Cape Breton and Music: Celtic Colours

Cape Breton is a place of silence and music, of quiet solitude and deep community. It is a place where mountain meets sea, and where home place is vital and stranger always given warm welcome. All of these are part of the mosaic of life on Cape Breton which is celebrated each autumn during the Celtic Colours International Festival.

Music is at the heart Celtic Colours, music that Cape Breton’s sons and daughters have drawn from deep Celtic roots taken across the world as well as songs and tunes and dance from across Canada, from Scotland where many Cape Breton traditions began, from the United States, from Ireland, and from other communities whose lives have intertwined with the landscape of Cape Breton, including the First Peoples of the Mi’kmaq and those who have come from Ukraine to live in Atlantic Canada.

This year, Celtic Colours begins on 10 October and winds through nine days and nights of music, fun, family, food, and community. Things begin this year in Port Hawkesbury at the southern tip of Cape Breton, with a concert celebrating The Ties That Bind, from family to friendship to tradition. It is an evening which will include music from Scotland’s Phil Cunningham on accordion and Aly Bain on fiddle, step dance and sean nos dance from this year’s festival artists in residence, Mac Morin of Cape Breton and Nic Gareiss from the United States, Gaelic song from The Campbell Family of Scotland, fiery fiddling from cousins Ashley and Wendy MacIsaac of Cape Breton.

As the festival time unfolds. there will be community events including meals, talks, nature walks, art exhibits, craft fairs, music sessions, blacksmiths, weavers fisher folk and historians all sharing their passions, and ceilidhs in addition to a full schedule of concerts across the island each night. Highlights include

a farmers’ market at Sydney River, and a community market with crafts and produce on offer as Isle Madame

Dusty Slippers, a class which invites former step and highland dancers to get back ion the swing of things, at Port Hawkesbury

a show of art along the waterfront at Whycocomaugh and an exhibit of colorful and whimsical folk art called Art for the Soul at the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design in Sydney

a family square dance at Glencoe Mills, an advanced fiddle class at Saint Peter’s, the Buddy Macmaster School of Fiddling classes at Judique, a traditional tunes session at Cape Breton University in Sydney, a Gaelic song workshop at the Highland Village Museum, the Aboriginal Art at Cultural Festival at Wagmatcook

and those community meals:

a celebration of Acadian food and music at Cheticamp

a taste of Ukraine at Holy Ghost Ukrainian Church Hall in Sydney

roast beef dinner in Port Morien, and fishcakes and beans for supper in D’Ecousse

corn chowder, fresh caught fish, crab, mussels, salmon, lobster, fish chowder and more fishcakes in all sort of locations from Bay Saint Lawrence to L’Ardoise to Mabou

a lighthouse sandwich for breakfast, a ceilidh along with your lunch, roast turkey and fixings for supper as Thanksgiving is celebrated in Canada...

This year the festival is supported by Presenting Sponsor the Chronicle Herald, as well as Nova Scotia Tourism Agency, Seaside Communications Inc., Vibe Creative Group, TD Bank Group, and Enterprise Rent-a-Car, who are joining the festival’s ongoing sponsors, businesses which support the festival year after year. They, along with hundreds of volunteers, help make the range of festival events possible.

Evening concerts -- more than forty of them in venues all across Cape Breton-- remain the heart of these events. Most concerts at Celtic Colours, just as with that opener in Port Hawkesbury, are set up to feature three or more acts on a bill, who do sets on their own and then gather for a finale. This autumn, the concerts include

In Inverness, an evening featuring sister musicians, among them Brittany and Natalie Haas and Dawn and Margie Beaton

a tribute to iconic fiddle player Buddy MacMaster, who would have turned 90 during the festival, in his longtime hometown of Judique with musicians from across Cape Breton as well as musical friends from Scotland and the US, including top fiddler and composer Alasdair Fraser

Irish, Creole, and Acadian music intertwine on an evening in D’Ecousse, while musicians with a Touch of the Irish join up at the town of Lower River Inhabitants, and connections of traditional music and dance are the highlight at Mabou in a gig called Close to the Floor, featuring Nic Gareiss, Mary Ann Kennedy, Mac Morin, Mairi Rankin, and Dannsa Morin will spotlight his other love, piano, another night in Mabou when he’s joined by Erin Leahy, Troy MacGillvray, Tracey Dares MacNeil and others to celebrate Cape Breton piano

Ireland, Ontario, Cape Breton, and Scotland meet at Louisbourg Crossroads in the theatre in that city for song and tune from Tony McManus, Laura Smith and others while historic Fortress Louisbourg hosts several Celtic Colours events, among them Music of the Night. On that evening pub, dance hall, drawing room and street scene feature music at it might have been in 1745

Back in contemporary Cape Breton, Roots and Rhythms finds Irish multi instrumentalist Sharon Shannon sharing tunes with Quebecois trio De Temps Antan and Cape Breton Gaelic singers, fiddlers, and step dancers Anita MacDonald and Ben Miller. At another stage further north on the island family and friends gather to pay tribute to and play along with renown Cape Breton piano player Maybelle Chisholm McQueen

There’s more, of course -- on Cape Breton there is always more music and welcome. The formal concerts finish up on the evening of 18 October, though, with Together Again: Natalie’s Reunion.

Natalie MacMaster, who has taken Cape Breton music across the world and into collaborations from bluegrass to classical, comes home to share an evening of music with top musicians from Ireland, Scotland, and her own Cape Breton, on a bill that includes Sharon Shannon, JP Cormier, Tim Edey, and Beolach. It should be an evening, and a festival, to remember.

Not making it to Cape Breton in time for the festival? In past years several concerts have been available on the internet, usually announced quite close to performance dates. Keep an eye on the Celtic Colours web site to see if that will be happening this year.

You may also wish to see
sounds of Cape Breton: Mary Jane Lamond and Wendy MacIsaac
Music road trip: Cape Breton
another view of Celtic Colours, with video, at Wandering Educators
Natalie MacMaster's recent recording, Cape Breton Girl

Photographs of autumn leaves, Wendy MacIsaac, and Alasdair Fraser with Tony McManus are by Kerry Dexter and are copyrighted. Thank you for respecting this.

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Homecoming Scotland: music

This is the year of Homecoming Scotland. The land of highland, heather, and sea invites the world home to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of poet and song collector Robert Burns, and the many other fine things about Scotland and its people. Here are several Scottish musicians you’ll want to get know along the way: Kathleen MacInnes is a singer and songwriter from South Uist in the Outer Hebrides off Scotland’s northwest coast. When you follow this link, you’ll get to hear her sing a song in honor of her dad and see some great photos of the Hebrides as well. Mary Ann Kennedy is a gifted clarsach player, singer, and producer. She had in mind a project to celebrate men who sing in Scots Gaelic, and that resulted in a fine album called Mary Ann Kennedy & Na Seoid. If you really want to hear the stories and landscape of Scotland, this is a place to listen, whether you speak Scots Gaelic or not. You don’t have to know Scots Gaelic to appreciate the work of Sarah-Jane Summers, either. Originally from Inverness, this talented fiddler and teacher explore intersections of Nordic and Scots music as part of the group Fribo. Nesta is her debut solo album, a journey to the highlands and north lands both melodic and lively. Malinky is a long running Scottish band who balance singing with playing, English with Scot Gaelic, and fast paced tunes with gentle ones. Their latest album, Flower & Iron gives a fine taste of all that. you may also want to see an exhibit about the Scottish diaspora at the National Library of Scotland, on through October, with letters, diaries and other items showing the story of Scots who settled around the world. there’s more about that at the library’s web site, too. Music Road: Songs of Homecoming, to Scotland and other places Music Road: Celtic Colours 2009 on the way Music Road: Homecoming Scotland Music Road: tuning up for Burns Night: four Scots musicians

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Mary Ann Kennedy & Na Seoid

Mary Ann Kennedy & Na Seoid

What you hear, in the twelve tracks on this recording, is the sound of connection, conversation, stories told and shared and passed down, thoughts about the large and small things of life, challenges of work and weather, of love and family. You hear the sound of the sea, too, and the sound of the highlands. That’s as true whether you understand Scottish Gaelic or not.

Mary Ann Kennedy had been thinking about how singing in Gaelic seemed to be the province of women in recent years, and she missed the voices of men in Gaelic song that she’d heard as a child. But then, as her work as a musician and a broadcast presenter took her around Scotland, she began to learn of a rising generation of singers who not only sang in Gaelic, but for whom it was a daily language, a circumstance that brought their work in music even more connections. So the idea for Na Seoid was born.

Each of the seven men who contribute has a different and powerful sound and idea, as might be the case in a conversation around the room, and as in that conversation, they each listen to and support each other. Among them they have many band credits and prizes, as does Kennedy herself, and each plays one or more instruments and sings backing and harmony vocals as well. Kennedy does too, and although she’s by mo means putting herself out front -- the reverse, in fact -- the sound of one woman’s voice along with all the men adds a freshness and depth to each song.

Calum Alex MacMillan, from Lewis, is known for his work in the band Daimh and other collaborations. Here he brings the song An Gaidheal ‘sa Leannan, which he learned from his father, and which tells the story of a man far from home missing his love. Norrie MacIver brings the song Mo Chailin Dileas Donn, from Wester Ross. Although the lyrics have nothing to do with it -- it’s the story of a faithful lover -- the melody holds echoes of the Irish and later American song of an unfaithful one, Lily of the West. Kennedy takes lead on a song which may also sound familiar, Sios dhan an Abhainn, which in English is the traditional gospel song Down to the River to Pray, heard in the film O Brother Where Art Thou?

Those three are just a taste of the fine singing, both lead and harmony, and the excellent playing on whistle, guitar, clarsach, and other instruments on every track, Though singing is the focus here, there’s a hidden bonus track, too, which is all instrumental. In addition to MacIver, MacMillan, and Kennedy, musicians include Angus MacPhail, Gillebride MacMillan, Griogair Labhruidh, James Graham, and Tormod MacArthur. Mary Ann Kennedy and Nick Turner produced this rather complex project with skill and thoughtfulness, allowing the individuals and the connections among them space to be heard

you may also want to see
>Songs for an Easter weekend
now playing: eist: songs in their native language
Dual: Julie Fowlis & Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh
at Journey to Scotland Outlander and the Skye Boat Song

update in 2014 -- perhaps you"ve come this way by of Outlander: Gillebride MacMillan appears (and sings) as the bard Gwyllyn in the television series being made from Diana Gabaldon's books. Check out his lead and harmony singing with Na Seoid and on these excellent solo and collabrative albums (click the cover images for more information)

Back in 2009 when this was first published, it was good to know that: Music Road was recently noted as ‘one of the things we like reading’ in the newsletter of Poetry Ireland. Thanks! Go raibh maith agat!