An unmistakable sound that blends Celtic music and Mi'kmaq culture has landed a fiddler from Wagmatcook First Nation in Cape Breton three ECMA nominations.
Morgan Toney says it’s a dream come true.
“I always told my mom that someday I'm going to get an ECMA,” said Toney. “I said I'm going to probably be 30 or 40 years old. But I'm 22 now, and I'm up for three awards, and I'm only doing this for my mom.”
For the past few years his mother, Jackie Toney, has been in hospital in Inverness, N.S., with a brain tumour, so she hasn't been able to see her only son perform on stage.
"She never got to see me take off because she's been in a hospital bed. I wanted her to be at my shows."
Producer Keith Mullins has taken Toney under his wing the past couple of years. He says the young Mi'kmaw fiddler’s sound is a nod to his culture, and his life growing up on a reserve.
“He's connecting with his roots and I think pretty near all of his songs are about that. When we write songs, we use the Mi'kmaq language and we use the perspectives,” said Mullins.
"I think it's just hard for people to deny him.”
Toney says, apart from his mother, nothing drives him more than showing other Indigenous youth they can succeed.
"If I win, I'm dedicating it to the entire Mi'kmaq Nation as well,” said Toney.
"I think — no, I know — that me being a musician, me being from this community of Wagmatcook First Nation, a lot of the children are picking up musical instruments now."
These days, Toney has been working on his second album. He's also up for a Canadian Folk Music Award in Prince Edward Island in May.
But for now, his sights are set on taking home some hardware that same month in Fredericton, hopefully back to his mom.
"When I get the ECMA awards — if I do — they're going to go straight to her."
