Tweet: Storyteller through song, #folkmusic #roots #singersongwriter @mariadunnmusic celebrates resilience, grace, gratitude, solidarity on #Junos #Junos2022 Winner Joyful Banner Blazing: https://www.mariadunn.com

BIO

2 page downloadable Maria Dunn Bio (pdf): download pdf

Short bios are below media quotes:

Selected Media Quotes

From the very first note [Joyful Banner Blazing] truly hit my heart – like welcoming a loved friend – wonderful stories and songs needed for this time. – Tom Coxworth, Folk Routes, CKUA Radio

Maria Dunn's Joyful Banner Blazing elevates our humanism — Fish Griwkowsky, Edmonton Journal

…remarkable singer-songwriter, think of her as a distaff Woody Guthrie. – Mike Ross, Edmonton Sun

An arrestingly powerful singer-songwriter from Canada who writes great historical and social commentary. – Rich Warren, WFMT Chicago and Sing Out! Magazine

...one of our most important and vital songwriters… Essential listening, then, this Gathering. – Roddy Campbell, Penguin Eggs Magazine

She started twenty years ago with great storytelling, songwriting, singing and production — now 20 years later Maria Dunn sounds as fresh, smart and polished as ever. -- Katherine Duncan, CBC Radio One (October 2018)

...Dunn’s musical accomplishments have left us with a richer appreciation of our culture. I can think of few other songwriters who embrace the work of searching out and researching real-life stories from often overlooked corners of the world, only to turn them into memorable songs. -- Roger Levesque, Edmonton Journal (November 2018)

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Short Bios

60 words

A true preserver of the spirit of folk music, 2022 Juno Award Winner Maria Dunn is often compared to Woody Guthrie for her keen social awareness and unvarnished melodic songs about ordinary people. Her latest album Joyful Banner Blazing (2021) celebrates resilience, grace, gratitude, solidarity, joy and the love that fires our actions to make the world a better place. www.mariadunn.com

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115 words

A true preserver of the spirit of folk music, 2022 Juno Award Winner Maria Dunn (www.mariadunn.com) is often compared to Woody Guthrie for her keen social awareness and unvarnished melodic songs about ordinary people. Her latest and seventh album Joyful Banner Blazing (2021) celebrates resilience, grace, gratitude, solidarity, joy and the love that fires our actions to make the world a better place. Produced by Shannon Johnson (of Juno-winning band The McDades).

Edmonton-based, Maria tours internationally. Accolades for her songwriting include publication in Sing Out! and Penguin Eggs magazines and the Rise Again songbook (2015). Other artists have recorded (Niamh Parsons, Bob Bossin) or performed (Archie Fisher, Andy Irvine, Nathan Rogers) her songs.

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155 words

2022 Juno Award winning songwriter Maria Dunn draws deeply on the folk tradition of storytelling through song. Melding North American roots music with her Scottish-Irish heritage, she sings about the resilience and grace of “ordinary” people, past and present. Along with multimedia shows Packingtown, GWG: Piece by Piece, On The River (with Asani) and Troublemakers, developed in collaboration with Don Bouzek of Ground Zero Productions, Maria has seven independent CDs, including Gathering (2017 Juno Nominee, 2017 WCMA Nominee, 2016 Edmonton Music Prize Winner), Piece By Piece (2013 Canadian Folk Music Award Nominee), The Peddler (2009 CFMA Nominee), and 2004 people’s history of Alberta, We Were Good People. Her latest release Joyful Banner Blazing (2021) celebrates gratitude, solidarity, joy and the love that fires our actions to make the world a better place. (All albums produced by Shannon Johnson of Juno-winning band The McDades). Edmonton-based, Maria performs at folk festivals, theatres and conferences across Canada, Europe and USA.

www.mariadunn.com

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245 words

2022 Juno Award winning songwriter Maria Dunn draws deeply on the folk tradition of storytelling through song. Melding North American roots music with her Scottish-Irish heritage, her new album Joyful Banner Blazing (2021) celebrates resilience, grace, gratitude, solidarity, joy and the love that fires our actions to make the world a better place. Her previous recording, Gathering (Nominee - 2017 Juno Award, Nominee - 2017 WCMA, Winner - Edmonton Music Prize), highlights positive stories of courage and activism, both local and global. 2012’s Piece By Piece (Nominee – 2013 Canadian Folk Music Award) pays tribute to immigrant women working at a Canadian clothing factory and 2004’s We Were Good People mines the vibrant people’s history of Western Canada in the early 1900s. Maria's other independent albums include the more broadly themed The Peddler (Nominee – 2009 CFMA), For A Song (Nominee – 2002 Juno Award), all produced by Shannon Johnson (of Juno-winning band The McDades).

Edmonton-based, Maria has developed and toured four multimedia people’s history shows, On The River (with Indigenous women’s trio Asani), Packingtown, GWG: Piece by Piece and Troublemakers: Working Albertans, with videographer Don Bouzek. Maria also performs (solo, duo, ensemble) at festivals and theatres in Canada, Europe (UK, Ireland, Netherlands) and USA. Media features include: Bravo TV (The Carol Project), CBC National Radio (Sunday Edition), CKUA Alberta, BBC Radio Scotland. Her songs are published in the Rise Again songbook, Sing Out! and Penguin Eggs magazines and recorded by other artists including Niamh Parsons, The Outside Track, Bob Bossin.

www.mariadunn.com