Kenna Burima is a member of Calgary’s Woodpigeon (see info and video below), Beaver Squadron (the new project brought to you by the members of now defunct Brenda Vaqueros) and is the driving force behind Calgary's doo wop group The Pigeonettes and the Five Step Program. She is also working on a solo album.
Kenna is more than a musician. She's also a broadcaster and podcaster. You can hear her on University of Calgary radio station CJSW 90.9 on The Morning After and on Calgary Folk Music Festival podcasts.
Kenna has a day job with the Calgary Folk Music Festival, specifically working with Festival Hall Programming and Outreach. In fact Kenna, along with many others including Kerry Clarke, Les Siemieniuk, Johanna Schwarts and a cast of thousands, is responsible for arranging the amazing musicians who appear at the festival every year. Take my advice, if you don't know the Calgary Folk Fest, go to the website and click here to see who has played the fest in the past then bike, drive or fly to Calgary next summer to visit Prince's Island for the best fest experience you will ever have.
Here's a bit about Kenna's band excerpted from their website.
Woodpigeon Makes Otherworldy Almost Orchestral Pop by Mary Christa O’Keefe
Knowing Kenna and her varied and wonderful taste in music, I am so pleased she agreed to PRESS PLAY> and provided me with some musical insight by listing some of her favourite records, ones that influence her life and her music.
What are you listening to RIGHT NOW?
The Breakmen. Shawna Cooper, an independent manager and agent we worked with at the Calgary Folk Music Festival this past year has added a list of bands to her roster and I’m taking a listen. I’m a big fan of fiddle player John Showman, so anything he does is cool by me.
What is the record (okay maybe 2 or 3 or 4 ) that influenced your music the most?
One word “mood”. Is there any other album that creates and keeps a mood as perfectly? The answer is fuck no.
Amy Winehouse Back to Black
Pain, agony, rapture. The is a soul album for the 21st century.
Otis Redding The Dock of the Bay
Otis is my main man. No one does it better. Maybe Lou Rawls. But to me, the way Otis can communicate in a turn of phrase, in a change in tone, makes him the master.
What is the record that you count as a guilty pleasure?
Appetite for Destruction by Guns ‘n’ Roses. But I don’t feel guilty about it. I strongly believe there is nothing you should feel guilty about when it comes to music. Feeling guilt would insinuate that you shouldn’t love what naturally moves you.
Currently, what’s your favourite record to listen to on the road?
James Blake's self titled album. It’s beautiful.
Which of your solo/band's records is/are your favourite(s)?
Woodpigeon Treasury Library of Canada and The Brenda Vaqueros (self titled.)
What’s the record you bought that you wish you didn't?
Chuck Wagon Band Old Time Hymns Vol. 1. Old white people singing about god. What the fuck was I THINKING?
Kenna is more than a musician. She's also a broadcaster and podcaster. You can hear her on University of Calgary radio station CJSW 90.9 on The Morning After and on Calgary Folk Music Festival podcasts.
Kenna has a day job with the Calgary Folk Music Festival, specifically working with Festival Hall Programming and Outreach. In fact Kenna, along with many others including Kerry Clarke, Les Siemieniuk, Johanna Schwarts and a cast of thousands, is responsible for arranging the amazing musicians who appear at the festival every year. Take my advice, if you don't know the Calgary Folk Fest, go to the website and click here to see who has played the fest in the past then bike, drive or fly to Calgary next summer to visit Prince's Island for the best fest experience you will ever have.
Here's a bit about Kenna's band excerpted from their website.
Woodpigeon Makes Otherworldy Almost Orchestral Pop by Mary Christa O’Keefe
Woodpigeon is more than just the most beautiful word in the English language, although that’s precisely why it was chosen by songwriter Mark Hamilton as the moniker for his pretty-pretty-pop project. Encompassing a kind of ersatz collective orchestra, dispersed across a couple continents, rising and falling in number with the demands of song-life and real life, they rock out on harpsichords and wrench tears out of guitars before playing them damp. Bells, whistles, hand-claps – all the aural tchotchkes are enlisted to serve the song, wherever they can brighten a melody or a mournful line
Knowing Kenna and her varied and wonderful taste in music, I am so pleased she agreed to PRESS PLAY> and provided me with some musical insight by listing some of her favourite records, ones that influence her life and her music.
What are you listening to RIGHT NOW?
The Breakmen. Shawna Cooper, an independent manager and agent we worked with at the Calgary Folk Music Festival this past year has added a list of bands to her roster and I’m taking a listen. I’m a big fan of fiddle player John Showman, so anything he does is cool by me.
What is the record (okay maybe 2 or 3 or 4 ) that influenced your music the most?
Glenn Gould’s The Goldberg Variations
There is no other like Glenn Gould. To me his Goldberg Variations represent what classical music can do (mean something), what it can mean to people (perfection and beauty can exist) and how a classical musician can interpret a work from the canon in such a way to make it completely their own. The subjugation of the artist to composer is diminished.
Miles Davis Kind of Blue
There is no other like Glenn Gould. To me his Goldberg Variations represent what classical music can do (mean something), what it can mean to people (perfection and beauty can exist) and how a classical musician can interpret a work from the canon in such a way to make it completely their own. The subjugation of the artist to composer is diminished.Miles Davis Kind of Blue
One word “mood”. Is there any other album that creates and keeps a mood as perfectly? The answer is fuck no.
Amy Winehouse Back to Black
Pain, agony, rapture. The is a soul album for the 21st century.
Otis Redding The Dock of the Bay
Otis is my main man. No one does it better. Maybe Lou Rawls. But to me, the way Otis can communicate in a turn of phrase, in a change in tone, makes him the master.
What was the first record you bought?
Ugh. Cassette of New Kids on the Block Step By Step
What’s your favourite cover tune? (Song and covered by whom?)
What’s your favourite cover tune? (Song and covered by whom?)
Mark Ronson featuring Tiggers doing Brittney Spears’ Toxic. It’s fucking amazing.
What is the record that you count as a guilty pleasure?
Appetite for Destruction by Guns ‘n’ Roses. But I don’t feel guilty about it. I strongly believe there is nothing you should feel guilty about when it comes to music. Feeling guilt would insinuate that you shouldn’t love what naturally moves you.
Currently, what’s your favourite record to listen to on the road?
James Blake's self titled album. It’s beautiful.
Which of your solo/band's records is/are your favourite(s)?
Woodpigeon Treasury Library of Canada and The Brenda Vaqueros (self titled.)
What’s the record you bought that you wish you didn't?
Chuck Wagon Band Old Time Hymns Vol. 1. Old white people singing about god. What the fuck was I THINKING?
Follow Kenna Burima on Twitter @KennaBurima
Follow her band Woodpigeon @woodpigeontweet
Calgary Folk Music Festival @calgaryfolkfest
CJSW U of C Radio 90.9 FM @CJSW
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