Blue Moon Marquee
2023-2024 Annual Report feature
The Cowichan Valley - Coast Salish Territory, BC, indie blues duo of guitarist/vocalist A.W. Cardinal and bassist/vocalist Jasmine Colette were double-category nominees at the 2024 JUNOs and took home the statuette for Blues Album of the Year, the culmination of a string of successes emanating from the 2022 #FACTORfunded album, Scream, Holler & Howl.
Story
The 13-song collection set Blue Moon Marquee to a sweep of the 2023 Maple Blues Awards where the same album earned them Entertainer of the Year, Acoustic Act of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Record/Producer of the Year – the first time a single artist has carried those categories and Cardinal is also the first Indigenous artist to win those ‘big four’ awards.
Over the airwaves, the album went #1 on the Earshot Folk/Roots/Blues chart, #3 on the Earshot National Top 50, #5 on the NACC International chart and #8 on the coveted Living Blues chart to name a few!
“FACTOR funding was at the core of supporting our strategy, allowing us to create many wonderful music videos which were distilled into shareable snippets to spread their message organically and authentically,” says their manager, Ken Simms. “The Marketing component gave us the budget needed to drive discovery and spins on Spotify and Apple and views on YouTube, as well as amplifying upcoming tour dates which were buoyed with Tour Support before hitting the triple-play across harder-to-reach markets with Radio Marketing. The resulting fan growth has been phenomenal, leading to more direct news subscribers who are loyal, engaged, and so supportive.”
These “two small-town Alberta kids” aren’t just going places- they’ve clearly arrived.
Photo Credit: Lindsay Dakin
