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ISLANDS OF SONG16-19 March at the Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin Street
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Jim Fidler
There is no musical genre or label that fits this music. There are influences from Newfoundland, Jamaica, North Africa, Portugal and Spain, Ireland, the Gypsy tradition, folk and others.
Jim Fidler is a musician, singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist. His passion for Newfoundland and Labrador, her people and her culture strongly influence his songwriting and music.
Ron Hynes
Ron is a five-time Peoples Choice winner, a five-time Canadian East Coast Music award winner and a Canadian Juno award winner. Ron's songs have been covered by artists such as Mary Black, Christy Moore (Sonny's Dream) and Emmylou Harris, Valdy, The Irish Descendants, Susan Aglukark, The Good Brothers, The Ennis Sisters, John McDermott, Prairie Oyster and Murray McLauchlan.
Ron Hynes' latest CD, Get Back Change (produced by Paul Mills), was released in May 2003 on the Borealis label and has received music industry awards and wide critical acclaim.
Pamela Morgan
An original member of Canada's pioneering folk rock band "Figgy Duff", Pamela draws her inspiration and much of her repertoire from the traditional music of her native island, where the oral tradition is still very much alive, and people still sing the songs their ancestors brought with them from Ireland, Great Britain and France.
Coleen Power
Newfoundland singer/songwriter Colleen Power is best known for her clever lyrics, irresistible melodies and disarming stage presence. Colleen’s debut album Lucky You Are earned her female and alternative Artist of the Year at the 2001 Music Industry Awards and receives major critical acclaim and radio airplay across Canada and the Eastern United States.
Darrell Power
Darrell Power spent ten years touring relentlessly because he believed in the power of the music of his own back yard. He was a founding member and a driving musical force of GREAT BIG SEA. By the time he had finally laid the guitar down in 2002, he had seven platinum and multi platinum albums, countless accolades and awards, and a million miles logged in North America and Europe and a loyal legion of fans earned one show at a time.
Hugh Scott
Hugh Scott is a singer/songwriter with a lush, rich voice and a well-experienced pen. In November 1996 he was honoured by a jury of his peers; SOCAN and the Music Industry Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (MIA), with Song of the Year for “Theresa Maria” recorded by Fine Crowd on the album ‘Poverty’s Arse’.
Islands of Song – the Connection
The story of Newfoundland is one of survival. (Great Britain saw it only as a giant rock moored off the coast of the Grand Banks, once the richest fishing grounds in the world.) Settlement was discouraged for almost 200 years and yet they came. ( In his book,’ The Oldest City’, Paul O’Neill writes “The laws of January 27, 1676 forbidding immigration and ordering ships captains not to carry settlers to Newfoundland were ignored.’)
“ As early as 1690, the merchants requested the Newfoundland convoy to call at Cork for 48 hours to take in a supply of provisions, manufactures and youngsters - young men in their late teens or early twenties who were employed at the Newfoundland fishery for a summer, a winter and a summer before being sent home. This was called a Newfoundland season.”
For over 300 years, the Irish came to Newfoundland trading one life of squalor for another. They brought their melodies and songs to help them remember. As new generations born on this rock began to call themselves Newfoundlanders, the Irish music that they freely shared was claimed for this new country to help it tell its story.