Last Articles - 2003 (January-June) update on January 13, 2008

02/13/03 - ECMA Musical maelstrom

02/14/03 - Duds that rock

02/15/03 - Past ECMA stars shine at POPS

02/17/03 - Great big ECMA winners

02/27/03 - The Rankins to release Souvenir collection

04/05/03 - Rankin Family album shows the big picture

05/15/03 - A'Court, Rankin sisters help Camp Goodtime

05/23/03 - Rankin to perform at pipe band fundraiser

ECMA Musical maelstrom

As the East Coast Music Awards turn 15, those in the industry celebrate music in changing times

February 13, 2003 - Halifax Herald

By Stephen Cooke / Entertainment Reporter

CHARLES DICKENS might as well have been writing about the music industry when he began his novel of the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities, with his immortal words, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Depending on your outlook, it's the old model of the glass being half full or half empty: The music industry is in a tailspin. The music industry is holding its own.

Traditional methods of finding an audience through retail and radio are going the way of the dodo. Traditional methods of finding an audience through live performance and building a fanbase are as crucial as ever.

Technology is a blessing. Technology is a curse.

What we do know is that music is still a viable commodity, and that's not going to change. It isn't going to go away, and neither is the desire of people to hear it.

How that music gets made and how people obtain it will change to varying degrees, and will be a constant source of conversation at this weekend's East Coast Music Awards and Conference.

Clearly, this is not a boom time for the music industry. Record sales have been in steady decline for the last four years, retail music chains are struggling to make up the difference and fight off competition from big box stores, access to mainstream media is becoming even harder for Atlantic acts to obtain, and depending on the genre, performance opportunities can be scarce.

With the ECMAs returning to their place of birth in Halifax this year, it's interesting to note the changes over the course of the event's 15-year history, which coincidentally seems to hit a landmark point with its arrival in Halifax every five years.

"The first five years was the boom of discovery," says entertainment lawyer, artist manager and Perimeter/Tidemark Records co-founder Chip Sutherland.

" 'Wow, we've got a treasure chest of talent here!' Everyone's getting discovered; Rita, the Rankins, Sloan, Ashley MacIsaac and all that stuff. Then the next five years was the maturing of the business and you see an act like Great Big Sea which gets a better-structured record deal and is very aggressive about touring and did really well.

"Over that time you see the growth of the infrastructure with better access to well-trained management - myself, Mickey Quase, Louis Thomas, Sheri Jones, Brookes Diamond, Andre Bourgeois, and that grows over the middle five years. Then the last five years, from '98 to the present, has seen a transition from a peak to 'Well, what do we do now?' "

Sutherland himself is asking that question about his own company, which is undergoing reorganization as the East Coast Music industry reaches its "sobering middle age."

A victim of the retail music crunch, Tidemark has recalled its product from stores, returned it to artists and is "pressing the reset button" while a new company model is developed. That may include P&D (promotion and distribution) deals with a smaller slate of artists through a major label, a stronger online retail concept or one that includes broader promotion and marketing capabilities.

"The record business has terminal cancer," says Sutherland. "Hard unit CDs are dying, although the majors are going to start introducing anti-copying software to salvage those sales. But that's just a stopgap, people want to download whole albums, and they will pay for it, but there's going to have to be a really great way to deliver it. And by 'great' I mean 'better than free.' "

The silver lining to this cloud of doom, according to Sutherland, is that there is still a future for up-and-coming artists who can get their act together, learn the business, and be prepared to play their hearts out when it comes time to hit the road.

In an age when the technology of high-speed Internet downloads and multi-channel satellite radio threatens to wash old methods of music delivery out to sea, the most basic experience of an artist playing to an audience live and in-person is still the most viable building block in a long-term music career.

"The concert biz is as strong as it's ever been," agrees artist manager Andre Bourgeois, whose roster includes the Ennis Sisters and Jimmy Rankin (and, prior to an acrimonious split last year, fiddler Natalie MacMaster).

"People are not only buying concert tickets they're buying expensive concert tickets. A lot of artists who can't make a living selling records or get video or radio play, that's the way they are surviving and maintaining their career.

"Not just in the folk/trad world, but also in the rock world. There's still the problem in clubs of DJs/VJs and karaoke versus live music, but people are paying to see live acts in arenas and stadiums, and the festival circuit is going strong."

As far as Bourgeois can see, most sectors of the music industry are holding steady, even while the music retail end of things tries to navigate the choppy seas of an uncertain and fickle marketplace.

"It's a very bad time to be a record label, it's a bad time to start your own label, it's a bad time to be a distribution company," he says. "It doesn't matter how smart or resourceful you are, it's a difficult time to be doing something like that.

"The best thing you can be in this industry is an artist who can tour."

So where is music being sold besides the merchandise table at concerts?

While chain stores like HMV and MusicWorld make more room for DVDs and videogames at the expense of smaller artists and major label back catalogue, the independent music retailer is increasingly becoming the source of choice for CD buyers looking for a broader range of music.

Waye Mason runs No Distribution out of a cramped Barrington Street office above one such store, CD Plus, and he's also opened his own retail outlet next door in the Khyber Building.

Now celebrating 10 years of selling independent music both regionally and internationally, Mason has survived by targeting listeners that weren't being served by either major labels or major retail chains. He's also become the home to former Tidemark artists like singer-songwriter Dave Gunning and Celtic duo Ardyth and Jennifer.

"Everything's fine," he says without hesitation. "Record sales are probably going to go down another 10 per cent over the next two years and then bottom out, but there's no reason to believe that independent record sales are going to suffer as badly as major label sales. There's a lot of potential growth in the export market for music from here, and right now we're the only national reach distributor in Atlantic Canada.

"We had a profitable year last year, we made money, and we'll probably make money next year. The key is we are an independent distributor, we're not trying to be a label developing artists to sign to major labels. We've been good at identifying niches in Atlantic Canada and around the world for a wide variety of genres. As long as you keep your overhead low and stay humble, you can make a living in this business."

Anthony Ring agrees that there's reason to be optimistic. As executive director of the Music Industry Association of Nova Scotia (MIANS), Ring represents the business's interests to government bodies - which he says are listening more closely than ever to the needs of the industry - while MIANS acts as a resource for musicians to access available resources and better their prospects of success.

"I think the industry is in a better position now than we were a year ago," says Ring. "Last year we had three or four managers on the brink of bankruptcy and the situation with Tidemark, but on the ground level it's still going strong.

"The grassroots is stronger than it's ever been before. There are more bands, they're technically good players, but there's not enough support to help them get to the next level."

P.E.I. singer-songwriter Nathan Wiley marked a successful year that saw him go from being an unknown artist at this time last year to an acclaimed performer with major label distribution, sharing the stage with Blue Rodeo in arenas from Quebec to Newfoundland.

He's one of a handful of high profile newcomers in 2002 that includes Cape Breton's traditional artists The Cottars (distributed by Warner Music Canada) and Aselin Debison (signed to Sony).

Meanwhile, progressive Halifax rapper Buck 65 signed to Warner, but Buck - a.k.a. Mount Uniacke native Richard Terfry - is far from being an overnight success.

"We've been working really hard as a team for the past three-and-a-half years on this project," says Buck 65 manager Gina DeYoung of Red Liquorice, who notes that Terfry's first release was a decade ago, under the stage name Stinkin' Rich.

"We were aware all that time of the effect that the Internet would have on record sales, so we knew it would be more important than ever to focus on the artist's fanbase, and focus our energy on building that fanbase.

"We were really lucky with Buck, because he had such a solid underground following. But it took some time to consolidate that. We were able to unite them through his Web site and then we started to build and create strategies that would enable us to tour in those markets and somehow find the support to make that happen."

So there is hope for musicians hoping to have a long-term career making music on the East Coast and taking those tunes to markets beyond Atlantic Canada, hope that will likely be fueled during ECMA weekend amid a flurry of showcase performances and industry seminars.

But the tough part is maintaining that exposure and momentum the other 51 weeks of the year.

"I don't know that there's so much of an 'industry' here," muses Bourgeois. "There are some artists who've got some good things going on, but I still question whether the size of the ECMA awards show and the ECMA conference - though it's a very good thing - has far outgrown the industry. I think it's a bloated misrepresentation of what's actually going on."

Duds that rock

Stars plan to suit themselves when it comes to dressing up for East Coast Music Awards

February 14, 2003 - Halifax Herald

By Bill Spurr / Features Writer

THERE are women of whom you ask not "What will you wear to the ECMAs?" but rather "Who are you wearing?"

Women who know that Cavalli is not dinner but a designer.

Mia Rankin is such a woman.

The wife and manager of Jimmy Rankin won't know until the last minute if she and her husband will actually attend Sunday's awards show at the Metro Centre in Halifax. But if they do, Mia will be wrapped in a Rifat Ozbek blouse and pink Roberto Cavalli pants with a leopard pattern, purchased in New York.

"You see a lot of people in the music industry wearing his stuff, like Lenny Kravitz," she said. "You'll often see him wearing some outrageous Cavalli stuff."

For Rankin, the most difficult accessory to select for an awards show is shoes "because these evenings mean a lot of standing and walking."

"I do a lot of our shopping in New York and sometimes at Biscuit (on Argyle Street) as well, because Wendy Friedman has a lot of really cool funky stuff. That's a really good place to go to get stuff for the ECMAs."

Although she does most of the clothes shopping for the couple, Mia describes her husband as having a very good sense of style.

"Jimmy wears Prada and Hugo Boss a lot, and he likes Italian shoes," she said. "Lately he's been wearing a lot of Donald J. Piner shoes, which are made in the mountains of Italy."

Rankin said the ECMAs are not as formal as awards shows in cities like Toronto or New York, so attendees feel comfortable in anything from jeans to evening wear.

"I treat it the same as I would treat the Junos," she said. "All of the functions that we've been invited to over the years, like the Junos or the SOCANs, they usually say 'creative black tie' because musicians don't wear tuxedos, generally speaking.

"My philosophy in dressing is to keep it simple and elegant, and I have some favourite designers. Prada is pretty simple, classic, clean modern lines, and I like Kate Spade too, because it's very Audrey Hepburnish."

At the other end of the fashion spectrum, ECMA nominee Amelia Curran, who wouldn't know Prada from Pravda, has no idea what to put on for Sunday's awards ceremony.

But she does know what she won't be wearing.

"I don't think I would ever put myself in a gown and I don't think I would ever put myself in high-heeled shoes," said Curran, whose group the Sense Amelia Project is nominated for rock group of the year.

"Last year I didn't know until an hour before and I was like, 'OK, I guess I should shower' and then all of a sudden it was 6 o'clock, so honestly I didn't even get to shower before the ceremony," said Curran, whose wardrobe in Saint John ended up including jeans and a white shirt that belonged to a male friend. This year, since the awards are being presented in the city where she lives, Curran will have more fashion resources at her disposal.

"I'm hoping some of my friends will come to my rescue - I'm pretty hopeless, really," she said. "I'm not much for colour. I wear a lot of black clothes."

Curran has a laissez-faire attitude toward both fashion and music, feeling no pressure to either look or sound a certain way.

"I just wear what's on the floor and, no, I don't worry about it," said Curran, who thought fashion inspiration might strike from the fact she turns 25 on Sunday.

"I'll just light something on fire," she said.

RyLee Madison, nominated for Country Artist of the Year, said her goal is to wear something that suits her musical style.

"My music is pretty casual, laid back, easygoing and down to earth and I wanted to reflect that in the outfit that I'm wearing to the awards show," she said. "Instead of a ball gown and all that stuff I wanted to stick with something more basic, so I'm wearing a suit of denim."

Kendra MacGillivray, who last year won two East Coast Music Awards, went to the awards show dressed entirely in black leather.

"And I got lots of nice comments on that," said the fiddler who, while not nominated this year, has three gigs to play (and dress for) during ECMA week.

She doesn't have a favourite store but is seeking an outfit that combines black and lace.

"You just go to the mall and look because there's so many different types of stores and it's whatever you strike that you can put together," she said. "I know a lot of people go leather or denim or suede."

The one thing MacGillivray was certain of in advance was that no matter how spectacular her appearance at the awards ceremony, it won't be the result of daylong fussing.

"For one thing, it's a Sunday so there's no hair salons open."

Past ECMA stars shine at POPS

February 15, 2003 - Halifax Herald

By Stephen Pedersen / Arts Reporter / Concert Review

It was all the cream and the cream of the cream in the Cohn Friday night at Symphony Nova Scotia's Maritime Pops concert featuring past ECMA winners.

Actually, not so past either. Lennie Gallant, who recapped Peter's Dream, Le Tempete and a French version of Embers, has five ECMA 2003 nominations awaiting the favour of fans on Sunday night.

Gallant's set, with a rocking SNS band behind him, in arrangements by Scott Macmillan, Chris Palmer and Asif Illyas, was vintage - great rhythm, matchless lyrics, tunes that cling to both mind and heart, and Gallant in top singing form, with Jamie Alcorn providing hot back-up guitar.

Macmillan led the orchestra and arranged most of the tunes including several fiddle medleys and tune sets. He began the show with the orchestra alone playing the Mabou Minstrels - tunes by Jimmy, John Morris and Raylene Rankin that helped drive the Celtic wave across the country a few years back: Orangedale Whistle, Molly Rankin's Reel, Fare Thee Well Love, Gillis Mountain and North Country.

There were more tunes in a set inspired by Miss Lyall and played by guitarist Dave MacIsaac, the man who knows every tune worth remembering and can tell you where to find all the others.

He and Macmillan also collaborated on a truly weird (and truly interesting) B. B. King-ish version of All Blues by Miles Davis.

Later fiddler Kendra MacGillvray played a set of jigs (Buddy's Picks) and an entrancing air called Silver Wells by J. Scott Skinner with a sweet sound and a musical heart.

Mary Jane Lamond dropped in to sing three Gaelic tunes including an intriguing orchestral version of Sleepy Maggie based on the famous Ashley MacIsaac/Lamond version on his debut CD.

Macmillan accompanied Lamond with his guitar - musical as always, and always intelligently done, but the Gaelic tunes resist any array of modern harmonies you lay on them. They sound better with pipes or Celtic harp, but best of all with just Lamond and no accompaniment at all.

Ron Bourgeois sang his trademark Amene Le Vent and the moving Laisser parler le coeur, and emcee'd the show with great cheer.

The most moving moment however, belonged to Laura Smith, too little heard these days, whose version of My Bonnie was devastatingly melancholy in an altogether beautiful way, magically enhanced by that unique, resonant, utterly human voice of hers.

Smith also performed It's A Personal Thing and I Built A Boat. We watched and listened with utter fascination. The music gets right inside her and utters itself not only through her voice but also through nerve and sinew. Nothing resists the force of that inner music of hers. As a performer she is wholly alive, wholly present in her songs.

Great big ECMA winners

Newfoundland band surpasses Rankins as winningest act

February 17, 2003 - Halifax Herald

By Stephen Cooke / Entertainment Reporter

Great Big Sea's performance at Sunday night's East Coast Music Awards at the Halifax Metro Centre proves the Newfoundland quartet is as good at breaking records as making them.

By picking up five ECMAs - album, entertainer, group, pop artist and video of the year - Great Big Sea moved to the top of the list among all-time winners in the 15-year history of the Atlantic Canadian music awards.

With a new 17-award career total, the band has sprinted past Cape Breton's The Rankins, who earned 14 ECMAs before calling it a day in 1999.

The quintet of wins on Sunday is a welcome going-away present for founding Great Big Sea member Darrell Power, who is leaving the group to spend more time with his family and pursue other musical interests.

A replacement bassist will join the band on its upcoming U.S. tour through the southern states and California, supporting the Zoe/Rounder release of its latest CD, Sea of No Cares.

"It is a little sad," said Great Big Sea's Alan Doyle of his departing bandmate. " We would have liked it if Darrell had stayed. But we've got to tip our hat to him because he wanted to stay home and dedicate more time to his family.

"Darrell's been playing in Great Big Sea for 10 years, so saying he's a part of the family who'll be missed is an understatement. It's a little bittersweet but I'm raising this one for Mr. Power as we speak."

The night's only other multiple ECMA winner was P.E.I. singer-songwriter Lennie Gallant, named best male artist and best francophone artist for his critically acclaimed Le Vent Boheme CD, his first recording in French and a labour of love paying tribute to his Acadian roots.

"I've been talking with my Acadian friends about doing this record for 10 years," Gallant told reporters backstage at the Metro Centre.

"And this isn't a one-time deal. I'm going to continue recording in both English and French. I've even got some native blood in me. I might make a Mi'kmaq album in the next year."

Nova Scotia was the most heavily favoured province at the awards, with 10 different artists from the mainland and Cape Breton earning silver statuettes.

MacCallum Settlement singer-songwriter Charlie A'Court was the first in a string of 10 Nova Scotia performers to win awards, earning blues artist of the year for his debut CD Colour Me Gone.

It was a sweet win for A'Court, who was the buzz of last year's ECMAs in Saint John, N.B., after a strong performance in the event's Roots Room.

A'Court dedicated his award to his late grandparents, for "praying for me from above."

"I've been wanting for years to be part of this industry, and it means a lot to be able to make music that people will enjoy," he said.

Other Nova Scotia winners included Troy fiddler Natalie MacMaster for female artist of the year, young Cape Breton quartet The Cottars for best new artist and Buck 65 for urban recording of the year. Jimmy Rankin won SOCAN songwriter of the year for Midnight Angel, Halifax trio Human was named best rock group and Halifax guitarist Harvey Millar followed his win last year in the urban music category by picking up jazz artist of the year.

Troy fiddler Natalie MacMaster accepted her female artist of the year award by video from Vancouver, where she was performing a symphony show. MacMaster thanked new husband Donnell Leahy, her family and Warner Music Canada. Conspicuous in his absence from her speech was a key figure in her current success, former manager Andre Bourgeois, now embroiled in a legal battle over their split last fall just before her wedding.

Meanwhile, Antigonish fiddler Kendra MacGillivray accepted the SOCAN songwriter of the year award for an absent Jimmy Rankin, winning for the second straight year, for Midnight Angel from his CD Song Dog. He also won the award in 1992 for The Rankins' Orangedale Whistle.

The region's most recent major label signing, Halifax rapper Buck 65 (a.k.a. Richard Terfry), was honoured with urban recording of the year for his CD Square, the first in his deal with Warner Music Canada. Looking sharp in his mod $60 suit and shag wig, Terfry accepted the award that marks the latest in a series of recent career successes, including an extension of his Warner signing to the company's German division.

"I don't know what it was that made this year different from the other years," said Terfry, who's been nominated for nearly a decade, "but there's a lot of people and friends I've grown up with making some real good music that have trouble getting recognized, even at home . . . I'm real happy to share this with a whole bunch of people.

"I feel like I'm still that goofball from Mount Uniacke making records in my bedroom. It's kind of mindblowing and I don't really have words for it."

Other ECMA winners with Warner Music Canada ties included Halifax-based, Newfoundland-bred band Crush, whose song Here was picked as the single of the year, and young Cape Breton group The Cottars who were named new artist of the year.

Sibling pairs Fiona and Ciaran MacGillivray and Jimmy and Roseanne MacKenzie were breathless with excitement after winning their first ECMA and performing The Briar and The Rose with members of Symphony Nova Scotia. But after a busy year that included touring in the U.S. and releasing their album Made in Cape Breton through tenor John McDermott's record label, they don't see the new artist award as an intimidating title to live up to.

"It's no pressure at all," said Fiona, who remarked that a trip to Denmark in August has been added to the band's schedule.

P.E.I. singer-songwriter Nathan Wiley was named alternative artist of the year, after an eventful year that saw his debut CD Bottom Dollar get picked up for distribution by Warner and his music heard on tour with Blue Rodeo.

Double nominee Mark Bragg didn't win in either of his categories but he didn't go home empty-handed either. The Halifax-based singer-songwriter was told during the show that he'd been named the winner of the East Coast edition of CBC-TV's Great Canadian Music Dream contest.

An emotional highlight of the show was the tribute to April Wine founder Myles Goodwyn, recipient of the Dr. Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award. After performances by Crush, the Ennis Sisters and Julian Austin of April Wine classics, Goodwyn said he was moved to tears by the honour.

"I almost ruined my makeup . . . Lord knows I need it," he joked, before thanking his family for their support over the years.

"Being a musician is tough. You miss a lot of things, a lot of birthdays. It's not always easy, you always have to leave home and you can't wait to get back."

Singer-singwriter Charlie A'Court of MacCallum Settlement in Colchester County, the buzz of last year's ECMAs in Saint John after his impassioned Roots Room performance, made good on that promise by nabbing blues artist of the year for his debut CD Colour Me Gone. A'Court dedicated his award to his late grandparents, for "praying for me from above."

Halifax guitarist Harvey Millar matched his win last year in the urban music category by picking up jazz artist of the year Sunday night.

Sandy Greenberg of Razzmatazz for Kids thanked the parents "who want to bring quality music to children," after his group won the children's recording award.

Cheticamp's J.P. Cormier added another trophy to his mantelpiece as instrumental artist of the year.

"This award comes from the musicians and people I idolize, so it's nice to get the award when it's from your peers," said the towering guitarist, whose latest CD Primary Colour took three years to complete.

Another Nova Scotian instrumentalist, cellist Denise Djokic, won classical recording of the year for her debut CD, the first as part of a landmark deal with Sony Classical.  After graduating last year from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with an undergrad diploma, she has enrolled in a graduate program but may put off completion of the program to study for a year in Paris.  During the ceremony, Djokic played Chopin's Polonnaise Brilliante for cello and piano with Halifax pianist Peter Allen on the 300-year-old Stradivarius on loan to her until at least September from the Canada Council.

She said she hoped to jam with some artists at the gala after-party "when my legs stop shaking."

The variety of music on display at Sunday night's awards was a triumph for the 15th annual ECMAs, which marked the anniversary with a banner year for delegates to the conference; 2,400 attended, including 50 international delegates from the U.S., Europe, and Australia. Most of the official ECMA performance stages were sold out, with 150 acts earning roughly $100,000 in artist fees. Budgeted at $1.4 million, the event is expected to have brought up to $6 million into the Halifax area over the course of its four days.

The Rankins to release Souvenir collection

February 27, 2003 - Halifax Herald

The decade-long, storybook career of the Rankin Family - Raylene, Cookie, Heather, Jimmy and the late John Morris - will be captured on 24 tracks on two digitally re-mastered CDs called The Rankins Souvenir 1989-1998.

The collection will include almost two hours of The Rankins best chart-topping singles and lush Celtic ballads from the five award-winning Rankin albums.

It also includes a 12-page CD booklet with liner notes written by Billboard magazine's Larry Leblanc about the band's history and features comments from the Rankins.

A bonus on Souvenir is previously unavailable live versions, radio edits and a previously un-released remix of Weddings Wakes and Funerals.

Souvenir hits record stores on April 1.

Rankin Family album shows the big picture

Souvenir set captures variety of band's styles and talents

April 5, 2003 - Halifax Herald

By Stephen Cooke / Soundscapes

IT SEEMS THE BULK of my professional life has been spent chronicling the music of Mabou's Rankins, either as a group or solo performers. From reviewing The Rankin Family's first major mainland show The Mabou Jig at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in 1989 to one of its last - as simply The Rankins - at Fish Aid in Yarmouth.

There was the privilege of introducing the group's showcase performance on the tiny stage of Pub Flamingo during the second East Coast Music Awards and the emotionally difficult task of covering the funeral of its founding member and Celtic heartbeat John Morris Rankin. From the beginning it was clear the group was about so much more than just music, that there was a tradition to be respected and passed on, but not without ensuring its audience had a damn good time in the process.

Young and energetic, The Rankins showed the rest of the country, and much of the world, that Cape Breton music was strong and vital and had a relevant place in the commercial market, with over two million in sales and a cluster of Juno Awards to back them up. Now that career is encapsulated on the new two-CD set Souvenir: 1989-1998 (EMI Music Canada), gathering both contemporary radio hits and heartfelt traditional tracks in a broad picture of a band that was hard to pigeonhole, but whose music was always unmistakable.

The Rankins had a tricky balancing act on their hands, satisfying the folk music fans that bought the first 10,000 or so copies of their first two CDs and helped raise their music industry profile, and meeting the needs of a major label with commercial airplay that enabled them to fill arenas across the country.

Listening to Souvenir, an impressive picture emerges with Jimmy Rankin's skilful modern songwriting blending with stirring Gaelic vocals by sisters Raylene, Cookie and Heather and the occasional Celtic rave-up fueled by John Morris's artful piano and Howie MacDonald's pure, downhome fiddle style.

They found their greatest support through country radio and CMT, where songs like North Country and You Feel the Same Way Too fit the format with more spirit than their Nashville peers, but being branded a country act sat uncomfortably on their shoulders.

By the time of The Rankins' Uprooted, they were less concerned with genre constrictions than with simply crafting smart, sophisticated songs like Jimmy's rustic rock on Let It Go and Cookie's mature pop showcase Maybe You're Right. A great record with even greater promise, the pull of family commitments and the finality of John Morris's passing turned it into a swan song.

Souvenir splits the Rankins' music into contemporary and traditional sides, with singles like Orangedale Whistle and Movin' On on disc one, and Gaelic songs, fiddle sets and a live rendition of Jimmy's epic Mull River Shuffle (Cape Breton's answer to Stairway to Heaven) on disc two.

This makes as much sense as anything in terms of programming, but since the songs aren't arranged in chronological order, you'd do just as well to pop both CDs into a multi-disc changer and hit "shuffle" and let the colours melt together. After all, The Rankins were about tearing down barriers and bringing the music of their home to new listeners, why let the division of two separate discs prevent you from hearing their songs the way they presented them on album and in concert?

A'Court, Rankin sisters help Camp Goodtime

May 15, 2003 - Halifax Herald

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