The Rankins Online Website - Articles January-June 1998 - The Official unOfficial Website of the Rankins

Growing up in Big Pond, in a 160-year-old house right on the Bras d'Or Lakes, Sampson remembers Rita MacNeil singing at his house accompanied by his mother, pianist Florence Ley, who played in bands and chorded for her father.

"There were a lot of fiddlers from around there. People like Dan Joe MacInnis. When I was a kid I never paid any attention to it. I wanted to play rock and roll."

Today Sampson, among Nova Scotia's top guitarists, is a singer, songwriter, guitarist and keyboard player whose track record includes two years in the house band for CBC-TV's series Rita and Friends, touring Canada with MacNeil, and travelling and performing with the top Cape Breton traditional players The Barra MacNeils, Natalie MacMaster, John Allan Cameron and The Rankin Family.

But as a teenager his musical heroes were Stevie Ray Vaughan, Stan Rogers and Dave MacIsaac. He started teaching himself guitar when he was 14 "and then I went nuts into that and wound up in different bands along the way and in Real World in 1989."

Real World, a pop band of Sampson and Matthew and Jamie Foulds, broke up in 1994, the year shortly after recording an album. Sampson saw the band's three singles he'd co-written hit the Top 10 in Canada in one year.

"As you know, the way the music industry is in Canada, you can have a single on radio all the time and still not make any money. Everybody's own interests were taking so much time, we didn't have the interest to keep the band going. There was absolutely no bad blood."

Sampson played with Ashley MacIsaac's first band when he was developing his Celtic/contemporary fusion, "when Ashley was trying to figure out what it would sound like if you put in an electric guitar," he says. "At that time I wasn't into traditional stuff."

MacIsaac tried out his new sound in Halifax in a standing-room only show at Your Father's Moustache; in his band were Sampson, Stuart Cameron, Scott Macmillan, Matthew Foulds and Alan Dewer.

"It was sort of an instant success. The first gig we did with Ashley shaped his sound, shaped his career to some extent.

"Some of the arrangements we put together for that night, he's still playing them."

Surrounded by traditional Cape Breton fiddle music, Sampson became fascinated by it.

"Once you get into it, you don't get out of it.

"Many of these tunes have been played for hundreds of years and most of these tunes were played when people didn't speak English and the tunes have probably changed very little. I find that very interesting, that the language has changed but the tunes haven't. I've been fascinated by roots and history ever since I was five years old."

Sampson's family ancestry is a mix of Irish, Scottish and French, Sampson being an Acadian French name. Sampson's own music is a fusion.

"I would say I mix traditional with more pop and sometimes even gospel. Ashley mixes it with a more hard edge. Both styles seem to work fine."

For his first album, Stones, Sampson has co-written songs with Bruce Guthro, Jamie Foulds, Jimmy Rankin, Duncan Wells and Mary Jane Lamond, with whom he co-wrote MacIsaac's hit Sleepy Maggie.

Guest performers on the album include Cookie Rankin, Mary Jane Lamond and Natalie MacMaster.

Stones is produced by Declan O'Doherty, Claude Desjardins and Paul Mills, on Turtle Records, owned by Sampson's manager Sheri Jones, and distributed by A & M. Sampson hopes to release it by March.

Apart from Stones, Sampson is very busy. He and Fred Lavery co-own the two-year-old recording studio, Lakewind Sound, in Point Aconi, and usually end up playing on the albums they record.

Natalie MacMaster recorded her new album there before Christmas. "People like the Barras come through, there's a band called Brakin' Tradition coming in. We usually end up playing on most of the stuff that comes through, all of us end up playing on it."

In February, he, fiddler Howie MacDonald and other players are doing a small tour of Ireland sponsored by Lakewind Studio. Sampson will do the cross-Canada tour in March with The Rankin Family when they release their new album, recorded in Nashville.

Sampson will be musical director for a Salter Street Films project called Celtic Electric featuring Natalie, Ashley and Sharon Shannon.

Sampson recently flew down to Nashville to play on the new album, produced by George Massenberg. "He's a famous producer. It was an amazing experience, we're talking about a guy that arguably has the best ears in the world for recording music."

Last year, Sampson was musical director of the Cape Breton Summertime Revue and also, "in a last minute decision," toured with the show.

"It's a great gig for exposure and it did a lot for the Rankins and Natalie, Bruce Guthro. They were all people who were in the Revue just before their career broke."

Sampson, and his band, called Angus and Wonderland, won the Media Choice Showcase Award for their performance at the 1997 East Coast Music Awards. Not allowed to showcase two years in a row, Sampson will nevertheless be very much present at the ECMAs. He will do an in-store at HMV, is doing the Guitar Summit with Symphony Nova Scotia, and play at showcases for Howie MacDonald and Angela Spinnozola.

By the 1999 ECMAs, Sampson might be up for the awards with his new album, Stones, expected later this year.

Music: Nova Scotia's most valuable export?

January 29, 1998 - Halifax Herald

By Clare Mellor / Staff Reporter

Anne Murray, The Rankins, Sarah McLauchlan, and Natalie MacMaster - just a few of the musical treasures to come out of Nova Scotia.

And it seems every year, another treasure is discovered.

Those active in Nova Scotia's music industry believe music could one day be recognized as the province's most valuable export.

"Most people think of music as entertainment and don't realize that it's a big business," says Tony Kelly, chairman of of the East Coast Music Awards and Conference.

"There are a lot of us that clothe and feed our children, and pay our mortgages from it. It is a very big business."

The East Coast Music Awards and Conference, which gets under way Jan. 29 at the Halifax Metro Centre, is a good indication of how the industry here is burgeoning. Every year attendance at the event almost doubles. "There are literally people coming from around the world. We have people coming from Australia, New Zealand, Europe, from the States," Mr. Kelly said.

"(East Coast music) is a unique type of music, which has drawn a lot of attention, and it's selling really well, so people are coming to see. There is a buzz about the Atlantic coast."

The event, held last year in Moncton, funneled an estimated $3.3 million into the Atlantic economy. This year, the event is expected to infuse another $5 million.

A 1995 survey of the music industry of Nova Scotia, commissioned by the Music Industry Association of Nova Scotia, found an annual direct economic impact of $65 million. Indirect economic activity is estimated at an additional $23 million annually.

Musicians, promoters, sound recorders, managers and booking agents, broadcasters, technicians, music teachers, and shops selling musical instruments, are all considered part of the industry.

About 1,000 people are employed full-time in the music industry in Nova Scotia, while another 1,500 are employed part-time, the same survey suggests.

The Music Industry Association of Nova Scotia, an advocacy organization for those in the industry, was totally volunteer-run until this past November.

Now, it has a full-time executive director and an administrative assistant/office manager.

"That happened because there was so much demand on our organization that volunteers just couldn't handle it anymore, so that kind of tells you that a lot more is happening (within the industry)." says Tanya Wolstenholm, the association's executive director.

The provincial government has been very active in promoting the music industry here, both Ms. Wolstenholm and Mr. Kelly said.

"The industry is actually blossoming, I would say right now," Ms. Wolstenholm said.

"We have a lot of new up-and-coming people who are just fabulous, and you can tell that they are on the verge, so it is really exciting," she said.

Record-Breaking Art
An album cover can help make or break a record. For the first time, artists will be recognized by East Coast Music Awards

January 30, 1998 - Halifax Herald

By Rick Conrad / Features Writer

The first thing people see on music racks is usually the last thing a musician thinks about.

Historically, album-cover art has been one of the most underappreciated facets of the burgeoning East Coast music industry.

"One of the problems in the music industry is that design is always left to the last minute," says photographer and graphic designer Carol Kennedy.

But local musicians and the industry are realizing it's a vital part of selling records and making money.

"If you've got a real crummy (cover), it's just gonna sit in the back," says the fortysomething Kennedy, who moved to North River Bridge, Victoria County, from Toronto in the early '80s.

"And that's the exciting challenge, plus the stressful challenge - how to get it to jump off the shelf along with all the other great ones."

Album art has come a long way since one of Kennedy's black and white photos of The Rankin Family served as the band's first album cover in 1989.

Then the East Coast music business was still in its infancy, and the Rankin shot was Kennedy's big break.

"The sales for that album really did extremely well," she says, adding the band got her to shoot the cover for their second album, Fare Thee Well Love.

"The next thing I knew I was photographing all Cape Breton musicians and actors," Kennedy recalls.

Now the local music business is an industry, and Kennedy, along with many others in the province, has expanded into graphic design.

Graphic design even snagged its own category this year at the ECMAs. Based on a body of work, the award will be given this morning.

Kennedy is in the running, along with Ben Fong, Doug Aucoin, Lillian Newbury and Scott Tappen.

Kennedy's work is photo-driven, like her cover for Natalie MacMaster's Compilation, which features black-and-white performance shots of MacMaster, set against a dark background.

Another Kennedy cover, Jennifer Roland's Dedication, features a color shot of Roland against a lavendar background.

Kennedy and other designers are benefiting from a made-in-Atlantic Canada music boom.

Acts like Laura Smith, Great Big Sea and MacMaster now use graphic designers in this region instead of going to someone in Toronto.

"I think (the design) is on par with anything else in the world," says Andy McDaniel, Maritime/independent buyer for Sam the Record Man on Barrington Street in Halifax.

But it wasn't always that way, he says.

Sam's has a basement full of old CDs and cassettes "with really crappy artwork" they don't put out anymore because they never sold and because the store doesn't want ugly displays.

"Obviously, the industry's gotten so much stronger ... and obviously some (musicians) might not be as aware that that's as important an issue.

"I mean, there are still some pretty tragic covers that come out."

Halifax graphic designer Ben Fong says more musicians are realizing their album covers are just as important as their videos.

"It's gotta have something really special that makes people want to see it again," says the 27-year-old former lead singer of big picture.

"A lot of people have to be told what's cool, and if something looks cool on the shelf, then they'll go for it."

Fong, a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, says he works a lot with musicians to determine what they want and what will complement their music.

"I get together with the artist and talk about the overall feeling of the album, like what they were feeling when they were writing it," he explains.

"Music is visual to me. Everything that I hear has a picture to it already, so I like to blend those two things together, sound and vision. A lot of designers will just base it on what they think is nice-looking."

Fong can take anywhere from one night to a couple of weeks to create an album design.

It depends on the musician.

Laura Smith's It's a Personal Thing, for example, took about a week and a half because he consulted her constantly.

It features a professionally shot photo of a seated Smith framed by a copper-colored border with her name and album title in lower case.

"Her music has a lot of feeling," Fong says. "We kinda clicked that way, so it felt good doing it."

His design for the Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra's Life Desire album is more retro, depicting Favourite in all his faux-Frank Sinatra style.

That cover took only six hours to complete.

"I knew the band," Fong says. "I got the job and I took it home and finished it because it was easy to do."

Carol Kennedy, on the other hand, concedes she's still learning the craft, even though being a professional photographer helps.

"Though I'm trained visually, I'm not a trained graphic designer so I have to go on my eye and my composition from the photographic realm," she says.

Kennedy's first real design job was two years ago on John Allan Cameron's comeback album, Glencoe Station.

Because she does her own photography, her designs revolve around her photos.

She says she strives in her album covers "to get to a point where I'm happy with it, that it looks exciting, it looks appropriate, it looks modern, it looks different. And that's what any creative person is striving for - to make your own signature."

Obviously, it's also important that the musician like the design, says Fong.

"Trust is really important because somebody is relying on you to put their face in the market," he says.

"I think a lot of people take it for granted and they'll just make up any imagery they want and oftentimes it sucks."

In the international music market, sucky doesn't sell.

"When you release a CD, you're immediately launching yourself into the world market," Fong says.

"Now Nova Scotia has a face, it has a face known for traditional music, it has a face known for alternative music.

"Three years ago, it didn't have a face, now it does. People are thinking more globally."

Because of that, people like Fong and Kennedy can stay in this region and work in an industry that shows no sign of letting up.

"This is working out very well," Kennedy says. "To be able to live in the country and carry on a fairly high-profile business."

Walking his Road to Stardom
Sydney Mines Singer-Songwriter Bruce Guthro unleashes his new CD at a party in Halifax tonight

January 31, 1998 - Halifax Herald

By GREG GUY / Entertainment Edtior

BEFORE high school dances in Sydney Mines, Bruce Guthro and a group of friends would head to the woods, "split a six pack of beer with seven guys" and sing.

That was his first audience.

"We'd sing a capella tunes and Stan Rogers' tunes and I'd write songs and try them out on the guys," the soft-spoken singer/songwriter remembers.

He didn't put his fingers near a guitar until his late teens, when he purchased a 12-string with money he earned working in a uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan.

"If you see me glowing you now know why," he jokes.

Guthro has walked a long road in his music career, but is now on the cusp of becoming this country's newest star. And his calendar in the next few months lends to a well-choreographed plan to make that happen.

Tonight at the Lord Nelson Hotel ballroom, the dedicated father of two will officially unleash his highly touted album, Of Your Son (EMI).

He has landed a spot on Sunday's nationally televised East Coast Music Awards show. He is up for single of the year with fellow Cape Bretoner Natalie MacMaster for their effort Fiddle & Bow, the song that brought him the SOCAN songwriter of the year award at last year's ECMAs in Moncton.

On Sunday morning, Guthro will host a Songwriters' Circle at the World Trade and Convention Centre in a group that will include Rita MacNeil, Julian Austin, Ron Hynes, Pamela Morgan, Dave Carmichael and Tara MacLean.

In March or April, Guthro will be featured in his own CBC television special, tentatively called Solo. A CBC crew will begin shooting that special at Sunday's awards show and will follow him back to his home in Sydney Mines for more footage. Then it's off to CBC's main headquarters in Toronto where a concert will be taped Feb. 13.

In between all of this, Guthro will also perform a duet with Heather Rankin of the Rankin Family for Salter Street Films' new music project, Celtic Electric.

After the release of his single, Walk This Road, last October, he was asked to open for concerts with Jann Arden and Anne Murray.

Despite the growing national attention, he remains as humble as ma's blueberry pie.

The son of a coalmining/cus-todian father (Ambroise) and store clerk mom (Yvette), Guthro grew up in a home with seven brothers and one sister.

"Everyone says, 'Ah that poor girl.' But we're growing up in this small little house on Forest Street and she wasn't that poor," the dark-featured singer says.

"We all grew up in hand-me-downs and she was the only one who got new clothing from time to time."

Looking back at life at 39 Forest St., Guthro fondly remembers his childhood.

"Christmases at our house were incredible. I hardly remember my mother and father at Christmastime, there were that many kids there. We all had our own little bag of stuff and the next thing you know every bag was ripped open and everyone was playing with everyone's stuff," he recalls.

"The house was crazy. You were never at a loss for people to entertain you or to play with when you're a kid. It's a great way to grow up."

Guthro credits his brothers and sister for keeping him level headed.

"I never had to worry about getting saucy or getting a big head. I had four older brothers to keep me in line."

After his stint at the uranium mine, Guthro headed to Fort MacMurray, Edmonton and Toronto for work, until eventually he landed back home, guitar in hand and with a growing desire to perform. He was offered jobs in various bands in Cape Breton and played the club scene for several years.

During this time he began to pen his own tunes and won a songwriting contest which led to the single release, Livin' in the '90's, through MCA Records Canada.

The single reached number 14 on the charts and received strong support at radio stations across the country.

As a result BMG Publishing came on board to co-fund his first album, Sails to the Wind, which he released independently.

"I'd say I lost money on the whole project," Guthro admits. "But I'd say that's true of a lot of albums these days. There are few that actually make money."

On April 23, 1995, Guthro landed a spot among a bevy of the East Coast's best musicians, in a Tribute to Stan Rogers that Halifax impresario Brookes Diamond and the CBC co-produced.

He was taping an Up on the Roof show for the CBC and producer Glenn Meisner encouraged him to phone Diamond and ask to be part of the Stan Rogers tribute.

Guthro told Meisner he didn't feel right calling Diamond and Meisner said, ' "You know what, you're right,' " Guthro recalls. "He picked up the phone and said, 'Brookes, I've got a guy here who's going to be on your show.'"

He was offered two of Rogers' songs to sing, but he asked if he could write his own tune.

The result was a song called Stan's Tune that prompted a standing ovation at the sold-out Rebecca Cohn Auditorium.

"It was just a treat to pay tribute to a man who I think has helped shape a lot of writers here on the East Coast. He was the first singer/songwriter/perform-

er to actually go out to the folk circuit and sing songs about the East Coast, that I know of, and he really started to make some noise," Guthro said.

"People would go, 'These are not only great songs. They are meaningful and he's trying to tell us something here.' I try to do the same kind of thing, sure in a slightly different way than Stan. I just try and drop a message here and there to help make the world a little better place to live."

From that magic night, which Guthro claims as his career breakthrough, he and Diamond have become friends and at the ECMAs in 1996 the two formalized a management partnership at what Diamond describes as "a Volkswagen press conference of Cadillac dreams," in the Prince Edward Hotel bar in Charlottetown to celebrate the union.

Guthro got a chance to sing on the ECMA awards show that year in Charlottetown and EMI Music Canada representatives were all ears.

The success of Stan's Tune and Fiddle & Bow opened doors and gave Guthro the exposure he needed.

When he won the SOCAN songwriter of the year award, Guthro said he remembers saying: "I can die now."

"When you win one of those things and you are getting a slap on your back by your peers you say 'Yah!,'" he says. "It was the feeling inside for me that was important to me. It's not that I go home with a trophy that I can put on the shelf. It's more about the respect from your fellow artists which I think everybody wants."

With EMI's and Diamond's direction the wheels were put in motion for Guthro's new album.

Guthro headed off to Toronto to collaborate with Amy Sky and Marc Jordan and hired Chad Irschick of Inception Sound Studios (who worked with The Rankin Family) to produce Of Your Son.

What you'll find on the album is an eclectic mix of tunes from the funky groove of Dirty Money to the pop-folk-Celtic tinge of Forbidden Love and Little Gifts, on which Natalie MacMaster plays fiddle.

Little Gifts gets to heart of Guthro as a father and is about his kids, Dylan, 6 and Jodi Lynn, 2.

An audience at the Rebecca Cohn Auditiorium got a chance to see Guthro perform a Hootie and the Blowfish song with his two children during his highly praised concert with Symphony Nova Scotia last November.

Out came Dylan and Jodi Lynn with their little guitars to strum along with their dad.

"My kids mean the world to me and I am doing this all out of love for them," he says proudly.

Sky performs a duet with Guthro on Two Storey House, a song about survival of marriage in the hectic '90s.

Working with Sky was an learning experience for Guthro.

"She is so focussed on getting the job done and she wants to produce," he explains.

"I'm very laid back and if we get something written great, but if we don't we had a cup of tea and had a chance to chat."

The album's first single and Mexican-shot video, Walk This Road, is getting heavy rotation on country and adult contemporary stations. It was the video pick of the week recently on the Country Music Television network.

One of the true works of art on Of Your Son is a gem called Falling.

The song developed in Guthro's head while he was sitting at a train station and a old man with a cell phone arrived on the scene.

Guthro's brain started to roll and what he ended up with was a brilliantly written moody air with a twist that would make you fall from your seat.

"When I was writing Falling, I thought about life and how short it is and how quickly we can miss simple things and how quickly our direction can change for any reason," he explains.

"As the song progressed, it probably started out without me knowing I would end it with that hook. I just let it shape itself as it went."

It's that hook that is used as the title to his new album.

Falling is the type of song that makes Guthro go "Yaaaah," when it's finished.

Three days before this interview he penned a song called Simple Tools.

"It's the type of song that I don't care if it ever gets played on a radio station. I'm just glad I wrote it," he says. "You know you have a really good song on your hands, and it's one that you can pick out and play in any environment. It has integrity. It'll make you think."

Critics have compared Guthro to James Taylor, Alan Jackson, Hal Ketchum and Van Morrison.

The comparisons don't bother Guthro; he considers them a compliment.

"I think everybody kind of does that. As long as I'm compared to heavy weights like that, I'm a happy camper."

Critics may be comparing him to internationally renowned musicians, but it's only a matter of time that people will start comparing up-and-coming artists to Bruce Guthro.

As Guthro walks his road he remembers again those first nights singing with his friends in the woods near his high school.

"They never thought it and I never dreamed I would be doing what I'm doing now," he says.

MacMaster to Fiddle Across Province
Cape Breton Star Set to Show Her Roots on New Album

January 31, 1998 - Halifax Herald

By Stephen Cooke / Entertainment Reporter

East Coast Music Awards shows may seem like old hat to Troy, Inverness County fiddler Natalie MacMaster, but even though she's appearing onstage at the Halifax Metro Centre Sunday night and is in the running for two awards, entertainer and single of the year (for her duet with Bruce Guthro, Fiddle and Bow), this weekend's celebration is actually a lot more relaxing than ECMAs past.

"It'll be a bit easier for me, since I'm not hosting," says the soft-spoken bowslinger by phone from the Hotel Halifax, where she'd just appeared on Gabereau Live!, "and in my appearance the focus isn't all on me so it'll be less nervewracking."

MacMaster will share the stage with fellow fiddlers, Ashley MacIsaac and the Rankin Family's Howie MacDonald for a mini-ceilidh that's sure to blow the roof off the downtown arena. With only one day off to recover, it's back on the road for month-long Maritime tour, followed almost immediately by a month-and-a-half-long cross-country road trip.

Again, it's nothing new for MacMaster, whose Gaelic globetrotting has only increased since she was signed to entertainment giant Warner Music. Glancing at her itinerary, she plays Moncton one night, Hull, Quebec the next and Port Hawkesbury the night after that. And in the midst of it all, she'll be releasing a new album, called My Roots Are Showing ("That's the name of it, I'm really serious," she laughs).

Is she worried about burning herself out? "It's my tour, right? I've got the most invested in it, more than anybody else. Even though I'm tired, if there's a show to do, I've gotta do it. Even if, at that moment, I don't feel like doing it, I'm the one who decided to tour, and I'm excited to be able to tour.

"So when the show comes and I'm on stage, and there's 200 or 2,000 people staring at you, whether you're tired or not, you don't even realize it, you just perform.

"On the days when there's lots to do, my inner clock knows it and keeps ticking."

MacMaster must have caffeine running through her veins. The Canadian tour is followed by two months in the U.S., where she's made tremendous inroads over the past couple of years, and then it's off to mainland Europe for a continental tour.

MacMaster admits the two weeks rest she had at Christmas will have to last her a long time, but at least the agenda will be hers, instead of the offer she had to join ubiquitous Irish dancer Michael Flatley's Lord Of The Dance tour, which would have required an entire year away from her own music.

"I'm sure if I was doing it I'd be ecstatic," MacMaster says, "but there's lots more things to do."

MacMaster admits Lord Of The Dance would have been great exposure, as long as she could get attention away from the spotlight-hogging Flatley. "I'd do my best to steal it from him! As if I could, my God the guy's amazing."

So instead of the glitz and flash of Lord of The Dance, it's back to the stone traditional sound she's always known, for her shows and for My Roots Are Showing, recorded live off the floor in Point Aconi's Lakewind Studios with Nova Scotia folk stalwarts like former accompanist Tracey Dares, Howie MacDonald, guitarists Gordie Sampson and Dave MacIsaac, and for a fiddle duet, one of her biggest inspirations, and her uncle, Buddy MacMaster.

"There are no No Boundaries types of things on it at all," MacMaster explains. "I was going to do another album like it, but then I thought I'd separate the two. One traditional, and the next will be not so traditional, more contemporary. Hopefully I'll record it in the fall."

If MacMaster continues driving herself as hard as she draws her bow, 1998 could very well be a two-album year for Nova Scotia's most environmentally-friendly energy source.

TOUR DATES:

Tuesday: Liverpool, Astor Theatre

Wednesday: Yarmouth, Th'Yarc

Thursday: Cornwallis, Pearson Centre

Friday: Halifax, Rebecca Cohn

Feb. 8: Lunenberg, Starlight Theatre

Feb. 15: Port Hawkesbury, SAERC

Feb. 21: Truro, CEC

From Messer to MacMaster
East Coast Music Awards get bigger, more diverse

February 2, 1998 - Halifax Herald

By Stephen Pedersen / Arts Reporter

It was a long way from Don Messer's home in Kearney Lake in the 1960s to the 1998 ECMAs in the Halifax Metro Centre. But his bequest of music still animates the biggest music show in Atlantic Canada, and last night at the Metro Centre his daughter Dawn accepted the Dr. Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of her father, who died in 1973.

"Dad was a big supporter of Maritime musicians," she said. "He felt Canadian musicians didn't get good exposure." Messer did his best to correct the situation. John Allan Cameron, Anne Murray and Catherine McKinnon were three East Coast artists who appeared on his television show as the '60s turned into the '70s. Sunday night and 30 years later, you could measure the exposure of today's Atlantic Canadian musicians with a decibel metre as close to 8,000 fans roared their approval of artists like Great Big Sea, Lennie Gallant, Bruce Guthro and Sarah McLachlan.

The cavernous arena was awash with color as projectors on the concourse area flooded the lower levels and the crowded floor with tinted light. But no-one got a greater reception than Cape Breton master fiddlers Natalie MacMaster, Ashley MacIsaac, Winnie Chafe, Buddy MacMaster, and young upcoming fiddlers Samantha Robichaud and Marc Boudreau, accompanied by Dave MacIsaac and John Morris Rankin, who brought everyone screaming to their feet, stomping and clapping to the fiery fiddle music of old Cape Breton.

For Cape Breton comedienne Bette MacDonald, it was a night to remember, "It's my favorite ECMA show yet, especially the opening bit with Rick Mercer and Rita MacNeil," she said backstage where the artists awaited their call to glory.

J.P. Cormier, winner of the roots/traditional-vocal artist of the year award, was excited ("Well, I was happy I wore two pairs of underwear," he joked when asked for his reaction to hearing his name called out), but sober in evaluating what the award meant to him.

"Not much," he said. "I'm going to continue to write and to play, but it sure helps our spirit that our friends in the industry support us." By "we" Cormier meant himself and his wife, pianist Hilda Chiasson Cormier. "I'm happiest for her," he said. "She kept me from giving up."

Of all the artists who came backstage in the first flush of the glory of recognition, it was Four The Moment's Delvina Bernard who put the whole affair and the distance it has come since Don Messer's days into perspective She spoke of the cross-fertilization beginning in the 98 awards of African, Acadian, Celtic and First Nation traditions. "It's one nation under groove," she said.

Celtic Electric Just the Jolt Needed
Producer hops to revive musical variety TV show

February 7, 1998 - Halifax Herald

By Pat Lee / Television Reporter

Salter Street Films is hoping to breathe new life into an old television tradition - the musical variety show. And they're counting on the popularity of Celtic music to do the trick.

This weekend, Celtic musicians from across the province and across the pond will be filmed performing in three concerts at Salter Street's Electropolis studio in Halifax. The results will be condensed into the one-hour special Celtic Electric, slated to air on CBC-TV on March 15.

"It's been a long time since a musical variety series has been based in Halifax," says Salter Street's Alan MacGillivray, co-executive producer of the special.

"We feel very strongly that we're doing something different, we're breaking the mould." Standing on the new, massive Electropolis soundstage on the Halifax waterfront, MacGillivray said the show will stand apart from other musical specials because, joining well-known Nova Scotia entertainers, will be many performers from Scotland or Ireland. And most of the performers are fairly young. "The whole concept of the show is newer trends in Celtic music," he said, as hammers and saws pounded and droned in the background while crews prepared the stage for today's and Sunday's tapings (which are sold out).

Maritime performers will include fiddlers Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie MacMaster and Richard Wood, singers Mary Jane Lamond, Bruce Guthro and Heather Rankin, as well as dancing by the MacQuarrie Dancers.

Bette MacDonald, Andrew Younghusband and Mary Ellen MacLean will provide some comic relief, while the house band is comprised of J.P. Cormier, Chris Corrigan, Al Cross, Matthew Foulds, Stefan Hannigan, Dennis Keldy and Ed Woodsworth.

Scottish singer Alyth MacCormick will appear, along with Ireland's Sharon Shannon (formerly of the Waterboys) and Scottish groups Shooglenifty and Tartan Amoebas. Former Riverdance star Jean Butler will also perform and choreograph entertainment by a troupe of Celtic dancers. Along with a neo-Celtic approach to the show, MacGillivray said they are also taking advantage of the huge 3,600-square-metre Electropolis soundstage to jazz up the look of the special, which Salter Street hopes will turn into a regular series.

With 12 CBC cameras in use, the concerts will be filmed in the round with entertainers on two separate stages and atop individual "performance pods." "We want to try and capture the performances without being intrusive," MacGillivray said. "What we're trying to do here is capture an event."

Along with the studio segments before live audiences of about 300 people per show, they also filmed an unscripted jam session at the minuscule Economy Shoe Shop bar on Argyle Street in Halifax.

He said the plan was to have any interested players from the special show up and capture the results on film. "It's just logical that if you get that many musicians together something's going to happen." MacGillivray said they have sold the special to BBC Scotland, which is "very much into the notion of cultures coming together."

Up for a Juno
East Coast Musicians among Nominees

February 12, 1998 - Halifax Herald

By Stephen Cooke and the Canadian Press

Newcomers and old hands alike will fight it out for musical crowns as Canada's music industry rides an enormous high to the 1998 Juno awards.

Our Lady Peace, Shania Twain and Halifax native Sarah McLachlan are among the veterans recognized in nominations announced Wednesday in Toronto and Vancouver.

But they will have to contend with a host of upstarts including hip-hopsters Bran Van 3000, Spanish-singing diva Lhasa, singer-songwriter Dayna Manning and New Brunswick country artist Julian Austin. Like Austin, it's the relative newcomers to the East Coast music scene who scored Juno nominations while longtime favorites like Rita MacNeil and the Rankin Family watch from the sidelines.

McLachlan, who recently picked up three ECMAs, and organized and headlined last summer's blockbuster Lilith Fair tour, was named in four categories - single, album, female vocalist and SOCAN songwriter of the year. Her album Surfacing also earned nominations in the categories of producer of the year (for Pierre Marchand) and best album design.

Nova Scotians also make up two-fifths of the Best Roots and Traditional Album: Solo category, with nominations for J.P. Cormier's Another Morning and Mary Jane Lamond's Suas E! Bible Hill's Cindy Church shares a Country Group or Duo of the Year nomination with Ian Tyson.

"I don't think anyone would be sorry they got the nomination, so I'm happy to have it," said Lamond. "It's particularly nice since I wasn't nominated in that category at the ECMAs.

"And I'm in pretty good company in that category."

Lamond, who was unable to attend the ECMAs due to appearances in Scotland and Calgary doubts she'll make it to the Junos in Vancouver March 22, when she'll be coming off the end of yet another tour.

Still, Lamond said she appreciates the recognition, even though awards aren't the be-all and end-all of being a musician.

"Anybody who makes a record doesn't do it with these in mind. You do what makes you happy, and if people like it and recognize it, that makes you feel good. But if they don't, that doesn't mean you're not going to continue to do it."

The news was a bit more dramatic for Cheticamp's Cormier, who was informed of his Juno nomination Wednesday afternoon by cell phone while on his way to the North American Folk Alliance in Memphis. "I'm freaking out, man. It's a bad thing too, 'cause I'm right on Highway 40 heading into Nashville, and I just about went off the friggin' road." Cormier, who remarked he was "in a coma" upon receipt of his recent Roots/Traditional Vocal ECMA, calls the Juno nod appreciation for a year of hard work, especially impressive considering he's the only independent artist in the category. "A lot of people on major labels aren't doing as well as we are," Cormier said. "I don't know that it's necessary at all. Not in Canada, I don't think."

Elsewhere on the East Coast, Newfoundland's Great Big Sea is up for Group and Roots/Traditional Group Album of the Year, New Brunswick's Roch Voisine scored Male Vocalist and Album of the Year nominations for his album Kissing Rain and Moncton's Shirley Myers is up for Country Female Vocalist of the Year.

Great Big Sea's Bob Hallett, who learned of the nominations while draining a small lake from a flooded basement, says the band is still on a high following their five-award win at the ECMAs, and that although Juno nods may seem more impressive, they don't have the same grassroots appeal for him.

"The Junos never seem to hold as much weight in my mind as the East Coast Music Awards," said Hallett by phone from St. John's. "Probably because it's largely a record company, mainland, music business thing. It doesn't have a lot to do with the people who actually buy records. That's certainly been my impression." Still, Hallett admits the Junos nominations are a reasonable cross-section of Canadian music, from coast-to-coast. "It's nice to be recognized by the industry. It suggests the Toronto music business does take Atlantic Canadian musicians like us seriously, which obviously wasn't the case even three or four years ago."

"This is a very exciting time to be in the music business in Canada," said Lee Silversides, president of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. "The confidence that permeates the creative community, inspired by the sucess of their peers has resulted in a sense of empowerment. The world is now our stage and Canadian musicians stride with confidence across it."

Our Lady Peace top the list this year with nominations in five categories: best selling album, single of the year, album of the year, group of the year and the fan-voted rock album of the year. Triple nominations also went to last year's host, Jann Arden, country newcomer Paul Brandt, Bran Van 3000, celtic rockers Leahy, growling rocker Holly McNarland, Moist, Twain and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal.

The past year has seen more Canadian artists than ever find acclaim and audiences both at home and around the world, led by superstars like Twain, McLachlan and Celine Dion. Their successes have paved the way for dozens of new artists who have made their mark, such as Manning and Lhasa, who were nominated for best new solo artists along with McNarland, Amy Sky and Tariq.

This year's inductee into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame is legendary performer and producer David Foster, known for his work with dozens of top-flight artists, including Bryan Adams. A gala performance, which will be open to the public, will be held March 22 at General Motors Place in Vancouver. Voting for the awards is conducted by members of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Rita's Celtic Celebration
Baton Broadcasting's special airs Sunday on ATV

March 7, 1998 - Halifax Herald

By Pat Lee

The smile on Rita MacNeil's face couldn't be any wider.

In fact, the normally reserved Cape Breton singer looks, well, almost giddy.And why shouldn't she? She's sharing the stage with today's premiere players of Celtic music, including the Chieftains, Leahy, Ashley MacIsaac and Mary Jane Lamond, and she's doing it in front of a wildly partisan crowd at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay.

MacNeil's euphoria is captured during a rolicking version of Mairi's Wedding, the opening number during her newest television special titled Rita MacNeil's Celtic Celebration airing on ATV Sunday at 9 p.m.

"It was so exciting, I was like a child in a candy store," MacNeil said this week with still obvious delight about the taped performances from her Coxheath home, just outside of Sydney.

"I was very much in my element and very proud to have this whole shoot take place in Cape Breton because that's the kind of place you need to be to make it all so special."

The hour-long show, one of two musical specials MacNeil will star in for Baton Broadcasting, was filmed last October just before the Celtic Colours festival in Cape Breton. Other guests on the show include Men of the Deeps, who join MacNeil in an always stirring rendition of Working Man; the Barra MacNeils, who accompany the host in a song performed at Fortress Louisbourg, step dancers Cara Butler and Danny Golden; and spoons virtuoso Gerry Deveau. Along with a stellar lineup of guests, MacNeil credits a hyped-up hometown crowd for the special's lively flavor.

"They were amazing, they just drove the show home," she said of the Savoy Theatre audience, which was often on its feet at the end of a song.

"When you're sitting around doing television specials it's hard to expect the audience to sit around waiting for takes to be done, but they never left their seats and they showed enthusiasm. They were just ideal people."

Since the special was filmed, MacNeil has been on the road promoting her latest record Music of a Thousand Nights. She said the present mania for Celtic music, which has always been a staple of her repertoire, has brought new fans to her concerts.

"It's certainly brought more attention these days with the likes of Natalie and Ashley and the Rankins," said MacNeil, just back from a two-month tour of Ontario and Western Canada.

Celtic Celebration is MacNeil's first return to centrestage on TV since the CBC unceremoniously dumped her popular weekly variety show from the schedule last season, which sparked producer Sandra Faire to leave the CBC to run her own production company.

Although the CBC is said to have also offered MacNeil the chance to do specials, she struck a two-special deal with Baton (which owns stations across the country, including ATV). Faire, who produced Celtic Celebration, is married to Baton president Ivan Fecan. MacNeil rarely speaks about the CBC cancellation but said she enjoyed hosting the now defunct Rita & Friends.

"It was very exciting, it was wonderful meeting all of the performers and being a host of a show that was such a great showcase," she said this week. "I think getting behind the talent is so important and that I was a part of that made me feel fairly good."

With the CBC series behind her, MacNeil said she's happy doing music specials and would not say no to another chance to front her own weekly music show.

"I'll never say never because you never know what offers will come in, and if they did I'd certainly entertain them."

Celtic Electric reels in acts from both sides of the pond

March 13, 1998 - Halifax Herald

By Pat Lee

I didn't realize how tired I'd grown of seeing the same Nova Scotia performers on every special taking advantage of the Celtic craze until I watched Celtic Electric.

I have nothing against Natalie, Ashley and the gang, but of late there's a distinct feeling of been there, done that, whenever these familiar players take to the stage.

This feeling was particularly pervasive last weekend during ATV's airing of Rita MacNeil's well-intentioned but very traditional TV special that didn't veer too far from the well-worn path of music specials.

I guess familiarity does breed a mild form of contempt. While Natalie, Ashley et al do appear on Celtic Electric - Salter Street's homage to Celtic music airing on CBC Sunday at 9 p.m. - the show also includes many unfamiliar or rarely seen performers from across the pond.

It's like a breath of fresh air to hear Gaelic songs by the statuesque Alyth McCormack of Scotland or a lively Celtic tune by Ireland's Sharon Shannon on the accordion. The spirited Celtic Electric was filmed early last month before an audience at Salter Street's humungous Electropolis soundstage on the Halifax waterfront.

Along with bringing in some new faces, the special also distinguishes itself from the tried and true by presenting a special with no host. Artists instead introduce themselves in pre-taped clips or have their names lit on the stage floor.

After being spoon-fed by hosts for so long, it's momentarily disconcerting to move from act to act without a guide, but it doesn't take long to get into the seamless rhythm of the show. The hour-long special gets off to a lively start with elegant former Riverdance star Jean Butler doing some high-step dancing, followed by a lovely performance in Gaelic by Mary Jane Lamond, McCormack and Heather Rankin.

Other highlights include a jazzy laid-back version of the Water is Wide by Rankin and Bruce Guthro, a real toe-tapper by Sharon and Mary Shannon, and a rocking tune by Celtic band Shooglenifty of Scotland.

Even when good old standbyes like MacIsaac take to the stage, they're showcased in an interesting way. In the fiddler's case, that means having him start his solo performance on piano before picking up fiddle and bow.

While good use is made of the soundstage, with performers on two main stages or on various "performance pods," the special also includes several vignettes filmed outside the studio, including a kitchen set with MacIsaac on piano and Buddy MacMaster on fiddle, a milling frolic from Christmas Island in Cape Breton, and a fiddlefest at the tiny Economy Shoe Shop bar in downtown Halifax.

If I had one complaint about the special, it would be about the amount of stepdancing. Once you've seen one straight-armed dancer click her heels, you've seen them all. Call it the Riverdance backlash.

Salter Street is hoping Celtic Electric will become a weekly series next season. If it does, I hope the producers will be as committed to introducing new faces to Canadian audiences as they were with the inaugural special.

The Rankins are "Movin' On" to their 7th EMI Music Canada release entitled "Uprooted"

April 1998 - EMI Music

Over the years, The Rankins have created music that features stunning harmonies, incredible melodies and meaningful lyrics. It is with this amazing combination that they have sold close to 2 million units in Canada alone!!

The Rankins have adopted an entirely fresh approach to recording "Uprooted" thanks in part to the album's Grammy award winning producer George Massenburg (Little Feat, Earth, Wind & Fire, Linda Ronstadt, Lyle Lovett, Aaron Neville). Alth ough a departure from The Rankins' previous recordings, Uprooted still contains all the elements that you would expect from a Rankins release. Without question, Uprooted is the record that will take The Rankins to the ne xt step in Canada and internationally. It is being released on Tuesday, April 28th!

Regardless of the new developments in The Rankins' recording techniques and instrumental arrangements, there is no mistaking its creators. With a refreshing boldness and an up-front edge, Uprooted elevates the Rankin sound by weavi ng trademark harmonies, stunning melodies and original lyrics. Although a departure from The Rankins' previous recordings, Uprooted still contains all the Gaelic ballads and dance hall beats that you would expect from a Rankins release.

Uprooted contains all the necessary elements to break new ground on previously uncharted territory. Beginning with the new country sound of the first single Moving On, to the solid pop vocals on "Maybe You're Right", to the funky s treet beats and the poetry of spoken word on "Weddings, Wakes and Funerals" to the incredible enriched vocals on "Cold Winds and Bells". The Rankins have always had overwhelming support at Country radio but never before has the crosso ver potential at A/C and CHR been so evident. Uprooted will offer loyal Rankin fans an exciting new sound and at the same time it opens the doors to a younger demographic.

Rankins video debuts on Internet and CMT

April 8, 1998 - Halifax Herald

The artists formerly known as the Rankin Family, now simply The Rankins, unleash their new album Uprooted on Tuesday, April 28.

The first single by the Mabou quintet, the upbeat Movin' On, is already making inroads on radio, and its video premieres Wednesday, April 29, first on the Internet and then later that evening on Country Music Television. The internet launch takes place between 9:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. at Canoe Internet Magzine (http://www.canoe.ca), followed by the TV premiere on CMT at 9 p.m. For more info, tune into CMT, or keep an eye on their website (http://www.cmtcanada.com).

Uprooted was produced by Grammy award-winner George Massenburg (Linda Rondstadt, Lyle Lovett, Aaron Neville), and is being touted by The Rankins' record label EMI as a new direction for the group that will break them internationally.

New discs springing up

April 9, 1998 - Halifax Herald

The end of April is gearing up to be a hectic time for East Coast music releases. On April 14 expect the Irish Descendants' new CD; on the 28th Natalie MacMaster, the Rankin Family and Sloan all unveil their latest albums.

MacMaster's My Roots Are Showing is strictly traditional, while Uprooted finds The Rankins (no longer all in the Family) stretching their boundaries. The video for the first single, Movin' On will premiere on the Internet and CMT April 29.

Lamond breaks new ground with symphonic splendour

April 18, 1998 - Halifax Herald

By Stephen Pedersen / Arts Reporter

Mary Jane Lamond, a sylph anchored to the earth by platform shoes with soles thick enough to contain magnets, is one of the most strikingly original artists working within the celtic tradition today.

And that's saying something, because today's celtic landscape is alive with originals - young, creative, daring, virtuosic players eager to transform traditional repertoire for their peers at the same time as they honor it - Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie MacMaster, the Barra MacNeils, MacCrimmon's Revenge, Rawlins Cross.

But in this landscape Mary Jane Lamond occupies an entire corner of her own. As a Gaelic singer she has no precedents, no models and no imitators. She's in the unique position of breaking new ground.

What makes her truly outstanding is that her creativity matches her daring, and she displayed it brilliantly in the Cohn last night on her first concert with Symphony Nova Scotia.

Lamond has put together one of the most unusually inventive bands in the business - Wendy MacIsaac on fiddle, Cathy Porter on keyboard and percussion, Brad Davidge on guitar, Ed Woodsworth on bass, and the incomparable Geoff Arsenault on drums - augmented last night to the delight of a sold-out crowd, by singer-songwriter Gordie Sampson on guitar, and Scott Long on highland pipes.

This is a disciplined crew with an unbuttoned imagination. The Gaelic song repertoire, with its simple, short, repetitive melodies and its rhythmic roots in domestic work songs, spinning songs and milling songs, creates a broad musical framework in which many things can be allowed to happen.

And they do. Her band is as inventive as kids on a picnic, but none more so than Arsenault on drums. The physical lilt of Mary Jane's songs, many of which capture not only the pace but the rhythmic swing of communal tasks like pounding wet, freshly spun cloth on a table to full it, set up a pulsing, but not frenetic, tempo that can be felt in the blood. Arsenault sets up cross rhythms within this gentle swing that make your blood tingle.

Porter highlights and ornaments these transparent rhythms whether on piano or synthesizer, or simply scratching two spoons up and down across a metal washboard vest.

Woodsworth and Davidge underline the rhythm and fill in the harmony, and when all this fine, intricate underlay comes together in a traditional spinning song, growing out of the synthesized rattle of a real spinning wheel, the effect is stunning.

Mary Jane's voice is full and poignant as the Rankin Family women, but bigger, and as rich in harmonics as an alto flute. There is an inner rhythm in her singing, an awareness of the lilting syllables, a powerful sense of lyricism and melody.

Though harmonically and rhythmically and ornamentally different from the blues, Gaelic songs have a similar effect of purging sorrow. Those lovely melodic syllables and soft consonants lull the mind with consolation just as a brook gurgling timelessly over its rocky bed.

The symphony, of course, provides a pretty and an active background, especially in Scott Macmillan's adroit arrangements. His translation of Sleepy Maggie from the original Ashley MacIsaac and the Kitchen Devils version - one of Mary Jane's hits - is brilliantly evocative, with Wendy MacIsaac (Ashley's cousin) laying down the fiddle part with confidence and spirit.

East Coast artists and all that's jazz

April 26, 1998 - Halifax Herald

By Stephen Penderson

John Chiasson: Here In The Moonlight: Well-known as a bass player and professional photographer with a real artistic flair, Chiasson sings on every one of the 11 tracks on Here In The Moonlight. His voice is light, restrained and accurately pitched, and he sings this all-ballad, slow-to-medium tempo repertoire with a sort of Miles Davis horn sound - tensile, pressing and largely without vibrato.

You have to sing perfectly in tune to get away with this, but, no problem. Chiasson's ear is excellent.

On Misty, Chiasson gets some help from Raylene Rankin. The Cape Breton nightingale swings as she sings, with that irresistible trademark sweetness of hers, and a good understanding of the style .

Rankins Uprooted
Cape Breton stars weave studio magic with new producer

April 28, 1998 - Ottawa Sun

By Rick Overall

You'd think after all their success The Rankin Family would be slowing down a bit.

Not a chance.

Today the band is set to release a new CD titled Uprooted and they'll soon be off on yet another huge tour.

That might sound like just another day at the musical office but this time The Rankins have fine tuned their sound and have a few new surprises.

"I think that the biggest difference is the fact that we worked with producer and two-time Grammy winner George Massenburg (Lyle Lovett and Aaron Neville). He was very intent on making the vocals a lot warmer and sound more comfortable," says John Morris Rankin during a pre-tour rehearsal break.

"We really wanted to work with George because when the girls did their Christmas album he wasn't available, but he'd listened to all the material and had expressed an interest.

"So this time around he flew up to see one of our shows in Toronto last summer and the minute he heard us live he wanted to do the project."

If anything, listeners are going to feel themselves pulled closer to the voices on this studio album.

"There's certainly a lot less reliance on a lot of guitar work. You'll notice especially on the ballads that the sound is a lot less electric heavy and the overall approach is a lot more acoustic," Rankin says.

"Another thing is that we've brought in string sounds and that certainly makes a difference in the sound."

Rankin believes that despite a few shifts in approach, the closeness of Uprooted has much more to do with the studio work than any perceptable change in direction.

"The way an album is recorded and mixed has a lot to do with how the finished product comes through. But I think more than anything with this recording we saw the vocalists pull off some exceptional performances"

Before longtime fans start worrying about a huge change in direction, Rankin says the nuances aren't that drastic.

"We put together a collection of songs that pretty much go right down the line between the more contemporary feel and the straight traditional.

"The back half of the album is certainly weighted heavily on the traditional style."

As always, the group's travel schedule will be heavy, but Rankin says there's no fear of it disrupting the band's chemistry.

"Everybody just gets along real well. Besides the family, we've got four other musicians out with us and usually we just have a lot of laughs.

"It always seems to work out with these guys and with that going for us the tours just never seem as long as they actually are."

Movin' On to New Sounds
Rankins CD Uprooted hits record stores today

April 28, 1998 - Halifax Herald

By STEPHEN COOKE / Arts reporter

The Rankin Family by any other name would still sound as sweet.

Newly rechristened The Rankins, Mabou's musical pride and joy are set to release their fifth album of all-new material (there's also been a best-of collection and an EP), Uprooted, today, and as the title implies, the record is about pulling up stakes and, heading for new territory.

The strong country-pop flavor that flows through Uprooted songs like Maybe You're Right and the first single, Movin' On should come as no surprise, it was there on North Country and You Feel The Same Way Too, but there are also the roots rock and hip-hop beats.

"Some stuff is more experimental than the last record," admits Jimmy Rankin, "But it takes a transitional twist about halfway through the record, it gets pretty Celtic, pretty rootsy. It's about half and half."

In a way, the record is a progressive trip backwards through time, a Rankins concept album.

"You never really know what you get until you get there," says Rankin.

"We've always, in the past, tried to do something a bit different or a bit above what we've done on previous records. If you look at our records chronologically, I think you'll probably see there's always some kind of a change or a twist.

"Time will tell how this album will do, I think it's a good, big step for us. There's some stuff that's bluesy-Celtic on there, Bo Diddley-meets-Cape Breton. Weddings, Wakes and Funerals is basically a spoken word to a dance groove, kind of a dark, humorous look at our culture. It's kind of like a small movie of life in the Maritimes. Each verse is a different scene."

For Uprooted, the Rankins went back to Nashville and enlisted Grammy-winning producer George Massenburg to help capture some of the new sounds they were after. An apt choice, Massenburg has a resume that stretches from the purely traditional, like bluegrass act the Seldom Scene to tradition-bending Lyle Lovett. Massenburg was also able to lure top-flight musicians like guitarist Dean Parks, mandolinist Sam Bush, dobro player Jerry Douglas and bassist Viktor Krauss (brother of fiddler/singer Allison) into the studio.

For the Rankins, the biggest challenge was taking a new approach to their trademark, an unmistakable collection of voices that have been singing together since childhood.

"This record we did a lot of experimenting with vocals, different combinations of singers, different ways of presenting the vocals," says Rankin. "A lot of thought was put in that direction, into capturing the intimacy of the voices. George was very good in that department. Apart from being really technically proficient, there's also the other side of it where he can get that balance by getting the natural performance out of people rather than being purely mechanical. He's not the kind of guy to use the pitch control.

"On one song, sung by me, Let It Go, we went through the whole gamut of doing the song as a bed track with a live vocal, then going back in and redoing the vocal, trying to get it pitch perfect and phrased properly, and we ended up going with the initial scratch vocal because it had that feeling. It may not be perfect, but it had the immediacy of the performance."

The sterling Gaelic singing of Rankin sisters Raylene, Cookie and Heather is also featured in Uprooted's latter half, but that too gets treated a little differently this time around.

"There's a beautiful ballad on there called An Innis Aigh (The Happy Isle) that we also did with the Chieftains for their upcoming record. Our version is different," he explains. "Raylene sings it and it's done with orchestration that's quite stunning to listen to.

"There's another one that she does, O Tha Mo Dhuil Ruit (O How I Love Thee), it's got some percussion on it in an interesting arrangement. It's not over the top with dance loops or anything, it's pretty organic."

When it comes to music, there's nothing more organic than perfoming for a live audience, and the Rankins will be hitting the road in May for their first major tour in three years. Fans at home have to wait their turn, the shows start in British Columbia and steadily move east, hitting the Atlantic Coast in the fall, but Rankin says there's a reason for that.

"It's like you're all greased up and ready to roll. The show is pretty well-oiled by the time we reach the end of the tour, that's when we give our best performances."

Shows in the United States are also part of the plan, but getting their records released down south has always been a tough row to hoe for the Rankins. Uprooted could be the one that breaks them, if they can find a company willing to take the chance.

"We go through record labels in the States like corn flakes," Rankin laughs. "I think every Canadian act that's ever been to the States goes through the same situation where they don't know what to do with you.

"Initially we had the same problem in Canada, which is why we made our first couple of records ourselves and toured the country extensively. Basically, we built our own grassroots audience so when we signed with a label, a lot of that work was done.

"The same thing applies to the States. We're looking for a label down there, and we're well-known in the industry, people know our music, but it's the same thing as Blue Rodeo, they don't know how to put it on radio because the restrictions are a lot more stringent. But a lot of our fan mail comes from there."

One can't mention the Rankins' fan mail without thinking of their biggest fan, their mother Kaye, who died last December at age 60.

While her death leaves a void that can never be filled, her sons and daughters take some comfort in the knowledge that her dream came true for them.

"It certainly did. She was pretty proud," Rankin recalls. "The record's dedicated to our parents. We put a nice shot of them on the back of the cover, when they were kids, first married.

"She answered all the fan mail and mailed out tapes and t-shirts. That was a role she always did, but later on we were able to hire her on full-time to do it. A lot of our fans kept steady correspondence with her. She was very personal, because she hand-wrote all the responses to them.

"It was something she developed on her own because we were never around to answer letters. I think people really appreciated it."

Rankin's sister-in-law Clare has taken over the fan club duties, first of which will likely be answering the question, "Why did you shorten your name?"

"I've heard there's been some concern," Jimmy answers. "It's not really a big change, it's something we've always thought about. It's what we used to call ourselves anyway, back in Cape Breton in the old days. People just referred to us as the Rankins. It's something we've thought about doing for years, and it's a decision we made in about 10 minutes.

"I think we're well enough known in Canada it's not going to make a difference. When people introduce us on radio it's always the Rankins anyway. We're laying the matter to rest.

"The discs are still filed under R," he laughs. "Just as long as they're not in the $1.44 bin."

Rankins' changes find them Uprooted

May 1, 1998 - Toronto Sun

By Jane Stevenson

Uprooted seems a fitting title for the latest musical offering from the Rankins -- formerly the Rankin Family -- which hit record stores this week.

In addition to updating and countrifying their neo-Celtic-pop sound with the help of Grammy Award-winning Nashville producer George Massenberg (James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt), the five-sibling group from Mabou, N.S., has also had a particularly difficult year.

The Rankins, made up of Jimmy, Heather, Cookie, Raylene and John Morris, lost their mother -- who also ran their fan club -- to cancer in December.

"She had cancer for the last 17 years. The last two were probably the most difficult for her, because it was just an ongoing suffering," says Heather, seated beside Jimmy, during an interview in Toronto this week. "The title, I thought, really was kind of representative of the last couple of years that we've had personally."

Adds Jimmy: "There's been a lot of stuff that's gone down. There's been some heavy thinking and some heavy drinking -- that'd be a good line for a song.

But this album is not about death. The fact that our mother passed away mid-way through, it just happened."

Still, Jimmy wrote one new song called Weddings, Wakes & Funerals -- which contains drum loops and electric guitar -- while Heather wrote the somber Cold Winds, in which she sings: "For cold winds chill my bones, and tears fill my eyes, our final farewell beneath that bitter winter sky."

The Rankins, who have sold two million albums in Canada in the last six years, but have been unsuccessful in the U.S. so far, also dedicate Uprooted to both of their late parents. They include an old picture of them as a young couple in the liner notes.

For now, the Rankins are embarking on a 13-city western tour that starts next Tuesday in Vancouver and wraps up May 25 in Winnipeg. It's expected that a Toronto show -- hopefully at Massey Hall -- will happen either in the summer or fall.

But both Heather and Jimmy hope the contemporary nature of some of the material on Uprooted might help dispel the widespread notion of the Rankins as the ultimate "wholesome Canadian family."

"It's amazing how photographs and videos can channel your image," Heather says. "In many ways, we've been misrepresented because there is no such thing as the perfect family, there's no such thing as the Brady Bunch. I mean, we're like anybody else growing up with brothers and sisters."

"We just happen to play in the same band," Jimmy adds. "People tend to slot you, they put a tag on you, 'Oh, the Rankin Family, very wholesome, blah, blah, blah.' The reality of it is, we have our quirks and quarks like anybody. I think where it hurts is that people may shy away from the fact that it is perceived as being too wholesome, too clean. When, in reality, if you listen to the lyrics, it really isn't that perfect."

Jimmy also has to laugh at the similar image of the latest Canadian family Celtic act to come along in the form of Leahy, which is made up of nine brothers and sisters from Lakefield, Ont.

"I was watching an interview with them on TV, and they were getting all the same questions that we've been getting for the past 10 years, and I was like, 'Congratulations, we're passing the torch on.'"

Howie MacDonald set to get mellow

May 7, 1998 - Halifax Herald

Cape Breton cut-up, fiddler extraordinaire and auxilliary Rankin, Howie MacDonald, will release a new CD this summer called Just Relax: Tranquil Tunes from Cape Breton.

MacDonald will be playing some traditional slow airs, mingled with sounds of the sea and the outdoors on tracks like Fishing the Margaree and The Elusive Whales. Of course if you like MacDonald at his up tempo best, there's always his last CD, The Dance Last Night, with some riotous comedy to boot.

MacDonald is currently on tour with The Rankins.

Hats on to Rankins
Celtic band drops family and adds country to mix

May 12, 1998 - Calgary Sun

By Fish Griwkowsky -- Express Writer

Let's cut to the chase: The Rankins, minus the word "family" in their name, have gone country.

One of Canada's premier Celtic bands, five siblings swimming in traditional music for more than a decade, is wearing a cowboy hat.

"Never be careful,'' the friendly Cookie Rankin states with the ease of someone announcing what time it is.

"The (new) album is called Uprooted and that's what it's about. On a personal level, an artistic level, things have been pulled apart over the last few years. People have died, a lot of people, and it's affected us.''

The loss of their mother, on top of the general malaise that Rankin admits plagued the band for a couple of years, forced the hand of the East Coast group, in town tomorrow night for a concert at the Jubilee Auditorium. You can't simply call someone in to replace all five grieving players on the road. It hit them like a meteor.

And to be completely fair, as we always try to be here in Sun Music Central, it's not like they've forgotten their roots entirely. Few and far between are country records with song titles like O Tha Mo Dhuil Ruit or Farewell to Lachaber. But there is undeniably a lot of the new Nashville sound on this record, the disc largely recorded down south in country music central where the grass is brown all winter.

More than a little success in country circles, especially on video channels, made them say why not?

"People are peeved at us. People will still write to us today and complain that we're not doing what we did on our first album,'' Rankin says. "The purists'll complain what we're doing is wrong. But they're asking us not to grow! "You don't want to write like you did in Grade 12 or your first year of university."

Oh, I don't know. I got to swear a lot more then, I counter. Rankin laughs for a while at that and puts it another way: "You don't want to lose your youth, but you can't stay in the same place forever. Of course, a lot of people do. I can't. We won't.''

The decision to change to the Rankins from the Rankin Family is also mixed up in all of this.

"Why do you think we did it?'' she smiles playfully.

The Partridge Family comparison comes to mind and she confirms that's part of it. Another part of it is that the Rankins simply want to be a band.

"There's a lot of personality that goes into a record with five people. (The Rankins) is simpler, to the point. It's an identity thing. Does that make any sense?''

Making sense is irrelevant. What this is all about is music and music doesn't have to make sense.

But the bottom line is easy enough to trace. The country songs on Uprooted are as strong as almost anything in their peer group. There is energy, twang and the lyrics are about life. So what if the band's from the Maritimes?

It's not like half the accents down in Music City aren't faked, after all.

So what's next for the Rankins? A drum and bass album? Rap? There must be some master plan.

"Are you kidding?'' Rankin says. "I'm a musician. I'm lucky if I get up in the morning.''

Rankins launch new moniker, different sound with latest album

May 14, 1998 - Canadian Press Newswire

They still share the same ancestral and genetic heritage, but they are The Rankin Family no more.

Now, they're simply The Rankins.

It may seem a pretty minor change but it's symbolic of a shift in musical perpective, say the members of Canada's best-known family Celtic band.

"Over the past several years we have been perceived as being very light-hearted, fun, let's-have-a-ceilidh (KAY-lee, a kitchen party) kind of band,"' says Cookie Rankin.

"But there is a dark side to where we come from and we're not ashamed of it."

Cookie, Heather, Raylene, Jimmy and John Morris Rankin have been on the Celtic music scene since the late '80s, when they began performing in folk festivals across their native Nova Scotia.

Since then, the brothers and sisters from Mabou, Cape Breton, have recorded seven albums (including their latest, Uprooted), won five Juno awards (one for people's choice entertainer of the year in 1994), 14 East Coast Music Awards and two Canadian Country Music Awards.

With Uprooted, the Rankins decided to shoot for a grittier, less roots-oriented sound. It's not that they've turned their backs on the Cape Breton Celtic style they made their name with, but it was time for a little bit of experimenting and growth, says Jimmy.

"I think we always know we're going to have variety with us, because we all have different ideas about how we're going to make a record. Each member brings a different aspect and I think that's worked in our favor," he says.

"Because some of us are more purist about Celtic stuff than others and some of us are a bit more experimental when it comes to using drums and going in that direction, there's kind of a balance there where you never know what the hell you're going to come out with but it's going to be fun doing it."

Uprooted is an unusual mixture of melodic pop songs with a country edge, traditional fiddle medleys and ballads.

The darker side is manifested in a stronger sense of bass and beat running throughout the album and surfaces most explicitly in the brooding Weddings, Wakes and Funerals. A pounding drum loop and phrases from a funeral service (with the voice of a real priest, a family friend, recorded at just such an event) over an eerie chant and fiddle reel lend the song a spooky trance-like quality.

"All of us decided that this reminded us of being around death a lot, which was a part of our upbringing," says Cookie.

"It wasn't unusual for kids to go to wakes, to sing at funerals, to be around people and dying and the morbidity of it all. That comes with our cultural background: it's a big event in a community."

"There's a little bit of tongue in cheek there,'' says Jimmy.

"The whole time we were making it it wasn't like we were sad, it was like, Hello - this part of life. I remember going to a wake when I was four or five and I remember looking at a corpse in a coffin, it's a very Celtic thing."

"The thing about the album is, I know that it sounds diverse or you may want to use eclectic but it's all connected,"' says Cookie.

"We may have used different approaches to a different tune and they have their own individualism. It's like James Joyce's book of short stories, Dubliners - there's a common thread that happens through the whole thing even though they are completely different. You can say the same thing about our album, going from the completely purist tradition to something more like a pop single."

Some facts about the Rankins:

Formed: Late '80s in Mabou, N.S.

Members: Jimmy, Cookie, Raylene, Heather, John Morris Rankin

Albums (Certification):

The Rankin Family 1989 (Platinum -100,000 sold), Fare Thee Well 1992 (5x platinum), North Country 1993 (4x platinum), Grey Dusk of Eve EP 1995 (Gold - 50,000 sold), Endless Seasons 1995 (2x platinum), Collection 1996 (2x platinum), Uprooted (released April 29) 1998

May tour dates: 15-16 - Banff Centre, Banff, Alta. 18 - Swift Current, Sask. 19 - Regina Centre of the Arts, Regina. 20 - Saskatchewan Place, Saskatoon. 21 - Northern Lights Place, Melfort, Sask. 22 - Yorkton Arena, Yorkton, Sask. 23 - Estevan Arena, Estevan, Sask. 25 - Centennial Hall, Winnipeg.

Maloney to attend kitchen party

May 28, 1998 - Halifax Herald

The Fire In the Kitchen is starting to warm up and the Chieftain's Paddy Maloney is coming to Halifax to make it even hotter.

Fire In the Kitchen, a new CD recorded last year mainly at Halifax's Studio H, is a project of Maloney's and will hit stores on June 16.

A party is planned in Halifax a few days before the release. An inventive promotion is well underway, which includes the CD case in the form of a matchbook and says "Close Cover Before Listening."

The Tattler's been told Maloney put off doing press at networks in New York to make it back to Halifax for the press and party with those who participated in the album.

Who's in the kitchen with Paddy .... The roster includes Ashley MacIsaac, The Ennis Sisters, Laura Smith, Mary Jane Lamond, Rita MacNeil, Barra MacNeils, La Bottine Souriante, Leahy, Natalie MacMaster and The Rankin Family and Great Big Sea.

Revue hot with music, comedy...and all that eh

June 11, 1998 - Halifax Herald

By Greg Guy / Entertainment Editor

Glace Bay - Author Silver Donald Cameron once wrote that "Cape Breton is a state of mind" and that Capers are always able to take a critical, but loving look at themselves.

Sitting in Glace Bay's Savoy Theatre last Saturday night, the Cape Breton Summertime Revue unleashed its new batch of self-deprecating humor sprinkled with all the things the annual show is known for - soulful ballads, traditional Celtic music and dancing . . . "and all that eh!"

Walking away from this year's Revue, the one name that stands out is Mary- Colin Chisholm. The Antigonish actress makes a return to the Revue fold for the first time since her days in the Rise and Follies of Cape Breton Island in 1985.

Chisholm masters seven characters from a tell-it-like-it-is Sobeys checkout clerk, a thick-accented fisherman, a biker dude at a friend's wake, a tequila shooter gal out on a toot, a Cable 10 tartan-clad French host and a Scottish-to-the-max old lady from down Margaree Valley way.

But it is her character Fiona from Iona who garners the longest-running laughter in this show.

God love Fiona, you see dear, she suffers from C.O.D. (Celtic Obsessive Disorder). The poor dear is wrapped in more tartan than any Nova Scotia Tourism advertisement can muster. Fiona reveals she's a Gaelic abuser and confesses to having a Winnie Chafe shrine in her basement.

What ensues is an over the top performance that leaves them crying in the aisles as Chisholm exits the stage on all fours.

The Revue is co-directed by husband-and-wife team Maynard Morrison and Bette MacDonald.

Morrison returns with his two favorite Revue characters, unemployed Caper Martin MacKinnon and of course, Cecil.

MacKinnon opens the show telling the audience how he trained for the Nagano Olympics but definitely stayed away from the snowboarding events, "because he couldn't stand the dope." Later he arrives divulging how he finally landed a job in PR, "that stand for public relations," gets fired and attempts to become a singer/songwriter . . . "and all that eh!"

And it wouldn't be a Summertime Revue without Cecil, the dim-witted, tire tube-clad Caper with a big heart whose misbehaved children keep him hoppin'.

Morrison's characters are familiar to the Cape Breton landscape. Ask any Caper and they can relate to these characters, whether it's the guy up the street or the fella in the next aisle in church.

The music in this edition of the Revue is stronger than ever.

The Celtic Giant, J.P. Cormier, lands on stage with ample material, most of it from his CD, Another Morning.

His tunes The Island, My Life is Over, Kelly's Mountain and Gilgarry's Glen enable Cormier to show off his incomparable mastering of the fiddle, guitar, and banjo.

Young Bras d'Or fiddler, Jennifer Roland shines in her Revue debut. She's as big as a minute, moves the bow like wild fire and can step-dance and clog better than any other fine young dancers from the Cape.

Comparisons to Natalie MacMaster are inevitable when witnessing Roland's craft.

The 20-year-old fiddler joins Cormier's wife, Hilda Chiasson Cormier, to end the first act with a dueling clogging session. The 10-minute fast-paced foot action had them stompin' at the Savoy. These gals were drivin 'er bye.

There were several firsts in this show. After years of going to many Celtic concerts on the island and having witnessed every one of the Revues and Rise and Follies shows, I have never seen anyone stepdance and play the piano at the same time. Hilda Chiasson Cormier masters this feat.

And after knowing the Revue's band leader, Allie Bennett, for several years, I have never heard him sing solo. At the beginning of the Ceilidh segment, he capably handles a Gaelic ditty called Air Fal Al Al O.

New Waterford's Richard Burke is back for his seventh Revue. He performs songs written by three of the island's best songwriters, Bruce Guthro, Wally MacAulay and Allister MacGillivary.

It is MacGillivary's Bye Bye My Island that takes you by the hand and fills your soul with warmth and gives you that longing for home.

Burke, who is a talented multi-instrumentalist, also arrives at The Ceilidh with Morrison as they do a dead-on parody of Cape Breton comic act, Hughie and Allan.

Julie Martell returns for her second Revue. She sends a hush over the audience when she lends her voice to Kye Flemming's Stolen the Wind From My Sails.

In one year, Martell shows remarkable growth as a singer. Keep her name in mind.

Most of the music is given an edgier sound with the guitar stylings of North Sydney musician Dave McKeough and for the first time in the Revue, Brian Talbot shows promise behind the drum kit.

For the past several years, many wondered if the Revue was beginning to lose its legs. Many thought that it had had its day in the sun.

But this year's show is a step forward and every Revue brings more young Cape Breton talent that will go on to become successful solo acts like those in years past - the Rankin sisters, Natalie MacMaster, Bruce Guthro and Rita MacNeil to name a few.

You don't have to be a Cape Bretoner to enjoy this show, but by the time it's over you'd wish "yous" were.

Rankins, Guthro to headline festival concert

June 29, 1998 - Halifax Herald

By Tera Camus / Cape Breton Bureau

Sydney - The Rankins, Bruce Guthro and Gordie Sampson will help kick off the 25th Municipal Action Week festival with a concert Aug. 1.

The nine-day event will begin with the concert at the Sydney government wharf at 7 p.m. "It's going to be a heck of a good time," said Rodger Cuzner, an organizer from the Cape Breton Regional Municipality recreation department. This year's event will also feature the first ever Kinsmen International Air Show, Aug. 8 and 9, daily concerts on the boardwalk, Bill Lynch Shows, teddy bear picnics, a parade, sporting events, the annual road race and the popular Caribbean Festival in Whitney Pier.

More of the 55 planned events include a children's festival at the Centennial Gardens Aug. 1, the Boardwalk Buskerfest from Aug. 1-3, as well as a mid-week Flashback to the '70s concert by the Accents on Aug. 5. "We're committed to the preservation of the festival events," said regional councillor Mike White.

Bruce Guthro, who attended the press conference here Wednesday, said the Action Week concert will be the only full band concert he will perform in Cape Breton this summer. "I'm very excited to help kick off Action Week," he said.

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