Bonne chance, les Cahnards
Local roots quintet plays Festival du Voyageur before heading to the Grammy Awards
Jen Zoratti

It seemed as if things couldn’t get better for The Duhks when Uptown spoke to the band back in September .

Banjo player Leonard Podolak, guitarist Jordan McConnell, fiddler Tania Elizabeth, drummer Scott (Senor) Senior and singer Jessee Havey were flying high on the strength of their new album Migrations, which was getting rave reviews, and the band was about to play a host of eagerly anticipated gigs.

And then the band was nominated for a Grammy.

Yes, Winnipeg’s most exciting roots export has been nominated to receive music’s top prize, snagging a nod for the Katie Herzig-penned song Heaven’s My Home in the best country performance by a duo or group category.

“We were all in shock for a few days after we found out,” Havey laughs. “When we found out, we were driving through the mountains of California and we all lost cell reception. We couldn’t tell anyone, so we kept checking our phones. It was pretty funny.”

Even more of an eye-opener was the category in which the band was nominated. In Canada The Duhks are mainstays in the folk and roots categories at awards shows, and the quintet was appropriately shocked to find it was up against American country heavyweights such as Dixie Chicks and Rascal Flatts.

“We were all pretty blown away,” Havey says. “The most surprising thing for us was the category we were nominated in. We were hoping to be nominated this year but we figured it would be roots. So when we heard we were all like, ‘What the hell.’

“I can’t really believe it’s real.”

The quintet will head down to warmer climes for the glitzy Los Angeles awards show on Feb. 11 after it plays Festival du Voyageur, but Havey says that she and her bandmates aren’t getting their hopes up for a win.

“We’re all… I don’t know,” she trails off. “I’d be amazed. But it’s all really cool and it gives me a lot of hope for the state of country music.”

The nod in a category often owned by big-name American acts is a telling testament to The Duhks’ impact down south. After releasing its self-titled debut on Sugar Hill Records in late 2005, the band wasted no time recording a follow-up. Migrations was released in September 2006, and the soaring blues-gospel-bluegrass has been selling healthily, particularly Stateside.

With an eclectic fusion of folk, blues and Americana, The Duhks have successfully tapped into the sprawling alt-folk scene south of the border, and Migrations seems to have been the clincher in the equation.

“It was just really fun to work on,” Havey says of the album. “And it really is an accurate representation of where we’re at as a band, especially as a live band.”

Before heading down to L.A. for the awards-show surrealism of hanging with Madonna and The Boss, the band is pumped to play Festival du Voyageur. The Duhks jammed with La Bottine Souriante as part of Pour Un Soir Seulement on Feb. 7, and they’ll play a late-night set at the Rivière-Rouge Trading Post on Feb. 9 — which will be an awesome sendoff for the Grammy nominees.

“It’s going to be a blast,” Havey says.