The Weakerthans Win ECHO Prize

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Winnipeg indie rock poets The Weakerthans and their song “Night Windows” have won The ECHO Songwriting Prize, one of Canada's most prestigious national songwriting prizes, which comes with a $5000 cash prize. The winning song was chosen by music fans through online voting.

The ECHO prize is another in The Weakerthans’ list of accolades for its latest release, Reunion Tour. They picked up the XM Satellite Radio’s Verge Music Awards prize for Artist of the Year late last month, and were recently short listed for the influential Polaris Music Prize. They’re also up for four Western Canadian Music Awards; winners will be announced on October 19 in Edmonton.

This is the second win and third nomination for a Manitoba band in ECHO’s three year history. In 2006, the inaugural ECHO prize went to local political punk outfit Propagandhi and its song "A Speculative Fiction." Last year, Juno-winning roots quartet Nathan and its song “Scarecrow” were nominated.

SOCAN initiated the prize in order to identify developing talent in today's independent music scene. According to SOCAN's website, "the prize honours some of the most innovative, creative and artistic songs created in the past year by emerging songwriters in Canada."

The Weakerthans are featured in the fall issue of Manitoba Music's newsletter. Click here to download the PDF (the file is 6.3 MB).

Click here to listen to The Weakerthans' "Night Windows" plus 97 other great tracks by Manitoba artists in the Manitoba Music Radio.

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