December 18, 2007
Barras keep
kinship in Christmas
IF YOU BELIEVE the holidays are all about families,
Bravo is wrapping up something with you in mind. Christmas
Together with the Barra MacNeils premieres Saturday at 10
p.m. on the specialty channel and it’s another opportunity
for the musical Sydney Mines....
read more
December 17, 2007
Barra MacNeils star in new TV Christmas special
airing Saturday
SYDNEY — Cape Breton’s Barra MacNeils star in a new
one-hour television special that premieres Saturday at
10 p.m. on Bravo.
read more
December 10, 2007
Christmas Together With The
Barra MacNeils premieres
December 22 on Bravo!
Christmas Together With The Barra MacNeils, a new
one-hour music special featuring a live concert with
Canada’s leading Celtic performers The Barra MacNeils
premieres Saturday, December 22 at 9pm ET / 10pm AT on
Bravo!. Produced by Halifax-based New Scotland Pictures
Inc. in association with Bravo!, the show features music
from...
read more
December 3, 2007
BARRA MACNEILS HALIFAX SHOW SOLD OUT… SECOND SHOW ADDED
The Barra MacNeils’ Christmas show at the Rebecca Cohn
Auditorium on December 23 is sold out. A second show has
been added at 4 pm the same day. Tickets are now on sale
for the new show at the Rebecca Cohn..
read more
October 31, 2007
Barra MacNeils
anniversary CD chronicles the history of one of the
East Coast’s most popular groups
Last week I mentioned the Celtic Colours tribute to the
Barra MacNeils, honouring their 20 years in the music
business. Over that time they have performed before
audiences all over the world. They have been featured on
a number of their own TV specials...
read more
October 15, 2007
Celtic Colours ends on high note
The Barra MacNeils took the
11th edition of the Celtic Colours International
Festival to a roaring finish Saturday night. The concert
held at the Sydney Marine Terminal was a celebration of
the Sydney Mines band’s work over the last two decades,
in which they carved out a significant niche for
themselves in the traditional music scene...
read more
September 16, 2007
Cape Breton’s Barra MacNeils are
before the camera in Halifax this week
Cape Breton’s Barra MacNeils are before the camera in
Halifax this week, filming a Christmas special for
national broadcast later this year, with an eye towards
possible PBS airings south of the border...
read more
May 31, 2007
Two
decades and counting: Barra MacNeils will celebrate 20th
anniversary with new CD
Wondering just how long the Barra MacNeils have been
around? Well consider this... Ryan MacNeil, 31,
and his brother Boyd, 26, now full-fledged members of
the group, were still in elementary school when older
siblings Sheumas, Kyle, Stewart and Lucy put out their
first self-titled album, The Barra MacNeils, in 1986...
read more
May 2, 2007
Ryan and Boyd MacNeil from the Barra MacNeils
join the
legendary Chieftains on Japanese tour in June!
Barra
MacNeils, Ryan and Boyd MacNeil will be joining the
legendary Chieftains on their upcoming tour of Japan...
read more
January
26, 2007
Musical mother lode: Six siblings strike
melodic gold in Barra MacNeils
When
it comes to music, Mother MacNeil knows best. “Our
mother grew up in the center of Cape Breton Island, a
town called Washabuck, and the only musical training
she had was learning to play by ear,” said Stewart
MacNeil, one of the six MacNeil offspring that comprise
the band the Barra MacNeils...
read more
January
3, 2007
Christmas in Cape Breton
Twenty
years playing music for a living is the kind of career
bands dream of, but few manage to do it with any kind of
consistent success. Fewer still become cultural
institutions, but Cape Breton’s Barra MacNeils can rest
assured their achievement is etched in stone...
read more
December 21, 2006
A Barra li'l Christmas. The Barra MacNeils
get in the yuletide mood
If the Barra MacNeils are
in town, chances are snow will follow. "It would appear we bring
Christmas wherever we go," said Stewart MacNeil, who is
on his family's holiday tour of Canada.
read more
December
19, 2006
Barra MacNeils wrap up holiday tour at home
GLACE BAY — Lift the Barra MacNeils’ Christmas Album II
out of its case and a collection of family holiday
photos is revealed. A quick glance at the collage of
pictures on the CD cover — kids in their pyjamas on
Christmas morning, posing in front of the Christmas
tree, an impromptu holiday ceilidh...
read more
December
19, 2006
Christmas traditions: The Barra MacNeils holiday spirit
alive
with new CD, tour
THE WORDS of At Last I'm Ready For Christmas may
resonate with audience members at the Barra MacNeils'
Christmas shows...
read more
December
9, 2006
Barra MacNeils offer Christmas for the Celtic soul
Stewart MacNeil can't put his finger on the reason why
Cape Breton music has gained such momentum over the 20
years his band, the Barra MacNeils, started singing in
public, but Bob MacLean has his own theory...
read more
December
08, 2006
Barra MacNeils take Celtic Christmas cheer across
Canada,
but bring bad weather
They're on a Christmas tour and, wouldn't you know it,
the Barra MacNeils were dashing through the snow.
Stepping off the ferry recently from Vancouver Island,
the family band from Sydney Mines, N.S., encountered
knee-deep snow drifts...
read more
December 07, 2006
Barra MacNeils performance:
‘very much a Christmas show’
In the
summer’s heat, the Barra MacNeils recorded their second
Christmas album. “We kept the air conditioning cranked,”
joked Stewart MacNeil as he helped the band promote its
Tuesday night concert at the Academy.
read more
December 4,
2006
Christmas Daddies
hauls in nearly
$300,000
Premier performs at
telethon for less
fortunate children
This year’s 32nd
annual Christmas
Daddies telethon had
performances from
the usual suspects
of the Barra
MacNeils, The
Cottars, Matt
Minglewood and Rita
MacNeil...
read more
November 28
2006
Barra MacNeils set tone a month before Christmas
The
family that sings together does not bicker with one
another. At least, not often. So it is with Cape Breton
natives The Barra MacNeils, returning to Victoria this
weekend. Stewart MacNeil, the Celtic band's step-dancing
vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, says he and his five
siblings rarely argue...
read more
November 24, 2006
Family steps to the music for 20
years
The Barra MacNeils welcome all to their Cape
Breton Christmas . When it comes to musical families,
the Osmonds, Partridges and Jackson Five come to mind.
But up here in Canada, the families that stand out are
Leahy, the Rankins and the Barra MacNeils...
read more
The Barra MacNeils
Christmas Album II
In
stores: Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Christmas Album II is the Barra MacNeils’ second
seasonal recording, following 1999’s The Christmas
Album. In November and December, the band will be
performing dates across Canada as part of their annual
Christmas Tour in support of The Christmas Album II
(see Tour page)
Recorded at Kyle and Anita MacNeil’s home on the Mira and Soundpark Studio, Cape Breton, NS. Engineered by Jamie Foulds and Boyd MacNeil. Produced by The Barra MacNeils
Christmas Album Media Sheet (PDF)
November 3, 2006
The Barra MacNeils to embark on
national tour in support
of their new release, The Christmas Album II
Award-winning, Celtic group The Barra MacNeils will be
performing dates across Canada this November and
December. The shows are in support of the band’s
upcoming release The Christmas Album II (Fontana
North/Universal Music Canada) in stores nationally...
read more
October 13, 2006
Unusual Suspects
rounded up once
again. Folk
orchestra tapped to
close Celtic Colours
A
stage full of musicians and just 10 hours to rehearse
together before performing in two of Celtic Colours’
most anticipated shows...
read more
October 5, 2006
The Barra MacNeils
Kick Off Nova Scotia
Music Week
Festivities
With special guest
JD Clarke
2 Time Music Nova
Scotia nominees The Barra
McNeils will get the
party rolling in Liverpool as they
kick off Nova Scotia
Music Week festivities... read more
September 27, 2006
Barra MacNeils
Return After
Successful String of
Shows - Prepare for
Celtic Colours –
Christmas CD and
Tour to Follow
Cape
Breton’s Barra MacNeils returned home yesterday after a
whirlwind of activity with the band selling shows out
and wowing festival audiences on both sides of the
Canada....
read more
September 3, 2006
Barra MacNeils return
One of
Canada's premier Celtic groups is coming to Vernon to
play at the Family Resource Centre's fourth annual christmas concert. The Barra MacNeils will perform at
the Performing Arts Centre Nov. 29 for the centre's
annual fundraiser for counselling programs.
read more
June 29, 2006
Celtic
Colours welcomes Bela Fleck
Banjo whiz joins global lineup for 10th anniversary of
Celtic Music Fest
Global stars of
traditional and
progressive folk
music, as well as a
host of local
legends and
up-and-coming
performers, are on
tap for the 10th
anniversary of Cape
Breton’s Celtic
Colours
International
Festival, taking
place Oct. 6 to 14.
read more
May 26, 2006
THE BARRA
MACNEILS featured on two new compilation albums
The
Barra MacNeils are being featured on two new compilation
albums - one in honour of the godfather of Celtic music
- John Allan Cameron, the other - a celebration of the
best in Atlantic Canadian traditional music...
read more
May 26, 2006
The Barra MacNeils: All At Once
(CD REVIEW)
The Barra
MacNeils are famous for their dynamic approach to tradition.
Here they bring tradition into the present with a selection and
style that can be truly called Con -temporary Canadian Cape
Breton Celtic...
read more
April 22, 2006
At 20, Barra MacNeils still as
fresh as ever Family band fabulous
in Pops Concert
By Stephen Pederson, Halifax Herald...
read more
March 13,
2006
Barra NacNeils in Truro March 18th!
They Sing,
they play, they dance and they're coming to Truro. The Canadian
Mental Health Association Colchester East Hants Branch presents
the Barra MacNeils, March 18 at the CEC. The multi
award winning Barra MacNeils play their own distinctive brand of
Celtic music as they continue to wow audiences around the
world. Tickets are $35 available at MacQuarries Pharmasave on
the Esplanade. One night and one night only. Don't miss the
captivating vocals and harmonies of the Barra MacNeils, March
18, 7pm at the CEC Auditorium.
February 7,
2006
East Coast Music
Association announces Concert Series
lineup for ECMA 2006
read more
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