Dave Carroll tells a story about the inspiration for the song he is about to play at the virtual concert at the Waverley Heritage Museum. (Healey photo)

WAVERLEY: A Waverley musician who hasn’t had a recording in 10 years is honoured that his newest recording has earned an East Coast Music Award nomination.

Dave Carroll said seeing “Until One Day” nominated for Roots Recording of the Year for the ECMA’s, scheduled for May 4-8 in Fredericton, N.B., is an honour and a bit of relief as well.

“I’ve been plugging away at this new one for a while and was hoping other people would appreciate the work that went into the song writing and production,’ said Carroll from his home in beautiful Waverley.

“I worked hard to create something that could stand up critically with all the great new music being produced in the region.”

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Carroll wasn’t the only Waverley artist to be nominated for an ECMA this year. Moe Kenny was also nominated for Covers in Folk Recording of the Year. Hillsburn and The Town Heroes lead the pack with five nominations apiece.

He said the nomination is meaningful to him on a number of fronts.

“I’ve been playing music professionally for 32 years. It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long, but it has,” said Carroll. “When I got started, I was attracted to artists who seemed to have long careers and changed with the times they were in. I wanted to be them when I “grew up”.

“This nomination suggests that spending energy on working to improve with each song and each recording makes a long career a possibility, even without the big commercial hits. 

“I’m a lucky guy.”

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Carroll will be playing a free full band concert thanks to the Halifax Central Library (main branch) on the evening of March 5. The concert is open to all ages and he’ll be sharing new and old music with his six-piece band and the stories behind the songs.

The audience size may be COVID restricted so if people are interested, they should reach out soon but it’s a nice way to usher in the beginning of the end of the pandemic hopefully.

You can reach out at: Dave@DaveCarrollMusic.com.

He spoke of the musicians that call Waverley and Fall River home and do it only as a pass time.

“Kevin O’Halloran does a good job of showcasing that on the Waverley Green each year,” said Carroll. “All of that unmined gold must be finding it’s way into the ground water.”