Last Articles - 1996 update on June 22, 2010

Jan-Feb, 1996 - Fiddler on the move

04/21/96 - Just call them the doctors Rankin

05/29/96 - Rankins bridging barriers

Fiddler on the move

Jan-Feb, 1996 - Canadian Geographic

by Dane Lanken

A good indication of the importance of music in Cape Breton culture is the number of famous musicians who are from there. John Allan Cameron, Rita MacNeil, the Rankin Family, the Barra MacNeils, and a slew of fiddlers including young hotshots like Natalie MacMaster and Ashley MacIsaac -- all have come out of that little corner of Canada in the past decade or two. MacIsaac, 20, a Creignish native, is particularly prominent these days. He learned to step dance at eight, took up the fiddle at nine, turned pro at 13, and now tours extensively and works in New York with composer Philip Glass and pop stars like Paul Simon and David Byrne. But his musical roots remain firmly planted in a two-century-old Cape Breton fiddling tradition.

The Highland Scots who poured into Cape Breton (and other parts of Canada) back then brought their fiddles and bagpipes with them. And the reels and airs and laments that echoed from glen to glen in the Auld Saud found as fertile a home in the new. The language of the Highlands may be fading, but the music, like tartans and whisky, has proved an enduring Scots export. A New Year's without Auld Lang Syne is as unthinkable as a remembrance service without the skirl of the pipes.

The fiddle repertoire on both sides of the Atlantic has remained much the same. But the playing in the Old World is more formal. Fiddling in Cape Breton, on the other hand, has never lost its purpose. It is dance music. It is rhythmic, robust and popular. Cape Breton's best fiddlers may be recorded and admired and studied as great musicians. But they also make their living playing dancehalls and house parties.

That was true of Angus Chisholm and Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald, of Dan R MacDonald and Donald Angus Beaton, and it's true today of Buddy MacMaster and Jerry Holland, of Natalie MacMaster and Brenda Stubbert, and of Ashley MacIsaac, his New York connections notwithstanding.

MacIsaac is a lively guy on stage. He stomps or step dances as he fiddles, and bows (left-handed!) so vigorously he wrecks two or three bows a night. His sad songs are affecting, his jigs are insistent. He can play traditional music in a traditional manner, or in a rock 'n' roll setting with added drums, synthesizers and volume -- something that sometimes upsets the purists.

The old fiddlers played differently, too," he counters, "dirtier, more Gaelic. Something I do may sound heavy metal, but it's just my version of a traditional tune."

It is this tapping into several centuries of fiddling tradition -- along with his spirited stage show -- that helps to recommend Mac-Isaac to non-traditional audiences. Homegrown music is long gone from mainstream North America, but it survives and thrives in pockets like Cape Breton. To witness it, to witness a living tradition today, is a novel and invigorating thing.

Just call them the doctors Rankin

April 21, 1996 - Canadian Press Newswire

Acadia University, alma mater to the Rankin family, is bestowing honorary doctor of music degrees on the popular Cape Breton singers.

"I am happy for the recognition that Acadia is giving John Morris, Heather, Jimmy, Raylene and Cookie,"' said their mother, Kathleen Rankin of Mabou, who saw four daughters graduate from the university in Wolfville, N.S. "Music and education have been important in our family so it is nice to see the blending of the two."

The Acadia announcement said the Rankins have earned commercial and critical success, selling over one million records in Canada since their first album in 1989 and bringing their "award-winning mix of traditional Celtic tunes and contemporary originals to stages around the world."

Sharing the convocation spotlight will be broadcaster Peter Gzowski, chairman John E. Cleghorn of the Royal Bank of Canada, financial and communications strategist Dian Cohen and minister emeritus Neil Price of the Wolfville Baptist church.

Rankins bridging barriers

May 29, 1996 - Toronto Sun

By Kieran Grant

The Rankin Family is a multi-platinum-selling band that helped put Cape Breton Island on the Canadian musical map. It's a bridge between traditional Celtic music and modern day pop.

Most importantly, it really is a family.

The band -- which includes Rankin siblings Jimmy, John Morris, Raylene, Cookie, and Heather -- even received an honorary Doctorate Of Music from Acadia University in Nova Scotia earlier this month.

So call them an often honored family, but don't call them country.

Jimmy Rankin bristles at the suggestion the family went country on their most recent disc, Endless Seasons.

"People see that it was recorded in Nashville and assume it's country music," says the singer-guitarist, who leads The Rankin Family into Massey Hall tonight and tomorrow night.

"Part of the reason for our success is that we've allowed ourselves to be open to different influences and not be labelled as one particular thing.

"We're not a country band, we're not a Celtic band, we're not a folk band. We're a hybrid of all of the above. We've crossed over a lot of barriers, and that's what music's about, anyway."

Rankin says that while his band has made inroads in the U.K., the next barrier to cross is the one blocking them from the U.S. mainstream.

Unfortunately, the band's varied sound is lost on American record buyers, not to mention the past three record labels who've attempted to market them.

"When we play to 1,000 people and we can't sell records from the stage because it's not in our contract, but people can't get our records in the stores, it really slows you down.

"I'm very positive. We're on our third label in the States, so it's bound to work sooner or later."

The Rankin Family won over audiences in Canada the hard way -- years of touring before signing a record deal. And they do already have a grassroots appeal south of the border.

"We just did a 15-minute stint on ABC a couple of weeks ago," says Rankin in reference to an appearance on Good Morning America. "Record sales more than tripled. It's amazing that after all that touring, 15 minutes on TV goes so much further."

After they finish their latest tour tomorrow, The Rankins head home to Halifax to compile footage for a tour documentary. They'll also start work on new material.

"I'm pretty disciplined about writing," says Rankin. "But it's very important for me to be in the right spot. Your work will reflect your surroundings. I'm most comfortable at home, near the sea, having my down time."

He adds laughing: "I guess I am a hopeless romantic."

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