Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Celtic Colours International Festival 2018 review
By Seán Purser
Novia Scotia celebrates its Scottish roots at this years' edition of the Celtic Folk festival, emphasising the musical connections between old and new country alike.
Scottish folk outfit Breabach were among the festival headliners © Seán Purser
Celtic Colours International Music Festival, Cape Breton Island, Canada
October 5-23 2018
As festivals go, there are few which match the community spirit evident at Cape Breton’s Celtic Colours. Taking in every corner of this picturesque island at the north-eastern end of Nova Scotia on Canada’s Atlantic seaboard, around 2,000 volunteers work with the festival team to bring 49 concerts and 370 community events to their neighbourhoods. Churches, schools, community halls – even fire halls and a fortress – feature among the 174 venues. The sense of pride from volunteers and audiences alike is palpable, and the welcome heartfelt.
The ‘Colours’ refer particularly to the vibrant reds and oranges of the autumn leaves which blanket the island at this time of year, but just as readily apply to the spectrum of musical talent of Cape Breton culture. A distinctive fiddle and piano style, stemming from Scottish immigrants during the 18th and 19th century Highland Clearances, strongly defines the musical heritage at the heart of the festival, with Gaelic song, piping and step dance playing indispensable roles.
Natalie MacMaster at the festival's opening night © Seán Purser
Playing unashamedly to the home crowd, the opening Fiddles on Fire concert lit the way as the vivacious Natalie MacMaster – one of the island’s best loved musical exports – performed a driving set of fiddle tunes joined by a host of accompanists, including six pianists playing at the same time on three pianos, beautiful guest vocals from Scotland’s Karen Matheson and a delightful fiddling and dancing impromptu from two of her seven children. To kick off the concert, Scots Gaelic singers Mairi MacInnes and Rona Lightfoot joined artists in residence Allan MacDonald and Cape Breton’s own Paul MacDonald for a moving set of songs and tunes, with Blazin’ Fiddles – on incendiary form – stepping up the gears with their rip-roaring showcase of contemporary Scottish fiddle styles.
This year’s ‘Connected’ theme drew focus on ‘an ‘t-seann dùthaich’, or ‘the old country’, and a poignant tie-in brought musicians from various parts of Scotland to perform with their Cape Breton counterparts – Inverness, Boisdale, Glendale, Iona – communities named so as to maintain their connection to a homeland far across the sea. The emphasis on Scottish artists also saw the powerhouses of Breabach and Rura joined by pipers Brìghde Chaimbeul and Ross Ainslie, singers Catherine Ann MacPhee, Kathleen MacInnes and Margaret Bennett, as well as the now annual visit from the excellent students of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland who form the group Ùr: The Future of our Past.
Scottish band Rura with the Celtic Touch Dancers © Seán Purser
While Scotland predominates, Acadian, Irish and Mi’kmaw cultures are also well represented, as is a hugely popular folk song tradition that developed largely thanks to the Maritime provinces’ musical greats Stan Rogers and John Allan Cameron. In the vein of the latter was the pairing of Nova Scotian folk singer Dave Gunning with multi-instrumentalist and picker extraordinaire JP Cormier, a Cape Breton favourite. They were a particular highlight: a veritable comedy double act, interspersing folk song old and new with an indecently high proportion of hanging songs.
Other standouts across the festival included the refreshing young Cape Breton band, Còig, blues and bluegrass outfit Pretty Archie, England’s The Young‘uns with their incisive take on difficult contemporary issues, Rum Ragged from Newfoundland, and the virtuosic and occasionally off-the-wall Finnish fiddle duo Teho (Tero Hyväluoma and Esko Järvelä).
The infamous festival club, hosted at The Gaelic College at St Ann’s in the centre of the island, sees many of the acts hotfoot over from their concerts for a more informal late-night tune, often giving rise to spontaneous musical collaborations. Never one to disappoint, an unbilled Ashley MacIsaac turned up for an impromptu performance, joined by cousin Wendy MacIsaac on piano and visiting Métis fiddler Alex Kusturok, creating one of those inimitable moments that stays etched on the musical memory for life.
Canadian folk favourites Dave Gunning and JP Cormier © Seán Purser
In a Festival first, Ireland’s Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich (Brendan Begley) headed up a team of musicians and craftsmen for Voices of the Naomhóg, a fascinating project inspired by his 2017 journey from Ireland to Spain in a traditional Irish rowing boat. The result was the creation of two sea-going naomhógs created with the assistance of Mi’kmaq boat builders, which were then rowed from Baddeck to Iona, ceremoniously bonding the two places. One of these formed the centrepiece of the closing concert at which Ó Beaglaoich and frequent collaborator Rosie MacKenzie from Baddeck were joined by Gaelic singer Mary Jane Lamond, fiddler Wendy MacIsaac and Phil Cunningham on accordion for a heartfelt and well-deserved celebration of their achievement.
Barnsley’s own Kate Rusby, having been sought by the Festival since its earliest days (but to no avail due to an admitted aversion to flying), finally managed the trip across the pond for a final showcase in the converted ice hockey rink of the rather incongruously named Screaming Eagles, and brought the Festival to a gentle – but nonetheless delightful – close.
Celtic Colours 2019 runs from October 11-19
