He said that while home from touring, he’s studying Gaelic – a project he began taking seriously seven years ago – to get closer to his own roots in the small Gaelicspeaking island of Barra in Scotland. ![]() So there’s stories of that right around the globe, really.”īut the common thread, wherever Celtic music grows, is typically the musicians’ roots. “The Scottish music they play, they considered it part of their music.īecause when the whalers came there, they would have brought that with them. “When we went in, they were from Baffin Island,” said MacNeil, who sings and step dances as well as playing the accordion, tin whistle, flute, bouzouki and guitar. MacNeil recalls hearing what he thought was Newfoundland accordion music at Expo 86, soon after the Barra MacNeils put out their first album. The family band has travelled to Celtic festivals in places as unexpected as Barbados and Montgomery, Alabama – proof that even if Cape Breton is not producing as many stars right now, the Celtic music tradition is alive and well.Īnd like Cape Breton, each locale calls the music its own. They’ll do three shows with the Victoria Symphony, beginning this afternoon. The Barra MacNeils formed 25 years ago and comprise six siblings – Kyle, Lucy, Sheumas, Stewart, Boyd and Ryan – plus bassist Jamie Gattie.īetween 19, they earned five East Coast Music Awards and 10 more nominations. It’s one of the biggest influences on world music.” “I suppose it’s a bit like blues, where it’s a culture. “The music has a universal quality to it,” the 47year-old said on the phone from his hometown of Sydney Mines, N.S. Some would say Celtic music’s cultural currency peaked in the 1990s, when Cape Breton’s Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie MacMaster and the Rankin Family fiddled and toe-tapped their way onto Top 40 charts.įellow Cape Bretoner Stewart MacNeil of the family band the Barra MacNeils begs to differ. ![]() Single post Symphonic Celtic: Family band gets to the root of Cape Breton style
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |