Dallas Green (a.k.a. City and Colour) won the Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year at the 2009 Juno Awards, held March 29 at General Motors Place in Vancouver. Green performed a passionate version of his song “Sleeping Sickness” with guest Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip at the ceremonies.

John Burge won Classical Composition of the Year honours for Flanders Fields Reflections, while Ariane Moffat took home the Francophone Album of the Year award for Tous les sens. Nickelback was the big winner of the night, garnering three awards: Album and Group of the Year, and the Fan Choice award. For a complete list of winners, visit the Juno Awards website.

On the afternoon of the same day, during the Juno weekend leading up to the awards, SOCAN co-sponsored (with the Canadian Music Publishers Association) the Songwriters’ Circle – an intimate afternoon concert featuring outstanding performances and enlightening stories (in two sets) from Hawksley Workman (host), Buffy Sainte-Marie, Doc Walker’s Chris Thorsteinson and Dave Wasyliw, Hedley’s Jacob Hoggard, Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy, Ndidi Onukwulu and Sarah Slean. The ever-popular circle, which drew a capacity crowd, was presented from 12 noon to 2 p.m. at The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts.