I arose a bit after 9h to yet another lovely blue sky day, cloudless and +14 (57); after breakfast, during which I got to chat with a friend who was also there, I drove out the Hawthorne and St Ninian Roads, where there was not much colour—some but very early. In Hillsdale, I took the Rear Intervale Road to Upper Southwest Mabou; just before arriving there, I stopped to talk with a friend living there, who showed me his hens and new kitten. At Long Johns Bridge, there were no changed colours upstream, but some downstream. Colours were out along the Glencoe Road; I stopped for and posted some photos above the Parish Hall, where I encountered a lady now living in Maine who owned the house with the gate on the MacLennan Road on the “Rosedale Ridge”. There were also colours along the Whycocomagh Port Hood Road. In Whycocomagh, I drove out the Trans-Canada Highway to Iron Mines and then took the Orangedale Road to Portage Road and on to and through Iona, turning onto Saint Columba Road, which I drove up to Fraser Road, where I took lots of photos—I was not alone, as three vehicles passed along Fraser Road while I was busy taking photos. I continued on to Christmas Island for the afternoon Celtic Colours concert there, arriving in plenty of time to get a good seat near the front.
from above the Indian River guardrails
from the Fraser Road on the Washabuck Peninsula
Peninsula
Còmhla Cruinn/Gathered Together opened with an introduction in Gaelic and English by a local lady, who turned the stage over to Griogair Labhruidh, a Gaelic speaker and traditional piper from the Glencoe area of Scotland and formerly a member of the well-known band Dàimh; he was accompanied on his last three numbers by a gentleman from the Isle of Skye, whose name I did not get and can not find, who played various percussive instruments (e.g., beat box and shakers). Griogair opened with a Gaelic song during which he played the bellows pipes between verses. He next gave us a set of strathspeys and reels on bellows pipes that he learned from his father, grandfather, and other family members. He continued with a Gaelic song from the 1700’s, accompanying himself on guitar, about an angry wife who wanted to be left alone. He concluded with a final song, also accompanying himself on guitar. I was very impressed; he is a fine singer and piper as well as a great raconteur and his music was “a pure drop of traditional music”. (Griogair is also now involved with Afro-Celt hip hop music, which was apparently in evidence in his performance at the closing concert, which I did not attend, but about which I heard many very negative comments; I was therefore most fortunate that he kept to pure traditional music, much more fitting at the Christmas Island venue.) Griogair was followed by Fr Francis Cameron on fiddle and his sister, Janet Cameron, on piano, who first gave us an air/strathspeys/reels set in which I was struck by Fr Francis’ beautiful and intricate playing. Next came a fine march/strathspeys/reels set. Their third set was of jigs from Hugh A MacDonald of Antigonish. Their final set was another march/strathspeys/reels set.
After the break, Glenn Graham on fiddle and his mother, Mary Graham, on piano, came to the stage. Their first set, of Beaton family tunes, included Donald Angus Beaton’s Fr John Angus Rankin Strathspey, Andrea Beaton’s Mike to the Rescue, Glenn’s own Water in the Gas, and Kinnon Beaton’s Joël Chiasson’s Reel. Their second set was of jigs. The third set was more Beaton tunes, beginning with Kinnon’s Wesley Beaton’s March and including Kinnon’s The Telephone Reel as well as the traditional The Snowshoes Reel. Melanie MacDonald then joined Glenn and Mary on stage, who played for her to step dance. Their final set began with Donald Angus Beaton’s Angus Donald Beaton’s Lament and included John Morris Rankin’s Betty Lou Beaton’s Strathspey and Kinnon’s John Angus Beaton’s Strathspey as well as a good helping of reels. Fantastic playing by both! Griogair then returned, alone this time, and played a mixed set of vocals and, on bellows pipes, William Lawrie’s John McColl’s March and jigs, including The Drover Lads, to which Melanie step danced. He concluded with a Skye song from the end of the 17th century. The finale brought all the musicians back to the stage, with Mary and Janet sharing the piano. A march/strathspeys/reels set and a puirt a beul concluded the afternoon, during which Melanie, Glenn, and Mary all step danced. It was a fine concert of great traditional music that I thoroughly enjoyed; if you are looking for a Celtic Colours concert featuring Cape Breton’s traditional music and its Scottish roots, you should plan on attending the Christmas Island concert, which rarely disappoints.
Once the concert had ended, I drove back to Iona to the Frolic and Folk Pub for dinner (a bowl of chowder, spinach salad, and pan-fried haddock, all excellent). Leanne Aucoin and Susan MacLean were supposed to have done the cèilidh there, but Brent Aucoin filled in for his sister. Later, not long before I left, Scott MacKenzie joined them on guitar. Brent’s powerful fiddle was great to listen to and the accompaniment was likewise excellent. I talked with friends there and left off a copy of the Highland Village Day photos I’d taken in August with one of them. I left early so as to get a parking spot at the evening Celtic Colours concert in Wagmatcook.
Emceed by the host of CBC Radio Nova Scotia’s Information Morning Cape Breton, Steve Sutherland, the concert tonight, Carry the Music, featured three performances that demonstrated how Cape Breton music has carried to some far-flung places. First up was Keyreel Raskolenko, a very talented classically trained Russian violinist who, mostly by watching YouTube videos, learned to play in the Cape Breton style. I met him in 2013, when he was in Cape Breton for the 40th anniversary of the Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association Festival of Fiddling; he endeared himself to all who met him and heard him and he was a major reason I attended this concert. Tonight, he was accompanied on keyboard by Cape Breton’s own Kolten Macdonell, who had his work cut out for him, but he did a fine job of it, carrying off the complex music Keyreel often chose with aplomb. They gave us five sets of tunes, most in the Cape Breton style, but one was not; Keyreel’s tune choices often put me in mind of Dwayne Côté’s, with both selecting tunes from a vast repertoire that is otherwise not so often heard in Cape Breton. It was a great performance from both! Three Japanese musicians, known as the John John Festival, followed them on stage. Playing fiddle, guitar, and bodhrán/tambourine, they played four sets, the second of which was their rendition of the song You’ll Forget Me Not. Apparently among the most popular Irish/Celtic bands in Japan, they were all band and not to my taste, playing way too fast; they were definitely Celtic, but not Cape Breton. The best I can say about them is that they had an amazing energy level on stage. During the break, I got a chance to chat briefly with Kolten and learned that he and Keyreel had worked out the accompaniments in advance of the concert, as many of the complex tunes that Keyreel played were his own compositions.
After the break, Pepeto Pinto took the stage on steel pans, with Kolten accompanying on keyboard. Hailing from Jamaica and now living in PEI, I first heard him at a Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival a few years back and was mesmerized by the incongruous but beautiful sound he produces from his instrument; not only was he on the main stage there, but he held out for two and a half hours in the Tuning Barn afterwards, leaving me awestruck. He performs on steel drums which he has made himself and they are capable of sounding any notes on the musical scale used by Cape Breton fiddle tunes. Having lived in Cape Breton for three years, he picked up much of the Cape Breton fiddle repertoire and can very faithfully reproduce its tunes in this resonant and reverberant medium of steel pans. Pepeto and Kolten gave us three fine sets of Scottish tunes and I thoroughly enjoyed his music once again; if you have not run into his playing, I strongly suggest you seek it out. The final performance was by JP Cormier on fiddle and Troy MacGillivray on keyboard. The first set included Tulloch Gorum; the second was a great set of strathspeys and reels; the third was an air/strathspeys/reels set. All three were played with verve and technical prowess and the accompaniment was ne plus ultra. JP then invited Pepeto to return and the three gave us a set of tunes with an amazing sound. I skipped out just before the finale, about 21h50, as I was missing the West Mabou dance to attend this concert and didn’t want to get caught in the traffic delays as people regained their vehicles. In spite of my disappointment in the John John Festival, I was more than happy to have attended this concert and the steel pans continued to reverberate in my head as I made my way back to West Mabou, arriving there at 22h30, an hour and a half into the dance.
When I went into the hall, I found it as full as or fuller than it’s been anytime I’ve been there this year. Tonight’s music was by Rodney MacDonald on fiddle and Allan Dewar on real piano. As best as I could tell, 29 couples danced the third figure of the square set that was in progress as I took my seat in my usual corner; with two queues on the floor during the third figures, my counting was likely not spot on. Pius MacIsaac on guitar joined Rodney and Allan for the next set, which had at least 38 couples in its third figure. Siobhan Beaton on guitar replaced Pius and Rodney then played the step dance sequence, during which Stephen MacLennan, Iain MacQuarrie, Lewis MacLennan, Sarah MacInnis, Amanda MacDonald, and Hailee LeFort, along with one young lady whose name I don’t know, shared their fine steps. The final square set was smaller than the previous ones, but the floor was still so crowded I only got an accurate count for the nearer of the two queues, which had eleven couples. The music was top-notch, of course, and I thoroughly enjoyed the dance, sorry to have missed its start. If your goal is to hear authentic Cape Breton music, you must attend the square dances, where the music is played as it is meant to be, for dancers and not for listening—the feedback between the musicians and the dancers changes the quality of the music, bringing it to a higher level. After chatting with friends and thanking the musicians, I headed back to Port Hood and was soon very fast asleep.