'TOUCHWOOD HILLS' receives 'BEST FOLK ALBUM' NOMINATION @ 2007 NATIVE AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS!!!
'BEST FOLK ALBUM' NOMINATION @ 2007 INDIAN SUMMER MUSIC AWARDS!!!
'TOUCHWOOD HILLS' receives BEST PRODUCER (Wayne Lavallee)Â Â NOMINATION @ 2006 Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards!!!
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 Shakti Hayes has been a professional musician, songwriter & performer for over 14 years. She has performed with a dozen or more groups over the years with her bass playing and backup vocals. Some of her most notable contributions are playing, performing & touring with The Badd Dog Blues Society, Gerald Charlie and The Black Owl Blues Band, singing with Juno nominated & C.A.M.A. Award winning aboriginal women’s vocal ensemble Nitsiwakun (Sandy Scofield and Lisa Sazama), sings a duet and lends backup vocals for a few tracks on Wayne Lavallee’s Juno nominated album ‘Green Dress’ and has provided bass and backup vocals during his live performances.
In 2006 Shakti went from back up musician to a multi-award nominated solo artist. A position she is clearly comfortable with upon hearing her debut album ‘Touchwood Hills’. Her debut album weaves her influences together with a long-standing oral tradition, setting her own personal stories to powerful music. On the title track, she sings about the journey back to the reserve where her mother was born and raised, and her discovery there of a family and history she didn’t know she had. In ‘Buffalo Drop’, the story of a brother who died young is set against the backdrop of her people’s ancestral hunting grounds in the Qu’Appelle Valley.
‘Touchwood Hills’ received nominations for ‘Best Folk Album’ at both the 2007 Native Amercian Music Awards & the 2007 Indian Summer Music Awards. ‘Touchwood Hills’ also received a nomination at the 2006’s First People’s Choice Music Awards in the Best Producer category. In 2008, Shakti has been featured on 'The Mix’ & ‘Rez Blues 2 on the APTN channel (Canada) & Interviewed on Native American ‘Live’ w/ Albert. R. Cata (U.S.national radio). She will also be performing at the 25th annual Gathering of Nations Pow Wow in April. In 2007, she has been featured on ‘First Talk’ with Tamara Bull, on ‘Primetime News’ with Donna Smith, ‘Beyond Words’ on the APTN channel. She has also performed & been interviewed on NCI Radio (Winnipeg) & REZERVATIONS w/ Dawn Karima (Albuquerque) radio shows, among others.
Shakti writes songs that are as evocative as they are unpredictable…songs that get into the listener’s head and heart, and stay there. Joy, raw pain, healing memory…when Shakti Hayes sings, she bears her soul ~ and people listen.