CEOL AGUS CRAIC: A Summer Full of Music Looms
By ERIN MULLAN
Ceol binn a bhaint as an saol! To quote the Undertones: “Here comes the summer!” I for one am ready for an outdoor feast or two of sweet, sweet music.
Vancouver Folk Music Festival preview: Here’s the straight goods on Celtic content this July 16-18 at Jericho Beach Park – Scottish music fans are in for a treat whether it be the young, the old, the trad or the wild……..The legendary Scottish singer, guitarist and unrepentant lefty Dick Gaughan is back for the 2004 festival ……….Singer Enoch Kent has folk credentials dating back to early days in Glasgow with Ewan MacColl……..Making a welcome reappearance is Rory McLeod, beautifully billed as “The return of the one-man festival, a musical spirit as big as the park”……Dance fiends rejoice! Shooglenifty will be back to move people from sitting on their butts to shaking them……Every year the Vancouver folk fest reserves a place in its lineup for the Young Celtic Tradition Award winner, and 2004 sees piper and Gaelic singer James Graham and trio on the bill…….Speaking of bills, on the homegrown front, there’s BC’s own wild young men The Bills as well as the astonishing fiddleosity of Oliver Schroer and Twisted String.
Concert listings:
Mad Pudding will be celebrating their tenth anniversary as a band by playing the Rogue Folk Club birthday party bash on May 14 at St. James. The Rogue has been around for 17 years and that a is sure cause for celebration. The Rogue continues to regularly bring to town the best of Celtic music – join up to show your support! Members get discounts on shows and a warm fuzzy feeling inside……The Pure Music Festival hosts Great Big Sea and Spirit of the West at the Plaza of Nations June 25……..The fine Quebec band Genticorum will play Vancouver on July 3.........Shooglenifty will be playing July 15 possibly at St. James.......One-man band extraordinaire Rory McLeod plays St. James on July 20.......Martin Simpson is a strong possibility for a St. James date in late July.......Brian MacNeill could be here in August.......Four Men & a Dog have reunited for a late summer tour…… September 24 is Renbourn & McShee at St. James.......Lúnasa will return to Cap College on October 9....... November 5 sees the fab Irish-American duo Liz Carroll & John Doyle in Vancouver and November 10 Dougie MacLean will be at St. James.
Local motion:
The biggest dance event of the month comes on May 28 when lively local Celtic outfit Blackthorn provides the tunes for a Scottish Ceilidh Dance at New West's Hyack Festival. Easy dances will be taught and called and there’s a bar to wet your whistle. The ceilidh runs 8 PM to midnight at the Arenex, Queen's Park, New Westminster. Bar and rereshments. Information: (604) 522-6894.......Apprentice fiddlers take note: Irish-American fiddle great Liz Carroll will be at Ceili 2004, an Irish Music and Dance Camp in Harrison Hot Springs August 15-20. Call (604) 290-4129 for details....... The Irish Heather hosts traditional Irish music sessions on Tuesday and Thursday nights.......The Wolf and Hound has traditional sessions on Monday and Wednesday nights.
Recordings:
The up-and-coming Irish traditional group Gráda have a brand new release on Compass Records called The Landing Step produced by Lúnasa's Trevor Hutchinson……...Available only as an import is Donal Lunny’s Definitive Moving Hearts, which follows on the success of last summer’s Definitive Lisdoonvarna……..Another fine import is a limited edition three CD set of A Woman’s Heart, the hit series of albums by female Irish artists on Dara Records, a compilation compilation……Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser has released an album with cellist Natalie Hass on Culburnie Records called Fire and Grace……..Also from Scotland is Runrig Day of Days (Live at Stirling Castle)
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