Vancouver’s foremost Celtic folk act, Tiller’s Folly, bring their new album A Ripple in Time to Spruce Grove this weekend. "We released it here last year, and now we’re releasing it in territories as we go, so the Alberta release is this tour," explains Laurence Knight, the band’s bassist and the record’s producer.

In a country that usually keeps Celtic on its East Coast, Knight believes there is a scene on the West Coast as well. "At concerts, we used to tell anybody from the Maritimes we were from Vancouver and, well... But it’s not so much like that now. There are The Paperboys, Mad Pudding, Spirit of The West."

Tiller’s Folly has been together since 1996, but the line-up has really gelled since the new album. "Eric Reed, the newest member, was the second engineer on the record and that’s how we met him," says Knight. "We invited him to come over and he sort of auditioned for us, and he had so many of the songs down so well, it just worked right away. He’s a wonderful multi-instrumentalist."

Award-wining fiddler Nolan Murray rounds out the group with songwriter and frontman Bruce Coughlan, who formed the band. "Bruce is of Irish descent and he saw The Clancy Brothers when he was a kid and I think that started it all. He’s a proficient writer, and what is so cool is how he takes these traditional stories and turns them into songs," Knight says.

Coughlan’s traditional roots show as he weaves tales from life as it was for Canada’s early settlers, hunters, fishers, explorers and adventurers.

"Everybody in the band really wants to be here. We’re hockey fans, and we got to play with the Canucks, and we noticed how great it is with the team, the chemistry," Knight maintains. "We’re like that – we’ll do 18 performances, over 2500 miles, in 13 days and we all still love doing it..."

For a fine roots evening, hear Tiller’s Folly at the Horizon Stage in Spruce Grove, this Sat, Mar. 1, 7:30 pm. For tickets, call the box office at 962-8995.

The rivalry between Edmonton and Calgary has waned over the years, but sports teams fall prey fairly regularly to the convention, as occasionally do music types. Envy prevailed for urban music fans round these parts when Calgary got two R&B/ hip-hop radio stations and Edmonton none. Now, we’ve got reason to be proud and brag.

Local urban soul popster Jeff Hendrick just won Cowtown station Vibe 98.5’s first "Unsigned Vibe Contest." Run in conjunction with other stations – such as T-dot’s Flow 93.5’s "Soul Search"– each radio outlet called for and were inundated by submissions.

Hendrick was out of town last week when he got the call: "I had submitted "Dance With Me" and "What’s The Deal"’ off my CD and I was gigging in Banff when I got phoned last Tuesday and told that I won out of a short list of four, from the Alberta-wide contest.

"I’m very happy, I get an all-expense paid trip to Canadian Music Week to play. A really good thing for me is that I met with all the labels in December, so I am developing a relationship – this kind of solidifies that I am real."

Hendrick, who says "The Internet is my guru," uses the Web as a promotional tool: this contest win is an example of his success. "I also just got played on a London Internet radio station, www.soul24—7.com; they have DJs from all over the world. I sent it to a guy who played it at his club and then on the radio. He got a lot of positive feedback from people by email and forwarded me, so that was great."

It’s refreshing to hear an artist sing the pros as opposed to crying the cons of piracy on the Net. "I don’t give it all away, but I figure what have I got to lose?"

The showcase will feature Hendrick and other winners from other provinces, alongside artists such as Jully Black and The Rascalz, at The Opera House in Toronto on Sat, Mar. 1. The grand prizewinner from there gets a studio-produced single and video out of the deal.