December 07, 2006
Barra MacNeils performance: ‘very much a Christmas show’
Deb Bartlett; mykawartha.com

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.

Music from Christmas Album I and the recently released Christmas Album II and other seasonal favourites will be the primary focus of the concert.

“It’s very much a Christmas show,” said Mr. MacNeil. And response to it has been great, he said.

He says the band, composed of MacNeil siblings, wanted the second Christmas album to feel like the first.

It features instruments like the Celtic harp, bouzouki, bodhran, Irish flute, accordion, Irish pipes and whistles. “It’s nice to have all those different colours in your music,” said Mr. MacNeil. He said all those instruments, plus the family vocals and step dancing is the strength behind a Barra MacNeils show.

“It’s a fun project,” he said of the Christmas tour. The group kicked off the tour in the west and is making its way east to Nova Scotia for Christmas.

Asked if the five brothers and one sister get on each other’s nerves, he laughed and said, “We all have our moments.”

Mr. MacNeil said it was their mother’s influence that got the children involved with music. She was a step dance teacher and played fiddle, piano and guitar. “Our mother was our first teacher,” said Mr. MacNeil.

She had no chance for formal training, he said, but “we all had lessons and studied music. It’s also an oral tradition we grew up with.”

Once the family is home, Christmas will be celebrated at their parents’ house, said Mr. MacNeil. He said they’ll have a big dinner, visit with extended family and relax. At least until later in January, when another tour starts.

The band will be doing more American dates, said Mr. MacNeil. They’ll be concentrating on getting East Coast gigs that exposes their music to America’s large market without being too far from home.

The Barra MacNeils are also working on a 20th anniversary CD that will be a “retrospective of the Barra MacNeils over 20 years,” said Mr. MacNeil.

The Barra MacNeils come to the Academy Theatre on Tuesday, Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. For tickets call the box office at 324-9111.

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