Is Canada just waaaaay more Celtically influenced that I ever imagined? This weekend was a truly kickass Celtic Fest here in Chicago; it was the first time I’ve ever been to this particular fest, and the music was amazing! (I especially loved Leahy, who hail from Ontario IIRC.)
I know Nova Scotia has its name for a reason, but it seemed like practically all the professional performers were from various parts of Canada (although most of the amateur tents were filled with locals, both pros and students from various Irish-themed music classes around town). Even the art festival booths were mostly Canadian-run. One friend suggested that with city budget cuts, there wasn’t enough cash to bring people over from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, or other places of more immediate Celtic origin, so the Canadians were in part a cost-cutting measure.
But still, Chicago and other parts of the U.S. have no shortage of Irish heritage (just look at our mayor, for example). So why so many Canadians? Is there really that strong a folk tradition up north? (Although I could really hear the Celtic influence in the range of Canadian accents from non-urban areas, especially from areas bordering the ocean. I could listen to those accents all day…so melodious!)
It’s been ten years since I lived in Nova Scotia, but my time there really endeared me to their folk music tradition.
I do believe that there are very strong ties to musical roots there. The reasons I believe this? Well, there is the Tattoo every year. I know NS does one. I also believe all the eastern provinces do one. (I’m really straining my memory here, though…)
I can’t really explain it other than to say that it really is just a part of things. Canadian content laws may play a role in the music having deep roots. The way of life may also contribute to the connection as well. Newfies live in a pretty harsh climate (snow in July) and any place that can develope a liquor called Skreech, has to have some really good drinking songs to go along with it.
Great Big Sea a Newfie band with some success here in the states, is a great example of the “new folk” coming down from our neighbors to the north.
I guess I don’t really have any answers for you, just some wild remembrances of my time up there. And in case you can’t tell, I loved it there and would go back in a heartbeat if the opportunity presented itself.
It’s not called Nova Scotia for nothing. As with the Irish, many Scots emigrated in the 19th century, but Canada seems to have been particularly popular with them. There’s lots of webpages about it; see e.g.:
I would say that celtic heritage is doing pretty well in Canada. The east coast is famous for it, but it makes itself known elsewhere, too. I’m from Northern Ontario, and:
-The local military unit is the 2nd Battalion Irish Regiment of Canada (2 Ir RC).
-The local Air Cadet squadron (it’s a youth group run by National Defence) has a bagpipe band, and a highland dance group.
-There’s a Sudbury Celtic Festival each year at the end of the summer.
Sudbury isn’t exaclty a heavily celtic town, or anything. The Italian, Polish, and Ukrainian communities are very active as well. And of course, ~40% of the population is francophone.
Celtic traditions seem to be present in other parts of the country, too. I’ve spoken to youg people from just about every province who have been exposed to it. It’s also evident in public institutions; military units often have either a classic ‘military brass band’ or a pipe band, or both.
Here’s some sites of institutional pipe bands in Canda:
Eva, you may be underestimating the scope of Celtic music in the U.S. For example, I’m familiar with several of the links that Wolfstu gave with respect to pipe bands, but there’s a lot more pipe bands in the U.S. than in Canada, and a lot of pipe bands down under as well as in the U.K. and Ireland. Here are links for:
You’ll find that in all of these categories there are more U.S. bands than Canadian ones (tho’ I admit that Canada seems to be over-represented per capita in the Grade 1 and 2 bands).
(And if you’re really interested in piping, check out the piping equivalent of the SDMB, the much-heralded Bob Dunsire Forums.)
The folk tradition is pretty strong in the Maritimes. My mother is from out there, and I’ll admit to being pretty steeped in it despite being Alberta born and bred. Though a lot of people from out that way are coming here (Fort MacMurray is often called the new St John’s because of all the Newfies)
There are all sorts of Celtic festivals and such, like the Highland games in Canmore (I think it’s Canmore), the Patricia’s Highlanders unit based in Calgary, the Cadet camps out here. (My cousins from out east come/were coming each summer while in cadets as they were part of their tattoo. One cousin plays the drum, the other the bagpipes.) I know here there is a local Scottish club, I meant to see about joining but I go to watch them at the Heritage festival. My mother used to be into traditional Scottish dances, my aunt learned stuff like the Highland Fling and Sword Dance.
I think it’s mainly because everyone here tries to grow up with connections to their heritage. The whole diversity thing rather than a ‘melting pot’ as the US is usually depicted. Part of me wishes that I grew up in a family somewhat like the Rankin’s or Leahy where they all learned stuff like the fiddle and traditional dances and such, but even if I don’t know how I love to listen and watch them.
In all this rambling I think I’m trying to say that basically it started around the Maritimes as a way of remembering and keeping in touch with the old country as it were. It just melded into tradition as other people grew to enjoy it and spread from there as the people from the Maritimes came out west looking for better work than fishing, especially with so many out of work now because of the lack of fish.
Depending where you are in Canada you can find many interesting traditions and such still around. Like there are still numerous places in Alberta that are traditionally Ukranian. We have a complete Ukranian Village set up around here (like a historical park only dedicated to Ukranian’s), one town with a giant Peroghy and a peroghy festival every year.
Heheh - my (not terribly well-informed) impression is that there is a LOT of celtic, perhaps especially Scottish influence in NS and esp. Cape Breton. Heck, they are even kind enough to re-export the music back to us in Scotland for music festivals, and very good it is too. O Happy me!
Actually get me drunk around a bunch of Newfies (heck just get me drunk) and my accent comes right out. Sometimes even when I don’t notice it and am completely sober.
I trained myself out of some NSisms because my father found them too annoying (warsh for example. ‘I’m going to warsh my hair’ etc…) but they come stealing out at times.
It’s really bad when my Newfie roomie (who’s also trained himself out of his accent for the most part unless he wants to go to the bar and pick up girls) teases me about them.
Larry You think we can wave down a passing space ship and ask to be taken to Keltia?
Well, keep in mind, of course, that the US has ~ten times the popultion of Canada. You’d expect ~ten times as many bands, just to have the same rate per capita.
Maybe Canadian bands get more attention, though.
I’d also hardly be surprised if Scottish and Irish traditions are apparent in the UK, or Ireland.
Just as a side note, some have also made claims of Celtic influence in Cajun music via Breton settlers in Acadia, of which there were some ( in 1632 in particular a group came over from Brittany and Touraine - though the largest number of Acadians were probably from a bit farther south near the mouth of the Loire ).
Things Celtic have become something of a pop fashion in Canada in the last 10-20 years way above and beyond the grassroots that already existed. It has the PR benefits of being ethnic and quaint while still appealing to white middle-class suburbia. To watch CBC, you would think that all Canadians ever did was play fiddles and dance without using their arms. It’s reflected in other areas, too, like the current fad of giving kids Celtic names that aren’t pronounced the way they’re spelled, even if the family isn’t very Celtic. “Siobhan Graffanino.”
I’m not exactly sure what started the sudden Celtic craze; at first I was inclined to think it was that Flatley guy and his Riverdance troupe, but he was an effect, not a cause. As Obsidian suggests, I suspect this is a byproduct of official multiculturalism; there being a huge population of people of Celtic descent, they dredged up their culture and bam, fiddlin’ music’s everywhere, and it caught on. Anyway it’s a cash cow for the Canadian music industry; for quite some time there they were signing up the fiddlers and the step dancers as fast as they could draw up the contracts.
So that’s why you saw so many Canadian acts. Our music industry is pumping them out.
