Liz Solo to receive Stompin’ Tom Award
Longtime local music maven Liz Solo has been named a recipient of this year’s Stompin’ Tom Award by the East Coast Music Association (ECMA).
The award is presented annually to one person or group from each of the ECMA’S five regions (the Atlantic provinces and Cape Breton), in recognition of their long-term contribution to the music industry on the east coast, and the roads they have paved for new artists.
Solo’s career has spanned almost 30 years and includes works as a drummer, vocalist, composer, performance artist, media artist, writer and activist.
If you don’t know her from Lizband, The Black Bags, The Sauce or Trixxxie, you might recognize her as co-founder of the Black Bag Media Collective and Rock School for Girls, which was the first of its kind in the country.
You might also know her as an independent show producer, or co-founder of Rock Can Roll Records, producing the Rock Can Roll Music and Media Festival.
The other recipients of this year’s Stompin’ Tom Award are Nova Scotia hip-hop artists James Mcquaid and Richard Gray, a.k.a. MCJ and Cool J; P.E.I. multi-instrumentalist Jon Rehder; New Brunwick record store founder Gordie Tufts; and Cape Breton fiddler Winston (Scotty) Fitzgerald, who died in 1987.
St. John’s native Louis Thomas, a former member of Thomas Trio and the Red Albino who has been managing the careers of Atlantic Canadian artists for 30 years through his business Sonic Entertainment Group, will be presented with the ECMA’S Industry Builder Award. Thomas has managed acts such as Great Big Sea and Hey Rosetta! along with offering record label, concert promotion and recording studio services.
The Dr. Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Lynn Horne, publicist, promoter and manager to artists like Ron Hynes and Duane Andrews, The Trews, Charlie A’court and more. Other honorary award winners include musicians Geoff Arsenault and Kevin Macmichael, and indie-rock stars Sloan. The East Coast Music Awards will be handed out in Halifax this week.