It was FABULOUS!

This was the first time I got out to the Festival, which I had heard about for quite a number of years.

A major recurring theme was "Ancestry in Song", a special series of program conceived by Anna Osburn. This special series invited Clary Croft, folklorist, and friend of Dr. Helen Creighton, to bring together the six "founding" ethnic cultures of Nova Scotia and share some of the material from the 16,000 songs out of the Creighton Collection. The cultures were
1 - Mi'k M'aq
2 - Acadian/French
3 - Scottish/Gaelic/Celtic
4 - African-Canadian
5 - English
6 - German

Yes, German, the Lunenburg area was settled by some of the earliest settlers after the English took over Acadia.

The six cultures were well represented by
1 - Cathy Martin
2 - Ron Bourgeois
3 - Margo Carruthers
4 - Anne Marie Johnston MacDonald
5 - Clary Croft
6 - Kevin Rhyno

These six people collaborated in searching the body of work compiled by Dr. Helen Creighton for material pertinent to each culture. Some surprising gaps were noticed, such as material in the German language was severely limited (only 5 in total), many of the M'ik Ma'q material was not suitable (a number of the items were recorded at a wake, a sacred gathering). So there was a fair amount of new work that had to be done first, before actually sitting down and learning the songs. Needless to say, they persevered, and we have been enriched by the work. They broke the material into three themes:
a) Traditional Songs For Kids
b) Sounds of the Past
c) The Tradition Continues ...

The Songs for Kids is self-explanatory. In this session, they looked for material which was suitable and presented to an audience filled with kids. The session started with about 25 chairs, and soon there was double that. The facilitators took us on a journey which brought everyone closer to the younger state.

During the next session, Sounds of the Past, they took field recordings out of the archives, playing them for a capacity audience. The facilitators took the songs, and told more about them, sang them in their own way, and/or gave some information on the source singer who originally gave the material to Dr. Creighton. Sometimes they would sing related material which may not be in the body, but could have been.

The final presentation was on Sunday and titled The Tradition Continues ..., where the facilitators brought NEW material, usually written by contemporaries. These were all material which was deemed to be of a lasting quality, which would tell of the community from which they came.

Besides these workshop sessions, they, the facilitators, were part of the Friday night concert, which also featured a special tribute to Ed McCurdy, famed as a folk singer/songwriter and broadcaster. They each sang two songs punctuated by stories about the songs. One of the highlights was the Gaelic song where Margo Carruthers sang, and the three men sang a drone part, as if they were bagpipes.

This was not the only Creighton material in the Festival, the National Film Board of Canada came and recorded three songs sung by diverse singers. Friday night they took a record of Mary Jane Lamond singing a Gaelic song out of the collection. Sunday, they came and recorded Raylene Rankin singing The Blackbird and during the final concert, it was Lenny Gallant singing The Nova Scotia Song/Farewell to Nova Scotia.

Hopefully we will see more of the Creighton material which is currently available at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia.

Come to next years show.