 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
       |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Little Miss Higgins and Foy Taylor ventured to Whitehorse, Yukon Territories this past weekend for the 2011 Western Canadian Music Awards. Being their first time to visit, the region, it was a fantastic affair welcomed by great people, good times, a trip to the gun range and two awards.
Little Miss Higgins’ album Across The Plains received an award for Best Blues Album at the Sunday night awards show. Also, the day before at the Industry Awards, Higgins won for Best Album Design.
Higgins is proud of the accomplishments of the album and thankful to all the folks who helped create it (co-producer Jaxon Haldane; engineer Len Milne at Bedside Studio; all the musicians; all the funders including FACTOR, Manitoba Film & Music, Saskatchewan Arts Board).
Little Miss and Foy also performed as a duo as part of the Breakout West Festival along with many other great musicians and friends. Check out www.breakoutwest.ca for details on other awards and performances.
Thanks from LMH to the WCMA’s, to the city of Whitehorse for hosting an excellent event, to Ken for the trip t the gun range, to Gordie Tentrees for the adventure in the woods, SaskMusic for an awesome after-party.
Check out their website at: www.thesheepdogs.com
In celebration of the release of the Bargain! Shop Panties music video, Little Miss Higgins Music will be giving away ten free albums and pairs of panties signed by Little Miss Higgins herself!
All you have to do is take a picture of yourself holding a pair of your favorite under…wear and send it to showusyourpanties@gmail.com. Every Wednesday for the next five weeks we’ll pick two lucky winners and send them their very own copy of Across The Plains and an autographed pair of Bargain! Shop Panties!
RULES: - Fellas and ladies, you don’t have to be afraid to pose with panties if you don’t want to. Boxers and briefs are totally fine! - Only one photo per person please! - Winner's photos will be posted ONLY WITH THEIR PERMISSION So get out there and send in those photos! Remember: the e-mail address to send your pictures is showusyourpanties@gmail.com
Go to the Facebook page to see the winners!
Over the course of the past 2 months, a new video for "Bargain! Shop Panties" has been organized, filmed, edited and even a pre-release viewing at the Nokomis Hotel Bar this past week-end on June 24th.
The official online release will be July 3rd. Until then there will be sneak-peak photos here on the homepage and on Facebook. New photos will be posted each day.
Thanks to The Bargain! Shop who supported this video. The release of the video is in conjunction with a nation wide panties sale. You check more about that on their website:
The pre-release in Nokomis went over with a splash. There 4 different viewing throughout the evening which at 6:00pm and ended at midnight. In between showings, we played assorted games: Pin The Panties On Tony, The Freshly Washed Panty Toss and the infamous Chicken Toss (introduced by the High and Lonesome Club in Winnipeg MB). Many of the local stars of the video and people who donated washing supplies and filming locations where in attendance, including Reg and Ruth Greves, owners of the beautiful, red 1967 Dodge grain truck.
Can't wait for you all to see it!
Little Miss Higgins
FINAL TOUR UPDATE:
Sitting in the garden now after the whirlwind kd lang support tour. The seeds we planted before we left have sprouted and there are little mats of green everywhere (veggies and weeds). Today is day 2 of the Bargain! Shop Panties video shoot.
The return trip to the UK was certainly a success, as well as fun! Thanks again to kd lang and the Siss Boom Bang. Also, to the tour and production crew; they were amazing and made our jobs run smoothly!
And one last HOORAH! for Rebecca Kemp, our tour manager! She's a true pro and knows how to pull out the perfect party game!
Here's the press release that went out just before heading back:
LITTLE MISS HIGGINS TO OPEN FOR K.D. LANG TOUR IN UK
"Jolene Higgins attacks it all - blues, country, jazz, folk and nostalgic pop - with heartwarming relish and a voice occasionally reminiscent of Calamity Jane-era Doris Day."
- Mojo Magazine
Shortly after finishing a triumphant 18-date debut tour of the UK in April, Little Miss Higgins is returning to those shores as the opening act for Canadian music legend k.d. lang on a 6-date tour of England and Scotland.
"I have admired her music and her voice ever since I can remember." says Little Miss Higgins. "She is a legendary artist. Being a fellow Canadian, and fellow Albertan, I have heard her music and her name across the country. She is a true inspiration. It will be an honour to open for her and meet her."
The UK concert tour starts at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham on May 30th and ends at the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow on June 6th.
Those who haven't seen Little Miss Higgins perform live are in for a treat as she combines self-penned songs with old classics from such legends as Memphis Minnie. Her electrifying stage presence, powerful voice and own unique brand of 1930's blues make her an artist you don't want to miss! For information on Little Miss please click on this media kit www.littlemisshiggins.com/press.php for bio, downloadable pics and fully streamed album.
Little Miss Higgins has spent the past year touring behind Across The Plains, which was released in April 2010. The album was recorded at the Bedside Studios in Winnipeg and was co-produced by singer/songwriter Jaxon Haldane and Little Miss Higgins. Foy Taylor, as well as many other fine Western Canadian musicians, joined Little Miss Higgins in the studio to help create this wonderful project with such titles as "Snowin' Today: A Lament For Louis Riel", "Bargain! Shop Panties" and "Glad Your Whiskey Fits Inside My Purse".
"Saskatchewan's economy is boomin' and so is the province's music scene. Leading the way is blues/folk/roots singer Little Miss Higgins, who sings with the soul of a flapper."
--Sandra Sperounes, Edmonton Journal
"She's got a twenties or thirties sound thing goin' on and a voice that's smooth like a prohibition fog rolling in on a lake of honey surrounded by cotton ball trees... with Mint Juleps scattered around the beach, of course."
--Super Turbo Bunny
k.d. lang and The Siss Boom Bang Tour Dates:
May 30, 2011 7:00 PM Symphony Hall Birmingham
May 31, 2011 7:00 PM The Bridgewater Hall Manchester
Jun 2, 2011 7:00 PM Royal Festival Hall London
Jun 3, 2011 7:00 PM Royal Festival Hall London
Jun 4, 2011 7:00 PM Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Jun 6, 2011 7:00 PM Clyde Auditorium Glasgow
UK Reviews:
June 2011 Edition of MOJO Magazine of Across the Plains (4 out of 5 stars):
"Across the Plains" Good-time music, old-time style, from the Great Northern Plains of Canada - Albums are like people, really. Some scowl at you from behind all the other CD's while others make you instantly warm to them. With its colourful sleeve and ebullient mix of old-time country, pop nostalgia, string-driven things and lively horn outbursts, this is such an album. Occasionally diving in to French, Jolene Higgins attacks it all - blues, country, jazz, folk and nostalgic pop - with heartwarming relish and a voice occasionally reminiscent of Calamity Jane-era Doris Day. She belts out the saucy Bargain Shop Panties with an infectious wink, strums ukulele as she recreates the spirit of a Prohibition-are drinking song on Glad Your Whiskey Fits Inside My Purse, but shows she has the stomach for the heavier stuff with Snowin' Today, an evocative tribute to the resistance leader and Canadian folk hero Louis Reil."
(Portion of Article)
Monday 4th April 2011
WHAT a night this turned out to be. For both acts stormed the place – with, I hasten to add, the vociferous help of a bunch of young, well-oiled and enthusiastic fellow nationals of Little Miss Higgins.
From the off, Saskatchewan based Higgins and her accompanying guitarist, Foy Taylor, pumped up an energy level bordering on combustible. Playing fabulously good and beefy electric guitar, with songs to match, they wooed the Cluny2 audience like few others.
It didn’t take us long to wonder how good the headline act were going to be if they were better than the bubbly, born-to-entertain Higgins. She had them begging for more with her smart anecdotes and such songs as the Canadian sown and raised The Dirty Ol’ Tractor Song, The Train’s A Comin’ Down and the cheeky Bargain! Shop Panties.
Oldies but Goodies!
Festivalgoers bask in the blues at Deer Lake Park
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
By Graeme McRanor, Special to the Sun August 15, 2010 Comments (1)
Portion of Article:
The lovely Little Miss Higgins performed next. Nelson’s [Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real] band might promise the authentic but this duo — comprised of Jolene Higgins and her partner Foy Taylor — delivers it. Higgins has been described as a “pocket-sized powerhouse” and that's apt: the Saskatchewan-based singer delivered a big sound as she twanged and sang her way through personal, small-town experiences. Born in Brooks, Alberta, and raised in Independence, Kansas, Higgins brings a down-home vibe to her blend of country and blues. For instance, she makes her own hemp-based soap (which she usually sells at shows), so she wrote a song called Wash These Blues Away. Makes sense, right?
Vancouver Province July 2010 CD Review
Across the Plains (Independent)
For her second album, the Sakatchewan singer has gone deeper into the past,
sounding at times like blues-belter Bessie Smith.
It often sounds like Higgins set up her band in the studio and performed live
while telling the engineer to make the record sound cavernously old.
There is a lot of interchange between her and her band, especially on “Bargain!
Shop Panties,” that seems genuinely spontaneous and therefore is fun.
As well as blowsy horns that create a ragtime feel, there is some mighty guitar
playing, heard to best effect on the swampy seven-minute closer, “Slaughterhouse
(Revisited).” B
— T.H.
The Coast (Halifax) July 2010 CD Review
Across the Plains (independent)
by Laura Kenins
Little Miss Higgins comes from another era; one can only surmise that the roaring
’20s are still raging on in the Saskatchewan village she hails from. Higgins
wraps her deep, rich blues voice on tales from the traditional to the ridiculous,
like “Bargain! Shop Panties” (“So lovely, so divine, I buy
’em all the time, my Bargain! Shop panties”) and “Glad Your
Whiskey Fits Inside My Purse.” This record features more jazzy arrangements
than her last, with sounds stretching from blues to jazz to big band, covering
everything from Canadian history to contemporary mythology to the blues and
boozing. You’re left with the sense that, despite her talents, Little
Miss Higgins doesn’t take herself too seriously---plus a strong desire
to surreptitiously down a bottle of whiskey with her at the back of a bar.
Uptown Magazine, Live at Times Change(d): The High and Lonesome Club,
Winnipeg Manitoba- June 25, 2010
Winnipeg International Jazz Festival
by Jared Story
There’s something in that Nokomis water. The small Saskatchewan town — population 400 — is the birthplace of Chicago Blackhawks defenceman Jordan Hendry, Streetheart frontman Kenny Shields and author Max Braithwaite, not to mention Hockey Hall of Famer Elmer Lach. It also imports ability; just take Alberta-born, Kansas-raised, Nokomis-based Little Miss Higgins.
This diminutive dynamo lit up the Times Change(d) Friday night with her combination
of fiery licks and leads, blues-boogie riffs and irresistible prairie charm.
Speaking of Saskatchewan, most of Little Miss Higgins’ music is inspired
by Canada’s breadbasket. Accompanied by partner/guitarist Foy Taylor,
Higgins performed such made-in-Nokomis numbers as In the Middle of Nowhere,
That Train’s A’ Comin’ Down and Velvet Barley Bed. She also
had spectators in stitches with an embarrassing tale involving a discount store
and delicates before launching into a side-splitting singalong called Bargain!
Shop Panties. Higgins got plenty of audience participation on Beautiful Sun,
after she encouraged people to do their best bird whistles — she was met
with plenty of warbling, a few “ca-caws” and, this being the Times
Change(d), the sweet sound of a rubber chicken. For the most part, though, the
crowd]s contribution was involuntary and hearty, with plenty of toe-tapping
heard during Pig Meat Strut — a fast then faster Big Bill Broonzy instrumental
— while Glad Your Whiskey Fits Inside My Purse moved one woman to buy
shots for Higgins and Taylor. The whiskey was well-deserved.