Corner Gas actor Lorne Cardinal will be hosting this year’s Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards.

The gala awards show is being held at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg on September 12.

Saskatchewan Aboriginal artists were among those nominated.

Yorkton’s Midnight Mist has been nominated for Best Fiddle CD for “Still Coming”.

Prince Albert’s Donny Parenteau is up for Aboriginal Songwriter of the year for “Sun Shower”.  Parenteau says the idea for the song came to him out of the blue:

“The song was written by a friend of mine in Ontario.  And him and I got together at the Canadian Country Music Awards one year.  I took a look outside the window, and the sun was shining, but it was raining.  And he looks at me and he says, ‘What do you want to write about today?’, and I said, ‘That.’.  He said, ‘What?’ and I said, ‘It’s raining and the sun is shining.  There’s something there.’ — and that’s how we came up with “Sun Shower”.

Public voting for nominees has started and will close on July 19.

You can vote for your favorite artist at www.aboriginalpeopleschoice.com.

This is the ninth annual Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards.

The awards gala will be broadcast on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.