Halifax...Cohn Theatre...October 26

[Joe]

From the Chronicle Herald, Sept. 4...

Celtic band the Cottars return to Halifax

Cape Breton Celtic quartet the Cottars performs at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium on Sunday, Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m.

The show will feature founding members, multi-talented siblings Ciaran and Fiona MacGillivray, plus young fiddler Claire Petit and veteran guitarist Bruce Timmons. The Cottars will perform familiar favourites along with tunes from an upcoming new album due out this winter, with an exciting mix of traditional Cape Breton music with elements of Americana and bluegrass.

[Joe]

From today's The Chronicle-Herald newspaper:
thechronicleherald.ca/ArtsLife/1086615.html

The Cottars bring mature sound to Cohn

By ANDREA NEMETZ Entertainment Reporter
Sat. Oct 25 - 7:08 AM

Fiona MacGillivray will be singing her own song in public for the first time when The Cottars perform at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in Halifax on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

"It’s about love," she says, from her home in Mira, outside of Sydney, "but then all songwriting is about love to some degree."

The lead vocalist of The Cottars (she also stepdances, plays the harp, tin whistle, piano and bodhran) has been writing for a long time.

"But I kept it to myself. Recently I’ve decided it’s time to get it out on stage, however terrifying that is."

The 19-year-old has also written two songs that will appear on an upcoming Cottars album that was recorded at Cape Breton’s Lakewind Sound and is now in the mastering process. The album, to be released on Rounder Records in the U.S. and available in Canada through Universal, is slated for release after Christmas, says MacGillivray.

It’s the first Cottars CD featuring the group’s newest members, fiddler Claire Pettit and guitarist Bruce Timmons. They replaced original members Roseanne and Jimmy MacKenzie.

"They’ve been with us for two-and-a-half, almost three years," says Fiona’s brother Ciaran MacGillivray, who will turn 21 in December. "We don’t say new anymore, but some people in Halifax may not have heard them."

Besides new members playing different instruments — Timmons adds in some electric guitar and dobro — Sunday’s concert will feature a more mature sound, says Ciaran.

"The songs and vocal arrangements sound very similar . . . but the instrumentation is more intricate."

Fiona adds the new album will also include a little bluegrass and modern music.

The addition of the newer members has both MacGillivrays bubbling over with enthusiasm.

"We’ve been having a real ball. Music comes much easier when you connect well. When we get into the rehearsal environment the ideas come out of the woodwork, it’s very inspirational," says Ciaran, while Fiona describes group rehearsals as an explosion of music.

Pettit, 18, of Orange County, N.Y., also spends time in Lake Ainslie and she attended the Gaelic College in St. Ann’s, as did the MacGillivrays.

"We’re musical contemporaries," says Fiona. "She grew up listening to stuff on our CDs and seamlessly transitioned in."

Pettit is a classically trained violist now studying at the University of Massachusetts, and often it’s difficult for classical musicians to transition to Celtic music as so little is taught through sheet music, but passed down through generations, Fiona says.

"But Claire has picked up exactly the flavour of Cape Breton fiddling."

Timmons, originally from Big Bras d’Or and now based in Dartmouth, is well-known around Cape Breton as a "guitar monster," says Fiona. "He’s a phenomenal musician."

He’s a little older, says Fiona diplomatically, adding "you’d never know he’s not in his teens or 20s."

Ciaran plays piano, but is also very skilled at guitar, accordion, tin whistle, wooden flute, Bodhran and bouzouki, says Fiona.

"He plays about 150 different instruments and he also step dances."

Ciaran and Timmons were tapped by The Chieftains’ Paddy Moloney to perform on piano and guitar respectively for a series of Chieftains’ concerts this summer. The Cottars also opened for the legendary Irish group.

"It was an honour for Bruce and I to sit on stage with members of the group and play all through the show, it was so surreal," says Ciaran, noting both during his birth and Fiona’s the Chieftains were playing in the background.

Fiona is looking forward to performing a Mark Knopfler song entitled Fare Thee Well Northumberland.

"I’ve been listening a lot to Ralph Stanley and it will be fun to incorporate some bluegrass into it."

Fiona is a big bluegrass fan, citing Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, and Nickel Creek, as favourites.

She saw both groups at festivals this summer and was blown away. In particular Nickel Creek was "one of the best shows I’ve ever seen."

Ciaran says he’s going through a barbershop phase.

"I’m enamoured with harmonies and have been searching out groups with vocal harmonies. The latest is Vocal Spectrum. They perform with no instruments. I’m so taken with their singing abilities. It rips your heart out on some of the stuff they do."

The Cottars should be familiar with ripping hearts out — their mesmerizing anthem The Briar and The Rose, which they performed on a nationally broadcast ECMA show in Halifax in 2003 — does just that.

Tickets for Sunday’s show are $32.