishes out the same sort of organic perspective, reminding us that even though we claim that we are individuals, we’re all part of a larger picture. But just as Nixi scrunches up her nose at those who fail to live in the moment, her beautiful voice and folk melodies remind us that changing the world really isn’t a lost cause. (Independent)

Follow this link to see original:
http://www.exclaim.ca/musicreviews/generalreview.aspx?csid1=121&csid2=852&fid1=31144

- Amanda Ash