|
??/??/99 - Uprooted Review
01/16/99 - Town
of Yarmouth changes tack on assistance to Fish Aid Society
01/21/99 - Revue alumni became stars
01/22/99 - Raves for the Revue
01/28/99 - East Coast
musicians among Juno nominees
02/07/99 - Ensuring
fair weather for this year's ECMA's
02/11/99 - Screechin' 'em in at the
ECMA's
02/14/99 - Ais-eiridh na Gaidhlig
02/15/99 - Guthro rises to ECMA summit
02/18/99 - Back
from St. John's in one slightly shaky piece
02/19/99 - CBC
techies strike threatens to shelve Kitchen Party
02/20/99 - Pop goes the world of music
02/21/99 - The Chieftains sound
as good as ever
02/25/99 - Going once, going
twice...for ATF
02/25/99 - Kitchen
Party broadcast on hold
02/26/99 - Rankin, MacDonald
headline dance
03/07/99 - It was good, dear, good
03/13/99 - Getting in a
Celtic groove for St. Paddy's
03/19/99 - Phoney Rankin
scams eatery, limo service
04/22/99 - Nishi paints his sense of
place
04/24/99 - Festivals bloom
04/29/99 - Terry Kelley
added to Springhill MusicFest
04/29/99 - Symphony
Nova Scotia, choristers deliver one of Beethoven's best
05/26/99 - Rankins Headline Big
Pond Festival
06/06/99 - Roast displays sibling
revelry
1999 - Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange (FAME)
By Guntram Gudowius
The Rankin Family deliver a mixed bag of mostly original songs that to
varying degree show their Celtic heritage. I say "mixed" because their
presentation is strongest, of course, in their interpretation of traditional
songs and is weakest in their rocky originals.
All of the Rankins are strong singers and they trade singing lead and harmony
vocals, creating variety with consistent quality. My personal favorites are the
slow love ballads with Heather and Cookie blending their voices for an angelic
experience. As is often the case, these are mostly songs of longing and mourning
a past love, but there are songs about travelling, an ode to an island, and a
social commentary of modern life as well.
The accompaniment is mostly acoustic with a full, yet not overwhelming,
production. I guess these days sampling and programming are part of many
productions, but I always would prefer the real thing! One of the songs for
which sampling is used is a fun Celtic rap. For the rest of the songs, the
programming certainly isn´t dominating the sound.
Their excellent musicianship gets highlighted in their renditions of the
traditional music with fast interplay of fiddles, guitars and mandolin, real
footstompin´ stuff. If you like music with a Celtic touch, yet are not a
purist, then this is a very nice collection of songs.
January 16, 1999 - Halifax Herald
YARMOUTH - Town council has decided to pay a $10,500 grant to the
Fish Aid Society after all.
In December, Yarmouth councillors voted after heated debate to
renege on the grant, awarded in the spring of 1998. Two councillors charged the grant had
been made to an ongoing Fish Aid Society, not a bankrupt one, so there was no need to
honour it.
But at Thursday's meeting, council voted 4-2 to pay the money.
Two councillors, Martin Pink and Wally Strickland, said the town had a moral and legal
obligation to honour the loan.
"The town had a duty to fulfil their obligation," Mayor
Charles Crosby said later.
Robert McCuaig, a Fish Aid trustee who travelled from Halifax for
the meeting, said the money will go to creditors.
Fish Aid, held in August 1988 in Chebogue, Yarmouth County,
featured artists such as Jann Arden, Bruce Cockburn and The Rankin Family.
The Fish Aid Society declared bankruptcy after the event. The
$500,000 shortfall was attributed to the low turnout.
January 21, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Rick Conrad / Entertainment Reporter
Many of the East Coast's biggest artistic names got their start
in the Cape Breton Summertime Revue.
Heather Rankin, of The Rankins, was studying acting at
Acadia University when she and her sister Cookie joined the Revue in 1987.
"At the time, there weren't that many local artists
recording their own records, probably only a handful," she said in an interview
Wednesday.
"So it was a good launching pad for local artists to
showcase their talents, acting as well as music."
Heather was with the Revue until 1989, and says it provided her
and Cookie with invaluable stage time.
"The only experience we had regarding live audiences was in
amateur theatre at home, so it was a good opportunity to get our feet wet," she says.
Heather and Cookie, of course, went on to garner international
acclaim with The Rankins.
They're performing at this year's East Coast Music Awards, where
they lead with seven nominations.
Natalie MacMaster, Gordie Sampson, Rita MacNeil, Matt Minglewood,
Bruce Guthro, Jennifer Roland, Richard Burke, Bryden MacDonald, Jamie Foulds, Matt Foulds,
J.P. Cormier and fiddler Howie MacDonald have also appeared in the Revue.
Bette MacDonald, who spent nine years on the Revue stage
perfecting her wildly popular Mary Morrison character, says it was the best place for the
region's up-and-coming acts to get their start.
"It was absolutely the best showcase, there's no question
about that," she said Wednesday from her home in Sydney.
"But I think people are pretty resourceful around here. I
think somebody else will pick up the torch."
And while she hopes a Revue-type show is created, she says she
won't be part of the cast.
"I performed in that show for nine years and that was
enough, you know," said MacDonald, who also co-directed the show the last two years
with her husband Maynard Morrison, responsible for the long-playing Cecil character.
"I know for sure it meant a lot to me and I've met and
worked with a lot of great people."
MacDonald is waiting for the debut of her national CBC-TV special
March 1 at 8:30 p.m., after This Hour has 22 Minutes.
She's also considering touring this summer with her own show,
though nothing's confirmed yet.
"(The Revue) was sort of, in itself, Cape Breton's own 22
Minutes, live," Heather Rankin says, "and it reflected what was going on
politically and musically in the area."
January 22, 1999 - Halifax Herald
It may have done more to boost the star stature of more Nova
Scotia entertainers than any other single event. But now, the team that helped put
together 13 years of hilarity has decided the Cape Breton Summertime Revue should take its
final bows.
A standing ovation is the only possible response.
The annual Summertime Revue fun fest began at a time when the
festivals and entertainment possibilities in this province were scarce at best.
Its varied and varying cast of on- and off-stage talent helped
make some folks household names, not just in the Cape Breton communities that it lovingly
lampooned but right across the nation.
As reporter Rick Conrad noted Thursday, the cast of alumni reads
like a veritable Who's Who of Nova Scotia entertainers. Matt Minglewood, Heather and
Cookie Rankin, Rita MacNeil, Doris Mason, Natalie MacMaster, Gordie Sampson, Bruce
Guthro and J.P. Cormier were just a few of the talented Capers who joined husband and wife
Revue favourites Bette MacDonald and Maynard Morrison on stage for what Bette called this
week "absolutely the best showcase" of homegrown talent.
Heather Rankin has described the Revue as "Cape Breton's
own 22 Minutes, live" and said it "reflected what was going on politically and
musically in the area."
It was entertainment, pure and simple.
January 28, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Stephen Cooke / Entertainment Reporter
East Coast musicians have 16 shots at winning a Juno Award on
March 7 in Hamilton.
The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences released the
Juno nominations Wednesday, with Atlantic Canadian artists doing well across the board,
from jazz to pop to traditional.
The only multiple nominees are two-timers; former Haligonian
Sarah McLachlan and Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster. McLachlan earned nods for Best
Single (for Adia) and Best Video (for Sweet Surrender) while MacMaster's album My Roots
Are Showing is up for Best Instrumental Album and Best Solo Roots and Traditional Album.
Maritimers shone as up-and-comers, with Halifax's Melanie Doane
and Sydney Mines' Bruce Guthro in the Best New Solo Artist category and the Johnny
Favourite Swing Orchestra as a potential winner for Best New Group.
In the Best Mainstream Jazz category, nominations were accorded
to New Waterford tenor sax player Kirk MacDonald for his disc The Atlantic Sessions and
Siren's Song, a collaboration between Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, John Taylor and the
Maritime Jazz Orchestra, which includes St. F.X. music department staff and alumni.
Despite the artistically strong Uprooted album, Cape Breton's
six-time Juno winners The Rankins only snagged a Best Group nomination, which singer
Heather Rankin attributes to the fact that their music has become difficult to pigeonhole.
"We're always very excited and flattered to be
nominated, and the category of Best Group is very cool," Rankin says. "I think
being next to the Barenaked Ladies and The Tragically Hip is a sign of our international
success.
"In the past we hovered between traditional and country.
Now I'm not sure where we are, our sound is much broader. People don't know where to file
us, and I think that's a good thing."
"I wondered that too, how they'd handle my dichotomy of
styles" says an excited Cape Breton singer/songwriter Gordie Sampson, whose debut
album Stones landed in the Best Roots and Traditional Album-Solo category.
"I'm often going from one end of the spectrum to the other;
one minute I'm playing a country song, the next a traditional jig."
Add to that the fact that most of Sampson's airplay, for the
single Still Working on a Dream, has been on mainstream radio stations.
"I guess, I'm a pop artist in traditional music," he
says.
As it happens, Sampson was in a Toronto recording studio working
on the next album by fellow nominee MacMaster when the pair received the good news.
"We got into a big fight about it," jokes Sampson.
"She kicked my ass; I have bruises!"
Halifax band Sloan, now Toronto-based, climbed the Juno podium
two years ago to accept the Best Alternative Album award; this year their Navy Blues disc
has landed them in the Best Rock Group category, but guitarist Jay Ferguson, reached by
phone en route to the studio to mix the band's upcoming double live CD, says they haven't
changed their sound that much in the interim.
"We definitely got more airplay on mainstream radio last
year," says Ferguson, "but I don't see one category as being more important than
the other."
Ferguson says he'd hoped Sloan would earn recognition for other
aspects of their work, like the effort they put into their videos and album covers.
"We're totally in charge of design and video, we pride
ourselves on doing things on our own and we pay special attention to that stuff.
"But music is the most important thing, so we must be doing
something right."
Sloan are also slated to perform on the awards show, broadcast
live from Hamilton's Copps Coliseum.
Other East Coast nominees include P.E.I.'s Teresa Doyle's If Fish
Could Sing for Best Children's Album, New Brunswick's J. Hubert Francis and Eagle Feather
whose Message From a Drum is up for Best Aboriginal Canadian Recording and, for Best
Video, the collaboration between Newfoundland's Great Big Sea and Ireland's The Chieftains
on Lukey.
After enjoying a year of titanic success around the globe, Quebec
diva Celine Dion will return home to receive accolades, adulation and awards from her
Canadian peers.
Dion, who wrapped up a sold-out North American tour last month,
leads the pack with six Juno nominations, announced Wednesday.
She has already been showered with international music honours -
including four Grammy nominations this year - and her latest album, Let's Talk About Love,
has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide.
The international superstar was nominated for best album, best
single, female vocalist, best pop album, best-selling album and best-selling francophone
album.
Dion will also be the recipient of this year's international
achievement award, which recognizes the outstanding accomplishments of Canadian artists on
the world stage.
Toronto's Barenaked Ladies followed on Dion's heels with four
nominations, as did Vancouver's critically acclaimed Matthew Good Band and Quebec
superstar Kevin Parent.
Country music diva Shania Twain - who has six Grammy nominations
- received just three Juno nods for best-selling album, country female vocalist and in the
songwriting category with her husband Mutt Lange for Don't Be Stupid, From This Moment On
and You're Still the One.
Facing Twain in the female country vocalist category will be Lisa
Brokop, Tracey Brown, Terri Clark and Beverley Mahood.
Among the performers at this year's gala celebration will be
Dion, Colin James and the Little Big Band, The Moffats, Northern Touch, the Philosopher
Kings and Sloan.
With The Canadian Press
February 7, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Elissa Barnard / Arts Reporter
Though friends still tease Bill Appleby about the weather, he has
left meteorology behind for music.
Appleby is in St. John's, Nfld., this week making sure skies are
sunny and clear for the East Coast Music Association's conference, showcases, concerts and
awards show. Being chair of the association is a full-time job, but he's also production
-manager for Celtic Colours.
A singer/songwriter who grew up on Bob Dylan and Gordon
Lightfoot, Appleby first got involved with the ECMAs as a musician in 1989 when the
gathering began as the Maritime Music Awards at the Pub Flamingo.
He was part of the steering committee in St. John's in 1994 that
made a pitch to hold the ECMAs in Sydney in 1995, where they will return in 2000. On the
board for 1994/95, he returned in 1997 and was elected chair at last year's annual general
meeting. (Hosting the ECMAs is no small thing for a city; last year it injected $5 million
into the Halifax area. This year St. John's will see a $3 to $3.5 economic spin-off.)
Many people think of the ECMAs as a big party with lots of live
music. It is, first and foremost, says Appleby, a conference that helps Atlantic Canadian
musicians develop their careers.
"We're now seeing representatives from all the major record
labels coming down to Atlantic Canada for this event, and we're starting to garner
international recognition as an association and an event to be reckoned with."
As Atlantic Canadian acts like Sloan and the Rankins
have gone on to the international stage, it is the association's challenge to help other
regional musicians go forward nationally and internationally. "Part of the future of
the ECMAs is to help our membership not only develop in Atlantic Canada and on a national
scale but to move on an international scale."
One of this year's panelists is a representative from the
Canadian Consul in New York City who will tell musicians how they can break into that
city.
Appleby once worked as a meteorologist and spent the better part
of 17 months on Sable island monitoring weather and measuring pollutants for Environment
Canada.
"Friends of mine always ask me what the weather's going to
be. It's a running joke."
But today he is totally committed to the music industry. "I
love all aspects of the industry whether it's behind the scenes or stepping on
stage."
He has recorded with Jo-Anne Rolls and done studio work for CBC.
He describes his own music as folk rock with an edge and a strong storyline. "I love
good lyrics, I love a good story. For me to marry a good lyric and good melody is a
wonderful challenge."
Appleby's father was in the armed forces. Born in Halifax, the
singer/songwriter and his family traveled extensively.
"After I left town I travelled a lot, and moved to Cape
Breton in 1978 and I've been there ever since."
He's excited about this year's ECMAs, being put together on the
ground by event chair Bridget Noonan and event coordinator Carol-Ann Hennebury. "It's
gonna be spectacular."
St. John's is also one of Appleby's favourite cities because,
apart from super-friendly people, one can go from bar to bar and hear live music in
virtually every single venue.
"It's a phenomenal live music scene. The more live music we
have I think it'd be better for all of us."
February 11, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Greg Guy Entertainment Editor - At ECMA's '99 in St. John's
If you ask anyone in the East Coast music biz about their favourite ECMA, 1994 in St.
John's is always mentioned.
That was the year the East Coast Music Association moved the event from Halifax for the
first time. It was also the year hundreds of delegates were storm-stayed on The Rock the
day after the awards show. It was Valentine's Day and many will never forget the heart
that was formed by the blowing snow on the roof of a church across from the Delta St.
John's.
It will be Valentine's Day again in St. John's when the 11th annual East Coast Music
Awards are handed out on Sunday night.
Those not travelling to The Rock can catch the action on CBC-TV at 8 p.m. (8:30 in
Newfoundland).
Many of the 800 delegates and the 217 accredited media will register today for the
biggest East Coast music party of the year.
Music industry moguls, musicians, agents, managers and record company reps will arrive
equipped with their box of business cards, an ECMA survival kit (consisting of hangover
cures), and of course their instruments. It's time for the schmooze fest to begin.
Most people will fly to Newfoundland for the four-day conference.
Like the ECMA 2000 Steering Committee in Sydney, which hired their own AirNova jet to
get them there. Air ECMA leaves today from Halifax to Sydney to St. John's. It will return
to Sydney on Monday.
Then there are others, like Brad Fox of the Burnside-based ABI production company, who
will use his bus - formerly the tour bus of country star Faith Hill - to take several
people to The Rock. Fox and his entourage caught the ferry in North Sydney on Wednesday
night.
They arrived in Port aux Basque this morning and will make the 12-hour trek to the hub
of the music activity tonight in time for the first ECMA showcases and of course the first
glass of screech.
Others like Brennan MacDonald and Brian Buckle of the band Kilt have a 15-seater van
ready to make the journey.
"We have 12 people in the van, so it should make for an interesting road
trip," says MacDonald.
Kilt received its first ECMA nominations this year for best new artist and group of the
year.
"It's a complete honour," says MacDonald, a Port Hood native who plays guitar
in the band.
"We never expected it. It means we have taken another step in achieving our goals
as a group."
Kilt lead singer Tony Ronalds, who will miss the ECMAs because of doctor-ordered rest,
says the band's two nominations mean a lot to them, especially in the best group category
where they are up against the likes of The Rankins, Rawlins Cross, Sloan
and the Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra.
"To be up against these guys and to also get a nod for best new artist, we've
already won," Ronalds says.
Alternative rockers Arlibido also received their first ECMA nomination this year.
The Halifax-based group is made up of the Annapolis Valley's Tim MacNeill, Inverness's
Jesse Fraser, and Pictou's Daniel J. "D.J." Timmons. They are already creating a
buzz even before they step on stage Friday night at the Water Street watering hole,
Junctions.
Several music managers in Halifax have already expressed interest in Arlibido and the
guest list at Junctions is filled with names of record company reps and the region's top
music journalists, expected to check them out.
"We are looking for someone to represent us, but we are staking it out right
now," says Arlibido guitarist MacNeill.
"Everything is really crazy right now. It's so hard to put a finger on it. We are
just going to see what our best options are after the ECMAs and Canada Music Week which we
are going to in Toronto."
The name Arlibido, by the way, was chosen after D.J. Timmons was watching the Sunday
Night Sex Show on the Women's Television Network.
For televison personality Liz Rigney, her first two ECMA nods for female artist of the
year and best new artist, prove that she has gained respect as a singer.
"Only having been known as a TV personality, it's nice to be recognized by members
of the music community in Atlantic Canada," says Rigney.
Her debut album, Red Petticoat, has sold 6,000 copies since its release last summer. A
lot of those have been sold on a school tour across Nova Scotia.
Rigney, who has to get up early on Monday to do her Breakfast Television job from St.
John's, says "beware of the outfit" she plans to wear at the awards show and
gala on Sunday.
Sons of Maxwell, Dave and Don Carroll, are up against Rigney and Kilt for the best new
artist award.
"I thought the nomination was very rewarding. We put a lot of work into our new
album with promotion and marketing and working with people like Wendy Phillips. The
nomination was the icing on the cake," Dave said before heading to St. John's.
Sons of Maxwell released a shining CD called The Neighbourhood in 1998. Dave says they
will perform at the Music World Showcase at the Avalon Mall on Friday.
They will be presenting an award in the pre-telecast show at Memorial Stadium, but the
one event Dave is looking forward to is Sunday afternoon's Songwriters' Circle.
"That has always been a highlight for me at the ECMAs. I'm glad to be part of it
this year," he says.
Also in the Songwriters' Circle will be Great Big Sea's Alan Doyle, Bruce Guthro, Chris
LeDrew, Delvina Bernard, Doris Mason, Gordie Sampson, Larry Gowan, Melanie Doane, Maureen
Ennis and the Newfoundland godfather of songwriting, Ron Hynes.
Another highlight at this year's ECMA will be the African Nova Scotian Music
Association's Black Vibes Soulcases.
Marc Perry, president of ANSMA, says they decided to bring a contingent of 31 black
artists to the ECMAs after the success of the Friday night showcases at the Blues Corner
in Halifax last year, which featured their top artists.
Joining in the fun for two performances at The Fat Cat Lounge on George Street on
Friday night and again at an all-ages show on Saturday will be Afro Musica, Freedom Jazz
Band, Shy Luv, Jamie Sparks, The Almost Brothers, Four The Moment, Bonsha, Papa Grand,
Jeremiah Sparks and Adrienne Gough, and R&B singer Deonate.
"This gives us a chance to show our roots to those attending with hopes of opening
doors not only in our region but also on a national and international level," said
Perry, at a send-off party Monday night in Halifax.
"There's the black thing, the Acadian thing, the fiddle thing, and what have you
and people are standing up and taking notice."
When the awards are handed out on Sunday, a national television audience of an
estimated two million will probably have taken notice as well.
Will the weather leave us stranded on The Rock this time? Those who were at the St.
John's ECMA in 1994 now know they should pack a few extra pairs of underwear.
Ais-eiridh na
Gaidhlig
Gaelic, a language bought to N.S. 225 years ago by Highland Scots, enjoys a revival as
a new generation learns its ancestral tongue
February 14, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Kenneth E. Nilsen
I remember the first time I stepped in front of a Scottish Gaelic class. It was in
Cambridge, Mass. over 20 years ago. I had earned my doctorate from Harvard University in
the field of Celtic languages and literatures a couple of years earlier. I knew that there
were a number of people in the Boston area who had connections with Nova Scotia and who
were interested in studying Scottish Gaelic.
So under the auspices of the Adult Education Program of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, I proposed to teach a Scottish Gaelic course. The proposal was accepted,
the course was advertised and, lo and behold, the first night of the course, quite a crowd
showed up. A number of them were seniors, and I surmised that they might well be native
speakers of Gaelic.
I started the class by saying that the Gaelic word for Scotland is "Alba"
(A-luh-buh). Upon hearing this, one of the older women said, "We never called it
that." My heart sank. I had visions of my credibility dropping to zero in front of
the class. Then I heard the woman continue, "We always called it..." and she
spoke three words which in phonetics would be "un chown doo-eekh." It took me
half a second to emerge from my haze and another half second for the words to register
with my brain. But register they did, and I immediately whirled around and rapidly wrote
on the chalkboard the words an t-Seann Dthaich and explained to the class that they
meant "the old country."
I was greatly relieved, felt I had rescued my credibility and had the feeling that the
class was somewhat impressed. In fact, later on I was told that word soon spread that
"he writes the Gaelic and he writes it with his left hand!" As it turned out,
the seniors in my class were fluent speakers of Gaelic, natives of Cape Breton who had
been living in Boston for many decades.
What were fluent speakers of Gaelic doing in a course for complete beginners? The
answer, of course, is that they had never received a formal lesson in their own language
before they entered that classroom in Cambridge, Mass. They had learned Gaelic from their
parents, could speak it beautifully, but they could not read or write a word of their own
native language. So they came to my class hoping to learn to read Gaelic. And, indeed,
some did learn to read Gaelic and continued to attend the course over the next few years.
However, they did not learn as much from me as I learned from them, for they had a
wealth of knowledge of Gaelic language and culture. But when I asked them about their
school days in Nova Scotia, all answered that they had never been taught a word of Gaelic
in school, not even a Gaelic song. In fact, most stated that Gaelic had been actively
discouraged and some even spoke of being punished for using Gaelic in school.
Around this time I also started to visit Nova Scotian Gaelic speakers living in the
Boston area and recorded from them a great deal of Gaelic folklore and song. One man who
welcomed me to his house in Malden, Mass. on many occasions was the late Danny Cameron who
was born in Boston in 1898 but had been raised from infancy in Beaver Meadow, Antigonish
County by his Gaelic-speaking grandparents. Mr. Cameron was one of the last bearers of the
Gaelic traditions of mainland Nova Scotia.
Years before I came to St. F.X., Danny Cameron had told me tales about Beinn a'
Bhrùnaich (Brown's Mountain), A' Cheapach (the Keppoch), Dmhnall Mhˆmaidh
(Donald Vamy MacGillivray of Dunmaglas) and the Bard MacLean. Despite his great store of
Gaelic stories, Danny, like all the others had never learned a word of Gaelic in his days
in a Nova Scotia school.
Gaelic is now and has been for a long time a minority language. Even in its native
Scotland it has been in a subordinate position to English for many centuries. And so it
was perhaps natural for the Gaelic-speaking Highlanders arriving in Nova Scotia to accept
English as the dominant language of education, business and government. But there have
always been visionaries who strove to promote the cause of Gaelic in the province.
One such man was Jonathan MacKinnon of Whycogomah, who published the all-Gaelic weekly
newspaper Mactalla in Sydney from 1892-1904. MacKinnon's publication did much to foster
Gaelic literacy. A contemporary of MacKinnon was Father D. MacAdam who introduced Gaelic
to the curriculum at Saint Francis Xavier University in Antigonish back in 1891, thus
making St. F.X. one of the first universities in North America to offer courses in Celtic
Studies.
Since that time, Gaelic has been taught at St. F.X. nearly every year up to the
present. In the late 1950s, St. F.X. established a Celtic Studies Department which today
is one of a handful of such departments in North America. The establishment of the Chair
of Gaelic Studies in 1983 ensured the university's continued commitment to the language
and further expansion of the Celtic Studies Department is envisioned in the new
millennium. St. F.X. has excellent collections of Scottish Gaelic books and tape
recordings.
Interest in Gaelic among students at our university has grown tremendously over the
last few years and this past September more than 50 students registered for the first year
of Gaelic. St. F.X. is the only university in North America which offers three levels of
Gaelic courses on a yearly basis.
A number of students who have gone through our Celtic program have become proficient
Gaelic speakers. One is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in Celtic Studies at Harvard
University where he has a full scholarship. Several of our graduates have made Gaelic song
recordings, most notably Mary Jane Lamond, who has received worldwide acclaim for her
Gaelic singing. Another of our former Gaelic students is now president of the Gaelic
Council of Nova Scotia.
St. F.X. holds two Gaelic language days each year which draw learners and speakers from
all parts of Eastern Nova Scotia and some even from Halifax and the Valley. Our next
Gaelic Day is scheduled for Saturday, March 13.
There are other institutions in Nova Scotia which include Gaelic in their curriculum,
such as St. Mary's University in Halifax, the University College of Cape Breton in Sydney
and the Gaelic College at St. Ann's which, in addition to its summer courses in bagpiping
and Highland dancing, offers courses in Gaelic which attract learners from all over North
America.
Historically speaking, Gaelic has rarely been part of the curriculum at the primary and
secondary level, but over the last two decades, the language has been taught at various
times at a number of high schools in Cape Breton, most notably in Mabou, where the efforts
have resulted in a strong awareness of Gaelic traditions and the musical groups The
Rankins and The Rankin Sisters have brought Gaelic songs to wide audiences across
Canada and beyond.
Gaelic is now being taught in schools in Iona and Christmas Island and some other
communities in Cape Breton are planning to offer Gaelic in their schools. In recent years,
the Gaelic Council of Nova Scotia (Comhairle na
Gˆidhlig, Alba Nuadh) has been active in promoting the language in the province.
One of their main thrusts has been to have the month of May designated as Gaelic
Awareness Month. This endeavour has received some support from government and the media,
such as the Gaelic Awareness supplement put out by The Chronicle-Herald in May of last
year.
Also last May, the Gaelic Council received a government grant which enabled a group of
four young Gaelic enthusiasts to travel to a total of 28 schools from Cape Breton to
Halifax presenting an introduction to Gaelic language, folklore and music. The hour-long
program was a great success and the performers were met with much enthusiasm on the part
of their young audiences.
As I mentioned in the beginning of the article, the Gaelic language was for a long time
excluded from the schools of the province. It is interesting now to see the language being
introduced into some schools in Nova Scotia as we are about to enter the new millennium.
With the good will and support of government and the people, a new generation of
schoolchildren will have the opportunity to learn about their ancestral language, a
language that has been spoken in this province for more than 225 years.
Kenneth E. Nilsen teaches in the Department of Celtic Studies at St. Francis Xavier
University.
February 15, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Greg Guy / Entertainment Editor
St. John's, Nfld. - Bruce Guthro was the runaway winner at
Sunday's 11th East Coast Music Awards and he's heading home to build a new shelf to put
his awards on.
The Sydney Mines singer/songwriter picked up five, including male
artist of the year and best pop/rock artist. He won album of the year for Of Your Son, is
SOCAN songwriter of the year and took top single honours for his hit Falling.
Guthro said he never expected to win five awards and was most
surprised about the pop/rock artist trophy.
"I'm shocked, it's amazing," said a modest Guthro after
receiving the first award. "It's the last thing I expected in the world. No one is
rocking the pop world more than Melanie Doane, Brett (Ryan), The Rankins,
and Gordie (Sampson). I'll wear this with pride."
Of Your Son has reached sales of about 40,000 in Canada and
launched Guthro as a national name on the music scene.
"If ever there was a song of mine I'd want to win single of
the year, it'd be Falling," said Guthro to the horde of journalists in the press room
in the upper level of Memorial Stadium.
Cape Breton artists took home 11 awards. The Rankins, who
were the top nominees with seven, took home the group of the year pewter treble clef.
The Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra was up for six ECMAs but
failed to win any. Favourite and his globe-trotting band flew into St. John's on Sunday
afternoon from a gig in Bridgewater on Saturday night, after performing in Vancouver the
night before.
Natalie MacMaster, the Cape Breton fiddler with blond ambition,
was named female artist of the year.
"This means more than any award," said MacMaster, who
toured 11 European countries in four weeks last year. She did 250 dates and thanked God
for keeping her safe on the road.
MacMaster is working on a new album. Gordie Sampson is helping to
produce it.
Other Cape Bretoners winning on Sunday were The John Campbelljohn
Trio for blues/gospel artist and Kidd Brothers Children's Entertainers of Port Hawkesbury
for best children's artist.
"This award is second only to the reward of entertaining
children. Nothing can give as much satisfaction of seeing children smiling from ear to
ear," said half of the clowning duo, Blair Gotell.
Big Pond's Gordie Sampson was named best new artist. He performed
on the awards show with The Rankins at packed Memorial Stadium, a 40-year-old hockey rink
transformed into a colourful concert stage.
This was Sampson's first ECMA victory. He released his debut
album Stones in October.
"This album took a long time, two years," said Sampson,
"between playing on other people's tours with Rita and The Rankins. "Hopefully
the next album will only take two months. Now I can put more focus on me and my
band."
Newfoundland-born comedian/actor Rick Mercer hosted the two-hour
awards show. It opened with Premier Brian Tobin driving Mercer through St. John's and
dropping him at Memorial Stadium. The awards show included almost every genre of music,
which shows the growth and diversity on the East Coast scene.
One of the rocking segments included a smokin' blues number which
made the 3,500 people in the stadium go wild. It featured Isaac, Blewett, Cooper, the
Glamour Puss Blues Band, Muzzy Marshall, Neil Bishop, Denis Parker and Scott Goudie, Billy
and the Bruisers Horn Section and the Prime Minister of the Blues, Dutchie Mason.
Nova Scotia's Acadian band Grand Derangement, one of the most
talked-about acts at this year's ECMAs, almost lifted the roof off the old stadium. With
four gals dancing in front of fiddling dynamo Daniel LeBlanc of Clare, the young band is
bound to become a household name.
St. John's quartet Great Big Sea won their fourth entertainer of
the year award. The entertainer of the year is the only fan-voted award. The popular
quartet also won the video of the year for their song Lukey. They opened the televised
portion of the awards show on CBC.
"We knew we'd be excited to play for out home-town fans but
when the lights came up and we hit that first chord, it was magic," said
singer/guitarist Alan Doyle.
The Lukey video was directed by ULF. The song is on the gold Fire
In The Kitchen album with the kings of Celtic music, the Chieftains.
Great Big Sea fans will be happy to learn that the Great Big
Picnic will return again this summer and their new album will be released this year. They
are working on the album at a Newfoundland studio with Los Lobos's Steve Berlin.
Nova Scotia Acadian group Blou, with their album Acadico, won
best francophone recording.
"It's been a lot of hard work, now we have to do a lot more
to keep this up. Now we conquer the world," Blou's Patrice Boullianne, of
southwestern Nova Scotia, said.
Cape Breton-born David MacDonald, now of Halifax, won the
classical recording trophy for his album, The Casavant Organ.
The instrumental artist trophy went to P.E.I.'s Este Mundo, while
Newfoundland/Halifax rockers Rawlins Cross won the roots/traditional artist/group of the
year.
The alternative artist/group honours went to Moncton's dynamic
rockers SOL, while singer Denise Murray of Moncton was named best country artist.
Shirley Eikhard will carry the best jazz artist award back to her
home just outside of Toronto.
Newfoundland's first lady of the accordion, Minnie White, 83,
picked up the Dr. Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award.
February 18, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Stephen Cooke
While I don't necessarily recommend driving 30 hours by bus from Halifax to St. John's
and back, it's a great way to see the country, not to mention a fine assortment of Irving
Big Stops. Many thanks to Brad Fox and the boys from ABI for the lift to the ECMAs, and
loads of laughs along the way.
However, after 24 hours of the bus swaying side to side and the Clara and Joseph
Smallwood ferry bobbing up and down, I'm still waiting for the ground to stop moving. Make
it stop, make it stop!
If there were ever any doubts that St. John's is Atlantic Canada's party capital, this
past weekend pretty much put them to rest. From seeing Anita Best at the Ship Inn to
hopping to the Fables at the Cornerstone, this is a city that has its bases covered.
Now I know why St. John's is located at the easternmost point in the country; if the
rest of us knew what fun they were having, we'd never get over the uncontrollable
jealousy.
Not that the mainlanders didn't hold their own. The Dave Carmichael Band, Ian Janes and
Knifey Moloko all turned in strong sets at their respective venues, while the twice
sold-out African Nova Scotian Music Association's Black Vibes II showcase at the Fat Cat
has been hailed as one of the weekend's true highlights, as the wooden floorboards shook
with the most frenzied dancing the hole-in-the-wall club has ever seen to the unstoppable
grooves of Freedom Jazz Band and Afro Musica.
The righteous rapping of Bonsha, Shy Luv and Papa Grand also went over like
gangbusters, proving there is a hunger for hip-hop in the shadow of Signal Hill.
Music was simply everywhere. My last image of St. John's, as I dragged myself back
towards the bus for an early morning departure was the all-night folk jam that took place
in the lobby of the Delta St. John's following Sunday's awards show, featuring members of
the Barra MacNeils, Slainte Mhath, the Punters and New Brunswick's Stompin Tom Award
honoree, Acadian fiddler Gilles Losier. You have no idea how hard it was to tear myself
away, but the prospect of hitchhiking to Port Aux Basques finally loomed large enough to
move my weary feet.
Riding back on the bus with members of the sound crew, I was reminded of the hard work
that goes into making artists like The Rankins and Grand Derangement look
and sound as good as they do. Do me a favour and say a quick thanks to the
"techies" the next time you really enjoy a club show or a Metro Centre concert.
It doesn't take long, and I'm sure they'll appreciate it.
Now that the glow of the ECMAs has faded for another year, it's back to business as
usual in the music world.
February 19, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Stephen Cooke / Entertainment Reporter
Preparations that had been boiling for The Nova Scotia Kitchen
Party, a highly-anticipated, nationally-broadcast live radio music series featuring East
Coast artists, have been reduced to simmer, thanks to the technicians' strike at the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Although the show's producers are holding out hope that the
strike will be settled before its on-air debut on Saturday, Feb. 27, the dispute has put
the kibosh on the series' official launch party on Monday at the Lord Nelson Hotel, which
is where the broadcasts are scheduled to take place in front of a live audience.
Executive producer Mike LaLeune assembled an A-list line-up for
the show, including The Rankins, Ashley MacIsaac, John Allan Cameron, The
Barra MacNeils and Natalie MacMaster. He's hoping the CBC and the Communications, Energy
and Paperworkers Union can come to an agreement soon.
"The fate of the broadcast depends on what CBC
decides," says LaLeune. "But we still have to plan as if the dispute will be
resolved."
LaLeune says he expects to know the fate of the Kitchen Party
sometime next week.
"Right now we can't bet on one thing or another," he
says. "The head of radio will let us know. Until then, we're all waiting to see what
happens."
Even though it wasn't meant for broadcast, LaLeune says Monday's
launch party, a special invitation event featuring music by Scott Macmillan and friends,
would have been a CBC-hosted affair, and the staff needed to co-ordinate it are no longer
available.
February 20, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Stephen Cooke
While attending the East Coast Music Awards last weekend, it
occurred to me how few East Coast musicians indulge in good old-fashioned Top-40 pop
music. Of all the acts featured on the awards show, only Melanie Doane comes close, and
even then there's a fiddle break in the tune Adam's Rib, ensuring some sort of continuity
with acts like The Rankins and Richard Wood.
There seems to be some sort of stigma against creating
unabashedly commercial music, as if a lack of connection to roots or some sort of street
credibility is a one-way street to ridicule and financial ruin. We're known for turning
out some of the country's best traditional and alternative acts, but the mainstream
remains curiously unswum.
Bruce Guthro could be named as an exception; leaning towards
adult contemporary on Of Your Son netted him five ECMAs, although that probably says more
about ECMA voters' personal tastes than any kind of musical trend in these parts.
Perhaps it's just the fact that we're too isolated from the
mainstream music biz to spend much time jumping on bandwagons, but then again, who would
have thought Orlando, Fla. would be such a hotbed of teenpop, giving us the likes of
Backstreet Boys, Aaron Carter and born-in-Tennessee-but-guilty-by-association Britney
Spears?
I'm not saying the world needs more acts like these, but
sometimes it's fun to just stand back and watch the evil machinations of marketing
geniuses at work.
In Britney Spears' case, they take the updated
Lolita-for-the-'90s approach on her album ...Baby One More Time (Jive/BMG) featuring the
16-year-old former Mousketeer in a variety of innocent-yet-provocative poses, while the
title track's video (included here in CD-ROM form) has Spears in cheerleader garb giving
come hither glances from a convertible's back seat. The whole affair is only marginally
less disturbing than those banned Calvin Klein ads. The fact the song's full title is Hit
Me Baby One More Time is just the icing on the creepy cake.
Musically, Spears' songs don't sound much different from the
Backstreet Boys (whom she shamelessly pitches for in an ad at the CD's end); ... Baby One
More Time is little more than a rewrite of Backstreet's Back, while (You Drive Me) Crazy
at least has some Latin percussion to give it some sort of connection to the Orlando Salsa
scene.
If Spears was a Spice Girl, she'd definitely be Vanilla Spice
given the bland bulk of the album devoted to ballads like the cringe-inducing E-Mail My
Heart and the passive-aggressive Born to Make You Happy. The only songs with any real fizz
are the reggae-tinged Soda Pop and a samba remake of The Beat Goes On. La de da de da...
The Spice Girls also come to mind when listening to B*Witched
(Epic), four comely lasses from Dublin, although All Saints might be the more apt
comparison since two members are sisters and the foursome gets credit for co-writing most
of the songs.
B*Witched's strategy is to take high-gloss bubblegum pop and add
a few Celtic flourishes to make it sound a wee tad different and voila! Instant pop
sensation.
The group have managed to score a few relentlessly hooky hits-if
you hear them once, C'est La Vie and Rollercoaster are as hard to dislodge from your brain
as Wannabe was-but there's a fair amount of filler here, with Castles in the Air borrowing
its lilt from Enya's Orrinoco Flow and Freak Out practically a note-for-note steal from
Bananarama's version of Venus.
If there's a plagarism suit, maybe we'll find out what's
stronger; girl power or the power of an attorney.
Even further afield, we have Germany's frightening long-haired
hippie answer to the Partridge Family, the Kelly Family, who, after 12 hit albums
overseas, have been unleashed on these shores with Almost Heaven (EMI).
At least this nine-member, blonde-tressed brood play their own
instruments and write their own songs, most of which are interminable power ballads with
generic titles like You Belong to Me and Come Back to Me. Let's just say that this is
exactly the sort of thing we've come to expect from the country that gave us Nena, Trio,
Taco and Falco.
Back home in Canada, our closest thing to a boyband is the
Montreal duo of Antoine and James, known collectively as Sky, although their lack of
surnames makes me wonder if they moonlight as hairdressers.
Their major label debut, Piece of Paradise (EMI) is chock full of
R&B-infused dance pop, although the catchy first single Some Kinda Wonderful is
clearly the best thing on the disc, with its airy chorus and bouncy bass line. America is
a close runner-up, with an acoustic vibe giving it a slightly earthier feel than the
polished production found elsewhere, and hinting at sounds Sky may find more time to play
with in the future.
February 21, 1999 - Toronto Sun
By Jane Stevenson
TEARS OF STONE - The Chieftains - (RCA/BMG 09026 68968 2)
Call this The Chieftains' chick album. Or how about Paddy Moloney does
Lilith Fair?
Neither really does justice to this stellar collection, in stores Tuesday,
as Moloney laboured more than three years to record an impressive roster of female
performers -- including Canadians Joni Mitchell, The Rankins, Loreena
McKennitt, fiddler Natalie MacMaster and Diana Krall -- singing traditional Irish love
songs.
The album begins solemnly with actress Brenda Fricker, of My Left Foot
fame, narrating Yeats' Never Give All The Heart over a choir singing a Moloney
composition.
But it's Bonnie Raitt who really gets things going with her strong Gaelic
delivery on the second track, A Stor Mo Chroi.
Equally powerful is Natalie Merchant's gentle take on The Lowlands Of
Holland, Mitchell's own composition, The Magdalene Laundries, Sinead O' Connor's haunting
Factory Girl, McKennitt's partially a capella Ye Rambling Boys Of Pleasure, Joan Osborne's
devastating Raglan Road and Sissel's Siuil A Run.
Other highlights include The Rankins' earnest Jimmy Mo Mhile Stor
and The Corrs' upbeat I Know My Love.
There really are no serious missteps here, save for Mary Chapin
Carpenter's slightly stilted Gaelic on Deserted Soldier, Akiko Yano's bizarre Sake In The
Jar and Krall's wonky version of Danny Boy.
Track Listing:
1. Brenda Fricher - Never Give All The Heart
2. Bonnie Raitt - A Stor Mo Chroi
3. Natalie Merchant - Lowlands Of Holland
4. Joni Mitchell - Magdalene Laundries
5. The Rankins - Jimmy MoMhille A Star
6. The Corrs - I Know My Love
7. Sinead O'Connor - Factory
8. Mary-Chapin Carpenter - Deserted Soldier
9. Loreena McKennitt - Ye Rambling Boys Of Pleasure
10. Akiko Yano - Sake In The Jar
11. Joan Osbourne - Raglan Road
12. Sissel - Siuil A Run
13. Natalie MacMaster, Eileen Ivers, Mora Branach, Annbjorg Lien - Lady
Fiddlers
14. Diana Krall - Danny Boy
February 25, 1999 - Halifax Herald
Save ATF, a benefit organized within four days by Stacy Smith and Deanne
Foley, raised $1,700 Sunday night for the Atlantic Theatre Festival.
The lively, popular evening at the Backstage Lounge featured surprise
guest Jimmy Rankin singing Bob Dylan tunes and an auction of everything
from Lennie Gallant CDs to food to even the Tattler himself.
Auction prices for "dream-dates" ranged from $50 for MuchMusic's
Mike Campbell to a high of $300 for a female costume designer. The Tattler, himself,
fetched $150.
People pitching in their support as entertainers or on the auction block
included guitarist Carlo Spinazzola, Dave Carmichael, the Shoe Shop's Dave Henry and
Victor Syperek, who apparently called in his own bid, Parker Noonan, of Noonan Hair, This
Hour Has 22 Minutes' Greg Thomey, Walter Borden and co-hosts Bill Carr and Newsworld host
Jordi Morgan.
February 25, 1999 - Halifax Herald
Fans of East Coast music nationwide will have to hang on to that
invitation to attend CBC Radio's Nova Scotia Kitchen Party.
Due to the ongoing technicians strike, the first live broadcast,
originally scheduled to take place on Saturday with Gordie Sampson and The Rankins,
has been cancelled.
So far, this weekend's broadcast is the only one cancelled. CBC and East
Coast Arts Productions will assess the situation on a week-by-week basis.
The Nova Scotia Kitchen Party was intended to be a 12-week national series
broadcast live from the Lord Nelson Hotel ballroom every Saturday afternoon until May 8.
The line-up was a who's who of local, national and international traditional artists.
Refunds for tickets for the first show are available at the Halifax Metro
Centre box office. For more information, call 451-1221.
February 26, 1999 - Halifax Herald
Fiddlers Howie MacDonald and John Morris Rankin will headline the monthly
Cape Breton dance on Saturday at the St. Lawrence parish hall, Dutch Village Road,
Halifax.
The dance, presented by the Cape Breton Charitable Association begins at 9
p.m. Tickets are available at the door.
It was good,
dear, good
The Revue did far more for Cape Breton than has ever been acknowledged
March 7, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Silver Donald Cameron
'IS yer father dead yit?"
"Yis, he's dead yit."
That venerable Hughie and Allan gag comes from an affectionate tribute to
the old masters of Cape Breton humour at the end of the 1998 (and final) Cape Breton
Summertime Revue. The Revue was an annual delight, a roaring, soaring show which did far
more for Cape Breton than has ever been acknowledged. Its demise raises sobering questions
about the future of Cape Breton itself.
The vitality of the Revue grew from the daily experience of the coal towns
and the steel mill. The music, always fine and often glorious, grew equally from the
countryside, but - despite occasional skits from the Gaelic-echoing villages - the skits
really depicted the people of the industrial district.
At its heart, the Revue expressed their deep fellowship, built up during
decades of violence, starvation and exploitation. The Revue's sense of humour was an
odd mixture of black irreverence and engaging innocence. Though its most savage moments
skewered bureaucrats, toadies and other power groupies, its satire was equally piercing on
the foibles of Cape Bretoners themselves. Death, religion, UI fraud, old age, stupidity,
drunkenness, pretension - nothing was immune. And yet there was always a family-like
warmth about the Revue. Its victims, bizarre and risible though they may be, are very much
part of our lives, and much loved precisely for their minor lunacies.
"What's yer father's name?" "Good, dear, good."
"Cecil, b'y, don't be beatin' on yer sister, now." Cremation becomes "wake
en' bake." A terrifying stewardess on a decrepit Air Bras d'Or plane glares at the
passengers and demands, "What d'yez want?" A fortune-telling charlatan extends
her hand and demands, "D'yez want me to go on? D'yez want me to continue?" When
psychological research reveals that human beings have constant sexual fantasies, Mary
Morrison remarks, "I'm having one now, dear. Oh, yes, dear. It's a dandy, too."
The show made money in all but two of its 12 seasons of operation. Stephen
MacDonald, its longtime producer, remembers that its board "had the luxury to spend a
lot of its time debating royalty structures and discussing album budgets." The Revue
provided scholarships for young musicians, small grants to local choirs and seed money for
new theatre companies. Indeed, in a retreat last fall, the cast, the producers and board
chairman Luke Wintermans concluded that the essence of the Revue was not the show itself,
but its usefulness as a vehicle for the development of talent, and an important source of
local morale and pride.
The range of talent which nurtured the Revue, and was nurtured by it, is
phenomenal. All Canadians know its alumni - Matt Minglewood, Rita MacNeil, Natalie
MacMaster, Gordie Sampson, Bruce Guthro, Bette MacDonald, Mary-Colin Chisholm and The
Rankins, just to name the most prominent. Last summer's show employed J.P. Cormier as
musical director and featured the dazzling young fiddler Jennifer Roland.
The Revue demanded that its members perform both as actors and as
musicians. Bette MacDonald belted out a memorable spoof of New York, New York ("If I
can make it here, I'll make it in the Pier - I want it all: Sydney, Glace Bay!")
while Cookie and Heather Rankin revealed a rich talent for comedy. When Cookie
wobbled across the stage as a doddering old woman, she didn't have to say a word. Her very
presence was hilarious.
Last fall's think-in proposed a whole new process designed to harness and
exploit the creativity of Cape Breton - a Wintertime Revue staged by young people, a
folklore collection project, a comedy-writing workshop, a TV series. But, more ominously,
the event also raised the question of succession. The Revue was created by irreverent
young Turks who emerged in the 1970s. Do they have counterparts today? Dave Mahalik, the
young editor-publisher of Sydney's What's Goin' On, thought not. The young people who
might have rejuvenated or replaced the Revue, he said, were not in Cape Breton. They were
in Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver.
"My favourite memory," says Steve MacDonald, "is of
standing in the field behind Leon Dubinsky's farmhouse with Max MacDonald, Luke
Wintermans, Maynard Morrison and Leon just following the closing night of our first year,
1986. We had banded together only six months before, accessed some piddly amount of
government money, vowed to work for nothing to get it off the ground, and had an
incredibly successful run. We patted ourselves on the backs, and had that great sensation
of having made something happen just because we wanted to."
"We rise again in the faces of our children," wrote Leon
Dubinsky in one of the Revue's most memorable songs. "We rise again in the voices of
our song." Let's hope so. But if the children are to know the songs - and go on
making their own - they have to be here.
Silver Donald Cameron is an award-winning author and scriptwriter living
in D'Escousse, Cape Breton.
March 13, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Stephen Cooke
The only date the calendar more musical than St. Patrick's Day is
Christmas, but the great thing about March 17 is you can listen to the tunes all year
'round.
The great thing about Irish music is its all-encompassing range of
emotions, from the weep-in-your-Guinness nostalgia of Danny Boy and the Mountains of
Mourne to the rage found in ballads about The Troubles to the rousing joy of a Pogues
punkfest or a Waterboys folk jam.
For nearly three decades, The Chieftains have been at the heart of
traditional Irish music, and it's almost an annual tradition to have a new album from the
group at this time of year, either on their own or in collaboration with other artists.
Tears of Stone (RCA Victor) falls into the latter category, and it's a
corker. Working with female musicians from a wide range of stylistic backgrounds, The
Chieftains have crafted a collection of songs that shows how they tend to bring out the
best in people.
The first thing you notice on Tears of Stone is the way Paddy Moloney and
his cohorts give plenty of room to their guests. At times, the disc sounds less like a
Chieftains album than Fire in the Kitchen did, the collaboration between the Celtic combo
and mostly Atlantic Canadian acts that for some reason didn't even bear the Chieftains'
name.
Their fans need not despair, that rich stew of harp, pipes, fiddle and
flute is still here, but the texture varies; from the subtle wind background to Joni
Mitchell's accusing Magdalene Laundries and the low violin and flute wash behind Sinead
O'Connor's aching Factory to the full group sound on Mary-Chapin Carpenter's Deserted
Soldier and and the dramatic build underneath Joan Osborne's take on the classic Raglan
Road.
The Chieftains haven't forgotten Nova Scotia either. Rankin sisters
Raylene, Cookie and Heather summon up some old ghosts in the haunting Jimmy MoMhille
a Star, which includes a breathtaking a capella passage, and Natalie MacMaster joins
Eileen Ivers, Mora Branach and Annbjorg Lien for the lively Lady Fiddlers medley.
Moloney has said these collaborative albums are like assembling a
"dream concert", and it would certainly be difficult to top an evening that
included artists like Bonnie Raitt, Loreena McKennitt and Natalie Merchant on the bill. A
show might be out of the question, but Tears of Stone is the best St. Paddy's Day gift you
could hope for.
March 19, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Rick Conrad / Entertainment Reporter
Don't trust this Rankin.
Local businesses did so at their peril recently, when a man masqueraded as
a member of Cape Breton's famous singing family. Halifax Regional Police confirmed
Thursday they're investigating a fraud complaint made by the owner of a local limousine
service after a "Creg Rankin" took him for a ride.
Police spokesman Const. Frank Bowes said he couldn't give any details of
the investigation, other than to say it's ongoing. But he wanted to stress that
"Creg" is not a member of the Rankins singing group that many Canadians know and
love.
"This guy definitely isn't one of the Rankins," Const. Bowes
said. No one at the limo service would comment this week about the fake Rankin.
Someone who answered the phone said the company wanted to avoid the
embarrassment that publicity might bring. But the band's manager wasn't as reticent.
"I love the spelling of 'Creg,'" Mickey Quase said.
"It must be short for Creignish." Mr. Quase said someone from the limo
service phoned his office a few weeks ago to ask if Creg could be legit.
"He was here with his 'mother.' They had just come off tour,"
Mr. Quase recalls. "He was 'the star' of the Rankins."
Perhaps Creg was pretending to be singer-songwriter Jimmy Rankin - but the
crooked chameleon apparently hadn't heard that the Rankins' mother, Kaye, died in December
1997. It seems others were just as clueless.
Creg allegedly hired the limo, had a $3,000 tuxedo made for him at a local
menswear store and took some people out to brunch - all with just a credit card number,
but no card.
"This guy with the limousine service never actually saw the card and
yet drove them around for days," Mr. Quase said.
"Then Creg had to stay in Halifax because he was waiting for a cheque
from a Newfoundland gig that his band had done that was taking time to arrive.
"At one point, they heard him introduce himself somewhere as Creg
MacIsaac, a fiddle player. I mean, whoa!"
Mr. Quase said he's surprised how trustworthy people can be. "I
mean, maybe you give the guy a $10 cab ride, but they're talking about a substantial
bill," he said.
"I am shocked that anybody who's in business would go for that big a
ride." No one knows the extent of Creg's possible purloining, but band members
think the whole matter is "very, very bizarre," Mr. Quase said.
The Rankins don't plan to file a complaint with police, because the guy
didn't do anything wrong to them. He just borrowed their name for a little while.
"It's a shame for the people who are actually losing money. (He) must
be very convincing."
Nishi
paints his sense of place
From Mabou to Baffin Island, New York-based artist unveils five decades of colourful
landscapes
April 22, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Elissa Barnard / Arts Reporter
Landscape painter Ken Nishi is just as concerned about social problems and
community development as he is about interpreting nature in paint.
"The development of natural gas, you know, Sable Island, they should
run it to Cape Breton and let people have advantage of it," says Nishi, an American
artist who bought land in Mabou Mines 50 years ago. In 1949 Mabou Mines was a small,
resourceful community where people relied on themselves and each other. The collapse of
resource industries, tourist development by non-islanders, lack of grassroots community
development and a consumer economy which demands people have cash for goods or services
disturb Nishi.
"I went into Norma's (restaurant in Whycocomagh) and there were
flyers available and they were all in German. I'd like to see Cape Bretoners develop the
island themselves."
When he sees people displaced from their land and from a healthy
interdependent community life "it pains me." Though he is also a
figurative painter, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia exhibit Ken Nishi: Reflections in Time
focuses on Nishi's landscape art and Cape Breton and Atlantic area paintings.
Nishi, a graduate of the Chouinard Art School in Los Angeles, first came
to Mabou Mines in 1949 when he was leading a painting class from the Putney School in
Vermont. "The last day we were there I liked the place so much and I saw a farmer
coming over a hill and I said, 'You don't have an acre of land you could sell?' and he
said, 'I've got 100.'"
Nishi empathizes with the disinherited, and this exhibit includes a
portrait of a native American. Growing up as a Japanese American in California, he
could not go into the bowling alley or dive into the public swimming pool. Japanese
Americans could not buy land. "That stigma remains your whole life," he said in
an interview at the gallery.
While he was serving in the American army during the Second World War, his
family was interned. "After I grew up I wanted to know more about the native
people and you spend time with them and you begin to see this long history. This was their
native land and they were put on reservations. In South Dakota, it's 60 miles of nowhere,
the land is arid, the water is bad. "You begin to see that what I went through
is nothing compared to what they went through."
Nishi built a studio close to his 150-year-old house, which sits at the
base of a hill and is by the sea. "On a clear day you can see Prince Edward
Island." Some landscape views are from his studio window. "What you're
trying to do is interpret nature and you're looking for any kind of way (to do that)
because at best nature will beat you every time." This exhibit includes detailed
pictures, like the dramatic 1951 watercolour portrait of a fisherman, and later, more
abstracted landscapes like Gaspé 1998, a dreamy, textured oil painting of carved blue
spaces.
The painting Charlie Joe MacLean, 1998, is a tribute to a recently
deceased neighbour and well-known Mabou character. Against a flaming red sunset, MacLean
is driving a carriage led by a white horse down a steep hill towards home.
"When I first came to Cape Breton in 1949 most people in the back country used to
travel by horse and buggy. His house was way down in the hollow." This image
was the cover art for The Rankins 1998 CD Uprooted. All five of Nishi's
children have settled in Nova Scotia, including daughter Mia, who lives in Halifax with
her husband, Jimmy Rankin.
Mia Nishi-Rankin proposed to the gallery that it hold Nishi's first public
art exhibit in Nova Scotia and she helped organize it. Nishi and his family spent
summers in Cape Breton then returned to Tappan outside New York City where Nishi also has
a studio. In the 1960s and 1970s he was director of the Rockland Centre for the Arts.
In recent years, he's stayed longer in Cape Breton, for up to 10 months.
He has travelled throughout the Gaspé, to Baffin Island, Labrador and
Newfoundland, where he likes to salmon fish. "You know where I want to go? I want to
go to the Gobi desert. I just want to be there and look at things." Curator
Peter Dykhuis says Nishi's images of Cape Breton and other northern landscape are
characterized by "dramatic compositions of steep slopes, round mountains and deep
valleys which are represented with uncommon colour saturation and pictorial atmosphere.
"Nishi's reading of the landscape is neither analytical nor political
but falls within the long tradition of constructing images which reflect his awe and
apprecition of the Canadian landscape. Nishi's point of view, however, is tempered by his
sense of place within the landscape he constructs in his paintings."
That sense of place is the "relationship with the land and the
people," says Nishi. "I'm sketching all the time and the most important
thing is to meet all the people, just the ordinary peole. When I'm travelling, I say I'm a
painter and people think I'm a house painter."
Nishi, who's been painting for 60 years, has worked at other jobs to
survive economically, including crafting custom-made furniture. No experience is a waste
of time, he says. "For 13 years I made custom-made furniture and then I began to
realize the properties of wood and the material beauty of wood."
Being an artist and a human being is "a constant growth," says
Nishi. "Whatever time I have left I want to keep painting because this is what I love
to do and I want to develop myself to the fullest potential."
Ken Nishi: Reflections in Time is at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia to
June 20.
April 24, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Tom Mason / Special Features Writer
The renowned Apple Blossom Festival attracts visitors year after year to
the Annapolis Valley. For 67 years, the festival has reigned as one of Canada's premier
festivals, celebrating the agricultural spirit of Nova Scotia's oldest settled region.
This year's theme is A Mosaic of Cultures, celebrating the many cultures
that have created Nova Scotia. It's a theme that will run throughout the six-day event,
culminating in Saturday's popular Apple Blossom Parade. Along with the traditional annual
events - the parade, the coronation ceremony and the fireworks display on Saturday night -
this year's blossom festival will feature a performance by the Rankins
with special guest Gordie Sampson.
While the pageantry of the Apple Blossom Festival is always unforgettable,
nothing can match the natural spectacle of the blossoms themselves, coating the valley
farmland with white. The Apple Blossom Festival takes place May 26-31. The Festival has a
website at www.appleblossom.com.
Or for more information call Festival Central at 678-8322.
April 29, 1999 - Halifax Herald
Singer/songwriter Terry Kelly will be joining the line-up of stellar
talent at the Spinghill MusicFest '99, taking place July 30-Aug. 1.
Kelly, a long-time favourite with local audiences, will perform on
Saturday, July 31, joining other artists like Juno-winner James Keelaghan, Susan Crowe and
Garnett Rogers.
Saturday's events come to a close with an evening concert by Cape Breton's
internationally acclaimed group The Rankins.
Tickets for MusicFest '99 are available at the festival office in downtown
Springhill at 48 Main St. or can be purchased by phone with Visa or Mastercard at
1-877-363-3363.
April 29, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Stephen Pedersen / Arts Reporter
As Symphony Nova Scotia winds up its 1998-99 season this weekend with the
annual Beer and Beethoven party in Pier 22, they ride out on an all-time high of 28
sold-out concerts. Last night's and Tuesday night's double-header Beethoven Ninth Symphony
concert in the Cohn may have indicated, in a small way, part of the reason for the growing
interest Nova Scotians appear to be taking in their symphony orchestra.
In the massive 140 plus voiced choir, which was accompanied by more than
50 musicians on stage, a diminutive soprano raised her clear and true voice in complete
anonymity. Unknown to the audience, Cape Breton superstar Raylene Rankin
had joined in.
Meanwhile, on stage, no-one could miss the appearance of another East
Coast legend at the climatic end of Peter Maxwell Davies's An Orkney Wedding, with
Sunrise: Ian MacKinnon in full kilt and skirling pipes turned the whole symphony into an
extension of Rawlins Cross.
The piece might well be called the Apotheosis of the Strathspey. In an
extravagantly bubbly texture, exquisitely prefaced by oboist Suzanne Lemieux elaborating
eloquently on the idea of sunrise, the rhythm of the strathspey stitched together a Celtic
fantasy whose celebratory mood the orchestra not only caught, but ran with.
The tunes were clear and inviting, but they were connected and worked up
by way of orchestral free-for-alls, gloriously noisy and rich. When the tunes emerged from
these textural blitzes they gleamed as freshly as a Chevy coming out of a carwash.
The concert began with a solemn performance of Beethoven's Egmont
Overture. At intermission the choir filed in and quietly took their seats. They had
a long wait ahead of them. In this, the longest of Beethoven's nine symphonies, the choir
cool their heels through three expansive movements and quite a bit of the uproar which
begins the fourth. This includes a full orchestral treatment of the Ode to Joy theme
before the baritone steps up to the plate and knocks the ball out of the park with "O
Freunde, nicht diese Tone!" (Oh friends! Not these sounds!). Only then does the final
choral/solo quartet/instrumental glory begin.
John Fanning may not be Mark McGuire, but when it comes to belting out
this famous, stentorian apostrophe, few can rival the richness, breadth and amber darkness
of his voice. The other soloists included tenor Nils Brown (not John MacMaster as
printed in the program), alto Catherine Robbin and soprano Wendy Nielsen (not Monica
Whicher as also printed in the program).
They gave a good account of the sometimes ferocious difficulties of
Beethoven's vocal writing. He intended to put them to the test, needing a sense of utmost
striving to convey the passionate conviction he held for the ideals of human brotherhood
and joy expressed in Schiller's poem. Not even the chorus escapes this challenge. Nielsen,
not quite fully recovered from a recent health problem, was not at her best, but sang with
typical clarity nonetheless. Robbin was not always easy to hear, but both Brown, with his
brilliant projection, and Fanning sang powerfully.
It was a glorious performance. The orchestra played extremely well though
conductor Leslie Dunner gave insufficient attention to many sudden and beautiful harmonic
changes in the score; but his cueing was impeccable and he held the forces together for
the full hour it takes to perform this massive work. The heroines and heroes of the
night, however, were the choristers. Four of the province's top choirs, the Halifax
Camerata Singers (Jeff Joudrey director), the Kings Chorale (William J. Perrot director),
the Seton Cantata Choir (Terry Hurrell director) and the Truro Cantabile Singers (Ross
Thompson director) joined forces to make this one of the best Beethoven Nine choruses yet
heard in this province.
They sang with consistent clarity, accuracy and energy, and, despite their
numbers, beautifully robust balance and blend. While women still outnumbered men in the
choir, the men held their own and then some. Following the applause and the bows,
another Atlantic legend, Denis Ryan, who sits on the board of Symphony Nova Scotia,
presented a crystal baton made by Nova Scotian Crystal to Dunner as he ends his three-year
stint as SNS Music Director.
Next season will see many guest conductor-candidates on the podium, while
Dunner will return several times as principal guest conductor.
May 26, 1999 - CP Newswire - Sydney, N.S.
The Rankins are the headliners for the Big Pond Summer Festival this year, which
organizers expect will provide another boost for the already popular event.
"We've had big names before, but we expect having the Rankins this year
will help secure our reputation for attracting high calibre North American talent even
more," said Robert Sampson.
In the past, entertainers have included Rita MacNeil, Rawlin's Cross, the Barra
MacNeils, Bruce Guthro, and Ashley MacIsaac.
The 35th annual Big Pond Festival runs from July 11 to 18.
June 6, 1999 - Halifax Herald
By Amy Smith / Provincial Reporter
So much for brotherly love. George McLellan, the premier's brother,
introduced him at a luncheon Wednesday, but the opening remarks sounded more like a roast.
George, top dog of finance at the Halifax Regional Municipality and one of
the premier's younger siblings, had the audience in stitches, cracking jokes at the
expense of brother Russell. George started off his spiel by addressing why people say his
brother, a Member of Parliament for 18 years, doesn't talk much about his Ottawa days.
"It's just because of what he did do in Ottawa he didn't want to talk about it."
George mentioned Russell is a martial artist and can actually sink his
teeth through a stack of 12 pizzas. When the premier took his turn at the podium,
his comebacks were, at first, a little weak. "You haven't seen this guy when he
really gets going - he's put more people to sleep than Reveen." The premier did
however pick up some steam - and some laughs - when he said George is in charge of
spending for a third of the people in the province. "It wasn't so long ago you
wouldn't send him to the store for a loaf of bread," said the elder MacLellan.
Russell MacLellan got in touch with his Cape Breton roots two Fridays ago,
joining homegrown group The Rankins on stage. Mr. MacLellan was called up on
stage by Jimmy Rankin at the Apple Blossom Festival in the Annapolis Valley. The premier,
who was last spotted singing at the Liberal annual meeting, once again carried a tune at
the concert held on Raymond Field at Acadia University. The premier was thrown a
tambourine (which he caught), danced a few reels with Heather and Cookie Rankin and sang
with the chorus as the band played The Mull River Shuffle. The audience of about
4,000 people cheered and chanted Mr. MacLellan's name during the premier's 16-minute
performance. Who says there's no co-operation in minority government?
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