Kim Beggs | What's Happening?

Whitehorse musician Kim Beggs is nominated for two awards at tonight’s WCMAs, which take place in her hometown.

Whitehorse is known for its vibrant arts scene.

The Yukon city, which hosts the 2011 BreakOut West festival and Western Canadian Music Awards, punches well above its less-than-30,000 population in terms of national and international recognition of its musicians, in particular.

Double Western Canadian Music Award nominee Kim Beggs is a prime example of why.

Her latest album, Blue Bones, is nominated in the Roots Solo Recording of the Year, and the video for her song “Longest Dream” nominated for the Multi-Media Award.

A handy sort, Beggs wrote the songs, and did the animation and directed the video using her love of beadwork as a launch pad for the concept.

The entertainment industry infrastructure being pretty much non-existent in the North, it’s typical of the region’s artists to be jacks of all trades.

She is on lunch break from her day job working as a carpenter on a job site outside of town when reached for the interview.

“We do a lot of things to make ends meet here,” says Beggs with a laugh. “I’m quite visually oriented and figured I should know something about video making before working with a director making one, so I took animation and camera classes and then figured, ‘Heck, may as well make it myself.’”

“I’m planning on doing another one this winter. You’ve got nothing but time up here then, unless you’re in the music business, which means you have to steal time.”

“Longest Dream” is a lovely tune and video about Beggs’ younger brother, who passed away from cancer.

The song is one of many “bluegrass bramble” tracks offered up on Blue Bones, which fuses classic hillbilly country with Canadiana. In this case, not the usual grim prairie tales, but rather “dark tales of northern life.”

Produced by Juno award-winner Steve Dawson, the album boasts guests spots by folk/roots royalty such as Austin, TX., Gurf Morlix, Laurie Lewis and others. It received fawning reviews in publications across North America and in the U.K., and Beggs played many festivals during the past season.

Having the WCMAs in her hometown is exciting and she can’t help but wonder if some of the showcasing artists will, like herself, become transplants to the territory.

“The Yukon is a very special place that sometimes grabs you and you can’t leave, other times you need time to deal with the love/hate aspects of the dark and cold.”

“They say you need to stay here through all four seasons to really get it. A lot of artists ‘become’ here because of the amount of time you get to hone your craft and grow.”

Case in point is her latest venture, The Kim Beggs Show, an artist-to-artist talk show with jam sessions that broadcasts on the local community access TV station.

Like her animation, she says it is a work in progress that can only get better. As long as she can find people with enough time away from all of their careers to appear in studio.

“It’s the land of opportunity up here, I tell ya,” says Beggs.

She suggests that people get their first exposure to the area via the musical postcards that are the local music festivals, and recommends Frostbite (frostbitefest.ca) and the Dawson City Music Festival (dcmf.com), which takes place next July 20-22.

The WCMAs take place Sunday night in Whitehorse.

--Stuart Derdeyn