2007 Performer BiosThe Town PantsWebsite: www.thetownpants.com The Pacific Northwest may not be the first place you would expect to hear rollicking Irish or celtic folk melodies, but The Town Pants are determined to change that. Making their return to the Cortland Celtic Festival after their debut here in 2004, the Vancouver, British Columbia–based band combines aspects of Irish traditional to create their own unique brand of "West Coast Celtic."
Armed with a really a mere pawnshop's worth of musical instruments, the feverish sound of The Town Pants traditional and contemporary influenced songs create a distinctive sound that remains in the heart and head long after the music stops, and has attracted fans from around the world from tot to pensioner. Featuring brothers Dave & Duane Keogh on dual-lead vocals and banjo and guitar respectively, Tin whistleman Aaron Chapman, fiddler Virginia Schwartz, and percussionist and bass player they generate that rare blend of passion, energy, animation and spirit. Not to mention a refreshing sense of humor in their live performances that never strays too far from their approach. The group are no strangers to New York state where they have a growing legion of fans after having toured through the area heavily over the last couple of years at a number of festivals and clubs appearances over the last couple of years. While at home, Vancouver fans selected The Town Pants as one of their favourite National Celtic/Traditional Acts in Vancouver's "Georgia Straight" Entertainment weekly annual "Best of Vancouver" readers' poll, where they were shortlisted with such groups as Great Big Sea and Natalie MacMaster. The band-members all hail of Irish and Scottish descent, but The Town Pants' David Keogh explains "You don't have to be of Irish or celt background at all to enjoy our music, we'd like to think it transcends any of those boundaries. It has an energy and feel that goes beyond that. We play songs that old men sing in pubs and that kids will dance to." The band-members all hail of Irish and Scottish descent, but The Town Pants' David Keogh explains "You don't have to be of Irish or celt background at all to enjoy our music, we'd like to think it transcends any of those boundaries. It has an energy and feel that goes beyond that. We play songs that old men sing in pubs and that kids will dance to."
Enter the HaggisWebsite: www.enterthehaggis.com There aren't many groups in North America who could lay claim to possibly 18 different genres of music, but Toronto's Enter The Haggis is one of them. To engage this quintet is to indulge rock, fusion, bluegrass, traditional Celtic fare, agitpop, folk, even Latin flavors. Sounds awfully confused, right? Wrong. ETH is one of those rare jewels that actually pulls it all off as if to own everything.
Back in the mid-nineties, the band was but a glimmer in the eye of piper Craig Downie. Busking on the streets of Toronto, Downie's original intention was to get reacquainted with the bagpipes he'd put down while trying to make a go of it as an actor and create a job for himself. At the time, Craig was listening to a few things that had hinted at the fusion of rock and Celtic music. He saw the future. By the end of the decade, the formative Enter The Haggis lineup was in full effect and by the release of Enter The Haggis Live! in 2002, the band would become quite a larger animal, amassing fans from coast to coast. Vocalist/guitarist Trevor Lewington remembers, "When I joined the band in 1999, I was blown away to be making money playing music (even though it wasn't much). I was also excited about being part of a group that had a fresh sound and embraced experimentation and jamming on stage." The Celtic influence remains palpably intact, which is likely the reason why core fans have stayed so loyal over the past decade. Still, Enter The Haggis continues to break new ground with every offering, and the power of the music is only made more significant by their socio-political conviction. 2004's Casualties Of Retail meshed the aforementioned musical synthesis with lyrics that grab a hold of pertinent issues and cut right to the chase. Standout tracks like "Gasoline" and "Congress" shone a light on a well-established social consciousness and channeled it through a sense of musical experimentation arguably unmatched by other groups with their origins. ETH's live show is a musical feast- viscerally dynamic, emotionally uplifting and intellectually stimulating. The band's oeuvre darts effortlessly from the trad strains of, say, The Chieftains and the Pogues to the frenetic pop of early Elvis Costello and even to the Latin-tinged spirit of the Buena Vista Social Club and beyond, complete with Lewington's deftly guitar playing, the reeling of Brian Buchanan's flawless fiddle, the diverse rhythmic machinations of bassist Mark Abraham and drummer James Campbell, and Downie's transporting pipes, not to mention the near-perfect vocal harmonies. In fact, if you're game, the group's undeniable power is documented in Live at Lanigan's Ball, a film chronicling an Enter The Haggis performance at Plattsburgh, New York's Hartman Theatre in December of 2003, originally taped for a PBS special, and now available on DVD. The following year or so has seen further steps up with a stateside release of Casualties Of Retail on new model indie, United For Opportunity and a touring agenda that still has the band doing dates at press time, a TV spot on A&E Breakfast With The Arts back in December 2005, a spot on the popular PBS program Out Of Ireland airing several times between 2005 and 2006 on 260 channels nationwide, accolades in print and a European tour, that kicked off in March 2006 with dates in their ancestral homeland of Scotland, inviting along 30 fans from their native Canada and the United States. "We had a blast," Lewington says of the Scotland trip, "You may wonder what the dynamic was like between the band and 30 fans traveling with them on the bus. We think the whole star system is pretty silly. We're just regular, well-mannered guys who are very fortunate to be playing music for a living and I think our fans see us the same way. This makes it easy to hang out with people who enjoy our music." All this and it's a wonder how the band was able to write and record new material, but they did! Yes, Recorded in February 2006 at the Clubhouse in Rhinebeck, NY, Enter The Haggis' fifth LP, Soapbox Heroes, features 10 superb and diverse songs produced by 4-time Grammy winner Neil Dorfsman (Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Sting, Dire Straits). "For the recording of Soapbox Heroes, we lived in a house that was attached to the studio so we were isolated from family and friends," says Lewington, "The only people we interacted with were ourselves, Neil, the studio employees and guest musicians. The seclusion helped us to focus on the record without any distractions. It also meant that we didn't have any feedback from family and friends until it was too late." Brian Buchanan, says regarding the title, "'Soapbox Heroes' refers to all the millions of people who make the mistake of thinking that holding a strong opinion about something is as good as doing something about it- people who hold a sign and chant a slogan and then go home, watch Wife-Swap 2006 and forget about the problem for the evening. North American voters are more polarized now than ever, but the dismal voter turnouts in the last Canadian and US federal elections don't reflect that fact at all. Apparently it's hard to reach a ballot box from a soapbox." Soapbox Heroes, once again, establishes the band as possessing tremendous flexibility while not abandoning their respect for the traditional Celtic genre. The evidence lies in the kickoff piece, "Lancaster Gate," an instrumental establishing shot of what you have yet to hear. "One Last Drink" is a tried and true drinkin' tune until you hear the infusion of a horn section that seems to have jumped right off a Calexico record. "Cynical" is the Waterboys and Midnight Oil colliding with the Pogues, rousing chorus n' all, and "The Barfly" is a piano ballad that the Eagles will simply wish they'd written. To name a few more, "No More Stones," embodies Enter The Haggis' protest side with its anti-war lyric, "Marti's Last Stand" features Brian, Craig and Trevor on lead vocals and "Long Way Home" wraps it up as "Load Out/Stay" wraps up Jackson Browne's Running On Empty. The album was released on United For Opportunity on July 18, 2006 to steadily building mainstream recognition. It hit number two that month on the iTunes World Music chart and held onto top 20 well into September. At the end of September Soapbox Heroes marked Enter The Haggis' Billboard debut when it landed at number eight on the World Chart there. Collectively, the album hit the right sound at the right time for the band's desired exposure to more mainstream audiences. Fall of 2006 saw Enter The Haggis on a successful first West Coast tour-playing hard ticket rooms, mind you, rather than festivals-and in early 2007 ETH rocked headlining slots in mainstream venues down the East Coast all the way to South Florida and back. While the Northeast remains the band's ultimate stronghold, even that fanbase continues to grow. Over one weekend in March ETH played four sold-out shows at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, MA-all of which were recorded for a live album that should be ready for fans this summer. That same month the band topped its previous TV exposure with a March 16 performance on ABC's culturally iconic daytime program "Live With Regis and Kelly." While Soapbox Heroes never really left the iTunes World Chart, the middle of March saw the album spike back up the chart. For more information on Enter The Haggis visit www.enterthehaggis.com or contact Kellyn Slone at KellynS@UFOmusic.net or 212-414-0505 ext 134.
Kimberley FraserWebsite: http://kimberleyfraser.iwarp.com
Career highlights include performing for the Governor General of Canada during her visit to Cape Breton in 2000 and receiving the Tic Butler Memorial Award for significant contribution to Cape Breton Culture in that same year. For the past five years, Kimberley has been a featured artist in the Celtic Colours International Festival. She has also appeared on several television productions including CBC's Street Cents in 1996 and Glace Bay singer Aselin Debison's special, Sweet is the Melody which aired on both CBC and PBS in 2002. Kimberley is equally in demand for her piano skills, accompanying various Cape Breton fiddlers at home and abroad. She also had the honor of being the pianist for the acclaimed Irish musical group, Cherish the Ladies, during their tour of Sweden in May of 2004. In addition to performing, Kimberley is a much sought after instructor of Cape Breton fiddling, piano accompaniment and step dancing. For the past five years, she has been an instructor at the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts in St Ann's, Cape Breton. She has also been an instructor at the Ceilidh Trail School of Music in Inverness, Cape Breton as well as numerous other workshops in Prince Edward Island, Ontario, British Columbia and the eastern United States. In 2000, Kimberley released her debut album, Heart Behind the Bow. The project was entirely self-produced. Accompanying Kimberley on this album are some of Nova Scotia's top musicians including Tracey Dares-MacNeil, Matthew Foulds, Troy MacGillivray, Sheumas MacNeil, Gordie Sampson, and Ed Woodsworth. Her second album, Falling on New Ground, is due to be released in October of 2006. Website: www.irishmarty.com
That's the best way to describe Marty Brandon, the "Son of Sligo". Marty's performed at Irish and Celtic festivals, pubs, clubs, wakes, weddings and parties all over the country... and shows no sign of slowing down! Born and raised in New York, with Irish roots planted firmly in County Sligo, Marty cut his musical teeth on Celtic legends like the Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, the Irish Rovers and the Wolfetones. With his beloved guitar at his side, he brings the songs and stories of Ireland to life... from tender ballads to roof-raisin', arse-kickin' Irish sing-a-longs. Add a wicked sense of humor guaranteed to charm even the grumpiest leprechaun... and you've got an Irish party waiting to happen! In 2007 Marty released his second CD "Lullabyes and Battlecries", on which he performs both solo and with his teenage daughter Chrissy. Keepin' it in the family... typical Irishman! So pour yourself a pint, sit back and enjoy! After all, "Marty" rhymes with "Party"... and that CAN'T just be a coincidence! |
Kimberley Fraser, a 24 year old native of Sydney Mines, began impressing audiences with her step dancing talents at age 3 and soon after decided that she wanted to master the fiddle and piano. Since then, she has been steadily becoming one of Cape Breton's finest young musicians. 
Have guitar, will travel!