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08/01/97 - Welcome
to celtic country
08/10/97 - One heck of a hoedown delivered
09/01/97 - Local
labels sing domestic tunes
10/02/97 - Rankin's Chiasson moves into the
spotlight
11/97 - Background Info to "Do You
Hear"
12/13/97 - Rankin Family's mom, Kaye,
remembered by community
12/16/97 - Rankin
mom dies of cancer
August 1, 1997 - Edmonton Sun
By Fish Griwkowsky - Express Writer
"I don't really consider us country music," sweet-sounding singer Cookie
Rankin was saying the other day of the Rankin Family, tonight's headliner at Big Valley.
That's no news. Their latest release, Collection, was a typically Celtic blend, songs
like Fare Thee Well Love and Fail Il E (Oran Luadhaidh) hardly anthems for bull ridin' and
hog racin'.
"I think it's neat that they've included us as part of their scene."
Mark my words, true believers, the Nova Scotia band will add a delightful flavor to the
proceedings tonight. We jump in our RVs and go to these things for new experiences, after
all ...
Cookie is the second-youngest Rankin. Her father was a heavy-duty mechanic and her
mother worked with mentally disabled kids, not to mention 12 of her own children. "It
was nothing like The Partridge Family growing up.
"The Partridge family got along," she jokes. Five Rankins became the folky
band you'll see in Camrose tonight.
Cookie Rankin admits she's "not really" a big fan of country music.
"You know what I do listen to, though? Deana Carter! My CD broke in my car and I
had this one tape (Did I Shave My Legs for This?) my friend left and I've been wearing it
out," Rankin asserts.
"I love the unrequited love songs, so I shouldn't hang up my hat so quickly."
Cookie's surprised to hear that Carter's playing Sunday, mad that she won't be able to
see her. "I had no idea ..."
Like Tennessee's monolithic country bloc, the Maritimes has its own tight-knit family
of musicians, everyone from Ashley MacIsaac to John McDermott. There's just a lot less
"aw-shucks," a lot more "Toronto sucks." (See, we Albertans have
something in common with them.)
"I just finished doing a video for The Drunken Piper with (fiddler) Natalie
MacMaster. We opened for the bridge, and of course everyone was there."
She's talking about Confederation Bridge, don't you know, linking P.E.I. to the rest of
Canada. "I didn't see Stompin' Tom, but the Queen was about.
"Great Big Sea was there, too. I haven't gotten drunk with them yet, though. When
I see that they're under 30, I don't really chase them. Kinda like robbing the
cradle," she smiles.
I ask her if she's married and she shoots back, "Are you proposing?"
I'm afraid I'm under 30, too, Cookie.
The tradition-oriented band's been off the road for most of the summer, taking a
breather and actually living their individual lives while no one's watching.
Just like country gals often do, the Rankin girls have recorded a Christmas album,
coming out this winter, though that seems far away now. (Knock on wood.)
A new album by the whole band will be out in the spring of '98.
Folk music or music for the common folks, it doesn't really matter. Just because it
ain't country doesn't mean it's not worth listening to.
Oh, and if you're wondering where the name "Cookie" came from she defiantly
answers, "Probably the same place `Fish' came from. Out of nowhere," she laughs.
"It gives you a little edge to your identity. You can sure use that in a household
of 12 sometimes."
There you have it, pardners.
August 10, 1997 - Ottawa Sun
By Rick Overall
When Mary Chapin Carpenter makes promises, she delivers.
She suggested last week that the only thing she was interested in while out on tour was
performing at a level that would make the audience feel they'd been through something
special.
Consider it mission accomplished.
Last night the five-time Grammy winner brought her soulful brand of contemporary folk
and country to the Ottawa Civic Centre Theatre, in tandem with the multi-Juno winning
Rankin Family.
And if nothing else, the 4,000 or so in attendance can say they got their money's
worth.
What Mary Chapin does in concert is exactly what we always hope an artist will do and
that's simply to take the music we love and show us you really care about those songs.
From start to finish the lady bubbled with enthusiasm, delivering a super-charged
70-minute string of hits that we could have only imagined would be this good live.
She brought a desperate tenderness to Outside Looking In, a rousing happiness to I Want
To Be Your Girlfriend, a happy-go-lucky warmth to Passionate Kisses, a Philly soul shuffle
to Let Me Into Your Heart and a biting irony to the encore number He Thinks He'd Keep Her.
The marvellous thing about a live event is that very often an artist will take one of
their classics and really turn the tune on its ear, giving it a new personality that
builds on the familiar. Mary Chapin did just that with her monster Shut Up And Kiss Me.
As offered last night, the song has now taken on a wonderful heavy-bottomed bluesy feel
featuring a snarly slide guitar break. Shut Up And Kiss Me suddenly had this warm
New Orleansy undercurrent that made it so much more mischievous than the original.
Then there was the riveting version of I Feel Lucky, peppered with a boogie backbeat
and some raunchy guitar that uprooted the cutesy feel of the single and replaced it with a
more menacing feel. She wound up belting it out in a Billie Holiday blues style. The whole
hour wound up in dramatic fashion with Mary Chapin's dog joining the entourage and taking
a bow with the band -- clever.
The two things you can always depend on with the Rankin Family are consistency and
quality.
With no new CD to focus on, this year's tour seems to be just for the fun of it, but
we'll take it all the same.
This was also probably the biggest venues to host the Rankins in Ottawa but they just
upped their energy level and actually did an amazing job at filling the place with a
bounty of sound.
What's constantly amazing about this Cape Breton group is the way they move from style
to style, instrument to instrument, voice to voice in such a seamless fashion.
Jimmy, Cookie, Raylene and Heather take their individual turns at lead vocals, and
though they may sound similar there's a different timbre with each, and so the group
basically runs with four lead singers and makes the most of the opportunity.
All the while, brother John Morris shines on piano and fiddle.
The other Rankin trademark is variety. They move from the Lightfoot-tinged folk rock of
North Country to the haunting traditional ballad sounds of pieces like If I Were A
Blackbird (sung by Raylene), to Heather's gentle Gaelic offering or Jimmy's rollicking
Roving Gypsy Boy, or collectively bring the crowd to a fever pitch with You Feel The Same
Way Too, there's no stopping this eclectic bunch.
And, as always, every so often the band breaks into those amazing medleys of jigs and
reels, with a double fiddle attack and the sight of Heather and Cookie stepdancing at the
front of the stage. These instrumental moments always get the fiddle-crazy Ottawa Valley
crowds to their feet.
As ever the Rankins surround themselves with a great bunch of musicians but one
constant standout was percussionist Scott Ferguson, who really goes above and beyond the
call of duty.
Despite Jimmy's broken leg and the unbelievable heat inside, the Rankin Family and
their fans had one heck of a hoedown.
September 1, 1997 - Variety Magazine
By Brendan Kelly
The English-Canadian music business is massively concentrated in Toronto, and
the lion's share of the country's music executives ply their trade in the
Toronto area. Universal Concerts Canada, the dominant concert-promotion company,
is based in Toronto, as are the six major record labels, all subsidiaries of
multinational parents.
The six Canadian majors, which account for the biggest chunk of record sales
in Canada, are BMG Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, Polygram Group Canada, Sony
Music Entertainment (Canada), Universal Music Canada and Warner Music Canada.
(Quebec's music business is the only place left in Canada where the indie labels
still play a dominant role in the biz.)
All the Toronto-based majors have been investing more heavily than ever in
domestic talent in the past few years, largely thanks to the increasing sales
for Canuck artists in Canada and abroad. Three Canadian female superstars -
Celine Dion, Alanis Morissette, and Shania Twain - each have sold millions of
albums around the globe and helped put Canadian pop music on the world map.
Executives at the Toronto majors are hoping their company will be the next
one to hit multiplatinum status on the international pop marketplace, and they
have been beefing up their homegrown rosters accordingly. EMI Music Canada for
example, has 23 Canadian artists currently signed to the label, including
veteran singer Anne Murray, country crooner Rita MacNeil, Toronto-based rocker
Tom Cochrane, Celtic-flavored band the Rankin Family, Toronto hard-rock
ensemble I Mother Earth, Inuit artist Susan Aglukark, Moist and Ontario-bred
progressive rock outfit the Tea Party. Some of the EMI artists are products of
the Toronto music scene, but EMI Music Canada president Deane Cameron is quick
to point out that the Toronto-based record companies are just as apt to sign
talent from Canada's other music centers - most notably Vancouver, Montreal,
Halifax, and Winnipeg - than from their backyard in Toronto.
"Toronto is the business center, but it has not necessarily been the
creative center," Cameron says.
Prominent Toronto-based artists selling significant units in Canada and
elsewhere include country-rock band Blue Rodeo, multiplatinum better Amanda
Marshall, hot modern-rock group Our Lady Peace, seasoned progressive hard-rock
trio Rush, the Barenaked Ladies and the Tragically Hip, one of Canada
bestselling rock bands, who originally hail from Kingston, Ontario, a couple of
hours east of Toronto.
Cameron says Canadian artists have never sold more albums in Canada than
today, and he estimates that Canadian music accounts for between 15%-20% of the
sales in the Canadian market. For EMI Music Canada, its Canadian acts rack up
between 20%-25% of the company's business annually.
The surge of activity also has led to more of a U.S. A&R presence in
Canada, notably in Toronto, and the city's two major annual music-industry
conferences/festivals, Canadian Music Week and North by Northeast, have become
key showcases for Canuck musical talent.
Some of these Toronto artists are beginning to make inroads in the U.S.
market. Marshall's self-titled Sony debut has sold 1.5 million units
internationally and fellow Sony act Our Lady Peace, which has sold 500,000
copies of its new "Clumsy" album in Canada, also is starting to
receive industry support south of the border.
John Reid, the newly appointed chairman of Polygram Group Canada, is
confident the Canadian acts will continue to break in the U.S., and he points to
the recent success in the States of singer Jann Arden, signed to the Polygram-owned
label, A&M/Island/Motown Records of Canada.
"(The recent Canadian success stories are) fantastic for
everybody," Reid says. "I've always had an international view, and
Polygram has always had an international view. We should be signing acts to sell
records in Canada and internationally."
There are more than 100 Canadian artists signed or licensed to the six
Toronto-based major labels right now, according to Brian Robertson, president of
the Canadian Recording Industry Assn., which reps all the majors and many of the
top indie labels in Canada.
"It's a major investment that they think they're getting a reasonable
return on," Robertson says. "They're becoming more adept at breaking
those artists internationally."
It makes life easier for the Toronto record industryites that all the key
players are centered in the same city, Robertson adds.
Toronto also is home to a significant number of independent labels, notably
Attic Music Group, Anthem Records (longtime home to Rush), and Alert Music,
whose flagship artist is cool Toronto-based jazz-pop singer Holly Cole. There
are several significant independent distributors located in and around Toronto
as well, including the newer Page Music Distribution (partly owned by EMI Music
Canada), Koch Intl., and Denon Canada. Several of the country's leading music
retailers have headquarters in Toronto, including HMV Canada and Roblan
Distributors, which runs the national Sam the Record Man chain.
October 2, 1997 - Halifax Herald
By Tim Arsenault
Dartmouth-based musician John Chiasson is a man of many talents.
Music fans might recognize him as the bass player for the last five years in the Rankin
Family band.
He also has a photography business and his work adorned the cover of the Rankin Family
EP The Grey Dusk of Eve.
Now Chiasson steps out entirely from a backing musical role with the release of his
independent album Here In The Moonlight.
The recording may not be what Rankin Family fans would expect. Except for the original
title track - a song Chiasson wrote with guitarist George Antoniak - the CD is a
collection of sensitively arranged standards such as Stardust, Misty and My Foolish Heart.
Chiasson plays bass and guitar on the record but also reveals himself to be something
of a smooth old-fashioned, straight-ahead crooner in the lead vocal department.
"Mostly, I'm a back-up guy and you get comfortable doing that," Chiasson says
in an interview.
So, with the encouragement of Rankin Family drummer Scott Ferguson, who plays on the
album and co-produced it with Chiasson, he decided to shake things up a little bit.
Though this side of his talents may be new to the public, it has deep roots for
Chiasson.
"My mom played that kind of stuff around the house. I just took to it, I
guess," he says.
Here In The Moonlight was recorded at The Centre for Art Tapes in Halifax, a facility
perhaps better known for more experimental fare than God Bless The Child.
"It was the cheap way to go," Chiasson said. "I became a member there
after doing a project with a couple of other guys."
Among the friends helping out was Raylene Rankin, who lends her vocal talent to Misty.
"We were on the road in Hollywood with the Rankin Family and we started talking
about me doing an album like this and she said, 'Gosh, would I ever like to do something
like that.'"
(Raylene has just released a Christmas album with sisters Heather and Cookie, and
Chiasson says such projects may keep the group fresh. "I think they'll always do the
Rankin Family thing and if they can do other things, too, that's probably better for
everybody.")
Chiasson's thing, though brand new, has already generated an encouraging response.
"I'm pretty psyched about it," he says.
"I've been getting good feedback."
His photographs also adorn the package, from a stock shot of the Moon to a panorama of
the New York City skyline inside the CD booklet.
Chiasson says that photography started out as a hobby and "it became kind of a
profession. These days, you gotta stay busy."
November 1997 - The Record
"The recently released album of Christmas songs by Heather, Cookie and
Raylene Rankin of The Rankin Family titled Do You Hear . . .
Christmas with Heather, Cookie and Raylene Rankin, couldn't have been recorded in
less Yuletide-like conditions. In the spring of this year, the trio travelled to the
Armoury Studios in Vancouver to lay down bed tracks with producer Jim Rondinelli
and then headed home to the Maritimes in April to record the vocal tracks in a seaside
home in Hubbards, N.S. where Laura Smith had previously recorded her album, It's a
Personal Thing."
December 13, 1997 - Halifax Herald
"Mabou - The mother of Nova Scotia's most famous singing family has died. Kaye
Rankin, mother of The Rankin Family died Thursday after a battle with breast cancer. She
was 60. She was instrumental in advancing the musical career of her family, encouraging
their talents and transporting her step-dancing daughters and fiddle-playing sons to
performances while selling their records from the back of her car. Over the years she ran
The Rankin's fan club from her home in Mabou and as recently as this summer, drove around
the island, distributing Rankin Family tapes and CDs to shops and stores."
December 16, 1997 - Toronto Sun
By Jane Stevenson
Celtic music act The Rankin Family lost their mother, Kaye Rankin, to cancer last week
after a long battle with the disease.
A funeral was held on Sunday in the family's hometown of Mabou, Cape Breton, and the
group's record company said any condolences can be made in donations to the Canadian
Cancer Society.
In addition to being the mother of 12, Kaye Rankin was also a great supporter of the
five siblings that make up the musical group, managing their fan club.
Roy Thomson Hall has confirmed that Jimmy Rankin, who was scheduled to perform at the
Celtic Christmas concerts there on Thursday and Friday night, has cancelled those
appearances.
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