Cape Breton’s Ben Miller and Anita MacDonald to play Bangor Maine
Ben Miller & Anita MacDonald
Ben Miller and Anita MacDonald join together, blending the rich traditional sound of the Cape Breton fiddle, with the fiery edge of the Scottish Border pipes. Combining their creative vision with influences from Old and New World Gaelic traditions, they create a powerful sound. Since meeting at the 2013 Celtic Colours Festival, Ben & Anita have toured across North America and further afield, wowing audiences with their captivating blend of driving dance tunes and soulful Gaelic airs.
Ben is an American-born player of Scottish bagpipes.His interest in traditional music stems from his exposure to the pipes at a young age, in his hometown of Queensbury, New York,as well as his family’s strong connections to its Scottish and Irish roots, through both his American mother and Canadian father. He began studying the Highland Bagpipes around age eight, but by twelve he began to shift his focus to the bellows-blown Scottish small-pipes and Border pipes. Ben is also an academic, holding an undergraduate degree in Music, as well as a Master’s degree in Scottish Ethnology, from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Scottish Studies. His repertoire and style draw mainly on the Gaelic traditions of Western Scotland and the Canadian Maritimes, blended with a healthy dash of Irish tunes for good measure.
Anita is an accomplished musician, dancer, and Gaelic singer from Little Narrows, Cape Breton. She began step-dancing in the family kitchen at the tender age of four, and picked up the fiddle a few short years later, at age eight. She has been wowing audiences with her impeccable timing and neatly choreographed steps ever since. Anita’s fiddle playing has a distinctive sound, influenced by the deep roots of her musical family. Her energetic style has put her in demand as a performer and teacher, across Cape Breton and beyond.
Guest artists include Tyson Chen, Ottawa Ontario, on piano and Zak Cormier Wellington PEI, on foot percussion and guitar.
Launchpad is an Arts Incubator focused on Creative Place-making in Maine through its work with emerging artists & partner organizations.
Isle of Man award winning trio Barrule return to Maine
Bangor Celtic Crossroads will present Barrule from the Isle of Man at The Hammond Street Congregational Church on Friday October 27 at 7:00 pm.
The unique sound of traditional Manx music is the Celtic World’s best kept secret. This has changed with the introduction of Barrule, the Award winning trio dedicated to taking the music of the Isle of Man to a much wider audience.
Named after the famous Manx summit where legend says the ancient Celtic God Manannan MacLir stalked his mighty fortress, Barrule fuses three distinct musical forces – gifted fiddle-player Tomas Callister, accordion wizard Paddy Callaghan and versatile accompanist Adam Rhodes on bouzouki. Together this versatile acoustic unit creates a powerful and wholly distinctive sound.
With bold but sensitive arrangements, the trio presents a fresh take on traditional and contemporary Manx music. While sharing common ground with its Celtic cousins, as well as the English tradition, Manx music has retained its own particular and inherent Manxness: an atmosphere evoked by the music that speaks of the natural beauty of the island and the lives of its inhabitants.
Ruaile Buaile (Ireland) on August 11, Next Generation Theatre, Brewer
Ruaile Buaile are a young Irish based four piece modern day Trad / Pop / Folk group from Offaly in the heart of Ireland.
The four friends Niall (vocals and guitar), Arthur (fiddle and banjo), Shane (vocals and bass) and Jack (Cajun and banjo) formed in 2011, and have been gaining support from music fans and festival goers across Ireland, UK, Germany, Holland, France, United Arab Emirates, and America to date.
From a small start to the world stage in only a few short years Ruaile Buaile are set to become a household name on the festival scene around the world with their own style of high energy ground thumping celtic beats with a little irish charm and flare these four young award-winning musicians are setting the pace for some of the better known established acts to follow.
Ozere, May 15
2016 Canadian Folk Music Awards nominee Ozere takes inspiration from classical string quartets and world folk bands. With its unique instrumentation – violin, cello, mandolin, bass and occasional vocals – it can do both at once. Fiddler Jessica Deutsch’s compositions bridge her upbringing as a chamber musician and her experience playing many styles as a sidewoman, including Balkan, Celtic and Afro Cuban. This music takes you on a journey, from solemn suites inspired by the Middle East to knee-slapping reels that emit all the joy of an Irish pub session. 2017 promises to be an exciting year for Ozere; they’ll be at Celtic Connections in Glasgow, and touring in the U.S. and Canada over the summer.
Lennie Gallant, March 11
A native of the Acadian village of Rustico, PEI, Lennie Gallant has recorded eleven albums (nine mostly in English and two in French), which have won him a host of awards and nominations from the JUNOs, the 2017 East Coast Music Awards, and Les Prix Eloizes. He was recently honored with a Canadian Folk Music Award for the year 2015 for his recording Live Acoustic at The Carleton. His album, “When We Get There” was nominated for a Juno Award and went to the International Space Station aboard Shuttle Endeavor with Canadian astronaut Julie Payette.
Over 30 artists have recorded his songs, including Measha Bruggergosman, Ode de L’Acadie, The Rankins, and Jimmy Buffet and his songs have appeared in feature films, television series, and numerous theatrical productions. Lennie has recently wrapped up the second season of his runaway multimedia hit musical, “Searching For Abegweit -The Island Songs & Stories of Lennie Gallant”, which ran for over 85 sold out shows in Charlottetown. He has just released a new double CD of 22 songs from that production, and many of the show’s visual images appear in the book, “Peter’s Dream”, a collaboration with sibling visual artist Karen Gallant that showcases 52 of her paintings paired up with his songs. (more…)
Scott Macmillan and Colin Grant, February 6
In July of 2015, award-winning composers and multi-instrumentalists Scott Macmillan and Colin Grant, sat down at Macmillan’s home in Brook Village Nova Scotia to start compiling new and old tunes from their collective traditional and original repertoires. Until that time, they had performed off-the-cuff performances together in venues ranging from the Doryman Tavern in Cheticamp to Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, and the opportunity to arrange and compose yielded a wide spectrum of musical results. Tunes from Scott’s tune-book “Scoobie Tunes” which hadn’t yet seen action were spun into classical, jazz, funk, rock, and blues directions. While the resulting album Good2Go follows a traditional music path of tunes combined into medleys, the musical interplay between the two musicians speaks to the experience, chops, and element of good-old belly rubbing humor that keeps the tunes on a fun, lively path. (more…)
Richard Wood with Gordon Belsher, January 16
Sponsored in part by Machias Savings Bank, New England Celtic Arts and Bangor Celtic Crossroads Festival present Prince Edward Island and Canadian fiddle icon Richard Wood with Gordon Belsher in concert at 58 Main on Monday January 16. Doors open at 6:00 with an audience based Celtic jam session starting at 6:15. Concert at 7pm. (more…)