Rural Roots: Concerts in the County
Friday July 30th - Wingham Heritage Theatre, Wingham ON
Featuring: The Banjo Special 
"The Banjo Special" brings together three different styles from four of Canada’s top banjo players. Combining the talents of Chris Coole and Arnie Naiman, two very fine clawhammer players, with Brian Taheny on tenor banjo and bluegrass banjo player Chris Quinn, The Banjo Special explores music that fits within traditional genres and yet steps outside the boundaries of expectation.Coole, Naiman, Taheny and Quinn clearly show that the banjo is being played with range, repertoire and soul. It’s in good hands!
Website
* Please note: The Banjo Special are performing only as part of the Rural Roots series
Wingham Heritage Theatre, 288 Josephine St Wingham ON, N0G 2W0
Box office: Wingham Heritage Theatre Box Office 1-866-357-4082 www.winghamheritagetheatre.com
Saturday July 31st - The Livery Theatre, Goderich ON
 Featuring: The Outside Track
All graduates of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in Limerick, these musicians are among the most exciting new bands in traditional music. A diverse line-up from Scotland, England, Ireland and Canada, delivers music from their different cultures to form a distinct and dynamic musical sound. Flute, harp, fiddle, guitar, accordion and vocals soar in expressive, energetic arrangements - traditional music with a modern twist. Five-part harmony singing of traditional and contemporary songs sits alongside sparkling new instrumental sets. With an average age below 25 the members of the band may be young, but between them they have performing credentials that many veteran bands could wish for.
Website
The Livery Theatre, Goderich ON N7A 3L4
Box Office: The Livery Theatre 519-524-6262 festival @ celticfestival.ca
Sunday August 1st - Bayfield Town Hall, Bayfield ON
 Featuring: Dawn and Margie Beaton
Dawn and Margie Beaton grew up in Mabou, Cape Breton and were surrounded by music and dance in the formative years of their lives. Over the years they have performed at concerts, ceilidhs and festivals all around Cape Breton Island, mainland Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and as far away as Washington, D.C. in the fall of 1998 and in Scotland in March of 1999, 2003 and 2007. Dawn and Margie completed and released their debut album, Taste of Gaelic, during the Celtic Colors International Festival and have been nominated for a 2010 East Coast Music Award.
Website
 Featuring: The Once
The Once is a trio of young folk musicians, building on the traditions of their native province, comprised of Geraldine Hollett from Burin, Phil Churchill from Corner Brook and Andrew Dale from Coley's Point, who discovered a mutual appreciation for folk/traditional music, particularly for the music of their native Newfoundland and the British Isles. The Once have been nominated for a 2010 East Coast Music award. Superb musicianship, clever arrangements and stunning harmonies make The Once a fresh and exciting new group whose rise will be worth watching.
Website
Bayfield Town Hall, Bayfield ON N0M 1G0
Box Office: Roger Lewington (519-565-2202 rlewington @ tcc.on.ca) and Pat Langley (519-565-2894)
Monday August 2nd - Seaforth Golf and Country Club, Seaforth ON
 Featuring: Norah Rendell and Brian Miller
Vancouver singer and flute player Norah Rendell and Minnesotan guitarist Brian Miller met while studying Irish traditional music at its source and living in the southwest of Ireland. Their duo performances clicked from the start. Ireland’s Munster Express wrote that their music “brings sunlight into your heart and set your feet a dancing.” Since returning to North America, their debut album, Wait There Pretty One, has earned Norah a nomination for Canadian Traditional Singer of the Year and they are fast becoming known as two of the best young interpreters of traditional music this side of the Atlantic.
Website
 Featuring: Brian McNeill
Founder of the acclaimed Battlefield Band and former head of Scottish Music at Glasgow's Royal Academy, Brian plays fiddle, viola, mandolin, cittern, bouzouki, guitar, concertina, bass and hurdy-gurdy. The importance of his songwriting, mostly about Scotland's past and future, has long been recognised. ‘The Yew Tree’, ‘The Lads O' The Fair’, ‘Montrose’ and ‘The Snows Of France And Holland’ are among the best-loved of his repertoire. Brian is also a published novelist and his audio-visual show, 'The Back O' The North Wind' has won critical acclaim.
Website
Seaforth Golf and Country Club, 1B Diog Drive, Seaforth ON N0K 1W0
* Please note: there is a fundraising barbeque supper offered from 5:30 - 7:00 pm. Contact Seaforth Golf and Country Club for more information *
Box Office: Seaforth Golf and Country Club (519-522-0985, seaforthgolf @ seaforthgolf.com), Huron East Visitor Information Booth (519-440-9600)
Tuesday August 3rd - St. Joseph's Church, Kingsbridge ON
 Featuring: Cassie and Maggie MacDonald
Cassie Anne MacDonald has been playing the fiddle since she was seven and step dancing since she was 5. She has studied both Classical violin and Celtic fiddle, and is also a great step dancer. Maggie Jane MacDonald has been playing the classical piano since the age of five but has been studying Celtic piano chording for the past two years. She plays multiple instruments including the guitar, the mandolin, and the 6-string banjo, and she step dances! Together as a team Cassie Anne and Maggie Jane played this year at the Celtic Colors Music Festival in Cape Breton.
Website
 Featuring: Fil Campbell
Irish singer songwriter Fil Campbell grew up in Belleek in Co. Fermanagh in the North of Ireland. She was brought up on the folk songs that were popular in Fermanagh and Donegal and spent her childhood immersed in music. With both ceilidh bands and singers in the family, music was all around and performance was part of everyday life, both at home and at school. Fil's focus as a singer is on popular Irish folk songs from the 1930s and 40s as featured on her most recent CD and TV programme Songbirds. This has been the main drive of her work for a while now and a second CD collection of these songs is due for release soon. Fil has been performing her Songbirds Show in America, the UK, Europe and at home in Ireland.
Website
St. Joseph's Church, Hwy 21 Kingsbridge ON, N7A 3X9
* Please note: there is a fundraising dinner prior to this concert. Please contact ticket offices for more information *
Box Office: Everlasting's Flowers and Gifts (519-528-3312), Ernie King's Wingham (519-357-2811)
Wednesday August 4th - Exeter Public School, Exeter ON
 Featuring: Shane Cook
Canadian Shane Cook "rates at the top of the short list of the finest fiddlers in the world today," says the Canadian Fiddlers' Hall of Fame. Shane has distinguished himself as a master of the Canadian old-time fiddle tradition and excels at an array of fiddle styles ranging from Irish and Scottish to French-Canadian, Texan, and Bluegrass. In 2006, Shane retired from competitive fiddling as one of Canada's most highly awarded fiddlers. He is a three-time Canadian Open National Fiddle Champion, a three-time Canadian Grand Masters Fiddle Champion, a Grand North American Fiddle Champion, and is the only Canadian to have ever won the US Grand National Fiddle Championship, a feat he accomplished at just 17 years of age.
Website
 Featuring: Poor Angus
Poor Angus is an award-winning Celtic quintet, originally formed at a local pub. With an award-winning album under their belts and three years of playing festivals and events around North America, the lads have just released their second album "Prime Cuts". The synthesis of these five talented individuals creates a show which preserves the essence of traditional Scottish, Irish and East Coast music, but interprets it in a more contemporary style. A Poor Angus show is lively, fun, appeals to all ages, and is equally suited to pub or concert hall, having performed with the likes of The Proclaimers, Nathan Rogers, Lenny Gallant, Blue Rodeo, Bruce Guthro, John McDermott, and Beolach to name a few.
Website
Exeter Public School, 93 Victoria St Exeter ON
Box Office: Exeter Music Centre (519-235-1263), Community Living South Huron (519-237-3637), MacLean's Home Hardware, Godbolt Ciufo Insurance, Times Advocate
Thursday August 5th - St. Anne's CSS, Clinton ON
 Featuring: Matt and Shannon Heaton
Matt & Shannon Heaton’s music comes from a traditional aesthetic, a devotion to strong traditional bones, and a passion for reaching out to the modern world around them, blending Irish traditional music with original songs. Their own compositions tell timeless tales, while their renditions of centuries-old songs feel modern. They honed their craft in Irish music sessions in Chicago, Boston and through regular trips to Ireland, where they learned tunes with some of Clare's finest.
Website
 Featuring: Kimberley Fraser
Kimberley Fraser was born on Cape Breton Island, and nurtured within its rich musical heritage. She first began to impress audiences at the age of three with her step-dancing talents. Soon after that she took up both the fiddle and the piano. Like many in Cape Breton, music is not new to Kimberley’s family. She proudly owns the fiddle of her great great grandfather, spanning the musical tradition within her family over a hundred years. Kimberley’s latest accomplishment includes the release of her second studio album, Falling on New Ground, which won the 2008 East Coast Music Award for best Roots/Traditional Album of the Year.
Website
St. Anne's Catholic Secondary School, 353 Ontario St Clinton ON N0M 1L0
Box Office: St. Anne's CSS (519-482-5454) and Ernie King's Music in Goderich (519-524-4689)
Monday August 9th - Blyth ON
 Featuring: Gareth Pearson
Gareth Pearson is an acoustic guitarist and composer from Cwmbran, South Wales UK. He has performed at festivals and concerts worldwide and was personally invited to the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society in Nashville by Tommy Emmanuel and by Southside Johnny to perform at their annual New Years Eve concert in New Jersey at the tender age of 17. Gareth has a formidable string of concerts and guitar festivals behind him, including The Montreal Jazz Festival, and regularly conducts guitar workshops when appearing at festivals. Gareth has toured and performed with Andy McKee, John Renbourn, Ray Davies of the Kinks, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and other well known guitarists and musicians.
Website
Featuring: The Once
The Once is a trio of young folk musicians, building on the traditions of their native province, comprised of Geraldine Hollett from Burin, Phil Churchill from Corner Brook and Andrew Dale from Coley's Point, who discovered a mutual appreciation for folk/traditional music, particularly for the music of their native Newfoundland and the British Isles. The Once have been nominated for a 2010 East Coast Music award. Superb musicianship, clever arrangements and stunning harmonies make The Once a fresh and exciting new group whose rise will be worth watching.
Website
Blyth Festival Theatre, 423 Queen St Blyth ON N0M 1H0
Box Office: Blyth Festival Theatre Box Office (519-523-9300)
All tickets may also be purchased at our central box office:
Goderich Celtic Festival Office
The Livery Theatre, 35 South St
519-524-8221 (credit card payments accepted)
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