N.S. teen among East Coast Music Award winners

HALIFAX -- A teenage girl walked away from the 2018 East Coast Music and Industry Awards celebration Sunday night with a prize under her belt, making her one of the youngest winners in the event's 30-year-history.

Makayla Lynn, 16, from Elmsdale, N.S., took home Country Recording of the Year for her fourth album, "On A Dare and a Prayer."

Lynn exploded onto the music scene as a preteen, first performing in Nashville at the age of 12 before going on to share the stage with the likes of Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood and Kid Rock.

"Makayla is a great example of the kind of energetic and dynamic emerging talent we have here in Atlantic Canada," said Dean Stairs, chair of the East Coast Music Association's board of directors, in a written statement.

"Her hard work and dedication to the craft are clearly paying off, and we're excited to see where her career takes her next."

Lynn was one of 12 musical acts to take home a prize at the event Sunday evening, which marked the end of the five-day-long festival.

Up-and-coming Nova Scotia artist CRaymak took home a prize for Dance Recording of the Year for "Play With Fire," a heavy, bass-laden track featuring Nova Scotian electronic dance band Neon Dreams.

Dartmouth-based singer-songwriter Mo Kenney nabbed Solo Recording of the Year for her third album "The Details," which opens with a tongue-in-cheek, mournfully-strummed song about splitting a cat in half during a breakup.

The singer's website describes the album as her "most cohesive work to date -- combining elements of bruising rock 'n' roll, vivid psychedelia, and haunting, left-of-the-dial pop, Kenney navigates the darkest waters in her life with self-deprecation, genuine soul-baring, and typical black humour."

Halifax rocker Jessie Brown snagged Rock Recording of the Year with her album "Keeping Appearances," a collection of songs with soul and R&B influences.

Island-born, Halifax-based artist Rose Cousins captured multiple prizes over the course of the festival, including the coveted Album of the Year for her record "Natural Conclusion," and Song of the Year for "Grace" during the East Coast Music Awards gala on Thursday.

On Sunday, she won another award for her melancholic heartbreak record: Folk Recording of the Year.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick soprano Measha Brueggergosman -- a Juno-winning and Grammy-nominated opera singer -- took Gospel Recording of the Year with "Songs of Freedom."

Awards were also doled out Sunday to people in the East Coast music industry who work to promote and produce for musicians.

The East Coast Music Association is a regional collaboration of people in the music industry to foster, develop and celebrate East Coast music and its artists.

The 2019 East Coast Music Awards will be held in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

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The following is a list of awards handed out during the 2018 East Coast Music Awards:

Album of the Year: "Natural Conclusion" by Rose Cousins

Blues Recording of the Year: "Go All In" by Mike Biggar and "Fly Like Desperados" by Matt Minglewood

Bucky Adams Memorial Award: Measha Brueggergosman

Classical Composition of the Year: "The River Within Us" by Andrew Staniland

Classical Recording of the Year: "Incarnation" by Duo Concertante

Country Recording of the Year: "On A Dare and a Prayer" by Makayla Lynn

Dance Recording of the Year: "Play With Fire ft. Neon Dreams" by CRaymak

Electronic Recording of the Year: "LIFEBLOOD" by PINEO & LOEB

Fans' Choice Entertainer of the Year: Matt Minglewood