Honoring the 'Elvis of the North' – Winnipeg Free Press

Ernest Monias is a different kind of elder, a residential-school survivor who plays a simple guitar and leaves a trail for future generations of local performers.

He is also known as the “Elvis of the North” and the “King of the North” for his musical prowess and grew up in Cross Lake, known today as the Pimikikamak Cree Nation, 800 kilometers north of Winnipeg.

Monias turns 75 on Sunday, and the country rocker will mark the milestone with a concert at the Burton Cummings Theatre, where a tribute will also be held.

“I want to thank the fans who supported me all these years. He is the one who brought me here,” says Monias. “We're practicing Friday night and Saturday night to make sure we're all polished.”

Monias performed regularly at Winnipeg clubs for 60 years, as well as performing at First Nations treaty days, hockey tournaments and other events across Canada, and even in remote communities in the Arctic.

He was inducted into the Manitoba Aboriginal Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indigenous Music Awards in 2019.

His legend is not forgotten among some of today's local artists, some of whom have followed in Monias' footsteps and achieved great fame along the way.

“A true inspiration and one of the first names I ever heard here,” says William Prince, a Juno Award-winning Peguis First Nation singer-songwriter.

“When I think of country music, I think of C-Weed, Eagle and Hawk and Ernest Monias, when I think of rock and roll, it was a local scene that was felt and heard in Peguis First Nation.

“He's definitely the stuff of legends.”

Monias, like many local artists of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, had trouble getting gigs in traditional venues in Winnipeg. He's had to play in bars with some rough reputations — his albums include a live concert recorded at the Westbrook Hotel on Keewatin Street — so he's not well known among white audiences.

“In this situation, not only are we segregated from city life, but we're segregated by poverty, segregated by race, so it's a bit harder to overcome,” says Errol (C-Wid) Ranville. He was 16 when he first met Monias at a C-Weed show in Cross Lake in the 1970s.

Before Monias became the Elvis of the North, he was, like many indigenous children in Canada, taken from his home and sent to a residential school near Portage-la-Prairie, hundreds of kilometers from where he grew up.

“He is, without a doubt, the stuff of legends.”– William Prince

It was there that he began to learn the guitar; he was also a member of a boarding school choir that performed at Expo 67 in Montreal.

Soon he was on his own, fronting a band called the Manitou Boys and later Ernest Monias and the Shadows, singing and performing songs by his favorite artists, including country stars Hank Williams and George Jones.

He became a solo act in 1980 when he signed with Sunshine Records, a Winnipeg label that focused on folk-music acts such as Winnipeg fiddle legend Reg Bouvett and Canadian polka king Walter Ostanek.

Sunshine, which gave Monias the moniker “Elvis of the North” to publicize, has 19 albums in his back catalog, ranging from country favorites and gospel numbers to Monias originals.

These recordings have recently been added to streaming services, allowing a younger audience to groove along to the songs If I want you girlit was written by Monias in 1978.

When Monias returned to Cross Lake in 1987, he opened for his idol and country music legend Jones. He stopped loving her today.

While Monias spent his career singing about love and lost love like many country artists, it was a tune with a political focus that would play a big role in his recent resurgence.

A suffering soul brings him back to Cross Lake, where Monias laments the damage to nearby land and rivers due to hydroelectric dam projects.

It was part of the recording North American Native Vol. 1, A collection of several local artists compiled by producer and musicologist Kevin Hawes, who received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Historical Album in 2015.

“Before, everything was good, clean water, you could see the bottom of the rivers,” says Monias. “We don't have that anymore. All erosion, destruction in rivers.'

Monias will be joined on stage Sunday by his longtime musical friends, including the band C-Weed, Winnipeg bluesman Billy Joe Green, bluesman Murray Porter of Ontario's Grand River Six Nations and Delaney Monias of Monias' son's band. and Blue Highway, which was part of Ernest Monias' album of classic rock covers.

The awards ceremony will feature a star-studded quilt presentation with dignitaries including Manitoba Chiefs Assembly Chief Cathy Merrick and Eric Robinson, Manitoba's deputy premier from 2009 to 2016.

Ranville, who helps produce Sunday's show, hopes the recognition will increase the appeal of Monias' music.

“He's been working offline all these years, so I think it's important to acknowledge him and bring him to the public,” says Ranville.

There are many fans who recognize Monias wherever he goes, and the King of the North has found that the crown can be a heavy burden.

“People are coming to me, they want this,” he says. “Selfie, man, I can't even go to Polo Park.”

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