CoalDust Grins Nominated for five ARIA Awards CoalDust Grins~A Musical Portrait was nominated for five awards at the 14th Annual ARIA (Alberta Recording Industries Association) Achievement Awards, June 3-4, 2000, Edmonton, Alberta. ARIA's purpose is educate, develop and promote the Alberta sound recording and music publishing industries. CoalDust Grins, a music CD of mining songs about real Canadians and a companion to the book of the same name, was officially released to the retail industry in January 1999. Subsequently, CoalDust Grins has received considerable acclaim from the critics including one review stating "Quite simply this is the most important folk-roots recording to come out of Western Canada since James Keelaghan released Small Rebellions in 1989." (Rod Campbell, Penguin Eggs). In the fall of 1999 CoalDust Grins was nominated for the Prairie Music Award in the category of "Outstanding Roots Recording." Photographer/writer Lawrence Chrismas has collaborated with gifted Canadian singer/songwriters – including Dick Damron, Diamond Joe White, Tom Wilson, Steve Coffey, Robert Burton Hubele, John Campbell, Ian MacDonald, Susan Kuelken, Bill Werthmann, Rob Smith and Dave McCann. Music producer Tim Williams pulled together a diverse group of western Canadian singer/songwriters and studio musicians to complete the musical offering, which has already attracted audience attention at performances in Canada and the United States. Backup musicians/vocalists include: Tim Williams, Ron Casat, Jane Hawley, Rick Pollack, Tanya Kalmanovitch, Russ Broom, Brett Sampson and Jerusalem Ridge members, Keith Burgess, Bill Lopushinsky and Byron Myhre. CoalDust Grins nominations for ARIA Achievement Awards: included the following categories: 1. Best Selling Album of the Year (Alberta Artist/Alberta Label) 2. Best Roots/Folk Artist 3. Best Ethnic Artist 4. Best Album of the Year 5. Record Producer of the Year - Tim Williams

MUSICIANS AN EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAWRENCE CHRISMAS Embarking on a new photo-documentary journey, five years ago Lawrence Chrismas began tracking down old time Alberta Musicians who lived in small Alberta towns. He later decided to contrast these old timers with younger contemporary urban musicians. His search for contemporary musicians began in a small restaurant, the Kensington Delicafe, not far from his home in Calgary. It was there he arranged his first portrait sessions with the locally performing musicians and singer/songwriters. Lawrence was overwhelmed by the many talented Alberta musicians writing and performing their own songs. This led to a collaboration between Lawrence and sixteen singer/songwriters to write songs about some of the more colourful Canadian coal miners whom he had spent the past 20 years photographing. Twelve of those songs resulted in the release of an unique music CD: CoalDust Grins – A Musical Portrait produced as musical ‘accompaniment' to a book of photographic portraits by Lawrence. Many of the musicians from the CoalDust Grins Project are included in the exhibition at the Auburn Saloon. It is no coincidence that many of the portraits in this exhibit show musicians with their guitars. "I have a fascination with guitars and their seemingly infinite variety. It has to be the most diverse musical instrument in the world. I think just about everyone can relate to the guitar in one form or another. Today it is often symbolic of song writing." Lawrence has published two books of black and white documentary photography of Miners. He has exhibited extensively throughout Canada and his photographs are in public and private collections. In 1999 Lawrence was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Art for his work related to the documentation of Canadian Coal Miners. Also in 1999 Lawrence Chrismas received an Honourable Mention Award (second place) from the Roloff Beny Foundation for his book, CoalDust Grins. Lawrence continues to pursue a variety of personal projects as well as carry out freelance photography assignments.

Calgary - January 1, 2000: John Rutherford, host of "Deuces Wild" Saturday mornings 9 am to 11 am on CKUA AM/FM Radio has listed "CoalDust Grins ~ A Musical Portrait" on his top-ten list for 1999.

Lawrence Chrismas has declared his exhibit of selected photographs at the Triangle Gallery in Calgary which closed December 24, 1999 "a fitting tribute to those who helped build Canada this past one hundred years." The exhibit, well received by the public and critics alike, consisted of black and white prints representing the photographs that go with each song on the music CD, CoalDust Grins ~ A Musical Portrait. Accompanying each photograph were the song lyrics. At the opening reception, Tom Wilson and Robert Burton Hubele performed their respective CoalDust Grins songs.

December 3 and 4, 1999 a performance of CoalDust Grins was made at the Engineered Air Theatre, Calgary Centre for the Performing Arts. It was highly successful and enthusiastically received by the audience. All the singer/songwriters were there with the exception of Dick Damron.

In mid November Lawrence Chrismas and Tom Wilson put on a 30 minute performance of CoalDust Grins at the first mining traditions symposium in Elko, Nevada. They were the featured performers at this event. The audience response was overwhelming. One attendee suggested that CoalDust Grins should tour across the United States as a public relations vehicle for the mining industry.