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07/05/98 - Celtic Wonders
07/05/98 - Rankins
take country turn
07/09/98 - Highland hearts
08/06/98 - Twain
keeps rolling with 8 country nominations
08/11/98 - Pushing tradition's edge
08/15/98 - Chebogue welcomes Fish
Aiders
08/15/98 - Fish Aid
opens with fine catch of musical magic
08/16/98 - Catching
loads of Fish Aid fun - Ocean of music: Fish Aid casts its net from Chebogue to England
08/16/98 - Catching
loads of Fish Aid fun - Headliners Cockburn, Arden recharge Fish Aid audience
08/23/98 - Bennett's musical blend
09/10/98 - Twain
tops bill at Canadian Country Music Awards
09/17/98 - Rankin gals taping
holiday special
09/18/98 - The end justifies the jeans
09/26/98 - Making contacts in the arts
9/26/98 - New spin on old Rankins
09/27/98 - Rankins rockin' at NAC
10/01/98 - Gordie's groovin'
10/10/98 - So much for the rest, Contemporary
music channel goes to air
11/05/98 - Much more Minnie
11/07/98 - Celebrate
Nova Scotia Music Week with homegrown sounds
11/09/98 - Raylene Rankin has left
the group
12/12/98 - N.S. musicans top ECMA nods
July 5, 1998 - Calgary Sun
By David Veitch -- Entertainment Editor
They may have shortened their name and hired a Grammy Award-winning Nashville producer
for their latest album.
But make no mistake: The Rankins -- formerly The Rankin Family -- are the same
singing-and-dancing powerhouse that, over the past nine years, has gradually won the
hearts of Canadians from sea to shining sea.
Their free show last night at the Coca-Cola venue on the Stampede Grounds was a
wholesome, feel-good affair that thrilled the thousands of fans who packed themselves like
canned sardines around the stage.
The concert started on a sprightly note with Rovin' Gypsy Boy, a high-spirited Celtic
sing-along, and Long Way To Go, one of several relatively straightforward country songs on
their new CD Uprooted.
However, no matter how conventionally "country" The Rankins try to be, they
could never be mistaken for an American act thanks to their Cape Breton accents, which
saturate their music like a Maritime salt-water mist.
Then again, the fivesome didn't seem too anxious to be assimilated into the Nashville
country music scene.
Many of Jimmy's vocal numbers paid a big debt to Canadian folk tradition, while Cookie,
Heather and Raylene continued to apply their crisp, pure harmonies to the traditional
Gaelic songs they grew up listening to.
Tonight on the Coca-Cola Stage: Vonda Shepard
July 5, 1998 - Calgary Sun
By Fish Griwkowsky - Sun Media
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, which played the Coca-Cola Stage last night at the Stampede.
You can't simply call someone in to replace all five grieving players on the
road. It hit them like a meteor.
To be completely fair, 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 Lochaber.
But there is undeniably a lot of the new Nashville sound on this record.
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."
The country songs on Uprooted are as strong as almost anything in their new
country music 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."
Highland Hearts
A shift in tradition at the Highland Games
July 9, 1998 - Halifax Herald
By Elissa Barnard / Arts Reporter
Antigonish - There's more to the Antigonish Highland Games this
summer than burly men in kilts tossing giant spruce logs.
Without losing their heart of heavyweight, dance and music
competition, the 137-year-old games are going into the land of festival.
"I'm bringing in a hot air balloon from Maine," says
enthusiastic games co-ordinator Beth Gillis. "That's obviously going to be the focal
point of the children's area."
Seven years ago Gillis noticed a Celtic music revival and started
bringing in Celtic performers like The Rankins, Natalie MacMaster and the
Barra MacNeils "before they got too expensive."
This year she is organizing a children's festival, the first
Highland Youth Gathering, Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Add to that a visual arts market in the colonial-style Antigonish
Courthouse, and a craft fair on the competition grounds, and the games should draw more
local people.
"The children's events are set up to draw the locals to the
field because 80 per cent of our gate is tourists," says Gillis. "We want to try
and pack the locals in."
Not that the tourists, who come from all over the United States,
aren't welcome. A Nova Scotia tourism department survey, done four years ago, rated the
Antigonish Highland Games as the highest money-generating festival in the province. Each
person spent $226 on- and off-site in the town over a two-day period. "That's $1.2
million generated in the town in two days."
But the games need more oomph. "We need to draw the locals
down to the site and create excitement. It needed some changes, it needed to be
rejuvenated, there needed to be some excitement."
The Gathering of the Arts has two parts, a juried visual arts
show in the Antigonish Courthouse and a traditional tent craft fair on the Highland Games
Grounds, in Columbus Field close to the Main Street courthouse.
This year's art show had a short call-for-entry time so most of
the artists are from the area. "Our hope," says Jeff Parker, owner of Lyghtesome
Gallery and one of three jurors for the exhibit, "is to actually grow it into a
national and potentially international show with one of the pieces being of a competitive
nature in the tradition of the Highland Games, which is a competitive affair."
For now, "we're really anxious to get the word out so
artists can be prepared (for next year)," says Parker. "We would hope it could
be a showcase for the whole province in years to come."
The Antigonish Highland Games are the oldest running games in the
world outside of Scotland. The Highland Society was set up in 1861. "It's old and
it's a big part of our history," says Gillis.
The core of the games is still piping and drumming and pipe
bands, with this year's specially flown in competitors, the Grade 2 champion City of
Washington Pipe Band; highland dancing and the ancient heavyweight events like the caber
toss. This year the heavyweight event is an international competition with contestants
from Scotland, Australia and the United States. There is also a new 10k road race Friday
night.
The games are run by the Highland Society, with Ronald B.
Chisholm, president; Rod J. Chisholm, chief of clans; Dave MacLean, vice-president;
treasurer John Beaton and secretary Mary Jessie MacLellan.
The games chairman and site manager is Beth's husband Gerry
Gillis; the games committee is, essentially, Beth Gillis.
"The society has a board of 28 people, and there are
probably seven people that are active. It's those seven people who pull the event off.
Myself and my husband, the games chairman, we go flat out. Gerry and I eat, sleep and
drink the highland games.
"We need volunteers big time. We really need some community
support here."
Beth Gillis doesn't mind eatting, sleeping and drinking the
games. "It's so much fun when you get involved. That's why I've been around for seven
years!"
The Highland Society has a dream to make the festival, attended
by 9,000 last year, bigger and better every year with more and more new events.
"I'd like to see it an international event like the worlds
in Scotland," says Gillis. "Go big or stay home!"
However, Antigonish only has about 1,500 available rooms.
"The problem is accommodation. It's the infrastructure and
everything related to the event as it grows."
Whatever the future, and no matter how busy the present, when the
games start Gillis will stop for a moment and listen to the skirl of the pipes. "If
you have one ounce of Scottish blood and you hear the music it draws you to the field. You
can only talk about it so much, you have to feel it."
August 6, 1998 - Halifax Herald
By Andrew Flynn / The Canadian Press
Toronto - Shania Twain's year keeps getting better.
Twain, the most popular female country artist ever, earned eight
nominations Wednesday for the 1998 Canadian Country Music Awards, which take place in
Calgary in September.
Bruce Guthro, a native son of Sydney Mines, also picked up two
nominations. While Cookie Rankin and Natalie MacMaster were nominated for vocal or
instrumental collaboration of the year for their hit Drunken Piper.
The overwhelming nod from the Canadian country recording industry
comes in the middle of Twain's first North American tour. The 32-year-old superstar from
Timmins, Ont., has sold more than four million copies of her latest album, Come on Over,
which just a day earlier was nominated for album of the year by the American country music
industry.
Twain's success is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to
Canadian country music, said Tom Tompkins, president of the Canadian Country Music
Association.
"A huge array of talented young up-and-comers is waiting in
the wings to join her," he said.
Newcomer Jason McCoy picked up six nominations, including best
album and single, while last year's rising star award winner, Julian Austin, landed five.
The awards will be presented at a gala to be broadcast Sept. 14
on CTV from Calgary's Jubilee Auditorium.
This year's host, singer-songwriter Terri Clark of Medicine Hat,
Alta., is nominated for female vocalist of the year along with Twain, Lisa Brokop, Tracey
Brown and Michelle Wright.
Twain is also up for awards for top album, single, song, video
and vocal collaboration, and is cited in the fan's choice category. Her eighth nomination
is in the best-selling country albums category, where Come on Over was the only Canadian
entry recognized by the association.
Other best-album nominees were Charlie Major for Everything's
Alright, Paul Brandt for Outside the Frame, McCoy for Playin' for Keeps, and Austin for
What My Heart Already Knows.
"It's not really why anybody's in the business, but I think
it certainly helps your career," McCoy said about awards events after his six
nominations were announced.
Best single nominations were given to McCoy for Born Again in
Dixieland, Brokop for How Do I Let Go?, Austin for Little Ol' Kisses, Bruce Guthro for
Walk This Road and Twain for You're Still the One.
Nominees for male vocalist of the year were Austin, Brandt, Gil
Grand, McCoy and Duane Steele.
Rising star award nominations went to Chris Cummings, Grand,
Bruce Guthro, Beverley Mahood and Rick Tippe.
This year's best group award will be a contest between country
award perennials Blue Rodeo, Prairie Oyster and Thomas Wade and Wayward and rookies Leahy
and Farmer's Daughter.
The awards, which top off the annual industry conference,
Canadian Country Music Week, give artists a chance to catch their breath and evaluate the
Canadian country scene, Austin said.
"It's a nice way to phase out a really busy year," he
said.
Pushing
tradition's edge
Cape Breton's Rankin Family keeps testing new musical ground
August 11, 1998 - London Free Press
By Sandra Coulson -- Free Press Arts & Entertainment Reporter
Cookie Rankin calls it the "smorgasbord."
The 14 songs on the Rankins' latest album, Uprooted, are as varied as the offerings on
a buffet table -- a bit of pop, a bit of funk, a bit of country and a bit of the
traditional.
Cookie and Jimmy Rankin, in London recently to promote the album and a fall tour,
describe the recording as a further stretch from the work that the Cape Breton family did
on its six previous recordings.
"I think what we're doing is an extension of what we've been doing for 20 to 25
years," Cookie Rankin says.
The five brothers and sisters from Cape Breton Island -- Cookie, Jimmy, John Morris,
Heather and Raylene -- have won five Junos, more than a dozen East Coast Music Awards,
five SOCAN Awards and two Canadian Country Music Awards.
Booked for Western Fair
Tour dates have not been set yet, but the group will play the Western Fair on Sept. 17.
The Rankins' music is often seen as traditional, but Jimmy says the band would still be
playing pubs instead of concert halls if they had stuck with that genre.
"We're not traditional; we have traditional elements," he says, pointing
specifically to fiddles.
Cookie traces their amalgamation of traditional and modern elements back to their
childhood.
"The first music we ever heard was fiddle music. That was our childhood music. We
didn't listen to Sharon, Lois and Bram; we didn't have Raffi in our lives. We lived next
to the town hall where we listened to fiddle music, all live.
"But at the same time, we live in North America, where we were very much exposed
to the contemporary, the rock and roll, the Led Zeppelins, the Elton Johns. And other
people would bring music to us because they knew we were a musical family -- like African
drum music."
But with Uprooted, there is a greater sense of change in the air than with any previous
Rankins album.
NEW GROUND
"It's not like we've pulled a David Bowie and totally changed our image,"
Jimmy says. "But there's stuff on there that's new ground for us."
The guitar is more prominent in the arrangements.
Tunes are more radio-friendly, particularly Maybe You're Right, which Cookie co-wrote
with Gordie Sampson, and Jimmy's Movin' On, which has been a hit on country radio.
Techniques more closely associated with rap and hip hop, such as sampling and drum
loops, show up. The haunting Weddings, Wakes and Funerals, written by Jimmy with Kevin
MacMichael, is the most experimental track on the CD.
The sisters' famous harmonies are less often heard, in favor of each of them as well as
Jimmy taking turns at being lead vocalist on different songs with the others as backup
singers.
Still, the CD has many traditional songs with new arrangements, including two
Gaelic-language tunes, O Tha Mo Dhuil Buit (O, How I Love Thee) and An Innis Aigh (The
Happy Isle).
Jimmy and Cookie give a lot of the credit for this new development to George
Massenburg, a producer who has also worked with James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt. Jimmy says
Massenburg' "strategy" is to think through the material carefully.
It helped that the Rankins decided to devote significantly more time to recording this
album than they did to their others -- seven months as opposed to six weeks.
TAKING MORE TIME
"The last couple of albums we had done were done in the midst of touring . . .
," Cookie explains. "We were extremely busy and preoccupied with other things.
With this one, we took a lot of time to write, research and think about what direction we
wanted to bring to it."
There were also significant personal changes, which Cookie and Jimmy suggest propelled
the group toward more sophisticated music.
The most traumatic was the death of their mother Kathleen.
Her passing was not sudden -- she had suffered from cancer for 17 years -- but Jimmy
says the group would not have started recording, especially in distant Nashville, had they
known the end of her life was imminent.
Their father Buddy had died earlier.
Cold Winds, by Heather, is a reflection on the loss of loved ones and a tribute not
only to Kathleen but also to a friend who was dying of AIDS.
On the other end of life, Raylene gave birth to a boy toward the end of the studio
sessions.
And while Jimmy remains the main songwriter, others, especially Raylene, are
contributing more than they used to.
"I think as you get older and have been doing this for a while, you tend at times
to dig deeper," Jimmy says.
August 15, 1998 - Halifax Herald
By Rob Gorham / Yarmouth Bureau
Chebogue Point - Under a picture perfect sky, a cool breeze and
music in the air, Joey Kitson of Rawlins Cross summed up the opening of the first ever
Fish Aid concert: "It looks like it's going to be a great weekend."
"We can see Yarmouth is quite a busy spot and it's a
beautiful day, so we're looking forward to a good concert," the husky voiced lead
vocalist said Friday afternoon prior to the band's performance at 6 p.m.
Kitson says he thinks raising money for the trouble fish is
"a great idea . . . anything that's going to help our industry."
"These days money is tight for people, so in order to get
people out you really have to offer them something. And, music has always worked."
Band musician Ian McKinnon hoped "after all the expenses are
paid, there will be some money left over for the cause. It helps to elevate the on-going
problems of the fishery."
"We've done a lot of fund-raisers over the years but I don't
know if we've ever done anything of this size. It's a very ambitious weekend."
People were waiting for nearby campsite when the gates opened at
8 a.m. Friday, but traffic was slow in the early part of the day. Campers began to trickle
in by late afternoon and when Rawlins Cross took to the stage about 2,000 people had
already selected their prime positions to watch the full weekend of entertainment. By the
8 p.m., 5,000 people were already through the gates.
Mayra Robicheau, a camper from Yarmouth, said "the turn out
is what's going to make the difference."
"I think a lot of people are going to see the hype when it's
broadcast on television tonight and people are going to see how fun, crazy and cool, and
people will really starting coming tomorrow," she said.
Fellow camper Morgan Campbell said he wasn't coming to see anyone
in particular.
"I just want to see the festival. I don't really have any
favorites myself," he said as another camper yelled out for Bruce Cockburn.
Organizers set their sights on 15,000 to 20,000 to the three-day
concert which featured the Rankins as headliners Friday night, followed by Bruce Cockburn
and Jann Arden tonight.
Concertgoers are being bused from the Yarmouth exhibition and
airport grounds to this site larger than 20 football fields. The mainstage, vendors,
outdoor bathrooms and fencing lined the main grass seating area. Below were campgrounds,
beer and wine tents and a playground.
Camped in the middle were some of the Rankins.
"They just thought they want to be part of the whole thing,
part of the experience. It's a unique festival," said Rankins band manager Mickey
Quase.
Fish Aid director Tom Borcherdt said he's hoping the turn out
won't be affected by false rumors that some of the Fish Aid money would be going to
government.
"There's probably some fishermen out there that have the
misconception that any money that's earned from this event is going to go into government
hands, and that's absolutely untrue."
He hoped people would just come out, enjoy themselves and support
the cause.
"We've got everything from sausage to pizza to beer."
And, of course, music.
August 15, 1998 - Halifax Herald
By Stephen Cooke / Entertainment Reporter
Chebogue - It was fine fishing weather on the first day of Fish
Aid, as a field in Chebogue, Yarmouth County became the perfect setting for an outdoor
festival designed to raise awareness, and hopefully research money, for the plight of East
Coast marine life.
The day began with blue skies, a cool ocean breeze and Royal
Flush portable toilets as far as the eye could see. By the time of the opening ceremonies,
a small crowd had gathered in front of the huge stage (the biggest outdoor stage east of
Montreal) to listen to emcees promise future Fish Aid events, watch young Acadian folk
dancers clog up a storm in a flurry of blue skirts and red aprons and hear Newfoundland
folk singer Wayne Hunt bemoan the fishery's fate in what has become the festival's theme,
Lament for Lucy Mae, accompanied by Cheticamp's J.P. Cormier's mournful fiddle.
The trickle of festivalgoers became a stream by the time Rawlins
Cross took to the stage a little over an hour later, as more tents began blossoming on the
hillside like technicolor mushrooms. The punchy Celtic-rock blend was just what the crowd
needed to get their blood pumping and their feet moving. The set stuck to the band's
uptempo material, like the raving Colleen and Ramblin', Dave Panting's honky tonk hommage
A Little of Your Loving Goes a Long Long Way.
Johnny Horton would have been proud.
The band addressed the issue at hand on The Deep Blue, while
songs from their new album Make It On Time like Crossroads and Dancing Through the Years
proved the band hasn't lost its energy level.
By the time Rawlins Cross wrapped up with their signature Reel
and Roll and an instrumental somewhere between an Irish jig and the Who's Baba O'Reilly,
the crowd was in the mood to party.
Singer/guitarist/fiddler J.P. Cormier took Fish Aid back to the
roots of the matter, lending his flying fingers and blended whiskey voice to an
impassioned set mixing folk, Celtic and bluegrass. His impressive height seemed even more
dramatic as his long, black coat billowed in the brisk sea breeze blowing mist across the
stage.
Accompanied by wife Hilda Chiasson-Cormier on keyboards (herself
a fisherman's daughter) and bassist Dan Maillet, Cormier picked songs that suited the
occasion, singing of children who will never follow in their fishing fathers' footsteps in
Long For the Sea, and mirroring Fish Aid's goals in Hell Freezing Over, asking, "Can
we learn from our mistakes/And not bend the rules of nature until they break?"
Of course, it wouldn't be a J.P. Cormier performance without a
requisite dose of virtuosity, which included a guitar medley of Winston Scotty Fitzgerald
tunes that must have surely had the Godfather of Cape Breton fiddle beaming down from on
high.
The Rankins hit the stage as the sky turned
dark, and suddenly the field became a sea of swaying bodies to the strains of Roving Gypsy
Boy. As the wind and fog caused the temperature to drop, the Rankins couldn't have been
any hotter, defying the elements with blood-pumping showmanship.
"Are you warming up?" asked Jimmy Rankin, and the
question wasn't in doubt after a circulation-reviving rendition of their recent single
Movin' On, allowing him and sisters Raylene, Cookie and Heather to share vocals and thank
the heavens their repertoire contains such invigorating material.
The atmosphere changed drastically for Raylene's turn on the
Gaelic tribute to Cape Breton, An Innis Ile.
The green stage lights painted an eerie seascape in the mist, as
the sisters' angelic voices sang of a beautiful land, becoming increasingly barren as
residents are forced to find livlihood elsewhere.
A round of sisterly stepdancing picked up the pace again, as the
trio playfully do-si-doed, accompanied by John Morris Rankin's nimble keyboard work and
Howie MacDonald's sly fiddling.
Guitarist Gordie Sampson got his chance to shine next, offering
up a hefty slice o' boogie on Tailor's Daughter, described by Jimmy as "Bo
Diddley-meets-Cape Breton", leaving little doubt this guitarslinger's going places.
Surprise guest Jann Arden jaunted on stage to join in a
no-holds-barred You Feel The Same Way Too, clowning and frugging with the Rankins like a
refugee from Hullaballoo. It was a sublime moment of goofy fun that drove the crowd nuts
with joy.
Then came Fisherman's Son, a East Coast anthem if ever there was
one, and then finally the epic Mull River Shuffle which caught the crowd in its hypnotic
power, leaving them drained and elated.
P.E.I.'s Lennie Gallant proved to be the perfect nightcap, his
mature, fully-realized songs just right for preparing the audience for dreamland, unless
they were going to stay past the witching hour for the nightmarish visions of Yarmouth
angst-rockers Burnt Black.
Not that Lennie's set was sleep-inducing. Songs like the
Cajun-flavoured The Open Window brim with good natured energy, while he later offered up a
fierce Man of Steel as a look at another way of life that is increasingly threatened. And
then there was Titanic, a full-force gale perfectly suited by the wind-whipped mists on
the stage.
At the end, it was hard to believe this had only been the first
day of Fish Aid, and only a half-day at that. If this is just a beginning, then it's
definitely going to be a weekend to remember.
August 16, 1998 - Halifax Herald
By Stephen Cooke / Entertainment Reporter
Chebogue, Yarmouth County - Draggers are, well, a drag.
That was one of the lessons learned at Fish Aid which, for the
second day, was blessed with blue skies, cool breezes and a festive mood that filled the
Chebogue, Yarmouth County farmland site, transformed into a small town for a weekend aimed
at focusing attention on - and hopefully funnelling funds into - the need to preserve the
fragile marine ecosystem.
Complete with food, a pharmacy, even a mini-ER, the site has
everything you'd need to enjoy three days of great Canadian music, including Friday
night's passionate sets by Maritimers the Rankins and Lennie Gallant, who
made it abundantly clear the cause was close to their hearts.
Saturday night would have more of a trans-Canadian flavor, with
appearances by Fredericton's Modabo, Ontario perennial Bruce Cockburn, Calgary pop diva
Jann Arden and transplanted Vancouverite Mae Moore, now calling P.E.I. her home.
Early arrivals on the scene Saturday were treated to a sneak
preview of Cockburn's show, as the famous bespectacled singer/songwriter performed a
soundcheck. While the ABI crew, who have kept the music flowing with clear sound and very
little feedback, adjusted levels, Cockburn did a dry run through Tokyo and picked some
tasty instrumental guitar. That night certainly seemed like something to look forward to.
As festivalgoers filed onto the field to the sounds of Stumble,
whose warm female harmonies and pop-folk groove started the afternoon with a Lilith
Fair-style vibe, others milled around the eco-village, either signing up to adopt a whale
through the East Coast Ecosystems Research Organization, or gaze at the cornucopia of
coral and other ocean life threatened by the bottom-scraping dragger nets.
Onstage, the Dave Carmichael Band bumped up the energy level a
few notches with some Cajun-fuelled folk-rock. Carmichael's a musical vitamin pill, and
his interplay with percussionist/keyboardist Cathy Porter got a few audience members
shaking their hips, while others just worked on their tans.
In sunny dresses, New Brunswick's Quigley Ensemble helped end the
afteroon in a mellow mood, lending a bilingual flavor to the fest and noting the occasion
of the Fete National d'Acadien.
Mixing acoustic guitars, bass, saxophone and rich harmonies,
Quigley's sound floated on the breeze and went down real easy.
Backstage, the large, red-capped security crew went from task to
task, hooked up to walkie-talkies like worker ants to their antennae. All musicians needs
were seen to, including the services of onsite guitar repair wizard Harland Suttis, whose
tasks ranged from supplying strings to sanding the frets on Brian Doherty's (of Evans and
Doherty) round-bodied acoustic guitar.
Meanwhile, in an MT&T truck backstage, musicians dropped by
to check out the Fish Aid video feed going out live over the Internet. Sympatico techs
monitored the footage and responded to e-mail ranging from England to California,
answering questions about the performers. Thanks to the 'Net, Fish Aid is a worldwide
event.
The fun continues today. The event ends tonight with Terry Kelly,
Blou, Barachois and the All-Star Fish Aid Jam Session.
August 16, 1998 - Halifax Herald
By Stephen Cooke / Entertainment Reporter
Chebogue, Yarmouth County - Fish Aid's second day was threatened
with stormy seas when the main generator conked out Saturday afternoon.
But as has been the case with the well-run festival, what seemed
like a potential disaster was a mere blip, with the power restored soon after an impromptu
medley of Dion songs (as in, and the Belmonts, not Celine) sung through a bullhorn by
musician/comic Bob Lambert.
Still, you had to be there to hear hundreds of people on the
Chebogue, Yarmouth County, field go "Uh-oh" simultaneously when the sound died
with a pronounced "thunk" during a song about swimming with dolphins by Hawaiian
harpist Oona McOuat.
Things were going a lot more swimmingly when P.E.I.-based singer
Mae Moore took to the stage, accompanied by guitarist Marc Atkinson. Skies that had turned
threateningly gray became blue again, while Moore's smooth alto voice sang of murky depths
on Deep Water, from the Hanging Garden soundtrack.
Fish Aid organizers promised surprises and, like Friday's
appearance by Jann Arden onstage with the Rankins, Saturday's came in the
form of Crash Test Dummies vocalist Brad Roberts, who happened to be vacationing nearby
with his girlfriend, South Shore native Angela Vanamburg.
"I was born on the Prairies and raised on beef, so it seems
kinda weird to be singing for the fish," said the Winnipeg wit, as he launched into
his single Swimming In Your Ocean. Roberts said it was the first time he'd performed
without the Dummies in 10 years, and honored the occasion with an a capella Rocky Road to
Dublin, a holdover from his coffee house days.
In one of the most touching moments of the night, Roberts broke
the news that key Fish Aid organizer Arthur MacDonald was proposing to girlfriend Roseanne
Webster, much to Webster's surprise. As the couple hugged in the command tower that held
the sound and lighting controls, the bass-toned singer snickered and muttered, as an
aside, "Sucker".
Fredericton's Modabo was next, with strong originals like the
single Boomerang that had the crowd yelling "Hey!" in unison, and well-chosen
covers like I Heard It Through the Grapevine. Modabo's set included a couple of tunes by
Stan Rogers, whose spirit is surely felt whenever Atlantic Canadian musicians gather, and
the audience sang along without prompting.
Bruce Cockburn came next, complaining of a sore throat, but you'd
be hard pressed to find anything wrong with his 45-minute acoustic set that combined his
seasoned guitar playing and mastery of language. The former was in full display in his
opening instrumental Mistress of Storms, while his hit single Lovers in a Dangerous Time
earned the loudest cheers of the evening that far.
The task of closing the evening went to Jann Arden, but it was
hardly Herculean as the good humored Calgarian recharged the festival atmosphere with a
90-minute set of her best-known hits like Could I Be Your Girl and The Sound Of ..., along
with some hilarious between-song clowning.
The crowd Saturday night was considerably larger than Friday's,
in some part due to the attraction of out-of-province acts like Arden and Cockburn. The
evening crowd of roughly 7,000 was a big improvement over the sparse afternoon gathering,
which began filing onto the field to the sounds of Halifax's Stumble.
Bennett's
musical blend
Having played in bands with most of the East Coast's best
artists, including the late Stan Rogers, Allie Bennett is sharing his experience producing
albums and teaching others his craft.
August 23, 1998 - Halifax Herald
By Stephen Pedersen / Arts Reporter
After 23 years of playing bass for Nova Scotia's most popular
Cape Breton bands, nearly everybody thinks they've seen Allie Bennett playing for years in
the Cape Breton Summertime Review.
"No, it's only my second year with them," Bennett told
over the phone from his home in North Sydney. "But I've worked with all the people
before."
Take Rita MacNeil and Raylene Rankin, both
former Summertime Revue members. "It's kind of neat," Bennett said. "I
worked with them both when they were coming up. I also worked with the Barra MacNeils
(1993) and Natalie MacMaster (1994-95)."
This week and next, though, as he has been doing since June,
Bennett is anchoring the 1998 Summertime Review band with that deep, dead-on timing he's
so well-known for in Nova Scotia music circles.
As the cast and crew swing through the province one last time
before beaching the Revue for the winter, they play tonight through Monday at the Savoy
Theatre in Glace Bay, then move on to the Judique Community Centre Tuesday, St. F. X.
Auditorium in Antigonish on Wednesday), the SAERC in Port Hawkesbury on Thursday, and the
deCoste Centre in Pictou next weekend for the final two shows.
Bennett loves the show, and so do its audiences. All the Nova
Scotia shows so far have sold out. In P.E.I, Moncton and Saint John earlier this summer,
the houses were three-quarters full. And it was standing room only in Baddeck Monday and
Tuesday nights.
It must get a little tiring, you would think. But no.
"One of the things about the Revue is you get to work with
people you admire," Bennett said. "The show has gone back to its previous format
of character-based comedy. Mary Colin Chisholm does about seven characters - it's amazing
to watch her work - and Maynard (Morrison) does Martin, and Cecil and a newscaster - some
old and some new characters."
Morrison also directs the show along with Bette MacDonald, though
MacDonald doesn't appear in it.
"Every night there's a neat little twist to part of a
sketch," Bennett said. "The actors feed off the laughs and see what develops.
It's very much a scripted show, but the facial expressions and gestures change depending
on the audience."
Strong music with four of J.P. Cormier's songs in it and a biting
band under the direction of Gordie Sampson, are also making Bennett's summer a pleasant
one.
Bennett's career has been filled with pleasant experiences. He
keeps calling himself lucky - lucky to have been around when today's headliners were
coming up, lucky to have had the opportunity to play on over 60 recording projects, lucky
to have gained the experience that serves him so well as he turns (since 1991) to
producing recordings as well as playing on them.
Throughout the '80s Bennett's work as John Allan Cameron's bass
player gradually evolved him into Rita MacNeil's band. He also played for Murray
McLaughlin and even Stan Rogers.
"For four months, May to August in 1981, Stan was between
bass players," Bennett said. "He played at some of the same folk festivals as
John Allan and I helped out. He offered me the job but I was working with John Allan and I
turned him down, for the time being."
Opportunity, however, as anyone in the music business can tell
you, is only part of the story. You have to have the chops to do the job well too.
Bennett is largely self-taught but as a youngster growing up in
Sydney Mines he took three years of violin and theory privately with the late Professor
James MacDonald.
"He crammed a lot of information into me in a short time.
That's why I enjoy playing second violin in the Cape Breton Chamber Orchestra, which I do
once a week. I pick up ideas from other players."
Bennett also plays bass once a week in The Right Stuff, a
24-piece swing band in North Sydney.
In the fall of '93 he opened up a studio and started to teach
Cape Breton fiddle and a bit of guitar and bass.
Being home means he gets to spend more of his Saturdays with his
wife Kathleen and their children, Jonathan (13) and Laurel (7).
As a producer Bennett has been working most recently in the
studios with Petit-de-Gras singer Michelle Boudreau-Sampson and upcoming fiddler Jennifer
Roland (also in the Summertime Revue).
He has 11 projects under his belt as a producer now. His first
was for B & R Heritage Enterprises in Iona, who promote Gaelic culture. The young
singer, still a student in St. F. X., was Mary Jane Lamond. Bennett hired another
youngster, Ashley MacIsaac, who worked on the album and ended up taking Lamond with him on
the road.
Other artists whose recordings Bennett has produced include Margo
Carruthers, Dave Gunning, Darrel Keigan, Laurie Simm and Joanne Rolls.
"I'm lucky to be this busy and live in Cape Breton,"
Bennett said as our conversation wound down. "A couple of times I thought I might do
better in Toronto or Halifax, but my family kept me at home."
"I'm one of the fortunate few who can say I've been in the
business for 23 years and have nearly got my house paid for."
September 10, 1998 - Halifax Herald
By Andrew Flynn / The Canadian Press
Toronto - Shania Twain is the hottest thing going in Canadian
country and her eight nominations for the 1998 Canadian Country Music Awards certainly
help underline that fact.
But there are other Canadian artists swiftly gaining recognition,
among them Minesing, Ont., native Jason McCoy, who picked up six nominations, including
best album and single.
"It's a big surprise," McCoy says of being the
runner-up nominee. He's had a nomination before - in the CCMA's rising star category - but
never the winner's hardware.
This year, he hopes that'll change.
"We've been to the wedding before but never as the
bride," says McCoy.
The Canadian country music industry owes much to Twain, whose
popularity around the world has helped attract young fans and opened the doors for a whole
raft of young country stars.
The 32-year-old superstar from Timmins, Ont., has sold more than
four million copies of her latest album, Come on Over. She's a household name, one of the
few country artists ever to be splashed across the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
That kind of publicity certainly doesn't hurt other Canadian
country artists hoping to make a name for themselves, McCoy says.
"It's definitely been a slow build for me over three years.
People like Shania doing well in the United States has certainly helped us," says
McCoy, who will be a featured performer at the televised awards gala Monday, Sept. 14
(CTV, 8 p.m. ET) at Calgary's Jubilee Auditorium.
Just having Twain at the show will attract the kind of attention
other country artists can only dream of, McCoy says.
"Looking at things like major newspapers, the Sun, the Star,
the Calgary Herald, they're calling us for an interview because they want to go through
the nominees for entertainer of the year - that's the big one," McCoy says. "In
that respect it's a big boost."
There are many not-so-well-known names vying for that spotlight.
Last year's rising star award winner, Julian Austin, landed five
nominations this year.
Rising star award nominations this year went to Chris Cummings,
Gil Grand, Bruce Guthro, Beverley Mahood and Rick Tippe - all newcomers.
In the vocal/instrumental collaboration of the year Cape Breton's
Natalie MacMaster and Cookie Rankin are nominated for The Drunken Piper.
Tracey Brown, a longtime veteran who grew up performing with the
Family Brown and Prescott Brown, says she's pleased to see the annual awards show gaining
prominence as Canadian stars rise on the international stage.
"It's so nice to know that it's finally being
recognized," says Brown, who's nominated alongside Twain for best female vocalist for
her first solo album Woman's Work.
"We fought long and hard. I've been going to these things
since they started in '76 - I've been there every year. It's nice that it's finally
happening," says Brown.
How does she feel about being up against Twain - not to mention
this year's host, Terri Clark and Michelle Wright and Lisa Brokop?
"It was just astounding to get in there," says Brown,
who was surprised to get the nomination.
"It's a real vote of confidence from your peers that they
respect you and they like what you're doing. That means a lot."
Twain is also up for awards for top album, single, song, video
and vocal collaboration, and is cited in the fan's choice category. Her eighth nomination
is in the best-selling country albums category, where Come on Over was the only Canadian
entry recognized by the association.
Other best-album nominees were Charlie Major for Everything's
Alright, Paul Brandt for Outside the Frame, McCoy for Playin' for
Keeps, and Austin for What My Heart Already Knows.
Best single nominations were given to McCoy for Born Again in
Dixieland, Brokop for How Do I Let Go?, Austin for Little Ol' Kisses, Guthro for Walk This
Road and Twain for You're Still the One.
Nominees for male vocalist of the year were Austin, Brandt,
Grand, McCoy and Duane Steele.
This year's best group award will be a contest between country
award perennials Blue Rodeo, Prairie Oyster and Thomas Wade and Wayward and rookies Leahy
and Farmer's Daughter.
The awards, which top off the annual industry conference,
Canadian Country Music Week, give artists a chance to catch their breath and evaluate the
past year in Canadian country music.
September 17, 1998 - Halifax Herald
The Rankin gals, Heather, Cookie and Raylene are busy taping their holiday special
slated for the CBC around Christmastime. The shoot is taking place in Hubbards and
Halifax.
Colin James, Amy Sky and Marc Jordan will be the special guests on the program.
James did his taping Sunday, after his appearance Saturday at the Great Big Picnic.
The end
justifies the jeans
Little things rankle, but the Rankins put on too good a show
for quibbles
September 18, 1998 - London Free Press
By Joe Matyas
Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy -- what was the hole in the right knee of your jeans all about?
You folks, the Rankin Family, have sold more than two million records in 10 years -- a
helluva lot for a Canadian group -- and you can't afford a good pair of jeans?
Come off it, Jimmy. Your sisters looked so casually elegant on the big stage at Western
Fair grandstand last night and you looked as if you didn't know them.
You're not in a grunge band, for heaven's sake.
I'm making a big deal out of this picayune thing because it was hard to find any holes
in your family's concert, other than the obvious one at your knee.
There were questionable things, matters of personal preference, but nothing that fell
flat.
For years, Western Fair booked acts that were either on the way down or completely
washed up, but there's been a vast improvement in recent years, thanks to groups like
yours.
You're still hot on the charts and you have so many ways of reaching out and grabbing
an audience. There's the Celtic thing, of course, but also country, pop and rock things
happening.
I dug the rawness in your voice when you ripped the vocals like a rock star on Let It
Go, that tune from your new album, Uprooted.
The fiddle tunes John Morris played on the piano were a delight.
Cookie, Heather and Raylene conjured up their beautiful harmonies on those haunting
Gaelic songs as if they came from some magical musical mist.
Their stepdancing, performed in the traditional style with legs madly flailing and arms
straight, really got the crowd whooping and hollering.
Cookie's powerful rendition of Bruce Cockburn's One Day nearly lifted the grandstand
roof. The crowd really showed its appreciation after that one, although I thought it was
too over the top for a poignant, touching tune.
It was impressive to see and hear the five Rankins live with four other musicians and
discover what great band members you are.
With everybody surging and receding when their moments came and went, there was a
strong feeling of a band at work throughout the entire performance.
Howie Macdonald's fiddle playing was a real toe-tapping crowd-pleaser for all of the
Scottish and Irish grandparents in the crowd and, hey, everybody else.
You guys can rock and certainly left the audience satisfied when you closed with the
rousing bump-and-grind song Saturday Night, which had people on their feet, waving their
arms and carrying on as if they'd had a few too many.
I felt your encore took something away from what was otherwise a captivating
performance. It was generous time-wise, but the introduction was too long and the whole
thing was too rambling from my point of view.
It seemed improvisational and was undoubtedly a lot of fun for the band, but it left me
scratching my head and wanting another song like Roving Gypsy Boy, North Country, Fare
Thee Well Love, Moving On or Forty Days and Nights.
Don't sweat what I say. The Rankins are worth the price of a ticket and I'm sure you'll
win more Junos and country music awards and sell another two million CDs.
Bruce Guthro, the guy who opened for you should be so lucky. He did a yeoman-like job
with only a piano player and his guitar as accompaniment for his singing and songs. I
wonder what he'd sound like with a band like yours behind him?
September 26, 1998 - Halifax Herald
By Anna-Maria Galante
Wolfville - American playhouses need Atlantic Canadian talent,
says one Washington producer attending the Contact East '98 performing arts convention
this weekend.
"I can't believe what is up here. A lot of my colleagues
have no idea," said Neill Archer Roan, who was looking up potential new acts for
Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage.
"I think the art that comes from this part of the world is
wonderful. Just incredible. The most exciting and thrilling folk music scene in North
America is here."
He was one of over 160 delegates, including artists, agents,
managers, presenters and buyers, attending a very musical trade show which opened Thursday
in Wolfville's Festival Theatre. "We're thrilled to be able to bring it to
Wolfville," said Pamela Kinsman, executive director of the Performing Arts Society of
Nova Scotia, which has teamed up with the Department of Cultural Affairs to host the
event.
Started in the early 1970s, Contact East is held in a different
Atlantic province every two years. It was last held in Nova Scotia in 1990.
This year five of eight showcases were open to the public,
including tonight's Sympthony Nova Scotia performance - the first symphony showcase at a
Contact convention.
"It's not just classical," Kinsman says. The symphony
appears with special guest J.P. Cormier. Other acts include The Novelty Salesmen, Sylvie
Proulx and Jeri Brown, The Quigley Ensemble and Joelle Rabu.
Thursday's showcase opened with Slainte Mhath, a band of Gaelic
College graduates that has given so-called Celtic fusion a whole new dimension with funky
percussion like conga, bongos,steel drum, and cabasa.
Dan MacDonald, of Cape Breton's Rave Entertainment Inc. - a
"buyer and seller" of Cape Breton talent - was keen to tell his listening
American counterpart all about Slainte Mhath, which is pronounced SLAWN-cha VA. (It's a
Gaelic toast which translates "good health to you," and has nothing to do with
homework - slanty math or otherwise.)
"These are the younger siblings of the Barra MacNeils,"
he told Arena Stage's Roan. "They play everything from the bagpipes to sewer
pipe!"
Roan nods. "The music here is so fresh, original. There's a
lot of difference between artists."
South of the border, he says, Celtic is already hot. However, he
is quick to add, much of what's being considered "Celtic" there "is really
ersatz, contrived stuff."
"One of the really unfortunate things is the way the record
business works ... on the used apple theory," he explained.
"Something works, and it's developed. Then everybody rushes
in and makes money off it. If Enya becomes popular, all of a sudden there's a zillion Enya
clones. It's sort of disgusting."
Such is not the case here, Roan and MacDonald agree. "Take
somebody like John Morris Rankin," says MacDonald. "Someone who
would have grown up with the music, someone who is legitimately able to take it and craft
it - Natalie, Ashley - because their roots are there. The roots are strong."
This is abundantly clear when Slainte Mhath take the stage.
Ryan and Boyd MacNeil, of Sydney Mines, are up to the challenge
of wearing the shoes that have taken their older brothers and sister so far.
In addition to mandolin, fiddle, and congas, Boyd can indeed
raise a sewer pipe to a higher calling.
Ryan plays keyboard with vigor, shaking the puny stand beneath
the Roland within an inch of its usefulness.
The other three members are equally talented. Bruce MacPhee plays
bagpipes and steel drum.
Lisa Gallant, who joined the group in February, plays bodhran,
fiddle, cabasa, and step-dances. (Well, they can all step-dance, and don't they!)
Stephanie Harley who joined them last year, bringing vocals to a hitherto instrumental
group.
They applied last spring to showcase, and were selected by a jury
panel, along with 23 other acts.
They are already something of an export commodity.
"Three of us went down to Utah in the spring and did
workshops," says Ryan. "We played a concert down there. It was new to a lot of
those people - the first time they'd heard any Celtic music."
Now in its fourth year, the group has one CD out, Prophecy, and
is working on another.
The five are off to Vancouver next week to appear on the Vicki
Gabereau show. They will also be entertaining film festival goers at tonights gala closing
party at the Lord Nelson Hotel.
September 26, 1998 - Ottawa Sun
By Rick Overall
Never let it be said that The Rankins play it safe.
The popular Cape Breton family has blown the doors off home-grown record sales with a
non-stop parade of gold and platinum albums over the years.
Yet with each new release the group has managed to add a few twists to their trademark
Maritime slant of Celtic folk.
That's abundantly clear on their latest Uprooted, which will make up part of the show
on their two-night stint at the NAC, beginning tomorrow.
Heather Rankin says the Uprooted experience was one of growth. The Rankins had hired
grammy winning producer George Massenberg (Linda Ronstadt, Lyle Lovett) and he pointed the
group in new directions.
"This was an exciting time for me personally," says the diminutive Rankin
vocalist during a interview stop in Ottawa.
"George has a way of making us feel very comfortable and taught us how to discover
new things about ourselves and the way we approach singing."
One of the things long-time Rankin fans will notice about Uprooted is the warmth of the
vocals and just how upfront the sound is -- you feel like you are right in the studio with
the band.
"In our previous recording sessions we'd always had everyone singing at once. But
this time, George suggested that we try different vocal combinations and even just
different vocal approaches that we'd never thought about before, like chanting.
"So what you're hearing are more subtle approaches to the singing as opposed to
three-part harmony throughout. In the end I think that adds to the eclectic quality of the
album."
Uprooted is also one of the band's strongest releases to date.
"I'd say this is our best recording. Part of that can be attributed to the
strength of the songwriting.
"I'd say the songs are more honest and revealing about who we are as individuals.
There's a depth to the writing that I don't believe you've seen from us in the past,"
she explains.
One of the things that's intriguing about Uprooted is the way The Rankins have
sequenced the songs. It goes from very contemporary in the beginning and as the disc
progresses the music slides back into more familiar areas.
"There's an obvious way that different genres of songs work together. We always
intend to include some of the traditional sounds but with this one when we approached the
sequencing of songs we took an 'art' record slant to it all."
September 27, 1998 - Ottawa Sun
By Rick Overall
If you've got tickets for tonight's second show by The Rankins, be prepared for a shock
-- because now they rock!
Okay, before any longtime fans of the Cape Breton family unit get their fiddles in a
twist and start thinking these east coast idols have gone hard core, don't worry -- the
changes are subtle if stunning.
But what a jammed NAC Opera audience saw last night was an already super-eclectic
performing unit adding some depth and edge to a show that's been winning over audiences
for years.
For just under two hours the multi-Juno Award winners had the crowd buzzing as they
sang, stepdanced and played their way through a myriad of favourites like Roving Gypsy
Boy, Movin' On and North Country.
What took this usually standard set to another level were the edgy sounds the Rankins
pulled from their latest disc, Uprooted. With opener and electric guitarist Gordie Sampson
adding some hard-nosed guitar, many of the Rankin Family classics took on a new life. It
wasn't that they'd overhauled the sound it just had more oomph.
The music wasn't the only thing that has spilled over from Uprooted. Last night, the
group's vocal work was the strongest we've ever heard from them.
There is more confidence, more assurance. Add that to the fact the Uprooted sound sees
all four singers approaching their work with more diversity, and the overall effect is a
more personal one.
You could feel their pride as the Rankins peppered the show with a bevy of material
from the new disc.
Cookie's shimmering gospel treatment of One Day I Walk was spectacular. Then they'd
turn around with Raylene offering the misty Gaelic overtones of The Happy Isle and Heather
taking a joyous bash at the contemporary Long Way To Go.
This was an evening to appreciate the ever-present fun side of the Rankins but also to
realize this celebrated Canadian group keeps getting better with every show.
Sampson's short set before the Rankins took the stage spotlighted a new voice that's
ready to break wide open, a Canadian who sings with the emotion of Van Morrison.
Watch out, he's the real deal.
October 1, 1998 - Halifax Herald
By GREG GUY / Entertainment Editor
Big Pond singer/songwriter Gordie Sampson has completed his solo CD, Stones. The
project brings together a who's who of the East Coast music scene.
Wayne Simone is one of Gordie Sampson's best friends.
Simone receives several production credits on the Big Pond singer/songwriter's newly
released solo debut album, Stones.
But the weird thing is, Simone doesn't exist.
"We created him in high school and started to collect ID for him," Sampson
explains, laughing.
"We began faking a human being and we gave him his own homeroom and stuff."
These antics led Sampson to a brief expulsion from his Grade 11 classes at Riverview
Rural High School in Coxheath and ever since he and his friends have allowed the legend of
Wayne Simone to live on.
The publishing company of his former band Realworld with Jamie and Matthew Foulds is
named after their imaginary bud.
Sampson, 26, is a bit of jokester, there's no doubt about it. But his solo CD is no
joke.
Stones, which hit record stores on Sept. 15, is filled with rich textures, compelling
ballads, traditional Celtic instrumentals and feel-good pop tunes with lyrical hooks that
are destined for radio.
His first single, Still Workin' On A Dream, which he penned with Jimmy Rankin, is
getting heavy rotation on pop stations in Atlantic Canada and is being tracked nationally.
Sampson, who grew up in Big Pond, is already being dubbed, "Big Pond's next big
thing."
Music critics have been comparing Sampson's vocals to Peter Gabriel, Peter Frampton,
Steve Winwood and Tom Petty.
"Comparisons are almost inevitable with a new artist," Sampson says over the
phone from a hotel in Kingston, Ont., one stop on The Rankins' Central
Canada tour.
"I don't mind being compared to any of those guys."
Growing up in a community where traditional Cape Breton music is as plentiful as lupins
in June, Sampson never really ventured into the Celtic tradition as a youngster.
He remembers his grandfather, Bernie Ley, playing the fiddle and his mother, Florence
playing the piano.
"They played a lot of Down East stuff and even Rag Time. That's what I remember
most."
Sampson also remembers Big Pond's best known songbird, Rita MacNeil, singing Bridge
Over Troubled Water in his living room, while his mother accompanied her on the piano.
"I was only about seven or eight then, but I remember Rita and her remarkable
voice singing in the house.
"I've always had great respect for Rita."
As a teenager, Sampson devoured the work of of Stevie Ray Vaughn.
"The feeling he put into his music, he seemed like he was possessed," Sampson
says. "He felt every word he spoke."
Sampson plays with that same kind of emotion. At the 1997 East Coast Music Awards, the
Big Ponder unleashed his solo talents at a showcase in the hotel ballroom.
The performance won him the ECMA Media Choice Showcase Award.
His expressive style and powerful tunes set the industry on its ear and garnered a lot
of respect from his peers.
That respect has allowed him to call upon a who's who in the East Coast music scene, to
help blend their voices, songwriting talents and muscianship on Stones.
Jimmy Rankin and Bruce Guthro share credit on the ballad, Old Ways, a
melodic story of how so much can change in one's life, while at the same time much of it
stays the same. Guthro and Sampson sat down to write Joseph, a touching narrative that
reinforces one's belief in the human race.
"Old Ways took about six months to write," Sampson admits.
"I got the idea for it and went to see Bruce. I agonized and agonized over it so
much, I think Bruce was kind of getting mad at me. We needed some kind of bridge for it to
complete the ending. So I went over to Jimmy's when I was in Halifax and worked on it over
a couple of beers.
"He helped me finish it."
Rankin also wrote No More I'll Go Rovin', which Sampson says he
"wrestled from Jimmy in an agreement after too many beers."
Other songwriting credits go to Duncan Wells, Jamie Foulds, David Rashed, and Mary Jane
Lamond, with whom he co-wrote Ashley MacIsaac's hit Sleepy Maggie.
Lamond, MacIsaac, Cookie Rankin, and Natalie MacMaster are also
featured on the album.
Throughout the two years of putting the recording together, Sampson said his friends
would come in and record tracks in a matter of hours.
"I remember Cookie flying in. I picked her up at the airport, we worked together
for about two hours and then we were back at the airport," Sampson said.
A lot of the work was done at Sampson's Lakewind Sound Studios in Point Aconi, which he
co-owns with Fred Lavery.
But several other studios in the country were used to complete the project. Sampson
called on the help of Chad Irschick at Inception Sound, David Travers-Smith at
Canterbury Music and Reaction Studios, Declan O'Doherty for All Hands Music, and Claude
Desjardins at Millennium Studios and some further mixing at Manta Eastern.
Stones, distributed by A&M Records and is on agent Sheri Jones's turtlemusik label,
was mastered by Glen Meadows at Masterfonics in Nashville, Tenn.
With influences from the rock world in his teen years, Sampson and the Foulds brothers
garnered three Top 10 hits as the band Realworld. But they decided to disband in 1994.
"I learned about 90 per cent of everything I know now about the music industry
tremendously early in my career," Sampson says.
"There's no such thing as fame and fortune, it's either fame or fortune. Not
both."
Realworld's singles were getting loads of radio play and everywhere they performed
audiences were singing along, but that wasn't translating into album sales.
Sampson, still playing pop rock, was invited into Ashley MacIsaac's band.
MacIsaac was still experimenting with Celtic/contempory fusion - putting electric
guitar with traditional tunes.
"It was something new and people were loving it," Sampson recalls.
Surrounded by traditional stylings, Sampson was intrigued with the Celtic blend and for
the past few years has become completely immersed in the genre.
If Stevie Ray Vaughn influenced him in the early years, by his early 20s Sampson was
soaking in every bit of Celtic influence he could muster.
He says he remembers turning to music from Dave MacIsaac and Scott Macmillan. Up the
road in Big Pond at Hector Morais's home he came upon a collection of John Allan Cameron
records.
"He had the most impact of anybody in the Celtic scene here," Sampson says of
Cameron. "People talk about Ashley's antics, but can you image what people thought in
the late '60s and early '70s when John Allan marched up on stage in a kilt playing bagpipe
tunes on the guitar.
"Some must have thought he was crazy, but you know I learned a lot from those
records, especially Weddings, Wakes and Other Things, that's my favourite."
Sampson toured with MacIsaac for about two years, but he says the experience was
exhausting.
"It was tiring. Ashley didn't sleep between gigs and could stay up all night. I
don't know how he did it. It was no big deal for him." he says.
"We had a lot of fun doing it, but there were those weekends where we played Port
Hood on Saturday, flew to Vancouver for two shows on Sunday and then went back to Baddeck
for a show Monday."
Besides the Sleepy Maggie hit with Lamond, Sampson also wrote MacDougall's Pride for
MacIsaac's top-selling Hi, How Are You Today? album.
The Celtic influence is alive on Stones. On the first single, Still Workin' On A Dream,
the song begins with a 1967 recording of Big Pond fiddler Dan Joe MacInnis and leads into
Natalie MacMaster's fiddling prowess.
Three sets of fiddle jigs and reels are included: The Black Jigs, The Creignish Boogie
and Angus in Wonderland (tunes by Angus Chisholm).
Following his stint as a Kitchen Devil with MacIsaac, Sampson went on to serve as
guitarist in the house band for CBC's Rita and Friends.
"Rita always treated me very special," he says.
"I remember one night, she actually sat me down and she gave me the Rita MacNeil
speech. It was basically about my career. I remember she said, 'I know what you want to do
with your career, so go for it.' She said, 'You know you are going to encounter this and
that, but she was so encouraging. She was sort of like the medicine woman."
Sampson's experience on the nationally televised Rita and Friends show helped him to
gain valuable experience in the TV world.
"There's a lot of down time in TV and I used to go around and talk to the people
working in the studio."
This knowledge has led Sampson to gigs as musical director on Salter Street/CBC's
Gemini Award-nominated special Celtic Electric. In mid-September he completed work on The
Rankin gals' holiday special.
Sampson is now on tour with The Rankins as their guitarist, but he is also opening the
show with his tunes from Stones.
"It's a great opportunity. This is the first time I had to put an actual show
together for a tour. I don't just land on stage and play."
Sampson will return home for a Celtic Colours Festival gig in Cape Breton on Oct. 15.
He's been invited to perform during the Highland Guitar Summit at the Judique Community
Centre. The event will be hosted by Cameron and will feature J.P. Cormier, Archie Fisher,
Tony McManus, Scott Macmillan and Dave MacIsaac.
He has an official record launch set for The Church on North Street on Oct. 20 and on
Halloween night he and his band, also called Angus in Wonderland, plan to don Star Trek
outfits for the Cape Breton launch of Stones.
There's no confirmation yet, Sampson says, but "who knows, maybe Wayne Simone will
make a special guest appearance."
October 10, 1998 - Calgary Sun
By Tyler McLeod
After debuting more than a week ago in other parts of the country, MuchMoreMusic
finally beamed onto Calgary sets yesterday.
The antidote to its namesake, MuchMoreMusic -- or as it shall be dubbed, M3 -- is where
the rest of the videos go.
Bruce Guthro, Shania Twain, B.B. King, Rod Stewart and countless other contemporary
acts that have had trouble taking airtime away from Green Day and The Beastie Boys can now
be found on channel 67.
M3 is organized in a straight "videoflow" like CMT is. This means no veejays
with terrifying haircuts leaning into shaky cameras and introducing every video block.
The new network isn't strictly videos, though. Various programs and specials are on the
schedule, including An Intimate Concert with Bruce Hornsby Sunday at 8 p.m. and a
SpeakEasy interview with Celine Dion.
Dion's interview will not take place in "the environment" with hordes of
screaming kids milling about the street. Everything about MuchMoreMusic is much less like
MuchMusic.
Instead of commercials for Pizza Pops or Master T plugging this week's compilation, M3
hawks minivans.
Yes, the term "baby boomer" springs to mind. The average MuchMusic viewer
would be asleep inside of 10 minutes, but young people aren't unwelcome as performers on
Canada's VH-1. Chantal Kreviazuk and Adam Cohen made the Top 30.
This week's top 10 should pretty much fill you in on where M3's coming from: Celine
Dion -- Immortality; Rod Stewart -- Ohh La La; Edwin McCain -- I'll Be; Eric Clapton -- My
Father's Eyes, Des'ree -- Life; The Cowboy Junkies -- Miles From Home; The Rankins
-- Maybe You're Right, Bonnie Raitt -- One Belief Away; Robbie Robertson --
Unbound; and Great Big Sea -- Lukey.
The next week will see debuts of new clips from The Corrs, Deborah Cox and PM Dawn.
Much more Minnie
MacMillan and friends launching The Minnie Sessions, Volume Three
November 5, 1998 - Halifax Herald
By Stephen Pedersen
When Scott Macmillan and Jennyfer Brickenden first walked into
Minnie Adams's house near Hillsboro, Cape Breton, in 1991, Macmillan says a tune fell out
of the walls, and he found himself spontaneously playing it.
Four years and many tunes later, they bought the property, moved
into the 50-year-old house, with the Mull River streaming below, and immediately started
refilling the walls with tunes.
In the next three years, with Brickenden as executive producer
and Macmillan as band-leader, the couple produced, performed, and recorded (with Haward
Parrot's help) a series of three CDs called The Minnie Sessions.
The first two CDs have already been released, and now comes
Minnie Three, which is dedicated to the memory of Kaye Rankin, mother of The Rankin
Family, who died Dec. 11, 1997.
Minnie Three will be launched tonight, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., in
the Lord Nelson Hotel Regency Room. Accordionist Bernard Felix, singer/songwriter Lennie
Gallant, fiddler Jerry Holland, and guitarist Doug Reach will be on hand to recreate some
of the 14 tracks they helped Macmillan lay down on Minnie Three.
This is Cape Breton and Newfoundland music (Felix is a
Newfoundland Acadian like his famous uncle, Emile Benoit) as it should be heard - in a
living room with an old upright piano in the corner, a rug on the floor and pictures on
the wall.
The informality lends itself to graceful, relaxed, companionable
performance and Minnie Three is no different from Minnie One and Two in that regard, as
well as in its variety of tunes and arrangements.
Gallant sings his touching Island Clay and an earlier song, Knots
and Tangles, written on a wooden schooner en route from Mahone Bay to the Carribean.
Felix plays the real stuff with characteristic Acadian energy and
spark. Jerry Holland's inimitable fiddle sound is heard on several tracks, and Reach, a
classical guitarist and former school-mate of Macmillan's, plays some of his own
intriguing arrangements of Celtic music.
And then there is a liberal smattering of Scoobie Tunes from
Macmillan's own fertile musical imagination, including Minnie Adams' House, the reel that
started it all, played by the entire cast.
Brickenden mapped out the performers for all three sessions,
trying to create what she calls "an arc of talent."
"Minnie Two swings more towards pop and jazz and Celtic, so
for Minnie Three, with the artists that we chose (Bernard and Jerry particularly are more
traditionally based), it made sense to make an arc around a traditional base," she
says.
The fact that Felix knew a lot of Holland tunes, which he liked
so much he learned them from recordings, made the fit even more natural. Gallant provides
a vocal pivot and Reach a different sound. Macmillan himself, in several solo excursions,
ties it all together.
Will there be a Minnie Four?
Not in this guise, Macmillan says. "We don't really know
yet," he says. "Where we had recorded this one last year (in back to back
sessions with Minnie Two), we figured, let's get this one released and let the three that
are in this idea live a little bit of a life. Minnie Four will present itself down the
road."
Meanwhile, tomorrow night in the Cohn, Minnie Alumni, including
Holland, Felix, Felix's bassist Norman Formanger and Janet Munson, will be featured in a
Maritime Rave Symphony Nova Scotia pops concert with Macmillan as conductor doubling on
baton and guitar.
Munson will be featured as an arranger on four songs, with other
arrangements by Macmillan, high school music teacher Gary Ewer, and Warren Robert, who has
arranged for the Irish Descendants and Roger Whittaker.
"I'm going to be conducting Chris Palmer's piece called Pier
22 Overture," Macmillan says. Palmer, SNS second bassoonist, had his overture
premiered at the Beer and Beethoven symphony fundraiser last spring.
"But it was so loud with people drinking that the piece
really never got a chance to be heard."
Macmillan will also be conducting his own Cheticamp Overture,
first played on-site in L'Eglise St. Pierre during celebrations of the church's 100th
anniversary in 1993.
While the Minnie Sessions are on hold, Macmillan himself will be
anything but. He's going out to Vancouver to record Rita MacNeil with the Vancouver
Symphony Orchestra, and he's getting a strong urge to write his own music.
"I want to get into composing my own music. Life's too short
(to spend it arranging other people's). I could do a lot of pieces for orchestra that
either would or would not fit in to the Maritime format. Or I could get a little farther
away from the pop format and do more concert music - I'd like to do that too."
"I'd like to write pieces for choir too. I love writing for
voices. There are a lot of different roads I could walk down, or at least give myself the
opportunity to make a choice."
Right now the ideas are flying around so wildly he's having
trouble tying them down. A work for 12 a capella women's voices based on the idea of
"Twelve," with the singers maybe standing on rocks in the Mull River, is trying
to be born. And he has another quirky idea about making up a hockey-style game for
guitarists to play.
Even if he's only batting at ideas in the preliminary dark of
inspiration, the composer of the brilliantly successful Celtic Mass for the Sea, to a
libretto supplied by Brickenden, just has to be taken seriously.
The Mass itself will be presented in a new format April 9/10 in
the Dunn Theatre, with Gary Ewer's Halifax Schools honour choir, Soundtrax, singing. It
will be accompanied by a fully choreographed dance version choreographed by Coastal
Dance's Michaela Archer-Shee.
November 9, 1998 - Halifax Herald
Family has come between Raylene Rankin and the Rankins.
"Raylene Rankin has decided to take an indefinite leave of absence to raise her
new family," stated a brief news release from EMI this weekend.
The news comes as the popular Cape Breton musicians are preparing to embark on a tour
of Britain, Europe and the United States.
The group's latest video, Maybe You're Right, has recently hit No.1 on Much More
Music's chart.
The Rankins are scheduled to be in Toronto today and Tuesday shooting their next video.
December 12, 1998 - Halifax Herald
By Rick Conrad
Nova Scotian acts continued their nomination domination of the
East Coast Music Awards Friday, capturing 68 of a possible 125 nods.
The nominees for February's 1999 ECMAs were announced Friday in
St. John's, the host city for the event.
Mabou's Rankins lead the pack with 7
nominations, followed by Sydney Mines's Bruce Guthro and Halifax's Johnny Favourite Swing
Orchestra with six.
John Morris Rankin said Friday the group is happy with the
recognition.
"It's such a compliment this time around, to live here,
to create here and to be recognized here has always been such a great honour," Rankin
said.
"There are so many great artists out there."
The Rankins are up for pop/rock artist/group of the year,
group of the year, album of the year for Uprooted, single of the year for Maybe You're
Right, video of the year for Movin' On and entertainer of the year.
Jimmy Rankin is nominated for the SOCAN songwriter of the
year for Movin' On.
"It's been a great career for us," John Morris
said. "I don't think we ever expected to have such a long career. We set out about
nine or 10 years and planned to do this for five years and now it's almost 10 years later.
We're still having fun at it."
Guthro, reached Friday in Grand Falls, Nfld., where he was
preparing for a show, said the nominations were "cool".
"I'm shocked, you know, it's a neat thing," he said.
"It is a great little career boost and it's nice to get a
slap in the back from a jury of your peers and it's nice to know that someone is listening
out there and that people are getting it."
Guthro got nods for male artist, pop/rock artist, album of the
year for Of Your Son, single of the year and the SOCAN award for Falling, as well as video
of the year for Walk This Road.
"It's kinda neat that (the awards show) is in Newfoundland
too," he said.
"I've never met better people in my life. They like to
party."
Other multiple nominees include Halifax native Melanie Doane with
five, Big Pond's Gordie Sampson and Halifax-based Rawlins Cross with four.
Halifax's favourite rock boys, Sloan, were noticed three times by
the ECMA jury.
"I think they're probably pretty happy," Colin
MacKenzie of Sloan's label, murderecords, said Friday.
None of the members of Sloan could be reached for comment Friday.
The group was nominated for group of the year, video of the year
and SOCAN songwriter of the year for Money City Maniacs.
"They definitely consider themselves songwriters so the
SOCAN thing is fantastic," MacKenzie said.
"They direct their own videos and again that's pretty close
to home. And group of the year is fantastic.
"Considering how many records they've sold and how popular
they are across Canada, it's nice that they're no longer considered sort of alternative,
because I don't think they consider themselves alternative."
Other multiple award nominees with two each are Nova Scotia's
Kilt, Halifax's Knifey Moloko and Liz Rigney, New Brunswick's Denise Murray, Shirley
Eikhard and Julian Austin and Newfoundland's Great Big Sea and The Fables.
Up for the coveted fan-voted entertainer of the year award are
Great Big Sea, Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra, Rawlins Cross, The Rankins, Natalie
MacMaster and Julian Austin.
Organizers also announced the ECMA 1999 concert series Friday.
The series takes place at the Arts and Culture Centre in St.
John's during ECMA weekend, Feb. 11-14.
The lineup features: The Fables, Jamie Sparks and Julian Austin
Feb. 11; Les Méchants Maquereaux, Este Mundo and Mary Jane Lamond Feb. 12 and Barachois,
Tickle Harbour and Terry Kelly Feb. 13.
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