Toronto Celtic Music Page Archives

Recent News

August 31

I have put up a new version of BarFly, thanks to Phil Taylor. The new version supports:

Gregorian chant notation.
Force files to open as text only.
Some bug fixes.

BarFly is an editor/browser/player for abc.  Runs on (just about)
any old Macintosh, and is free.

You can get at it through my abc4mac page. [Link fixed]

I have made some corrections to my abc file of session tunes and bound copies are available for ten dollars, either through Allan Harps or from me (send me a mail for details).

I used abc4mac to create the book, and have got some good feedback, such as this from Matthew Adams in Niagara Falls, ont:

Hello,
     I'm a flute player in a celtic band in Niagara Falls, Ont. and I
     just thought that I would mail you and tell you that i just bought your
     "99 tunes" book at the celtic festival in London.  I just played through
     most of the book and I like your inclusion of tunes.  It will come in
     handy!!  Thanks.
     I also viewed your webpage...it is also a wealth of information!  The
     band I play in is called the Black Velvet Band and we also have a
     webpage
     http://geocities.datacellar.net/SoHo/Atrium/2644/
     Feel free to visit it if you have time

     Matthew Adams

August 28

The Jack Russell pub on Wellesley, site of our Thursday Night sessions for the last 2 years, is changing hands. The good news is that the new owners are enthusiastic about keeping the sessions (in fact, they've promised a free round and munchies for the musicians!), as well as booking in Celtic acts. The pub will be renamed Fiddler's Green.

I have updated the events page with a bunch of info garnered over the last few weeks. I have added listings for contradances in Toronto and Owen Sound.

August 24

This has been a busy summer for me, with lots of good tunes - I will have a more detailed review of the Goderich Festival and Celtic College as well as Owen Sound's Summerfolk sometime in the next few weeks.

Updates to the ABC Tune of the Month Page include new tunes from Jerry Holland and Brenda Stubbert. Over the next few months, we will be expanding the page to include some other tunes from other people.

I met quite a few people over the summer with whom I have exchanged email but never met before. Great to meet you!

Over the next few months I hope to be expanding the site with more reviews and features. Anybody interested in submitting stuff for publication should mail me.

June 5

Fiddler, music publisher and lighthousekeeper Paul Cranford is on Dan Rather tonight - he also has a new website.

A sneak preview of the Chieftains new Cape Breton album Fire In the Kitchen:

Leahy-Air/Devil's Dream/Mason's Apron
The Rankins-An Innis Aigh
Great Big Sea-Lukey Lukaloney (Lukey's Boat, the first single and video, shot in Kilarney, lucky devils)
Laura Smith-My Bonnie
Ashley MacIsaac-My Home/The Contradiction/Julia Delaney
Rita MacNeil-Come By The Hills
Natalie MacMaster-A Mhairi Bhoidheach
Barra MacNeils-Rattlin Roarin Willie
Ennis Sisters-Red Is the Rose
La Bottine Souriante-Le Lys Vert

Chatelaine Magazine has a pretty decent article on Natalie MacMaster.

For those with an interest, the results of the Central Canada Fiddle and Step-Dance contest is now posted. They had well over two hundred competitors over the two day period.

There have been some changes to the sessions page, including sessions in Kingston.

Paul Gribbon is putting together a similar page to this for the Kitchener-Waterloo area.

now playing - Tommy Peoples: Master Irish Fiddle Player

May 19

Donna MacLeod's Irish Music and Dance in Toronto page has gone, unfortunately. I will post more details when I have them.

Thanks to Paul Gribbon for news of a new session in Waterloo.

now playing - Tony Rice: Tony Rice

May 15

I have placed a copy of the latest BarFly as promised, accessible from the abc4mac home page.

A java abc applet is available from Rick Miller . (warning: it doesn't work through a firewall).

I have updated the sessions page.

I see that Leahy is going to be touring with Shania Twain - maybe Shania will take up playing bodhran?

The Rankins 'reinvent themselves' according to the mainstream press. I have heard a couple of tracks from their latest album; my opinion is that most of the reinventing seems to be making them more palatable to country radio, but I found their 'Weddings Wakes and Funerals' track interesting.

now playing - Kevin Burke: Up Close

May 10

April 23

As promised, a review of The Bridges of Cape Breton County(s).

This was on the cittern list, and looks quite interesting:

RootsWorld Radio will be a reagular weekly internet radio program. I am in the first stage of testing, and would appreciate our loyal subscribers tuning in and giving me some feedback. The first show is hosted by Kathy Gilbert (queen of the tight seque!). Future episodes will be hosted by yours truly!

Log in to:

http://www.rootsworld.com/radio/

This page will provide a playlist for the first show, links to reviews or articlcles on the web site, and a link to a Real Audio broadcast.

This experiment is part of a project called "Ear Drum" that will eventually be broadcasting world and roots music all day, every day "live" on the internet.

Cliff Furnald
cliff@rootsworld.com

For those people who are looking for Cape Breton music via mail-order, check out Charlie's Downhome Music, in Cheticamp, Cape Breton.

Titanic fever has also raised interest in Irish music. Some original newspaper reports from the 1912 editions of the Truro, NS Daily News of that time have been made available on the net.

now playing - Kevin Burke: If the Cap Fits

April 17

An update on 'Needfire' - it sounds like it is going to be in the same sort of vein as 'Riverdance', but using some of Canada's best East Coast and Celtic performers. A partial list:
Mary Jane Lamond
The Irish Descendants
Sandy MacIntyre
Duncan Cameron
Jeffery Gosse
Chanda Gibson
Dan Stacey
John McDermott

For the publicity blurb, and a picture of Duncan Cameron swallowing (um, I mean playing) a tin whistle, see Bill Elliott's fiddle site.

Bill has also updated his site to list fiddle and step dance events in Southern Ontario.

And from B. Murray:

For anyone that may be interested, a partial list of Canadian competitions can be found at . There is also other information on fiddling located at .

The Chieftains have apparently just finished recording a Cape Breton CD with Natalie MacMaster, Ashley MacIsaac, Mary Jane Lamond and others.

Meanwhile, I have recieved a copy of The Bridges of Cape Breton County(s). This is a compilation of mostly previously released material from some of Cape Breton's finest fiddlers, as well as a 'bonus track' from the Men of the Deep. I will review this CD in more depth in the next little while, but in the meantime I think it is nice to realize that even without Natalie ('though Buddy is here) and Ashley (but we have Dave) there is an incredible number of fiddlers who can get the blood moving.

Also received: Winston Fitzgerald's tunebook from Cranford Publications.

now playing - Buddy MacMaster: "Glencoe Hall"

April 8

It's been a while since I updated this section (but I do try to keep up with the events weekly.)

Ed and David Mirvish are putting on 'Needfire' - a Celtic music/dance show, featuring some of this area's best performers, including fiddler Sandy MacIntyre, multi-instrumentalist Duncan Cameron, and others. It'll be interesting to see...

A new session is starting up in Waterloo - contact Paul Gribbon at paul.gribbon@utoronto.ca for details.

On the abc front, Cranford Publications tune of the month is now available in abc format. You'll find two tunes each by Jerry Holland and Brenda Stubbert.

I have released a new version of abc4mac

Changes:
Version 0.6 April 1997
  - version of abc2ps is 1.2.5
     version of abcmidi is 1.4.6
 
  - tweaked ps output to work around bug creating pdf files from GhostView
    (downbow and ending marks showed up as boxes)

  - tweaked midi to create better sounding rolls 
           - long rolls have longer first note
           - short rolls start one note up

  - extras: abc2pdf to create a pdf file, abc2jpeg to create a jpeg from an
    abc.  abc2web to create a basic html page with embedded jpeg and midi file

Meanwhile, Apple has released QuickTime 3.0, which includes support for Roland's GS MIDI instrument set. This works with abc4mac and BarFly, giving a nicer sound to the MIDI files.

now playing - Sean Nua "The Open Door"

Mar 4

Sometime in the last month, we had our 1000th visitor - glad to see this site is of some use! Now I have a bunch of stuff to catch up on - sorry it's been so long...

I have added some new teachers to the teachers page.

This is a great month for Celtic music in Toronto - catch Natalie MacMaster with Altan at Roy Thomson Hall, Wendy MacIsaac at a Cape Breton dance, or Irish fiddle master Martin Hayes with Dennis Cahill at An Seomra Mór - not to mention Leahy and Chris Norman and the Irish Descendants...

A new session is starting on Monday nights at the Annex Art Centre on Bathurst south of Dupont. This is a learning session for Quebec and Old-time (Canadian and US) music.

I have put two new websites on line Sarah Beaton is a builder of fine violins, violas and cellos, and Garrison Creek is a trio that plays Canadian old time music - music of the lumbercamps and Grand Banks...

Info on Jay Ungar & Molly Mason's summer Ashokan Fiddle & Dance camps (Northern Week, Southern Week, Western & Swing Week) is now available.

For MacIntosh users of the abc notation, Phil Taylor has just released a new version of his notation program BarFly.

CHANGES IN VERSION 1.0d15

*       Transpose command now lets you specify which direction you want the tune
	transposed.  (Previously it always went to the nearest key - this is
	still the default.)

*       If you are using Internet Config, URLs embedded in abc files can be
	opened by command-clicking on them.  The helper application you have
	specified in IC will be started and will connect to the URL.  You can
	also put in file:// references to make hyperlinks between BarFly
	documents.  Command-clicking on these causes BarFly to open the file
	referred to.

*       Program can now export and import abc data as tab-delimited text for
        exchange with an external database.

*       Accidentals in gracenote beams now draw properly.

*       Bowing marks written before gracenote braces no longer give the player
	problems.

The Ceilidh Trail School of Music is a week-long intensive taught by top Cape Breton and Scottish fiddlers, guitar players and stepdancers. I am personally still processing what I learned there 2 years ago from fiddlers Buddy MacMaster, Jerry Holland and Seamus Connelly, and from guitarist Paul MacDonald. This year's schedule has just been posted. Check it out...

Bill Black is a musician and poet whose contributions to the IRTRAD mailing list provide a welcome touch of humour - you can read them at his home page.

Celtic and Celtic-influenced music are in the sights for both the CBC and CTV (Baton). The Nine O'Clock show debuts tonight on CBC at 9:00 PM (OK, so that was a little obvious), with Leahy featured, and Rita MacNeil's Celtic Celebration airs on Baton-CTV this Sunday, March 8th, at 7pm, for 1 hour. Next Sunday the CBC is doing its own, Rita-less, Celtic variety extravaganza, "Celtic Electric." (thanks to Kimberly Wotherspoon for those).

From Paul Cranford:

If you check out Jerry Holland's Web site you will see that we have started a new feature ... TUNE OF THE MONTH ... which gives a Holland original in standard notation as a GIF. I think that each month we should also present these tunes as ABCs. That would to generate interest in both standard notation in ABCs... at the same time it would be good PR for Jerry. I plan to do the same for Brenda Stubbert.

On the subject of the abc notation, Henrik Norbeck writes:

I have now added indexes to my abc tune collection, both an index of titles, and an index of the first two bars of each tune. Many of you will probably find this useful. My tune collection is at: http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-11382/abc.htm and now has nearly 1400 tunes in abc format. If you feel like helping me, you can check out the "no name" department of the index and see if there are any tunes that you have titles for.

For fans of Irish Bouzouki/cittern/octave mandolin, check out some pictures of Steven Owsley Smith's work - unbelievably gorgeous instruments...

Feb 6

According to Irish Music Magazine's reader poll, Leahy was a runner up for Best overseas trad band of the year - Solas, was the winner, other runners up - Boys of the Lough, Flook.

According to MacInTouch Apple computer made a big splash at NAMM - the music industry tradeshow.

Spirit of the West is at the Horseshoe all this week - advance tickets are sold out, but there are some tickets at the door, apparently.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be making some changes in the organization of this site, hopefully to make it both easier to maintain and easier to navigate.

I get fan mail! (occasionally.) This is from David Harris:

Just a note to say your page is great! The instruments links have been a big help. Without scouring every music store in the city to confirm it, it looks like I might have gotten the last low D whistle in stock anywhere, from the Recorder Centre.

Then I went up to see Peter Cox on Wednesday, and I've ordered a bouzouki (yes, I'm obsessed). I'm really impressed with the playability and solidness of his instruments, especially compared to what I was previously able to find in the area -- and even more so for the price. If I get really out of control, I might even order a mandolin ... $300 for a handmade instrument? Isn't that around what you'd pay for a Korean import?

Without your page, I'd be running around to all the mainstream music stores and finding nothing, so thanks for your efforts.

David Harris

Jan 29

A quick update from David Greenberg of Puirt a Baroque
Puirt a Baroque can be heard in performance on CBC-2 across Canada on Friday Jan 30 (tomorrow!) after the 9am news (9:30am in Newfoundland) on "The Music Room" show. Sorry for the short notice--I just found out today (when we recorded it!) that it would be on tomorrow. The performance/interview took place Jan 29th at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. You'll be hearing a preview of music that will likely be going on our next recording.... David Greenberg (fiddler, Puirt a Baroque)

Jan 22