Unity Centre Shows in 2011
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“Her recent 12-song record Bad Blood, produced by ‘Treme’ star and country badass Steve Earle, gives new life to the folk genre, especially on the title track: Egge’s soft-spoken lyrics float lucidly beneath a driving bass-heavy beat, tremolo guitars and spastic and distorted slide guitar”. -Cameron Matthews, Spinner”
Bad Blood was released August 23, 2011 via Ammal records. The 12-song set was produced by Steve Earle and recorded at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY. Bad Blood was mixed and mastered by Ray Kennedy (Earle and Kennedy’s production partnership includes the Grammy winning Lucinda Williams album Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, the Ron Sexsmith favorite Blue Boy, and many more. Steve Earle stated, “Ana Egge’s songs are low and lonesome, big square-stare noir ballads which she plays on a guitar she built with her own two hands and sings like she’s telling us her deepest, darkest secrets.”
Ana Egge has toured and shared the stage with Lucinda Williams, Ralph Stanley, John Prine, Ron Sexsmith, Shawn Colvin, Joan Armatrading, Iris Dement, Richard Thompson, George Jones, and many more.
John and Ellen Gawler, and their daughters, Molly, Edith and Elsie Gawler bring you an assortment of old and new sounds from many folk traditions. They accompany their warm interweaving family harmonies with fiddles, banjo, wooden banjo, cello, guitar, ukulele and piano as well as a few surprises. Whether they are crooning a quietly poignant ballad or delivering a rollicking fiddle tune, their unique arrangements are especially engaging and often go along with anecdotes of historical or humorous content. Although the Gawlers may be best known for their extensive collection of dance tunes in the Scots-Irish and French Canadian traditions their repertoire may include a gutsy Appalachian work song, a ‘Sweet Honey in the Rock’ a capella number, or an amusing ode to every day life. With the CD Golden Thread, to their credit, the Gawlers have earned a beloved place in the hearts of their audiences for their infectious spirit and sparkling musicianship to the merriment of folks of all ages.
Aoife Clancy now living in New Bedford Ma, comes from the small town of Carrick-on-Suir in Co Tipperary Ireland, where her musical career began at an early age. Her father, Bobby Clancy of the legendary Clancy Brothers, placed a guitar in her hands at age ten, and by age fourteen she was playing with him in nearby folk clubs. In 1992 Aoife moved to the States and toured for six years with the acclaimed group Cherish the Ladies doing over 200 dates a year. She has also been a featured soloist with the Boston Pops and has three solo recordings along with a CD titled “The Clancy Legacy” with cousins Robbie O'Connell & Donal Clancy.
Born in Cape Breton and raised in Antigonish County Nova Scotia, MacKinnon has played in every Atlantic Canadian Province, Ontario and in both Scotland and Ireland. In the fall of 2007 he was a featured performer at the Féile Ámhranaíochta (The Irish Song Festival in Belfast) and also in the internationally acclaimed Celtic Colours Festival, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. In 2008 his performances included the Blas Festival in Scotland and the Celtic Colours Festival again.
His all Gaelic cd entitled “A’ Seo” - “Here” earned him an East Coast Music Award nomination and the song Ailein Duinn a traditional Gaelic song was selected to be included in the Celtic Colours Festival’s 2007 compilation CD.
MacKinnon is a vocal artist who combines passion and perspective along with powerful baritone vocals in his songs. MacKinnon’s most recent effort offers interpretations of traditional material to inspire present and future generations of learners, singers and composers.
Troy MacGillivray's musical prowess can be attributed
to an especially rare combination of commitment and
bloodline. By the age of six, Troy was already impressing
audiences with his step dancing skills. By 13
he was teaching piano at the renowned Gaelic College
of Celtic Arts and Crafts in St. Anne's, Cape Breton.
Troy has a roots-centered approach to his fiddling
and piano playing that has the power to inspire any
audience. Troy's 4th CD, Live At The Music Room,
is the 2008 ECMA Instrumental Recording of the
Year
His first three recordings - ELEVEN (2005), Boomerang (2003) and Musical Ties (2001) -
also received Music Nova Scotia and East Coast Music Award nominations. His latest project, When
Here Meets There, is a unique collaboration with Canadian & US National Fiddle Champion Shane
Cook that clearly showcases why both fiddlers are at the top of their game!
Miss Tess and the Bon Ton Parade
As for their singing, when Matt and Shannon perform centuries-old songs, it feels current, conversational. They make traditional music relevant to American audiences. O’Regan wrote “songwise [there are] hints an older domestic sound, the familiar down home harmonies of The Carter Family and Tim and Mollie O’Brien.”
Like Richard Thompson or Nic Jones, the Heatons’ music comes from a traditional aesthetic, a devotion to strong traditional bones, and a passion for reaching out to the modern world around them. They are devoted to Irish traditional music and uplift listeners by connecting with each other and the people around them.
Alan Reid and Rob van Sante
Tremolino is a trio of Waldo County musicians featuring singer Leslie Stein. Stein has sung various kinds of music over the years, from folk to rock to musicals and jazz. Fado is her current passion, and she plays guitar. Stein has also performed as an actor in Mid-Coast and Central Maine theaters. The group also includes guitarist Jim Macdonald, a graduate of the Allman Brothers School of Endless Guitar Solos who has explored many kinds of music, and Chris Marshall, who has been in a Russian balalaika group, a Javanese gamelan and a Bulgarian dance band. Tremolino’s repertoire also includes songs from Spain, Greenwich Village and other exotic locales.
In addition, the lovely Shana Bloomstein will interpret in dance the songs of Fado. Imaginative and delightful to watch, she has been enchanting audiences in the area for years since growing up in Freedom.
This is a benefit show for 
Frank began his fiddling at age 8, influenced first by his grandfather, a traditional musician and native of Ohio and West Virginia. His father's family originally came from the Longford area of Ireland via Maritime Canada. Frank rekindled his interest in traditional fiddling under the influence of local Irish, French-Acadian, and Canadian Maritimes fiddlers while stationed at the old Charlestown Navel Shipyard in Boston in the 1960's.
Those were the days when Kerry fiddler Paddy Cronin held forth at the old Greenville Tap in Dudley Square, while up and down Dudley Street, Cape Breton Irish and French Acadian maritime music drifted out of dancehall windows at such legendary places as the Rose Croix, O'Connell Hall and the Hibernian. There you could dance to the fiddling of Winston Scotty Fitzgerald, Bill Lamey, Tommy Doucet, and Angus Chisholm, just to mention a few. And if it wasn't the dances, there was always the old Hillbilly Ranch on Washington Street down in the Combat Zone, a good place to listen and sit in with the likes of Bill Keith, Tex Logan, and the Lilly Brothers.|
The Toughcats
Saturday October 15 at 7:30 pm Pop quiz: What could cause a band to play a Devo-esque robotic klesmer melody in the middle of a poppy, bluegrass dance hit? Answer: the suitcase. 
A three piece indie folk band from the Fox Islands in Penobscot Bay,
the Toughcats lend a contemporary and interesting feel to Scruggs-style bluegrass, deep South ragtime, and singer-songwritery folk that shows a great feel for songwriting and fine musicianship.
The trio showcases Jake Greenlaw on suitcase, percussion and vocals; Colin Gulley on banjo, mandolin and vocals; and Joe Nelson on guitar and lead vocals.
Though you might peg them as a bluegrass band, the Tough Cats have just as much Tom Waits as twang in their sound. Their second album, 2006’s "Pinata," combines old-timey picking with a rock edge, all buoyed by a sense of humor, some wicked vocal harmonies and a whole lot of energy. The band’s sophomore album Run to the Mill
was released February of 2010.
“Call it new old-time music, folk revival, or whatever the heck you want to,
but this trio will likely be making waves beyond their home of Penobscot
Bay, Maine with their well-crafted songs and infectious playing soon
enough, and you should be in the know when it happens.”
-Ben Johnson in The New London Day, CT
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Stanley & Grimm
Thursday October 13 at 7:30 pm 
Celtic duo Stanley & Grimm entertain with a celebration of traditional music through old and new interpretations of jigs, reels, and songs played with lively fiddle, guitar, and voice. Fiddler Nikki Engstrom and singer/guitarist Sean Brennan create a musical journey through a bounty of fiddle tunes and ballads of all origins, alongside modern tunes and songs they have composed. Their second CD, Another Round, was awarded the Celtic Radio Music Award for the 2008 Album of the Year, and also took top honors in the “Jigs & Reels” category. Celtic Radio Network describes their music as “emotionally stirring, exhilarating, perfectly splendid!” The infectious fun they have on stage and their intense playing have helped them to become fan favorites on the New England traditional music scene. Their newest CD Stanley and Grimm, Open the Gate is available now.
Nikki has delighted audiences for over two decades with her spirited and sensitive playing. Through a broad range of fiddle music from old and new sets of jigs and reels to slow airs, with Sean's warm vocals and rhythmic guitar, Stanley & Grimm capture the essence and energy of great traditional music.
Tickets $15 |
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Hot Club of Cowtown
Wednesday October 12 at 7:30 pm Since their first recording in 1998, Austin-based Hot Club of Cowtown have grown to be the most globe-trotting, hardest-swinging Western swing trio on the planet. The first American band to tour Azerbaijan, they have opened stadiums for such artists as Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson and  continue to bring their brand of western swing to a wide range of festival audiences all over the world. But for guitarist Whit Smith, fiddler Elana James and bassist Jake Erwin, it has always been about staying true to their roots.
Remaining willfully out of the musical mainstream, Hot Club of Cowtown have created an international cult following for their sonic personification of joy and unique sound inspired by their namesakes: “Hot Club” from the hot jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli’s Hot Club of France, and “Cowtown” from the Western swing influence of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. “This Austin-based Western swing/jazz trio–violin, guitar and upright bass–will bring even the tamest audience to its feet. Plus, instrument aficionados will drool over the 1925 Gibson acoustic, 1937 Gibson amp and all the other classic gear that helps to keep Cowtown hot and hoppin.” -- Chicago Tribune Tickets $15 |
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Joy Kills Sorrow
Wednesday October 5 at 7:30 pm With its bold new brand of acoustic music, Joy Kills Sorrow pushes right through the envelope and out the other side. The Boston-based string band brings a decidedly modern sensibility to an old-world sound, channeling the prodigious talents of its individual members into elegant arrangements and well-crafted songs.  While the group pays due homage to its Bluegrass roots—its name is taken from WJKS, a radio station that broadcasted the Monroe brothers’ show in the 1930s—the band truly excels in its rich and textured treatment of more contemporary material. Boasting a full arsenal of original songs, Joy Kills Sorrow plumbs the entire spectrum of its spare instrumentation, effortlessly merging influences as diverse as folk, rock, pop, and jazz. The music that emerges is dark and often funny, ruminating on modern life and love with eloquence and wit. The result is a radical new strain of folk music, one that bravely breaks with tradition even as it salutes the past.
“Subtle and snazzy, this new jack acoustic outfit merges bluegrass with jazz like it was the most natural combination in the world. Meanwhile, singers and songwriters Emma Beaton and Bridget Kearney bring wry existential intelligence and a haunting, Celtic/Canadian interpretive quality to their delicate yet determined tales of contemporary dislocation and off-kilter love. - Los Angeles Daily News Tickets $15 |
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Emily Smith
Tuesday October 4 at 7:30 pm Emily Smith is one of the leading singers of the contemporary Scottish folk scene. Her powerful, clear vocals have gained her award winning, worldwide recognition. As a songwriter Emily has been likened to 'a Scottish Joni Mitchell',  but as a passionate collector she is equally adept at presenting fresh and evocative interpretations of traditional songs.
Emily's childhood was spent dancing to music, rather than performing it, in her mother's dance school. She grew up assuming everyone knew how to do a highland fling and weekends were spent dancing at ceilidhs rather than nightclubs. Aged seven she started out on piano; moved onto snare drum in the local pipe band and subsequently found a passion for piano accordion, where at the age of eighteen she was National Mod champion. But it wasn't until a solo with the school choir in her late teens that Emily discovered her singing voice. She moved to Glasgow in 1999 where she gained an Honours degree in Scottish Music from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. With principal study of Scots Song, she also studied accordion and piano.
Winning BBC Radio Scotland's Young Traditional Music of the Year Award in 2002 gave Emily the confidence and impetus she needed to pursue a career in music. In the same year she met New Zealand born multi-instrumentalist Jamie McClennan who had travelled to Scotland to pursue his own music career. Jamie joined Emily's band initially on fiddle and has been an integral part of her sound ever since, helping to arrange and produce Emily's albums and has now settled into the role of lead guitarist in her band.
Emily soon found her interpretation of traditional Scots songs coupled with her own compositions were gathering appeal both in the UK and further afield and the last eight years have seen her regularly perform to audiences throughout Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, USA and Canada.
Emily has released three solo albums with her fourth; 'Traiveller's Joy' launched at Celtic Connections in January 2011.
Tickets $15 |
Since her acclaimed seven year tenure as lead singer of Cherish the Ladies, the Detroit born Ryan has established herself as one of Celtic Music's most popular and enduring singer-songwriters. The Boston Globe recently wrote, "Cathie Ryan is a thrilling traditional vocalist whose honey-pure soprano is equally at home on probing original ballads about a woman's place in the modern world."
Cathie has released 4 critically acclaimed CDs on Shanachie Records: Cathie Ryan, The Music of What Happens, Somewhere Along the Road, and her latest The Farthest Wave. She is featured on more than forty compilations of Celtic Music.
In 2003 Cathie was included in the famous Irish music collection, A Woman's Heart - A Decade On placing her amongst Irish music's finest female vocalists and songwriters. It was the first time Americans were featured in the series and she shared the honor with Allison Krauss, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. In recent years, her original songs have been recorded by such distinguished Irish vocalists as Frances Black and Mary Black among others. Cathie has performed on national and public television in the United States and Europe, appeared on NPR's Mountain Stage and Thistle and Shamrock, PRI's The World, BBC2 in England, Radio Scotland, and RTE, RnG, and TG4 in Ireland. She was voted one of the Top 100 Irish Americans by Irish America Magazine, Chicago's Irish American News honored her as Irish Female Vocalist of the Decade, and the LA Times recently named her, "One of the leading voices in Celtic music."
Since 2001, when the freshly-formed band landed a spot on the innovative Irish television show Flosc, Téada, has evolved to frequent headline performances at major music festivals throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Israel and Australia. A notable highlight was a headlining appearance to a 30,000-audience in Brittany during 2006, a year which also saw the band launch a hugely successful CD/DVD 'Inné Amárach', released by Gael Linn and Compass Records.
With lush Irish orchestration, Téada, meaning "strings" in the Irish language revels in the vibrant traditional music of Ireland, deftly playing up its structural intricacies while preserving the timeless energy of the reels, jigs, hornpipes, and other lesser-known tunes in the repertoire.
Ti' Acadie is French for "a little Acadia". Band members are: Pam Weeks on fiddle, mountain dulcimer, mandolin, piano, guitar, Celtic harp, singing; Jim Joseph on button accordion, 5 string banjo, mandolin, jaw harp, feet, percussion, singing; Bill Olson on guitar, bass, singing, calling. They play Quebecoise, old timey, and New England dance tunes for contradances, school events, parties, weddings; Cajun dance tunes and songs for Cajun dancing and all the previously mentioned gigs; and they sing the songs they like (mostly old time Southern but not all) in 3 part harmony in addition to the above for concerts. As the band name implies they do a lot of North American French music and like being a link between Northern Acadian music and Southern Cajun music as often as they can!
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Roosevelt Dime and O Deer
Saturday September 10 at 7:30 pm Roosevelt Dime and O Deer will perform at 7:30 PM at the Unity Centre for the Performing Arts as part of the Maine Grassroots Media Conference, hosted by WERU and Unity College.
Roosevelt Dime is a five-piece from Brooklyn, New York that blends elements of acoustic jug-band blues, classic Motown soul and modern alt-country to create an original sound best described as King’s County Steamboat Soul. O Deer is an alternative folk group that uses a mixture of dusty pump organs, stringed instruments, vocal arrangements and brass to create songs full of silk laden-myths and never-before-told-tales. The group’s four members co-run the Open Mic at Tender Hearth in the rural, coastal town of Brooksville, Maine. The group finds inspiration from the last minute, any-instrument-will-work, sing-along collaborations that commonly occur at the events. O Deer is currently working on their first album, due out this winter. The event is open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to donate $5 to $10. For more information about the event or the conference, visit mainegrassrootsmedia.org or call 207-469-6600. |
Band members, including Mid-Coast Maine native Eben Pariser, mix banjo, bass, drums/percussion, trumpet/cornet and woodwinds into a sound that is sure to bring listeners out of their seats in a toe-tapping frenzy. Roosevelt Dime’s nontraditional lineup and seamless mixture of musical genres has already caught the eye of many fans and publications, including The New York Times. Now, the group is poised for a breakthrough with its new album, Steamboat Soul, in stores now.
listening to the best musicians in contemporary folk. The results are
well described by Bill Fox of Skidmore College: “Kyle’s songs are
‘classic’ in the best sense of the word. None of the immature ‘reading
from a diary’ silliness of so many singer-songwriters, but rather
perspective—subtle expressions of human experience from a variety of
perspectives.”
In the winter of 2011 Kyle traveled to Western Ireland to record her
debut album, ‘Monongah’. Produced by Donogh Hennessy (Lùnasa),
‘Monongah’ features Athelone-based guitarist Neil Fitzgibbon, Pauline
Scanlon (Lumiere) and Aoife Clancy (Cherish the Ladies) on harmony
vocals, Cape Breton fiddler Rosie MacKenzie (The Cottars), Brendan O’
Sullivan (Gràda), old-time fiddler Cleek Schrey, Appalachian expert
John Kirk (Quickstep) on mandolin and banjo, and Trevor Hutchinson
(The Waterboys, Lùnasa) on double bass.
At age 20, Rosie MacKenzie is already a veteran performer and
recording artist, recognized as one of the finest young Cape Breton
fiddlers on the traditional music scene. She exploded onto that scene
as the youngest member of The Cottars in 2001, and has been winning
over audiences with her electrifying musicianship, engaging stage
presence, and stepdance prowess ever since. Rosie is the latest in a
proud lineage of Cape Breton fiddlers including greats such as Buddy
MacMaster, Jerry Holland, Natalie MacMaster, and Ashley MacIsaac. When
Rosie carries that proud musical legacy onto the stage, she does so
with an unmistakable flare and passion, which immediately draws the
audience in, and captivates them throughout her performance. And Rosie
is downright kinetic when she takes the stage – she is in constant
motion from start to finish, standing, sitting, stomping her feet,
interacting with fellow musicians and the audience, even stepdancing
while she plays.
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The Tartan Terrors
Thursday September 1 at 7:30 pm 
Taking the Celtic scene by storm, the Tartan Terrors, North America's premiere Celtic Event, features the best in music, comedy and dance. Bolstered by the blistering piping of a Two Time World Champion Bagpiper, the driving tones of drums from around the world, and a guitar played unlike any you've ever heard, standing room only audiences understand why Dig This Magazine declares "(The Terrors) one act to keep an eye on!" Combine this musical prowess with championship calibre Highland Dancers and intentionally recognized comedic performers and this Celtic Group goes beyond the ordinary. Member of the Tartan Terrors have performed on 4 different continents; in some of the most prestigious Festivals, Highland Games and Theatres of North America; for President Clinton; Queen Elizabeth II; and Good Morning America. They're even streaming for on-demand listening in multiple international podcasts including a coveted spot on Pulse of the Planet in Spain! Join the phenomenon of the Tartan Terrors and see why Celtic Beat Magazine hails them as "the heirs apparent to the [Celtic] mayhem."
Tickets $20 |
Born into the well known and respected Chaisson family helped to immerse J. J. in the world of traditional music from an early age. He began gracing halls and stages across the Island when he was barely able to touch the floor while sitting in a chair; word spread quickly about this young prodigy.
When he was just 14 years old he released his first CD. "In the Genes" was a tribute to his two grandfathers.
While still in high school, J. J. and his cousins formed the Celtic Rock band known as "Kindle". This group was recognized with a nomination as Best New Group at the 2000 ECMA'S and a nationally televised performance at the awards show. The group traveled widely throughout Canada and into the USA. J. J. served as front man on fiddle and as a vocalist and he continued to astound audiences wherever he performed.
In 2002 his second CD was released and entitled "Class Act". This CD again showed his enormous talent on fiddle and introduced his listening audiences to his skill as a guitarist. J. J. continued to travel widely and audiences continued to want more and more of this delightful performer. His personality is equally as powerful as his playing and he reaches out to young and old alike with smiles and endless jokes and stories.
J. J. is now married to the love of his life Julie MacDonald Chaisson . He is captain of a lobster boat aptly named "Chaisson a Dream" and he loves his time at sea. He fishes the cold Atlantic from May 1st till June 30th each spring for lobsters. When the "fishing season ends" the music season starts. He plays at locations across Prince Edward Island throughout the summer and travels off Island whenever the opportunity arises.
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Ashelin
Thursday August 18 at 7:30 pm Ashelin is a band of five sisters - Cassy, Joesie, Kaliyan, Shaelin, and Thea from Newfoundland Canada. The sisters began singing and dancing to Newfoundland and Irish music as far back as they can remember while learning to play a stunning variety of instruments. Although they never expected this childhood passion for all things musical to be anything but family focused, they were soon embarking on a musical journey that is winning them attention and fans around the world. 
Known for their sparkling vocals and intricate harmonies, Ashelin’s brand of folk roots and pop shines through their original songwriting and novel interpretations of traditional tunes.
The band’s original song “Song for Mariana” was a winner from over 600 contenders for David Suzuki’s “Playlist for the Planet,” a soon-to-be-released CD which brings them together with some of Canada’s finest songwriters and performers. Other winners for this prestigious release include Gordon Lightfoot, Bruce Cockburn, Broken Social Scene, k-os, Randy Bachman (with Sarah McLachlan and Nikki Yanofsky), Joel Plaskett, Great Big Sea, Johnny Reid, and RUSH.
Ashelin’s 2010 release “The Road Not Taken” was produced by Grammy Award winning producer/engineer George Massenburg and ECMA award winning producer/engineer Al Strickland, and features performances by the crme de la crme of East Coast talent including bassist Jamie Gatti, multi-instrumentalist J.P. Cormier, and bluesman John Campbell John among others.
These five fresh talents, who can cast a spell over their audiences, are ready to take their place among the greatest talent Canada has produced.
Tickets $15 |
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De Temps Antan
Thursday August 11 at 7:30 pm It takes a special blend of musical flair to create memorable songs of yesteryear! Songs with a hint of contemporary—dosed with uncontrolled laughter, deep-rooted couplets and sudden, impromptu shifts—that speak to familiar rhythms of the past. Welcome to the original musical stylings of De Temps Antan! Since 2003, Éric Beaudry, André Brunet and Pierre-Luc Dupuis have been exploring and performing time-honoured melodies from the stomping grounds of Quebec’s musical past. Using fiddle, accordion, harmonica, guitar, bouzouki and a number of other instruments, our three virtuosos blend boundless energy with the unmistakable joie de vivre found only in traditional Quebec music. In fact, the only thing missing from this magnificent musical blend is you! So come enjoy an evening unlike any other with De Temps Antan. Tickets $15 |
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Fishtank Ensemble
Saturday August 6 at 8 pm The LA Weekly calls them “cross pollinated gypsy music….one of the most thrilling young acts on the planet.” Formed in 2005 and playing everywhere from the hippest LA clubs to festivals, cultural centers, museums, parades, and even on the street, the band includes two explosive violins,  the world's best slap bass player, musical saw, flamenco and gypsy jazz guitar, trombone, opera, jazz and gypsy vocals, accordion and one little banjolele. Tackling everything from French hot jazz to wild Serbian and Transylvanian gypsy anthems, Flamenco, and oddball originals, the band is a not to be missed event for world music lovers...and everyone will love this intoxicating mix of music.
The dynamic, virtuosic, fiery and peripatetic quartet that comprises Fishtank Ensemble take their roots both from their own varied musical and national backgrounds, as well as from their adventures and travels. The singer Ursula sang opera on the streets and town squares of Italy, until she found a love of gypsy music...their French violinist voyaged around all of Europe in a handmade mule-drawn caravan for ten years, collecting music and experiences. Their Serbian bass player has spent time playing with gypsies as well as some of the rock and roll's legends, and aptly defends his reputation as the best slap bass player in the world... and the guitarist is a master of flamenco and gypsy jazz guitar who honed his craft in the gypsy caves of Granada, Spain... Whatever wild time you can expect from this band, it will never match their out of this world performance! Tickets $15 |
The Spinney Brothers
Thursday August 4 at 7:30 pm From the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Canada, The Spinney Brothers are comprised of Allan Spinney, Rick Spinney, Gary Dalrymple and Terry Mumford. Brother Allan and Rick debuted their band in 1992, showcasing a tight brother duet vocal style that was immediately recognized for it's energetic and distinctive sound. The cornerstone of The Spinney Brothers musical identity is the sound of traditional, southern-flavoured bluegrass music. The first generation bluegrass legends have been an important musical influence, yet their music is equally shaped by their personal lives and local heritage. By incorporating original material, which draws from various sources, the Spinney Brothers effortlessly intertwine the past with the present. Tickets $15 |
The Bb Sisters with Skip Holmes
Thursday July 28 at 7:30 pm Kimberley Holmes and Sherryl Fitzpatrick, The Bb Sisters, have emerged onto the Traditional Folk music scene as a new duo with fresh Canadian fiddle tunes. With driving Quebecois jigs and reels, traditional Cape Breton and Irish tunes, soulful slow airs enveloped in beautiful harmonies, this duo will certainly take you on a rich journey through the diverse repertoire of the Ottawa Valley, Maritimes, Quebec as well as exploring their original music. This unique duo will highlight their ability to switch from fiddle to piano as well as incorporating their beautiful blends of harmonies. Tickets $15 |
Ian Sherwood with Carmel Mikol and Charlie A'Court
With a Trad trio comprised of the amazing Jason Roach on piano, and embarrassingly talented Darren MacMullen (bouzouki, mandolin, guitar, banjo) Grant hooked up with the rough and red-eyed blues/funk rhythm section of Merlin Clarke and Donnie Calabrese on bass and drums. Together, the group produces a fervent yet calculated rhythm that backs an expressively diverse range of tunes. While the lively sound never strays too distantly from its Celtic roots, the Colin Grant Band has found an open ear in everyone from indie scenesters to blue-haired bingo stampers.
Colin has just released his second full-length album, Fun For the Whole Family-a highly anticipated follow-up to the acclaimed Colin Grant solo debut.
The Brew
Friday July 8 at 8:30 pm Massachusetts-based quartet The Brew cook up a musical melting pot on their brand-new, self-released album, Back to the Woods, that combines their roots in classic rock, adding ingredients of prog, jazz, reggae, world beat, indie, funk and orchestral pop, sometimes in the course of a single song. The band has been busy building a fan base by touring the northeast, playing events like the Gathering of the Vibes in Connecticut and the Up North Festival in Maine and headlining Boston’s famed Paradise Rock Club. They opened for Bruce Hornsby in 2006, and again in 2008, and were voted Best Opening Act by his fan site. This year, the band was nominated for the “Best New Groove” (Best New Artist) award at the J ammy’s in New York City’s Madison S quare Garden. Their eclectic stylistic palette can be heard clearly on Back to the Woods, from the tribal world beat and prog-rock of “Seen It All” and the reggae rhythm of “Looking Down” to the jazz-funk and Sting-like vocal on “Control,” the lush Beach Boys a cappella harmonies of the title track and the Queen-like overkill of “Castle Walls” and the climactic “Chance Reaching.” Tickets $12.50 |
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The Kane Sisters
Thursday July 7 at 7:30 pm From North Connemara, Liz and Yvonne Kane, known as The Kane Sisters, are much respected musicians and educators. Born in Letterfrack, they were taught music by their grandfather, local fiddle player, Jimmy Mullen and Mary Finn, a Co.Sligo musician and teacher. 
Liz and Yvonne first came to national and international prominence during the three year period in which they toured with accordion player, Sharon Shannon as members of her band, The Woodchoppers. They travelled all over the world with her band and are featured artists on Sharon’s album ‘The Diamond Mountain Sessions’. At that time, a Hot Press review by Siobhan Long confirmed ‘...while 'Fire in their Bellies' (with Liz and Yvonne Kane) is ensemble playing at its best and most naked.'
Following this period of touring with Sharon Shannon, the girls decided to embark musically on their own and they recorded their first album together entitled ‘The Well Tempered Bow’. This received rave reviews including this review from well known New
York music critic, Earle Hitchner:
“Aptly titled, 'The Well-Tempered Bow' is fine-honed unison fiddling by two musicians who know how to draw out the heat and light within a melody. There's no superficial flashiness substituting for a more difficult-to-achieve understanding of what makes a tune tick. This duo debut has real depth and heft, with superb accompaniment from guitarist and pianist John Blake, a member of the band Téada. The Kanes Head Up Best Traditional Albums of 2002”
The Kane Sisters toured Ireland and the United States following the release of their first album and this followed with a second album entitled ‘Under the Diamond’ in 2004.
Tickets $15 |
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The Outside Track
Thursday June 30 at 7:30 pm A stunning synthesis of virtuosity and energy, The Outside Track's marriage of Canadian, Scottish and Irish music and song has been rapturously received around the world. Hailing from Scotland, Ireland, Cape Breton and Vancouver, its five members are united by a love of traditional music and a commitment to creating new music on its foundation. Using fiddle, accordion, harp, guitar, flute, step-dance and vocals these five virtuosos blend boundless energy with unmistakable joie de vivre. 
Each player within The Outside Track is a master of their chosen instrument with the band stacking up an impressive amount of international awards. This amount of talent alone would be enough to recommend the band but in this case the end result is so much greater than the sum of the parts.
The line up comprises Norah Rendell (Canadian Traditional Singer of the Year nominee), Mairi Rankin (Beolach), Ailie Robertson (Live Ireland Winner, BBC Young Trad Finalist), Fiona Black (BBC Fame Academy Winner), and Cillian O'Dalaigh.
The band have enjoyed 5 years of extensive touring in the UK, Europe, Canada and the USA, including appearances at Celtic Connections, Celtic Colours, Goderich, Mission, Memoire et Racines, Sidmouth, and Whitby Festivals.
Tickets $15 |
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Lennie Gallant
Thursday June 23 at 7:30 pm 
Recognized by his peers as one of Canada’s best performing songwriters, Lennie Gallant is a native of Prince Edward Island now living in Nova Scotia. This prolific songwriter has recorded nine albums (seven in English and two in French), which have won him a host of awards and nominations from both the JUNOs and East Coast Music Awards. His album, "When We Get There" was nominated for a JUNO Award and went into space aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in July 2009. Canadian astronaut Julie Payette chose the album for the astronaut crew to enjoy.
With the release of "If We Had A Fire" in 2009 he claims it is his best work yet. Recorded in beautiful St Cecilia Studios on the outskirts of Halifax, the album holds 14 new Gallant songs, performed by the artist and some of the best musicians the East Coast has to offer. "If We Had A Fire" Won the 2010 "Roots Recording of the Year" at the East Coast Music Awards.
He has shared the stage with such accomplished songwriters as Lucinda Williams, Roger Hodgson (Supertramp), Patti Griffin, and Ron Sexsmith and has represented Canada at songwriter events in Nashville, London, and Texas. “Our northern neighbor has given us some of the best songwriters living today. You can add Lennie Gallant to that list.” -- The Performing Songwriter
Tickets $20 |
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Girsa
Thursday June 16 at 7:30 pm 
The women of Girsa have all known each other since they were very young, growing up participating in Irish music and dance in their community of Pearl River, New York.
Most of them come from musical families, with their parents having learned Irish traditional music from such greats as Martin Mulvihill, Maureen Glynn Connelly, and Pete Kelly. Some of their parents and their lifelong friends carry on this great tradition by teaching music in the community.
"We loved playing together so much that we started our own band just over 6 years ago and called it Girsa, which means “young girls” in Gaelic. We’ve been having tons of fun ever since!"
Tickets $15 |
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Nuala Kennedy with Andrea Beaton and Owen Marshall
Thursday June 9 at 7:30 pm 
Nuala Kennedy is a singer and flautist playing traditional music from
Scotland, Ireland and the fathomless realms of her own imagination. She is
currently promoting her second solo album released on Compass Records in 2010.
Based in her adopted homeland of Scotland, Irish singer and flute player Nuala Kennedy performs a range of material from across the Irish and Scottish traditional music repertoires. She also composes her own idiosyncratic brand of music and tours in a variety of lineups from duo and quartet to a nine-piece festival band.
Nuala grew up in Dundalk, playing traditional music in an award-winning local ceilidh band Ceoltoiri Oga Oghrialla. She also studied classical piano under Professor John O'Connor at the Royal Academy of Music in Dublin. Recent collaborative projects included a Scottish tour with Voyage de Nuit, showcasing songs and compositions inspired by flamenco, jazz and traditional music
Tickets $15 |
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Buddy MacDonald & Rachel Davis
Thursday June 2 at 7:30 pm Buddy's career as a singer, song-writer, entertainer, began thirty years ago. 
Born and brought up on the Northern Shores of Cape Breton Island, he was exposed at an early age, to the singing and story telling of some of the great Celtic singers of his native Island. Much of his song-writing is still influenced by this style he was so familiar with as a young boy. Over the years he has travelled and entertained audiences throughout Canada, the United States, Germany, Scotland and the Scandinavian countries, performing as a solo act and in different combinations with other musicians from Cape Breton. He has performed on stage with many of Eastern Canada's traditional artists such as Natalie MacMaster, Howie Mac Donald, Ashley MacIssac, Dave MacIssac, John Allan Cameron and more. Since  Celtic Colours International Festival began ten years ago, Buddy has been the host of the late night Festival Club, and has performed over various parts of the Island with Scotland?s Dougie MacLean,Archie Fisher, Irelands Tommy Makem, Michael Black, and hosts of other artists from all over the world of music.
Now considered one of the best young Cape Breton style players currently on the go, Rachel Davis was fortunate enough to be the recipient of the 2009 Frank “Big Sampy” Sampson Award, which is sponsored by the Celtic Colours Festival Volunteer Driver Association, and Lakewind Sound Studios, giving financial aid for a Cape Breton artist to record their first CD. Her self-titled debut album was released during the Celtic Colours Festival that October, with a CD release party held at the late night Festival Club. Her CD has received rave reviews, with articles in the Cape Breton Post, Rambles.net, fRoots magazine, and Penguin Eggs Magazine. Cuts from Rachel’s debut album have been featured on promotional CDs for Lakewind Sound Studios and Cape Breton University. Tickets $15 |
Cynthia MacLeod
Thursday May 26 at 7:30 pm From her home base in tiny Prince Edward Island, Canada, fiddling sensation Cynthia MacLeod has built an international reputation that is expanding around the globe. It's a reputation founded in raw talent, nurtured by boundless energy, and polished to a gleaming finish by a touring schedule that has taken her across Canada, through New England, and as far away as Japan. And all this before she's 25 years old. In that time, she has produced three critically-acclaimed (and top-selling) CDs. Head Over Heels (2002) won her instant credibility with a hard-bitten music industry and was named Album of the Year. Her second CD, Crackerjack (2004), built on her growing reputation as a precise, lively interpreter of traditional fiddle music. Hot Off The Floor (2007) combined that traditional sound with newer compositions and cemented Cynthia's place among the very best in East Coast fiddle music. Tickets $15 |
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Cadence
Monday May 23 at 7:30 pm Four men. Four microphones. No instruments. This is the formula for Canada’s celebrated vocal band, Cadence. 
Combining the lyricism of Stan Getz, the sophisticated harmonies of the Count Basie Big Band and the devil-may-care attitude of Louis Prima, this fabulous foursome has been entertaining audiences worldwide for over a decade with their innovative jazz arrangements, genre-hopping covers and eclectic originals. With an infectious energy and a good measure of wild stage antics, this cool cat rat pack of musical misfits is guaranteed to leave you shouting out for more. “One of the finest quartets to make an appearance in the a cappella scene,” Cadence continues to thrill its fans night after night by pushing a cappella music to new heights and demonstrating that the human voice has no limits.
Cadence's three-time Juno-nominated albums have been met with wide critical acclaim, having received numerous awards and nominations including Best Jazz Song, Best Original Composition and Best Rock/Pop Album (CARA AWARDS.) Their 2005 release Twenty for One was nominated for the Juno Award for Best Vocal Jazz Album alongside such established musical mainstays as Diana Krall and Paul Anka. Most recently, Cadence's 2010 release - Speak Easy - hit the Top Ten on the Jazz Radio charts in France.
Tickets $15 |
The Press Gang
"The Old Blind Dogs play with a compelling energy and intoxicating rhythm," says The Scotsman, "as players and audience seem to share a wild ecstasy of emotion." Sixteen years is a long time in the life of any band and most who reach that milestone are content to rest on the tried and true formulas that have worked in the past. Not so for Scotlands Old Blind Dogs whose newly released Four on the Floor takes them bravely in many new directions.
The Dogs, one of Scotlands most highly touted traditional folk bands, are not known for shying away from change. A strong, shared musical vision has allowed the group to ride out inevitable line-up changes to the extent that the only original member still with the band is Jonny Hardie (fiddle, guitar and vocals). The Dogs popularity has never dimmed though and the current foursome of Hardie, Aaron Jones (bouzouki, guitar, vocals), Ali Hutton (Border pipes, whistles, vocals) and Fraser Stone (drums, percussion) have proven more than capable of carrying on the tradition of the band that the Montreal Gazette called ...a Scots neo-traditional supergroup with a bracingly modern musical attack.
Together, in varying line-ups along with past members Buzzby McMillan (bass, bouzouki, vocals), Davy Cattanach (percussion, vocals), Fraser Fifield (saxophone, small pipes), Paul Jennings (percussion), Rory Campbell (Border pipes, whistles, vocals) and singer/guitarists Ian Benzie and Jim Malcolm, the Dogs have released ten albums and have won numerous awards including the prestigious title of Folk Band of the Year at the 2004 and 2007 Scots Trad Music Awards. Their latest album 'Four On The Floor' also picked up the IAP 'Best Celtic CD' Award.
The Prince Edward Island Fiddle Camp Roadshow will feature Master instructors Ward MacDonald, Pastelle LeBlanc and Pascal Miousse. The Pineland Fiddlers with Ellen Gawler will open for the Masters.
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OLAS
Friday April 22 at 7:30 pm Heavily influenced by Andalusian Flamenco and Arabic folk music, translated through a blend of American folk, rock, Arabic, and Afro-Cuban sounds,  OLAS is an original, all acoustic mash-up of very raw and passionate music and dance, complete with songs sung in Spanish, original, non-traditional dance choreography, and traditional instruments such as the cajon, oud, ney and guitar.
The musicians of OLAS come from a rich and diverse musical scene based in Portland, Maine. Chriss Sutherland and Tom Kovacevic hail from Cerberus Shoal and Fire on Fire, Dylan Blanchard from Portlands premier salsa band Grupo Esperanza, and Leif Sherman Curtis from Conifer, who has released two records on Important Records. Dancers Lindsey Bourassa and Megan Keogh come from an eclectic dance background that includes ballet, modern, jazz, salsa, and flamenco. And palmeras Molly Angie and Anna Trunzo are local artists from Portland, ME who have spent the past year learning and performing the palmas rhythms inherent to the music of OLAS.
All proceeds from this performance will go to Unity Barn Raisers Tickets $15 |
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Long Time Courting
Thursday April 21 at 7:30 pm 
Take four individually accomplished traditional musicians and singers with fresh attitudes. Combine them, and you have the rich, soaring four-part vocal arrangements and high energy Irish jigs and reels that are Long Time Courting.
Long Time Courting brings heavenly harmonies to old and new ballads and serves up a zesty side of dance tunes!
Bringing together the talents of Sarah Blair on fiddle/vocals, Liz Simmons on guitar/vocals, Shannon Heaton on flute/vocals, and Ariel Friedman on cello/vocals, this Boston-based band shares a love of traditional Irish and American music as well as contemporary material. They bring elements of these various genres to their traditional repertoire in a way that is seamlessly innovative and fun!
"Long Time Courting infuses traditional ballads, jigs, and reels with fresh life and energy and vocal harmonies that are nothing short of sublime... Their rendition of “Barbara Allen” is beautiful enough to break your heart." - Nashua Telegraph Tickets $15 |
who didn't begin a music career until he was forty. But folded into those strange facts is the secret to his unique genius.
In addition to a prolific solo career, performing on fiddle, guitar, and banjo, Molsky frequently joins genre-busting supergroups, like the Grammy-nominated Fiddlers Four, and Mozaik, with Hungarian Nikola Parov, and Celtic giant Donal Lunny. He was on Nickel Creek's farewell tour, and performs in a trio with Scottish fiddler Aly Bain and Sweden's great Ale Moller.
"Playing in these kinds of groups is an important part of what I do," Molsky says. "Regionalism was one of the hallmarks of traditional music in the old days; now we're in the Information Age, and I don't think that's what folk music does anymore. But the more cultures I discover, the more I realize that folk music performs the same function for everybody; and therefore is the same thing everywhere - just spoken with different accents."
Great fiddlers ask him to teach at their fiddle camps, including Alasdair Fraser, Jay Ungar, and Mark O'Connor, who says Molsky has "a mystical awareness of how to bring out the new in something that is old."
"Young people realize this is a guy who's tapped into the real deep emotional wellsprings of this music," says Matt Glaser, director of Berklee's American Roots Program. "He has a way of removing everything that's unnecessary; and young people are very hungry for something real. Bruce has that in spades."
Fraser,
acclaimed by the San Francisco Examiner as “the Michael Jordan of
Scottish fiddling,” has a concert and recording career spanning 30 years,
with a long list of awards, accolades, television credits, and feature
performances on top movie soundtracks (Last of the Mohicans,Titanic).
Fraser has been sponsored by the British Council to represent Scotland’s
music internationally, and received the Scottish Heritage Center Service
Award for outstanding contributions to Scottish culture and traditions.
The 25-year-old Haas, a graduate of
the Juilliard School of Music, wasn’t
even born when Alasdair was
winning national fiddle competitions
on the other side of the Atlantic.
But this seemingly unlikely pairing is
the fulfillment of a long-standing
musical dream for Fraser, whose
cutting-edge musical explorations
took him full circle to find a cellist who could help him return the cello to its
historical role at the rhythmic heart of Scottish dance music.
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Occidental Gypsy
Saturday April 2 at 7:30 pm 
Their well rehearsed and lightning fast swing brings the Parisian jazz manouche of the 1930's alive and the audience to its feet. The musical genre has undergone a tremendous resurgence in popularity for its sophisticated yet sentimental sound and swinging precise rhythm, often light hearted and whimsical, sometimes aching with melancholy. It was guitarist Jean Baptiste “Django “ Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli along with their Quintet of the Hot Club of France who eventually codified this fusion of swing, American jazz and manouche (traditional gypsy music).
Occidental began in 2007, by 2009 they we’re playing at all the major venues and festivals in Rhode Island. Most notably, the only Rhode Island band to play at the Rhythm & Roots festival, receiving standing ovations. In the winter of 2010 the band entered a Foxwoods contest and although they submitted during the last week, the song rose to eighth place out of 204 bands. Their debut album, Over Here was released in December.
Occidental's rapport with a crowd has an immediacy and warmth that has everyone smiling, dancing, and clapping out the rhythm, transporting the room to the cafes of Paris in the thirties.
Tickets $15 |
For more than two decades, Richard Wood has impressed audiences all across Canada, as well as in the US, Europe, and Japan. Highlights include TV guest appearances with Shania Twain on “David Letterman” and “Good Morning America,” Carnegie Hall with Irish legends The Chieftains, a featured performer on CBC’s Canada Day on Parliament Hill, “Rita MacNeil and Friends,” and with Jean Butler of Riverdance on “Celtic Electric.”
Richard has played for Canada’s Prime Minister and Governor General, the Queen of England (in Toronto), and for the Emperor of Japan in Tokyo. In the late 1990s he toured the UK & Europe headlining concert halls and folk festivals. He’s since played at the Lincoln Centre in New York City, Epcot at Disney World, and was a featured performer in the touring fiddle spectacle “Bowfire.”
Richard is proud to have entertained Canada’s armed forces in Bosnia and twice in Afghanistan. He has five previous CD recordings and has won three East Coast Music Awards. MacLean’s Magazine named him one of the Top 100 Canadians to watch in the 21st Century.
With a new CD, rejuvenated energy and enthusiasm, Richard Wood, Prince Edward Island fiddler, artist, composer and entertainer has taken on the world once again in 2010.
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Cabin Fever Reliever Free Concert with Alan Gerber
Friday March 25 at 7:30 pm Join us for an evening of music with Alan Gerber as we celebrate the long awaited arrival of Spring! Strap on your boogie-woogie shoes, hold on and get ready ... Alan Gerber has arrived! This eccentric entertainer is wowing audiences internationally. His amalgamation of boogie-woogie, stunning vocal interpretations and fine musicianship make Gerber an artist of the highest order. 
Alan's professional career began when he entered a music program at Roosevelt University in 1965. Producer Paul Rothchild (The Doors, Paul Butterfield, Janis Joplin...) discovered Alan's talent and soon he was a singer, songwriter and keyboardist for a group to become known as Rhinoceros. The release of two albums on the Elektra label brought Rhinoceros to tour North America with such names as Janis Joplin, BB King, Jefferson Airplane, Traffic, Jimi Hendrix, Steppenwolf, John Lee Hooker, Jeff Beck and others.
Alan left Rhinoceros and released his first solo effort in 1971 with Shelter Records and the worldwide distribution of this recording earned him a tour with Leon Russell. In 1974 the release of the single "Tied On" (produced by André Perry) went to number one on Québec radio and Alan toured the province in the wake of its success. Gerber placed two songs on the soundtrack of Bob Bob Dylan's movie "Renaldo and Clara", performed at Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and played with Lou Reed in the United States. A songwriter, vocalist, musician, producer, and comic Alan Gerber is quite the enigma...... certainly not to be missed Thanks to our sponsors Unity College and UniTel, admission to the concert is by donation only. All donations collected will be gifted to Veggies for All - a community agriculture project that works to relieve hunger by growing vegetables for whose in need, while collaborating with partners to distribute and increase access to quality and nutritious food.
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McPeake
Monday March 14 at 7:30 pm 
For generations of folk music enthusiasts the name of the McPeake Family of Belfast has stood for one of the most distinctive sounds in Irish music. Francis McPeake IV, the fourth generation of this world-famous musical dynasty and one of the few authentic uilleann pipers in the world today, has put together a revived band, 'McPeake', which is unique in the world of music with its fusion of original Celtic compositions and contemporary rhythms and styles.
Tickets $15 |
Grammer comes from a musical family. Cousin Leo Fortin played double trumpets in Lawrence Welk’s band, while her grandmothers and mother played keyboards and accordion. But it was her guitar-playing father who was her first true inspiration.
“When Dad used to get out his lap steel and electric guitars, we’d invite the neighborhood kids over and sing country songs. I’d sit across from my dad and read the music upside-down so I could turn the pages for him. I developed an ear for harmony early on and hardly ever sang the melody,” she muses, “and it drove my little brother crazy.”
Maeve Gilchrist was born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland. Daughter to an Irish mother and Scottish father she grew up immersed in traditional folk music.
At seventeen Maeve received a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA where she studied jazz and world music, and began a colorful career as a professional musician and teacher.
Recent performance highlights include the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, the World Harp Congress (Netherlands), Celtic Connections Festival (Scotland), the Edinburgh International Jazz Festival and the ICONS Irish Festival. She has collaborated with some of the most celebrated contemporary musicians on the scene today such as Darol Anger, Vardan Ovsepian, the Unusual Suspects, Kathy Mattea, Esperanza Spalding and Martyn Bennett. Her debut CD 'Reaching Me' was released in 2006 to International Acclaim and she is about to release her second album ‘Song of Delight’ on Adventure Music Records in the Spring of 2011. Maeve is currently based in Boston MA. She tours regularly with Scottish bassist Aidan O Donnell fusing her Scottish roots with the colors and freedoms of jazz to produce a fresh and unique new sound.
Wendy MacIsaac with Andrea Beaton
Thursday March 3 at 7:30 pm Wendy MacIsaac is a fiddler/piano player/stepdancer from Creignish, Cape Breton, Canada. Wendy has been touring all over the world for the last ten years with Mary Jane Lamond, Ashley MacIsaac, Beolach (her current band) and as a solo performer. Wendy began performing at age 5 as a stepdancer. At age 12, she began fiddle lessons with Stan Chapman. By age fifteen, Wendy was playing dances all over Cape Breton island and forming the sound that makes her so recognizable today. She soon began travelling further, to Boston, Detroit, and Toronto, to play for the popular Cape Breton dances in those areas. At this time, Wendy also developed a strong reputation as a piano player and has accompanied just about all of the Cape Breton fiddlers of her generation. 
In 1995 she began touring with the Cape Breton Summertime Revue and has made the road her second home ever since. Wendy has performed with the Chieftains, Capercaillie and Buddy MacMaster, to name a few.
One of Cape Breton's most promising young fiddlers, Andrea Beaton comes by her music honestly. Listen to her play, the power of her bow, the drive and swing of her timing, the crispness of her attack. She's making a name for herself in dance halls, concerts, ceilidhs, and festivals. Like the compelling tradition she represents, her reputation is growing, spreading beyond the island. Andrea Beaton seems destined for great things. She's the youngest of generations of Beaton musicians. Her father, Kinnon, is one of today's most influential Cape Breton fiddlers, and you can hear some of his timing in Andrea's playing. Her mother, Betty Beaton, is one of the great piano accompanists of her generation, contributing to that remarkable Beaton timing. Tickets $15 |
Having toured extensively throughout North America,including headlining Celtic Festivals in Chicago, Boston and Cleveland, The Irish Descendants have performed at such prestigious venues as The Smithsonian in Washington D.C., and have played with many of the nation’s best symphony orchestras. They appeared on stage at The Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto in the theatrical production of Needfire, as well as headlining The International Festival of the Sea in England.
The 1991 release of their first album, Misty Morning Shore, quickly catapulted the band from pub circuit regulars to radio stars. This led to a contract with Warner Music, and the release of Look to the Sea in 1993.
In 1996, following the release of Gypsies and Lovers the previous year, The Irish Descendants were named Entertainers of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards, and received a Juno Award, the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy. By year’s end, the band’s first two albums were both certified Gold.
Over the next decade the band continued to evolve, touring every year and releasing albums including a Greatest Hits Package, So Far So Good, and The Gift, a Christmas album.
In 2004 the band released Across The Water for the New York based Kells Label. The album immediately cruised to the top of the North American Irish Charts, and drew rave reviews from the Irish media.
The band has now released a new CD, Southern Shore, produced by Alan Doyle (Great Big Sea), and will be touring extensively throughout North America.
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The Sweetback Sisters
Friday January 28 at 7:30 pm The rollicking country swing of the Sweetback Sisters is as infectious as it is heartbreaking. Their charismatic charm harkens back to the golden era of both the silver screen cowgirl and the ersatz cowboy stars of local UHF TV kiddie shows.  That whimsical exterior is wrapped around a core of deeply felt love for traditional country music styles and a palpable joy in playing and singing together. Like their pseudo-sister role models, the Davis Sisters, the Sweetback Sisters sing country songs in close, surrogate-sister harmony and matching dresses. Their repertoire combines several of the Sisters' passions -- country music from before they were born and new interpretations of those traditions -- to create a fresh take on what it means to be country.
The Sweetback line-up features the sugar sweet vocal pairing of Zara Bode and Emily Miller joined by an all-star cast of instrumentalists including: West Virginian triple threat Jesse Milnes; Stefan Amidon on drums; Philly's stringed slayer Ross Bellenoit on electric guitar, and Peter Bitenc on upright bass.
Their debut EP Bang! was released in early 2007 and earned them a spot on A Prairie Home Companion's talent contest for twenty-somethings. Their first full-length album Chicken Ain't Chicken was released in 2009 on Signature Sounds Recordings and still creating a stir.
Tickets $17 |
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Fishtank Ensemble
Friday January 7 at 7:30 pm
The LA Weekly calls them “cross pollinated gypsy music….one of the most thrilling young acts on the planet.” Formed in 2005 and playing everywhere from the hippest LA clubs to festivals, cultural centers, museums, parades, and even on the street, the band includes two explosive violins, the world's best slap bass player, musical saw, flamenco and gypsy jazz guitar, trombone, opera, jazz and gypsy vocals, accordion and one little banjolele. Tackling everything from French hot jazz to wild Serbian and Transylvanian gypsy anthems, Flamenco, and oddball originals, the band is a not to be missed event for world music lovers...and everyone will love this intoxicating mix of music.
The dynamic, virtuosic, fiery and peripatetic quartet that comprises Fishtank Ensemble take their roots both from their own varied musical and national backgrounds, as well as from their adventures and travels. The singer Ursula sang opera on the streets and town squares of Italy, until she found a love of gypsy music...their French violinist voyaged around all of Europe in a handmade mule-drawn caravan for ten years, collecting music and experiences. Their Serbian bass player has spent time playing with gypsies as well as some of the rock and roll's legends, and aptly defends his reputation as the best slap bass player in the world... and the guitarist is a master of flamenco and gypsy jazz guitar who honed his craft in the gypsy caves of Granada, Spain... Whatever wild time you can expect from this band, it will never match their out of this world performance! Tickets $15 |