Celtic Colours: Autumn & Music on Cape Breton

Celtic Colours: every autumn, the people of Cape Breton invite the world  to come share and celebrate community, hospitality, and music.

This autumn, 2026, Celtic Colours International Festival events take place 9 through 17 October. More than fifty concerts are on the schedule. Alongside those are more than two hundred community events, among them art exhibits, dances, nature walks,  community meals, farmers markets, and more

It's a great festival to experience in person. If you'll not be making it to Cape Breton this season though, there are ways you can see several of the concerts online. Schedule for that are not usually announced in advance, but...

What sort of music might you hear? 

Cape Breton has long been a crossroads of music and cultures with presences of First Nations Mi'Kmaq peoples and people who across the centuries arrived from Scotland, Ireland, France, New England in the US, other parts of Canada, and other parts of the world. All of these connections as well as landscapes of mountain, sea and river, have played into Cape Breton music itself across time. 

Some of it will be in Gaelic. This is Josie Duncan with excerpts from two traditonal tunes, from a Celtic Colours cocnert several eyars back, called The Future of Our Past.

At Celtic Colours, you can hear musicians who've taken the unique sounds of Cape Breton across the world, as well as those best know closer to home. This season these include Mary Jane Lamond, Dawn and Margie Beaton, Adam Young, Sons of Membertou,  Beolach, JP Cormier, Rose Morrison, Wendy MacIsaac, and Heather Rankin.

You will also hear artists from Scotland, Ireland, and other places where the music and traditions in Cape Breton originated.

This season you could hear Corrina Dawn and Dave Milligan, Kathleen MacInnes, and Alice Allen from Scotland, Laoise Kelly and Liz Doherty from Ireland,  and The Pine Tree Flyers and Liz Carroll from the US.

Musicians from other parts of Canada frequently take part in Celtic Colours as well. This season those include Lennie Gallant and Zak Cormier from Prince Edward Island, and  Daniel Lapp from British Columbia.

You've met some of these folk here and elsewhere in my writing. Others I've pointed you to along the way have played at Celtic Colours in past years, among them Cathie Ryan, Hanneke Cassel, Blazin' Fiddles, Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy, and Julie Fowlis.

Quite a few names to take in, there. Even if you know just a few though, you'll know they are each creative artists who make music to a very high standard. Most concerts at Celtic Colour have several artists or groups on the bill, so you may find you will have opportunities to hear artists new to you as well as long time favorites. 

If you will be tuning in online, you can find the cocnerts (and the replays when available) through the Celtic Colours web site and at the festival's YouTube channel as well.

You may also enjoy exploring

A bit more of the sort of music you may hear at this season's Celtic Colours, in this story from the series I write at Wandering Educators called Music for Shifting Times

Highlights of community events at Celtic Colours, at Perceptive Travel

A bit about the group that will play the opening concert this year, The Unusual Suspects of Celtic Colours

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Scotland's music: Caoir from Joy Dunlop

If you’ve spent time in Scotland, you will likely hav seen Joy Dunlop presenting weather on BBC Scotland and on BBC Alba.

Perhaps you are learning Gaelic? Then you may have come across Joy’s work as a presenter of the the broadcast and online series Speak Gaelic. Perhaps you’ve heard her present award shows and other programs in Gaelic and in English, or leraned of her work developing Seachdain na Gàidhlig/ World Gaelic Week, a time celebrating Scottish Gaelic language and culture.

Maybe you’ve heard that she created and conducted the Alba Choir, Scotland’s entry in the Eurovision Choir competition.

At the heart of all this, Joy is a musician, an award winning singer and stepdancer.

She grew up in the traditional music community of Connel in Argyll in the west of Scotland, studied on the isle of Skye, and has traveled the world with her music.

With all that she’s got going on, she takes her time in releasing albums.

Her most recent recording is called Caoir. You will find it well worth the wait.

Caoir is pronounced koor. In Scottish Gaelic the word means a blaze of fire, fiercely burning, flames or flashes.

That idea comes through in the warming, welcoming sound of Joy’s vibrant soprano, and in the music she has chosen to record.

It also follows through in the connection and creativity shared by the musicians who join Joy on the recording: who are Ron Jappy on guitar, Ifedade Thomas on drums, Gus Stirrat on bass, Mhari Marwick on fiddle, and Euan Malloch on electric guitar.

It is a connection that evolved into an album.

It began, Joy said, “as a jam session with four fantastic musicians, and soon grew into something more -- a selection of music that we all loved and a real friendship and bond between us all. I think that sense of joy comes across in the music.”

It does indeed.

Dunlop’s sense of adventure and creativity, as well as her musicianship anchor the music she and her collaborators create.

Caoir begins with a lively set of jigs to draw listeners in with both music and rhythm.

Rhythm and beat are present through the music on Caoir. This is the first time Joy has brought drums and bass into her music. In the hands of these musicians, these additions work well within the ten tracks of traditional music.

You will hear this in subtle fashion as Joy explores the gentler side of her voice and music as she sings Am Braigh/The Braes. This is a song Malcolm Gillis wrote in praise of his home area of Margaree in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Joy spent some time living and working in Mabou in Cape Breton. She writes in her notes on the song “Cape Breton is a place dear to my heart... I can confirm that it’s just as beautiful as the song describes.”

Cape Breton is also one of the few places outside the Highlands and Islands of Scotland where you will find Scottish Gaelic in daily use.

You will also hear that beat and rhythm in several of the faster paced songs on Caoir. Among those is Mo Nighean Donn Ho Gu/ My Brown Haired Girl.

Waukling songs for working the tweed, puirt a bheul to celebrate and keep alive dance and piping music through the voice of the singer, story songs of legend and history, love songs -- all these are part of the music on Caior, presented with creativity and thoughtfulness as much as with celebration.

“I’ve always loved music that pushed the boundaries of what was considered trad without losing the soul of the songs,” Joy Dunlop said. “As a Gaelic singer, I’m always trying to make my music accessible to those who don’t speak the language.

“With this recording I wanted to capture the sentiment of the songs, whether the listener understands Gaelic or not.”

Another aspect that comes across clearly is the connection and creativity Joy and the artists who join her bring to the music.

Reflecting on this, Joy said “That mix of trust, creativity, and drive for exploration eventually emerged as an album that will hopefully resonate with trad fans and those who just love music.”

Whether you have Gaelic or not, give Caoir a listen -- more than one, really, to explore all the musicians have to offer. You are bound to enjoy the journey.

...and mention must be made of the visual aspect of the album, which really carries through that

theme of flashes of fire while serving both the music and the artist. Photography is by Euan Robertson and album design is by LOOM Graphics.

You may also wish to see
A story about Dithis/Duo, an album from Joy Dunlop and her brother Andrew Dunlop
Alterum, an album by Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis
A story about the music of Cape Breton
This piece at Wandering Educators includes a video of Joy singing Am Braighe

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Scotland's Landscapes in Music, from Kenneth I. MacKenzie and Niteworks Band

Scotland’s landscapes and stories inspire many sorts of creativity. Consider two rather different aspects of that, in recordings from Kenneth I. MacKenzie and the band Niteworks.

MacKenzie’s background is in pipe bands, with which he has played in such varied locations as Hong Kong, Norway, Denmark, and the United States. Among other things, he played on one of the best selling pipe band albums of all time, Amazing Grace from the Toyota Pipes and Drums.

Kenny is also well known as a composer of tunes. That is well to the fore on his album Glendrian , where most of the tunes in the twelve set offering are original. In addition to Highland pipes, he brings in his other instruments: digital chanter, harmonica, and low whistle.

The tunes, which include reels, waltzes. slow airs, marches, hornpipes and lament, are thoughtfully sequenced and well presented. They draw on people, places, and circumstances from Scotland’s Highlands and Islands, and are in most cases named in ways to honour them... including a reel called Granny Bheag’s Pancakes.

There are dashes of humour in the playing, as well as reflective pieces.

There’s a 4/4 March in tribute to Gaelic singer Alasdair Gillies, and a slow air which Kenny composed for his wife on her first visit to his family home. You can almost see the dancers swirling across the floor to Rhona’s Waltz, or taking faster steps to Karen’s Jig.

There is that lament, the title track Gelndrian. That came from a a landscape with which Kenny has family connection. It is the named for a settlement in Ardnamurchan, in Lochaber. No one lives there now. Kenny wrote the music reflecting on lives lived there and what that may have been like.

“Music and a love of playing is at the heart of Glendrian, and it’s been a joy to play in my own style and to create and share new tunes that cherish a traditional feel,” Kenny says.

His first recording in almost twenty years, Glendrian is a collection of music by a composer and player who has a clear sighted view of what he wishes to say with his music, and how to say it best. His love of landscapes and people of the Highlands and Islands comes clear with no need for words.

MacKenzie’s vision centers the album, and he is well supported by Will Marshall on piano, accordion, and arrangement, Marie Fielding on fiddle, Donald Black on tremolo harmonica, Rory Grindlay on drums, and Tom Oakes on acoustic guitar and flute.

The men of the band Niteworks have been inspired and nutured by the dual and often contrasting landscapes and sounds of Skye, where they grew up, and the buzzing and busy city and club scne of Glasgow, to which they moved.

They have always worked to put these together in their music since they first formed the band almost fifteen years ago now.

For their third album, A’ Ghrian, they’ve really matured into their sound creatively and musically, finding the sometimes elusive balance of respecting tradition while moving it forward in connection with other styles.

Part of that has come through the years Alan MacDonald on pipes, bassist Christopher Nicholson, Innes Strachan on keys and synths, and dummer Ruairdih Graham have worked together, and part of it has come through musical challenges they’ve accepted along the way.

“With this album we’ve sought to create a more expansive sound that’s cinematic in nature,” Graham explains. They were commissioned to write music for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Farewell 2020 film. That was a project which required them to reflect and create musically on what that year had been like, a timer of hardship and unexpected change for many. “The nature of the project required broad expansive sounds, and that led to us going further in that direction in the writing and recording of this album,” Graham says.

That approach works. The music is well sequenced, too, with a mix of traditional and original adventurous tunes bracketing equally adventurous song. Niteworks have also invited along Laura Wilkie, Fiona MacAskill, and Aileen Reid of KInnaris Quintet along with Susan Applebee to add strings to the sound.

The men of Niteworks do not sing themselves, but rather invite a range of guests to contribute. They have included Gaelic singers on earlier albums, and some of the same singers return for this one. Further along the lines of expanding vision for their music, though, they have for the first time invited singers in English and Scots to join in.

The three women who make up the trio Sian return with their well honed Gaelic harmonies for a a track, while Alasdair Whyte brings strong and soulful presence to another song. Sian band member Ellen MacDonald does a solo turn joining on Gura Mise tha fo Eislein.

The men of Niteworks came across a recording of the English folk song John Riley by folk legend Joan Baez. They were taken with the melody and wanted to make it their own, inviting Beth Malcolm along to sing the song in English. It’s a song you may know, from the Joan Baez version or the many recordings and sessions in which it turns up. In the hands of Beth Malcom and Niteworks, it turns into a John Riley you’ve likely not heard before, true to the story and its tradition while taking these in new directions.

Hannah Rarity brings Scots to the mix with a graceful take on the song Gloomy Winter. There is a turn of season, so to speak, and a return to Gaelic as Kathleen MacInnes brings an equally thoughtful and graceful performance to the title track A’ Ghrian.

As much as their approaches differ, Kenneth I. MacKenzie and Niteworks share love of the landscapes and sounds of Scotland past and present, and express that through their music.

You may also wish to see
Three from Scotland, which includes Marie Fielding’s album The Spectrum Project
At Wandering Educators Music for a Month of Transitions, in which you can find a video of the title track of Glendrian
Solo from Sarah-Jane Summers, who offers another creative way to take tradition forward
Song in English and Irish as well as tunes Thar Toin/Seabourne, from Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

Photographs by Paul Edney from Pixabay, by Andrew Murray from Pixabay, and by Kerry Dexter

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Scotland's Music: Staran

Staran: in Gaelic, it means path, trail, stepping stones.

It is also the name of a new collaborative group of Scottish artists, and the name of their first recording together as a five piece band.

That is an idea artist Elly Lucas caught well on the album artwork.

John Lowrie, who plays piano, harmonium, and Rhodes and as well a percussion, is the one who brought Staran together. He’d worked with each of the other artists on various projects, but never with all of them together. He wanted to see what they could create. “I think the relationship we have as friends is reflected in the music,” Lowrie said.

Lowrie has toured and recorded with top artists including Siobhan Miler, Blue Rose Code, and Kris Drever. His compatriots in Staran are equally accomplished.

Innes White is in demand as a session and recording guitarist, having appeared on more than thirty albums. He has also been nominated as instrumentalist of the Year at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards.

Jack Smedley is a founding member of the award winning group RURA, and has released a duo album with flute player David Foley. He ls often called upon for session and recording work as well.

Kim Carnie brings vocals to the Staran mix. Singing is both Gaelic and English, she has performed at the UK’s top festivals, released a well received EP, and composed music for computer games. She often appears as a television presenter as well. Carnie has recently joined the top band Manran as well.

James Lindsay plays bass with Staran, and is known for his work with award winning band Breabach as well as his innovative solo work, which often brings elements of jazz to join with ideas from Sottish tradition. He’s received awards from In Tune With Nature competition of Nature Scot & Fèis Rois and the Martyn Bennett Prize for Composition.

Each of the five brings composing and arranging as well as performing skills to the band, in fact.

Those gifts -- and their gifts for collaboration -- can be heard in each of the nine tracks which comprise their debut album. There much to enjoy for those who love tradition as well as for those who go for innovation.

Dà Làimh sa Phìob opens with a shimmer of drone into Carnie’s nuanced and thoughtful canntaireachd as she and Smedley on fiddle reinvent the piper’s lines on this piece -- the title means two hands on the pipes. The backing from the other three is no less creative and collaborative.

That holds true through the instrumental set Back to Glasgow (and Back to Back Again) which brings together the title tune from James Duncan Mackenzie, a piece from Canadian musician Shane Cook, and an original composition from Smedley. Through the set Lowrie on piano twines a mellow lead line to Smedley on fiddle, who then speeds things up to a fast pace, each aspect well supported by the other members of the group.

Those are just two of the fine pieces of music on Staran’s debut album. In addition to the Back to Glasgow set, there are four tunes. Among them are Lowrie’s reflective composition Little Waves and Casino by Hannu Kella, which in the band’s treatment draws in elements ranging from classical to trad.

There are three more songs as well. In addition to Dà Làimh sa Phìob, Carnie sings two of them in Gaelic, with tasteful backing vocals from Megan Henderson. One has traditional words set to a melody of her own devising, and in the other she extends the traditional story -- a woman singing praise to her cattle, no doubt to bring them home and keep them happy for milking -- a bit with additional words and melody. Her song in English is called Settle, Honey, a blues/jazz inflected originaL from Carnie with a storyline which does not go quite as the title might suggest.

All of it is well worth repeated listening.

With all the projects John Lowrie, Innes White, Jack Smedley, James Lindsay, and Kim Carnie have on the go, it may be challenging for them to find time to continue this collaboration.

Then again, they recorded this album, which was mixed by Euan Burton, at three different studios and in the midst of uncertain travel restrictions, so clearly they are up for more than a few challenges.

Staran the album is a brilliant start for Staran the band. May their path continue.

You may also wish to see
Jack Smedley and David Foloey’s duo album, Time to Fly, is in this story about 3 instrumental albums from Scotland
Breabach; Frenzy of the Meeting
Julie Fowlis: Alterum
Capercaillie: At the Heart of It All

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