Canadians Bob Moses, k.d. lang on short list for U.S music prize

TORONTO — Two musical acts with Canadian ties have been shortlisted for this year’s American Music Prize.

Days Gone By by electronic duo Bob Moses — which features Vancouver-raised Tom Howie and Jimmy Vallance — is among the 12 albums in the running for the award, now in its second year.

Another finalist is the selftitled album from k.d. lang’s side project case/lang/veirs.

They join a group of critically acclaimed releases from other newcomers such as R&B/soul performer Gallant, Nashville country singer Margo Price and female rocker Julien Baker.

The American Music Prize was established last year to honour debut albums from contemporary “USA artists.” It was inspired by the Mercury Prize in the U.K. and follows the tradition of other similar honours such as Canada’s Polaris Music Prize.

Nominees were selected by a jury of music industry and media professionals who considered albums released between August 2015 and July 2016. The winner receives a $25,000 US prize at an L.A. event in March.

Jazz musician Kamasi Washington received the top honour in the award’s inaugural year for his album The Epic.

Moses also received a Juno nomination this week and versions of the single Tearing Me Up are also in the running for two Grammys on Sunday night, for the best dance recording and remix recording awards.

Canadian singer-songwriter lang sparked her collaboration with Neko Case and Laura Veirs with an email proposition a couple of years ago. It began with the idea of recording an album of covers, but the trio quickly changed their minds and decided to record a collection of original songs.