Celebrating Celtic Music in Cape Breton

The Celtic Colours International Festival in Cape Breton was one of the models for our own Blas Festival, and has achieved top ranking in the world of Celtic music. LINSAY MOWAT grabbed the chance to visit this celebrated event.

CELTIC COLOURS International Festival is one of the largest Folk Festivals in Canada, and is now in its 9th year. As the organiser of the Orkney Folk Festival, Johnny Mowat – who happens to be my father – received an invitation to attend the event on their Buyer’s Programme. I decided that it wouldn’t be safe to let him travel alone, so I tagged along!

The aim of the programme is to strengthen links between music festivals, to learn from each other’s experiences, and also for the festival to promote the wide and varied talent that Cape Breton has to offer.

Our journey to Canada took place on the same day our national team were playing at Hampden: I swear I’ve never seen so many men in kilts before. Fortified by the sight of the Tartan Army, we made our way through Glasgow for our flight direct to Halifax in Canada.

Here we were met by one of the Festival volunteers: one out of an incredible total of 900. In Orkney we could do with 9 more volunteers, never mind 900! But this scale of support was typical of the whole event. We drove the 3 hours up towards Cape Breton Island and arrived around 9pm Canadian time, 1am Scottish time. But there was no chance for a sleep: a quick shower and off Johnny and I went to catch the shuttle bus from our hotel in the town of Baddeck, to the festival club.
 
The club is situated at St Ann’s Gaelic College, in a beautiful hall with an open log fire at the back and huge ceilings, which make for excellent acoustics. The club has no billing, so you’re never really sure who might be on stage, but a good night is always guaranteed. It’s often the case that a group on stage will ask one of their fellow musicians to join them from the audience, so at times you get an even more intimate and special performance.

Our first concert was in Cheticamp, in the French part of the Island. This concert was one of the events I had really been looking forward to. I had heard a lot about one of the bands, La Vent du Nord, which was to be the closing act. The first act on stage was the area’s answer to Riverdance. Performing their own take on traditional Celtic dancing, the group of youngsters did very well.

The Barra MacNeils are a home-grown band, which you could tell from the crowd’s response.

One of the highlights of the following acts for me was Weldon Boudreau, accompanied by Gary Gallant. Weldon is a local singer/songwriter who performed some excellent songs, many of which he sang in French. He has a beautiful soft voice with a touch of nostalgia. His accompanist Gary Gallant was superb, and he played a number of instruments including the fiddle, spoons, keyboard and the box: he was also a dancer. This was something we were to witness on many nights: during their set whilst playing the fiddle, up he gets to join in some step dancing. I was rather amazed: I’d never seen a Scottish musician dance while playing the fiddle.

The second half was devoted to La Vent du Nord, which was well deserved. They gave a very polished, high-energy performance and they certainly lived up to their hype. They are a group of four guys from Quebec, who play a mixture of instruments. They even managed to slip in a well-known Scottish session tune, ‘The Fairy Dance’.

The following evening we attended a concert in the Gaelic part of the Island, Mabou. The line-up here included the Barra MacNeils, Old Blind Dogs, the Brock McGuire Band and two singers, Karen & Helene. We arrived in the small town of Mabou and immediately found the only pub, The Red Shoe, which was owned and run by the area’s most famous folk export, The Rankin Family.

So in we popped for some refreshments before the gig, and who do we see propping up the bar but two old blind dogs. So we had a wee drink with Aaron Jones and Johny Hardy, and caught up on what they’d been doing. They were fresh from a three week tour of America and had only been home in Scotland for about ten days, but they had really wanted to do this festival: so here they were.

The concert was really good, probably my favourite of all the events. It began with the two singers. Karen Mose and Helene Blum, both from Denmark. They had beautiful enchanting voices, singing a mixture of traditional and contemporary Danish folk songs. They were followed by Old Blind Dogs who were playing their usual mix of Scottish and Irish music. They were up-beat and lively, but I’m afraid were blown off the stage by the Barra MacNeils’ later performance.

The Barra MacNeils are a home-grown band, which you could tell from the crowd’s response. They are a very talented family, commanding many instruments between them, which they accompany with some captivating voices. Once again they were all accomplished dancers and put on an excellent closing performance, moving between vocal harmonies to fiddle dancing.
 
The final concert we attended was on the other side of the Island at the First Nations community of Eskasoni. First on stage was a local performer, Mooney Francis. Mooney plays the fiddle and gives a very unique performance as he only has movement in his wrist and fingers and often uses a stool for support. This however does not seem to interfere with his command of the instrument. Mooney had learnt two Scottish tunes especially for this performance – ‘The Fairy Dance’ made another appearance.

Next up was the “master” of Cape Breton fiddling, Buddy MacMaster. After being in the folk music scene for most of his life the man is something of a legend over there. He’s still very much a traditional musician and anyone who is a fan of the fiddle would love his performance.

Celtic Colours has a huge level of support from the local tourist board which is something we really lack.

For me, though, the club was the main highlight of the whole festival. It would be possible to attend the club and see most of the performers over the course of the ten days. But what impressed me the most was the spontaneity of the club and the artists.

On our final evening Johnny and I were treated to a number of great performers. First on stage that night was Nuala Kennedy. Nuala performed at our folk festival in Orkney this year with her band Fine Friday. She sings in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic and plays the flute and whistle. I always feel she sings with such passion, I find it difficult not to believe I’m in the story she’s singing about. Such a rare and beautiful voice is hard to forget.

Other highlights at the club included the compere Buddy MacDonald. He has been hosting the club for the last 8 years and contributes regularly with his own songs. Goiridh Domhnallach was another excellent singer and the festival’s artist in residence. He performed on a few occasions at the club and each time I loved him. He was often on stage with another well-known face Bruce Guthro, lead singer of Runrig.

The two singers perform brilliantly together producing some beautiful and moving songs. A final highlight was Andrew White. Although I was initially not impressed, Andrew performed to a mesmerised crowd. He’s a singer/songwriter and a guitar player who hails from England but now lives in Cape Breton. His performance won me over with an extended guitar solo and some interesting and experimental guitar plucking.

Overall the festival was a great experience. It was brilliant to catch up with old friends and artists whilst getting the opportunity to experience how another festival tackles some of the complex issues that face festivals which base themselves on an island. The level of funding this festival receives really is amazing and it’s something that we’re always looking at in Orkney. Celtic Colours has a huge level of support from the local tourist board which is something we really lack.

I know that both Johnny and I were impressed by the wide variety and talent of the performers we saw and it would be great at some point in the future if we could organise a Canadian Concert at the Orkney festival: maybe it’s something for our 25th anniversary in 2007?

All in all it was a very worthwhile experience and huge thanks must go to all those who looked after us. I hope that I can find the money to attend next year and hopefully get more time to spend in the green room with the never-ending beer keg. I highly recommend Cape Breton to any folk music lover: here’s to the 10th Festival!

© Linsay Mowat, 2005

Link

• Celtic Colours website