The sound of Nova Scotia comes to UK as award-winning artist Joel Plaskett will open the concerts.

Picnickers at Jools Holland concerts this summer will experience a slice of Nova Scotian culture when award-winning artist Joel Plaskett will open the concerts.  Brought to the gigs by Nova Scotia Tourism, Joel is set to wow audiences with his music.  

Canada has produced some of the world’s most enduring songwriters and Joel Plaskett is being hailed as one of the best. Joel’s latest homeland release, titled “Three” is a masterpiece 3 disc collection featuring an eclectic blend of styles, ranging from rock ‘n’ roll, to stripped-down acoustic folk, to a deep-country vibe and rollicking pop.

A songwriter’s holy trinity – “Three” marks another landmark in the career of this great Canadian songwriter – in 2010 he’s won a Juno, six East Coast Music Awards and the 2010 Indie Award for Solo Artist Of The Year. Since spending his teenage years recording and touring with Halifax indie upstarts Thrush Hermit, Plaskett has been writing his own story. After independently releasing two critically acclaimed albums – In Need of Medical Attention (1999) and Down at the Khyber (2001), Joel signed to Maple Music Recordings for the release of 2003’s “Truthfully Truthfully”, a rock tour de force with his band, The Emergency. That record scored with critics and fans alike and truly put Plaskett on the national radar. “Truthfully Truthfully” was nominated for a Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year and won an East Coast Music Award for Rock Recording of the Year. During a summer break from touring in 2004, Joel recorded a solo album called La De Da. which attracted national media attention and the hit single “Happen Now” topped the Canadian campus music chart for months running.

Over the last three years, Joel has toured extensively both solo and with The Emergency, to sold-out clubs, theatres and headlining festivals throughout Canada, the United States and Australia, on the heels of great Canadian success with his Make A Little Noise DVD & EP (2006) and Ashtray Rock (2007). Make A Little Noise spawned an infectiously catchy hit single, “Nowhere With You,” that landed Plaskett on the Top 10 at hot Adult Contemporary (AC) radio. He also garnered three 2007 East Coast Music Awards wins for “Nowhere With You,” DVD for Make A Little Noise, and Songwriter of the Year. Ashtray Rock was nominated for the high profile Polaris Music Prize award, and earned Plaskett and his band all six of the 2008 “of the year” ECMAs for which he, and they, were nominated: Recording, Group Recording, Single (for “Fashionable People,” another hit song), Video (also for “Fashionable People”), Rock Recording, and Songwriter. Topping that off was Joel’s Juno Award nomination for Songwriter of the Year and his placement as First Place Winner in the 2008 Great American Song Contest and the Billboard World Song Contest for his single “Fashionable People” (in the Pop Category).

Joel’s last triple layered album, “Three” was his most ambitious work to date and features a stellar line up of guest musicians including his father Bill Plaskett, Rose Cousins, Ana Egge and his band, The Emergency (Chris Pennell, Peter Elkas and Dave Marsh).   

Without a doubt, another personal career highlight for Joel and his band was sharing the stage opening for the legendary Paul McCartney (in Halifax, Nova Scotia) performing to an audience of over 50,000 fans….and so begins another chapter for one of Canada’s finest songwriters.

A phenomenal success in Canada, Joel will offer concert-goers a rare opportunity to hear some of the best of his unique Indie-folk rock repertoire. Joel Plaskett is just breaking into the UK music scene, but he’s already a legend in his home country.  

Jools Holland will be performing with his 17-piece Rhythm & Blues Orchestra and special guests Alison Moyet, Ruby Turner and Louise Marshall.