|
Post by roger on Jun 24, 2006 5:38:18 GMT -5
Hi Joe and everyone, According to an article in The Chronicle Herald, the Cottars are to split. The full article appears below: Cottars to split
According to a story in next week’s music industry journal Billboard, the two pairs of teen siblings in Cape Breton’s The Cottars will go their separate ways after a series of North American summer festivals.
Billboard’s Canadian bureau chief Larry LeBlanc reports the traditional folk quartet’s management, Pam McDermott of Boston-based McDermott Entertainment, received word in April from Beverly MacGillivray, mother of musical brother and sister Ciarán and Fiona MacGillivray, that "the four kids have been very unhappy in the last while."
The MacGillivrays have been performing with Roseanne and Jimmy MacKenzie for over five years.
"For Ciarán and Fiona, any future this band could have is not inducement enough to endure any more antagonism or stress," LeBlanc quotes from MacGillivray’s letter. "We feel our responsibility here is as parents first — and as band personnel second."
In 2005, The Cottars signed to the prestigious folk label Rounder Records, and the release of the CD Forerunner in was followed by a 24-city tour with The Chieftains, with nine months of North American shows slated and tours planned for Europe in 2007 and Australia in 2008. According to Billboard, those dates have been cancelled. If this is true, and it seems it is, it is a very sad day for the world of Celtic music. Joe, have you heard any more news on this? Best wishes, Roger
|
|
|
Post by afanoffiona on Jun 24, 2006 10:12:37 GMT -5
Ouuuuuuch, I hope it isn't.
God Bless, afanoffiona
|
|
|
Post by afanoffiona on Jun 24, 2006 12:20:57 GMT -5
Hello Everyone!
I posted a note on the Cottars' guestbook page. If it is a nasty rumor, they know about it. However, the more I look into this, the more it appears to be true. The newspaper has several stories from the AP, and it appears to come right out of Halifax. The only glimmer of hope is that I have not been able to cooberate the story from another source, nor find the source cited.
God Bless, afanoffiona
|
|
|
Post by roger on Jun 25, 2006 7:19:44 GMT -5
Further coverage of this story appears in METRO NEWS which I have reproduced below: Up-and-coming Cape Breton quartet disbands Saturday, June 24, 2006 6:54:04 PM ET
By Larry LeBlanc
TORONTO (Billboard) - Could the breakup of a group involving two sets of siblings be anything other than a soap opera?
Consider the tale of the Cottars from wind-swept Cape Breton in Nova Scotia -- the heartland of Scottish culture in Canada.
Among the cast of characters: four talented teen musicians; a folklorist father guiding the band's musical direction; and frustrated U.S.-based management struggling to keep two family factions together.
The plot line has the Cottars splitting within months of releasing their acclaimed Rounder Records debut, "Forerunner," and only weeks after a high-profile 23-date North American tour with the Chieftains.
It's a situation the band's exasperated manager, Pam McDermott, describes as "absolutely crazy."
The two sets of teenage siblings in the Cottars are vocalist Fiona MacGillivray, 16, and keyboardist/guitarist Ciaran MacGillivray, 18, plus fiddler Roseanne MacKenzie, 16, and guitarist Jimmy MacKenzie, 18. All grew up immersed in traditional Cape Breton music.
When they signed to Rounder in November 2005, label co-founder Ken Irwin predicted success for the Cottars, noting that the company had also signed roots-music artists Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas and Mark O'Connor as teenagers.
Rounder first tapped Cape Breton's folk heritage in the 1970s, signing regional names like Buddy MacMaster and the Beaton Family. Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster is also signed to Rounder. The Cottars -- whose name derives from an archaic Scottish word for "peasant" -- were expected to surpass such acts' sales during their multi-album deal.
"We felt we had something with the Cottars," Irwin says. "For the most part, Celtic vocals have not gotten to a wider audience. We felt the Cottars were the group to do that.
BANDMATES 'DEVASTATED'
Such hopes were dashed when the MacGillivrays' mother, Beverly, notified McDermott by letter that the act was disbanding.
"The four kids have been unhappy in the last while," she wrote, adding that "for Ciaran and Fiona, any future this band could have is not inducement enough to endure any more antagonism or stress. We feel our responsibility here is as parents first -- and as band personnel second."
The move came as a blow to the MacKenzies. "Jimmy and I are devastated," Roseanne MacKenzie says. "We haven't been able to talk to Fiona or Ciaran. We are going to miss playing music with them."
McDermott, whose Boston-based McDermott Entertainment has managed the Cottars since 2002, says she and the label have been trying to halt the breakup since receiving MacGillivray's letter on April 24.
According to McDermott, nine months of bookings in North America, followed by European dates in 2007 and a 10-week Australian tour in 2008, had been planned. But the Cottars will complete only eight North American festival dates this summer before disbanding.
"What's wrong with this story?" McDermott says. "Six months ago, we were sitting at a conference room table celebrating signing with Rounder. Now, the MacGillivrays want the band to disband. Why would the MacGillivrays agree to sign with Rounder if this had been in the works?"
Beverly and Allister MacGillivray declined to comment, and the MacKenzies' parents could not be reached.
'LOSING CONTROL'
Once a child performer himself, Cape Breton-born Allister MacGillivray played in the 1960s and 1970s as a guitarist with Canadian/Irish act Ryan's Fancy and Irish duo Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy. In the 1980s, he returned to Cape Breton to concentrate on songwriting and writing books about the island's musical culture.
Insiders say the MacGillivrays controlled the day-to-day operations of the band. Allister chose its material and co-produced/arranged its albums while his wife supervised the act on the road.
"Beverly and Allister ran this group with an iron fist," Canadian folk singer and family friend John McDermott says, "but I don't think they understood what an amazing position the group was in." Sources suggest that a growing international schedule coupled with outside pressures on the teenagers while on the road may have been beyond what the MacGillivrays could deal with -- or wanted their children to cope with.
"The guts of the issue is that the MacGillivrays were losing control (of the act)," Pam McDermott says.
With the Cottars' career ending, Roseanne MacKenzie is playing in John McDermott's band. The singer (no relation to Pam McDermott) financed the Cottars' 2002 debut, "Made in Cape Breton," and released it in Canada on his own Bunnygee Music label.
Reuters/Billboard ________________ If there is no foundation for this story, I trust it will be officially denied with some speed. That fact that no denial has been forthcoming thus far, leads me to suspect that it might be true. Roger fixed link... Joe
|
|
|
Post by Ginny on Jun 25, 2006 8:41:08 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by afanoffiona on Jun 25, 2006 8:42:42 GMT -5
Roger,
I just wish that I could find better cooberation for this story. You would think that a story like this would be all over folk music magazines and all over the internet. It is not. The problem is that these stories can circulate, and the people they are about have no idea that they are circulating. Still, one does wonder why the Cottars haven't said one way or the other.
God Bless, afanoffiona
|
|
|
Post by afanoffiona on Jun 25, 2006 8:50:17 GMT -5
I know, it is quite a shame. The music buisness is a tough buisness, though. It is hard work, even at the collegiate level. I think that if it is true, we should be understanding... for their sake. God Bless, afanoffiona
|
|
|
Post by Joe on Jun 25, 2006 12:02:18 GMT -5
Please, please, please. Nothing has been officially announced yet. Until then we must wait.
Allister never mentioned anything when he sold me one of his books on eBay two weeks ago. Also I've e-mailed him on Friday with some of Adam's questions as well as the possibility of seeing the group at Longwood Gardens in August.
Reconciliation
When summertime has gone And winds of autumn threaten To blow our love away ‘Tis then all will be tested
Arm in arm, we’ll stand Side by side together To face the common goal That would tear our love asunder
Oh, you fair-weather friend Where are you now; I need you Gone my winter sun On dark December mornings
When hard times come around Like cold and stormy weather There’s only you and I, my love To shelter one another
Now there’s a time to stand And there’s a time for healing A sun will melt the snow On clear, bright April mornings
Out fight has run its course so let us start back healing Let us all embrace sweet reconciliation
If this is indeed true my Cape Breton dreams are gone.
|
|
|
Post by Ginny on Jun 25, 2006 16:06:05 GMT -5
Thanks for the song Joe ...it calmed me down a bit
|
|
|
Post by afanoffiona on Jun 25, 2006 21:38:40 GMT -5
Hey Joe,
Ya, I know that we can't say anything yet. The not knowing for sure is what is really getting to me. I just wish that there was a notice or something on their website. It seems that the source is credible. Yet, on the other hand, why isn't this news that is all over the folk world and the world of Cape Breton music?
God Bless, afanoffiona
|
|
|
Post by Joe on Jun 25, 2006 21:45:51 GMT -5
All this is really strange. I do hope we find out one way or another. Why would the MacG's say that things are too hard on their kids? There must've been a dispute btw. the two families.
"Hold On" for a "Reconciliation", we don't want a "Parting Glass"
|
|
|
Post by afanoffiona on Jun 25, 2006 21:56:27 GMT -5
All this is really strange. I do hope we find out one way or another. Why would the MacG's say that things are too hard on their kids? There must've been a dispute btw. the two families. "Hold On" for a "Reconciliation", we don't want a "Parting Glass" Lol, exactly. I am wondering if the Rounder website has anything on this. As you said, it is just really, really strange. Usually, in the past, the Cottars have been very prompt about sharing news; of course, this would be the first time it wasn't good news. I have been remembering them in my prayers, and until we hear what is going on, that is all we can do. God Bless, afanoffiona
|
|
|
Post by Joe on Jun 25, 2006 22:00:35 GMT -5
Nothing from the Rounder site, my friend. Those t-shirts were put on sale June 14th.
|
|
|
Post by afanoffiona on Jun 25, 2006 22:08:09 GMT -5
Joe,
That is really wierd. Why would you put out new merchandise for a group that you knew was going to split in two weeks?
God Bless, afanoffiona
|
|
|
Post by Joe on Jun 25, 2006 22:17:55 GMT -5
I'm going to call it a night. I hope all of this is a bad dream. I'm going to pray to St. Jude and St. Joseph for strength.
I hope whatver happens that all my friends here stay with me and follow our 4 Celtic talents wherever they go.
Goodnight and God Bless, your humble admin Joe
|
|