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Blue Moon Marquee: Music As Connection

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Photo credit: Lindsay Dakin

Blue Moon Marquee made a big splash with their album Scream, Holler & Howl. It was the #4 album on CKUA’s year-end Top 100 list for 2022, and it won a JUNO for Blues Album of the Year. Now Blue Moon Marquee, made up of A.W. (Al) Cardinal and Jasmine Colette, is back with a gutsy new album called New Orleans Sessions.

We spoke with Jasmine about the album, the duo’s Alberta roots, her friendship with Bill Bourne, and why she’s a CKUA donor.

“We really wanted to make this album something that was unpolished,” she says. “Studio albums are focused and careful, and there’s time to polish the work. For New Orleans Sessions, we wanted to embrace the feeling of a live show. Or like when you are walking down the street and you hear a band just going for it, and you say, ‘Let’s go in there.’ It’s raw. This album came out of two afternoons. We recorded it in ten hours. It’s a live album without an audience. It’s for anyone who has busked!”

The duo is getting ready for some Alberta shows, and Jasmine says they love to play the small towns. “These remote and rural communities, they need the good juice, too!” she laughs. “Both Al and I grew up in rural Alberta communities, and music is the way to find connection. Everybody needs that. We know what it’s like to feel isolated or left out, so it’s important to us to keep going to these smaller communities. We like to play theatres, too—not just bars and lounges—because that way the kids can come. When young people can see music and the human beings making it, that’s great. There’s nothing like a live show, one night only.”

Jasmine also emphasizes that her upbringing in Alberta included some CKUA love. “When you have a listener-supported station like CKUA, fostering talent and making room for new artists, that is real. There is a sincerity that is just essential. And I have discovered so many amazing artists by listening to CKUA. It’s a treasure that I cherish. I donate every year.”

Just before our call ends, Jasmine recalls that another CKUA favourite, the late Bill Bourne, was a huge influence on her. She shared the stage with him many times through a project called BOP Ensemble, but her introduction to his music was far earlier. “I grew up listening to Bill Bourne on a grain farm in the Badlands. I was five years old, and I heard him on CKUA. And then my dad said, ‘This man is also a farmer and lives in Alberta.’ I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock. That blew my little mind, so to play with him, years later, was a full circle experience for me.”

Blue Moon Marquee will play Sherwood Park, Lloydminster, Daysland, and Athabasca this fall. Find dates and details at bluemoonmarquee.com

“Black Rat Swing” by Blue Moon Marquee: