Made in Cape Breton – The Cottars CW

13 tracks: Suileah Dubh * The Captain Campbell Medley * I Know Who Is Sick * The Boy’s Lament Medley * Ballinderry * The Two Brothers Medley * Scarlet Ribbons * Ciaran’s Piano Medley * The Coulin / Hornpipes Medley * The Briar and The Rose * The Pleasures of Home Medley * Here’s To Song * Kitchen Racket.

Young band from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Following in the footsteps of such musicians as Natalie MacMaster, The Rankins, The Barra MacNeils and Ashley MacIsaac, The Cottars prove that the music is alive and strong in today’s youth. The Cottars have become Cape Breton Island’s latest musical success story in a remarkably short period of time.

Awarded Best New Artist at the 2003 Candian East Coast Music Awards, the four young Celts – Ciaran and Fiona MacGillivray and Jimmy and Roseanne MacKenzie – wowed viewers across Canada with their performance of The Briar and the Rose. The four have been playing traditional music since early childhood – each is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and stepdancer.

The folk traditions of Cape Breton are respected the world over and the youthful band members take their lineage seriously, while putting their own special stamp on traditional arrangements. The music is guided by respected songwriter and arranger Allister MacGillivray, Ciaran and Fiona’s father.

The Cottars perform a variety of driving instrumentalists, as well as slow airs, on fiddle, keyboards, guitars, tin whistles, and bodhran. Band members sing, recite amusing stories and serious poetry and perform stepdance routines.

13 year old fiddle prodigy Roseanne plays with all the ornamentation and flourish that make this style so exciting to watch – she is accompanied on piano in typical Cape Breton fashion by Ciaran (15), who also plays keyboard interpretations of old tunes. Lead singer Fiona is vocally gifted beyond her 13 years and delivers haunting Gaelic and English songs a cappella, and the quartet is rounded out by Jimmy (16), the group’s guitarist and official humorist.

With a special guest appearance by John McDermott.