|
Festival showcases Celtic rock bands
By LEE CLARK ZUMPE
| Article published on Monday, Nov. 16, 2009 |
|
 |
 |
|
![[Image]](/content_images/111609_leconcert-01.jpg) |
|
| Poor Angus, an award-winning Celtic quintet, is based in Hamilton, Ontario. |
|
|
DUNEDIN – The Dunedin Celtic Festival is Saturday, Nov. 21, noon to 9:30 p.m., at Highlander Park, Dunedin Community Center, 1920 Pinehurst Road.
Hear plenty of Celtic music with both an afternoon and evening show scheduled. The event also will feature food, drink and Celtic craft vendors along with a family-friendly atmosphere.
This year’s featured Celtic rock bands will include Seven Nations, Poor Angus and Lucid Druid.
A band once featured on a CNN Worldbeat special, Seven Nations will take time from their busy touring schedule to revisit Dunedin for this year’s Celtic Festival. Touring since 1994, Seven Nations has been known to spend up to 301 days a year on the road.
Along with festivals and regular concerts, the band has landed some high-profile gigs including playing for the Torch Lighting Ceremony at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2002; performing for the opening ceremony of the New York Marathon in 2001; and taking part in several symphony shows, including a performance with the Grammy-award winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
The name Seven Nations refers to the seven nations of the Celtic world, now known as Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Gallaecia.
Poor Angus, an award-winning Celtic quintet, is based in Hamilton, Ontario. The band’s roots can be traced to a fateful meeting between Brian LeBlanc and Andrew Bryan – two musicians who met at a local pub. They joined forces, playing together for a few years, before stumbling into piper Ross Griffith and local folk singer Scott Cameron Smith.
A traditionally influenced Scottish, Irish and East Coast music ensemble, Poor Angus features Highland pipes and Irish whistles, accompanied by fiddle, guitar, mandolin, bodhran, bass guitar and four-part vocal harmony. Their shows include both traditional and original Celtic instrumental and vocal pieces.
Bryan plays fiddle and mandolin. Griffiths plays Highland bagpipes, Uilleann pipes and Irish whistles. LeBlanc plays bodhran, guitar, mandolin and octave mandolin. Smith provides lead vocals, along with guitar, mandolin and bodhran.
Clearwater’s own Lucid Druid will bring its self-described eclectic world-fusion music to the festival, headed by two-time world champion bagpiper Adam Quinn.
Quinn is one of five core members of Lucid Druid who seamlessly blend the sounds of bagpipes, guitar, stringed bass, didgeridoo and Scottish snare with a variety of African drums to create a unique, innovative and fresh sound.
A fixture at the Dunedin Brewery, this group of talented musicians includes Quinn on bagpipes, degerpipes, shuttlepipes, didgeridoo, clarinet and piano; Steve Turner on ashikos, djembes, drums, didgeridoos and various percussion; Joe Porter on upright bass and electric bass; Doug White on Scottish snare, drums, roto-tams, bongos and various percussion; and Sebastian Deledda on guitars.
Also performing will be three Dunedin Pipe and Drum Corps, Highland and Irish Dancers, Dunedin High School Scottish Highlanders, Dunedin Highland Middle School Band and the City of Dunedin Pipe Band.
Admission is free. Parking will cost $10. Coolers, pets, beach umbrellas and pop-up tents will not be permitted in the park.
The Celtic Festival is a benefit concert for Dunedin’s Scottish bands. The festival is promoted, organized, managed and operated by the Dunedin Highland Games and Festival Committee Inc., a nonprofit corporation.
Visit www.dunedinhighlandgames.com.
|
Article published on Monday, Nov. 16, 2009
Copyright © Tampa Bay Newspapers: All rights reserved. |
