Celtic Colours

Part Two Of Gwen Orel's Review Of The Cape Breton Festival

Concerts at Celtic Colours in Nova Scotia have names and themes, which is a way of organizing performers so that over the course of the week you never see exactly the same show.

It's a clever conceit but it doesn't always work perfectly. It pays to read the descriptions carefully.

"Close to the Floor" was indeed a concert focusing on dance, as suggested by its title, but "Songs of Sea and Shore" had a bit more to do with songs than it did with sea.

It would be helpful to have more logos helping you pick which concerts to attend: there is already wave logo that symbolizes "Cape Breton" special concert, and it would be so useful to have logos to symbolize "singing," "fiddle," etc., sort of like the spicy or heart-friendly logos you see on menus.

Because the festival is spread out over hundreds of kilometers, you do need to pick concerts carefully as there's no possibility of concert-hopping.

Happily, with the terrific artists Celtic Colours presents, there's also no real danger of making a bad choice.

Here are reports on two more concerts I saw during the week. We'll be rolling them out gradually, and writing about some CDs too.

Songs of Sea and Shore

Nova Scotia, home of Stan Rogers, the great balladeer-how could we miss a concert with this title?

It sold out fast, so Mom and I arrived in North Sydney early, because press passes don't guarantee seats.

The concert, which focused on song, included Artist-in-Residence, Irish guitar player and singer-songwriter John Doyle, with old-time fiddler Bruce Molsky (whom we sat behind on the plane over); Cape Breton singer J.P. Cormier; Cape Breton Artist-in-Residence, singer Cyril MacPhee; the Cape Breton Chorale; Scottish singer Kathleen MacInnes; Carmel Mikol and Norah Rendell.

The concert took place in the St. Matthew-Wesley United Church.

Since it was about 20 degrees colder in Nova Scotia than it had been home in New Jersey in October, Mom and I stopped at a shop in Baddeck, where all the press delegates and musicians were staying, to buy some warmer outerwear: for Mom. a scarf in the Cape Breton plaid, blue and green; for me, a green jacket and a brown hat.

We also bought some fudge, which helped keep us awake on the drive back home.

Long drives and chilly weather are part of the experience, as was waiting in line for a good half hour to get in to some venues.

It's also a good idea to double-check meal plans: we had planned to eat at a restaurant in North Sydney that turned out to be closed.

Fortunately, we found the other one, a tiny little short-order place that made excellent fish and chips, called Bette's Kitchen.

We had seen J.P. Cormier earlier, at a press delegate event where they showcased a few of the artists, and were particularly impressed with his versatility and singing.

I did an interview with him while I was up there and will have more on him in weeks to come as well as a CD review.

The concert was, unlike "Tunes for the Mira," which we'd seen the night before, not a series of acts, but a more fluid set-up where people came and went, mostly hosted by John Doyle.

This no doubt meant more work for the performers and run crew but led to an exciting concert.

At the top of the event, John told everyone they'd been having Thanksgiving dinner backstage - Canada's is a month earlier - and it was a wonder they were all still awake.

After a sweet song by John and Cyril together titled "The Years Roll By," Bruce Molsky played a somber song on the banjo, singing and playing at the same time, called "The Golden Willow Tree."

Bruce is most famous for his fiddle style, and his singing when playing, but he is also a great picker and he demonstrated it here.

Norah Rendell, singer with the band "The Outside Track," then came on to join Bruce on the song "Willie Taylor."

It's one of those girl-stows-away-on-ship songs, but the kicker is that she finds her lover who has betrayed him and shoots him.

John told us there was a happy ending, wait for it: she gets her own ship, because the captain admired her actions.

Kathleeen MacInnes joined Norah for a song in Gaelic, as Bruce left; then Norah left and J.P. joined Kathleen for a Scots Gaelic song.

John then sang a song from his latest CD, Shadow and Light, "Liberty's Sweet Shore," about Irish emigration.

It sounds like a classic, and Cathie Ryan sings it as well on her new CD, Through Wind & Rain (we wrote about her CD launch at: www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2012/10/16/cathie_ryans_sweet_singing_voi.html) but in fact John wrote it, with his wife.

He got everyone to sing along with the chorus, and it sounded wonderful in the large church, with tones ringing out to high ceiling. Kathleen later did a solo Gaelic song that echoed hauntingly in that space.

J.P. performed solo a song from his latest CD, Somewhere in the Back of My Heart, called "Noise."

Although he didn't write it (it was written by Mike Logan), it's hard to imagine anyone putting across this simple, pained song more purely than J.P. when I'd heard it at the press delegate event, sung with Emily Dingwall, I found tears streaming down my face; at the concert Mom and I had to pass tissues back and forth.

The song mentions the sounds of children playing and then says "Without your sweet voice/All the world is noise." J.P. describes it as a "note to God from a lost soul."

The song is a powerful expression of grief, either over death or heartbreak or separation. Put it on the "Very Sad Song" playlist on your iPod and save it for times when you can handle it. It's also very beautiful. J.P. is a multi-instrumentalist, and brought us back up again with an outstanding "Mason's Apron" on the guitar.

The first half ended with everyone on stage singing "Fear a B'hata," or "The Boatman," which I first learned from a Silly Wizard CD ages ago.

There was a lovely ad-hoc feeling that was only continued when you saw the artists in line for the downstairs restroom in the church at intermission.

The second half included Cape Breton singer-songwriter Carmel Mikol. She sang two of her original songs, which are about her home - while they had nothing to do with the sea, her introductions helped get across a feeling for a place where the snow gets so heavy you might leave your truck at the edge of your property in order to be able to move it.

Earlier at the press delegate event, young guitar player Maxim Cormier also sang a song about home. It seems that Cape Breton is a place people never quite get over.

Performers from the first half came up again and sang together in different combinations. John's harmony accompaniment set off the different singers perfectly.

Then the stage was set for the Cape Breton Chorale, a 50-voice choir under the direction of Sister Rita Clare, a senior citizen who is an honorary life member of the Nova Scotia Music Educators Association (1998) and has been awarded the Jubilate Award of Merit presented by the Canadian Music Educators Association in recognition of significant contribution to Music Education in Canada (2005). In Nova Scotia, senior musicians are active and inspirational.

The chorale stuck a little closer to the theme of the evening, and in addition to Alasdair MacGillivray's "Away from the Roll of the Sea," sang several by Stan Rogers.

It was great to hear some of his songs, finally, but it must be said that the inspiring "Mary Ellen Carter," with its its exhortation to those who have had, "smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go" to "turn to and take up all your strength of arm and heart and brain and like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again" sounded a little odd in a choral arrangement, although it was wonderful to hear the sold-out crowd join for that chorus.

For me the best moment in the show, however, was also one with the chorale: when they backed Cyril MacPhee in the encore, joined by everyone else who'd been performing, for the Barra MacNeils' song of Cape Breton, "Rock in the Stream."

This was a real hymn so the chorale sounded gorgeous, and Cyril's heartfelt, clear singing kept the song contemporary-sounding as well. It brought everyone to their feet.

I also loved this because it, along with the Stan Rogers songs, expressed the Nova Scotia songs of sea and shore, rather than songs more loosely connected. It was a great concert in any case, although not quite what we had expected.

Close to the Floor

"Close to the Floor," an evening of different kinds of dance, was just what it sounded like it would be from its write-up.

Mom and I chose to see this concert in Mabou on Tuesday night, since I'd spent the day in Juddique, which is not that far away, on the West side of the island, at the

Buddy MacMaster School of Fiddling (see my write-up at: www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2012/11/06/fiddling_cape_breton_style.html).

The evening included The Outside Track, the Asham Stompers, Harvey Beaton, Sabra MacGillivray and Celtic Touch Dancers, Joel Chiasson and Brandi McCarthy.

This too was a sold-out show, and Dawn Beaton, who was house manager that night (as well as Assistant Artistic Director of the Festival, and one of the fiddling red-haired Beatons herself), let us know the event sells out every year.

It's no wonder. It's an event that is just not to be missed.

The Celtic Touch dancers, costumed in evocative flowing outfits, danced in a Scottish highland style, which is something we don't see so often in New York City. They were very rhythmic as well as graceful.

The Outside Track are a four-piece band - we'd seen singer and flutist Norah Rendell the night before at "Songs of Sea and Shore" - including Cape Bretoner Maire Rankin on fiddle, Scottish Fiona Black on accodtion, Irish Cillian Ó Dálaigh on guitar, and Ailie Robertson on harp. All join on vocals.

Their latest CD, Flash Company, is a lively combination of song and tune which I'll review for you soon.

They are terrific entertainment: Maire is a tremendous fiddle player-who also dances. She was hard at work during the night, playing with her own group and dancing with them and others. And Ó Dálaigh dances too.

Their "False Knight on the Road" has a lovely swing to it, and Maire was hilarious as she introduced "The Body Parts Set," an upbeat instrumental medley which includes a tune by Sharon Shannon.

Brandi McCarthy, a young fiddle player, was charmingly nervous, forgetting the titles of her tunes, but her fingers, fortunately, did not falter. Dancer Joel Chiasson accompanied her.

The Asham Stompers, named for Robert Asham, are First Nation dancers: the Métis people from the City of Winnipeg.

Their dance is called the Red River Jig, and it's a combination of square dance, tap dance and step dance that has to be seen to be believed.

It was developed, Asham explained, in the 1700s to attract fur traders. The group seemed tireless and the movements were intricate and exciting.

Like Irish step dance, head movements are constrained because dancing was considered a threat to the Colonial powers, Asham told us.

They had their own fiddler who also played keyboards it seemed with his feet.

Really, it was something amazing, and if you can't make it to Celtic Colours I strongly suggest you check them out at ashamstompers.com, where there is a souvenir DVD available. We bought it.

At intermission, each Celtic Colours event would have a drawing for Celtic Colours items.

At "Close to the Floor," someone from Florida won, and the crowd went "oooh."

In Nova Scotia, being American was something interesting. We had attended a "Community Dinner" in nearby Port Hood before the concert; these dinners are held in local halls and centers, and served by local people. This particular one seemed to have all the men working.

At our table, Mom and I made conversation with Cape Bretoners also planning to go to the event. At the concert, someone came up to us and said "Did I overhear you say that you were from New Jersey?" He was eager to hear why we were there.

We came for the music, we said.

We'll be back for the Island.

Gwen Orel runs the blog and podcast New York Irish Arts