Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival Turns 40

On Sunday August 10th I went to Lunenburg to catch just a tiny bit of the 40th Anniversary of the Folk Harbour Festival, which is the longest running music festival in Nova Scotia and one of the oldest in the country. The festival ran between August 7th and 10th in six venues, both indoor and outdoor, in the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage town. While my cousin and I were waiting to go inside St. John’s Anglican Church, which was the venue where we saw The Barra MacNeils and Heather Rankin perform, there was a tour guide taking tourists on what sounded like a fascinating walk around the town. There are also new sign posts up around that highlight the town’s historic buildings so that you can make sure to visit each one and take your instagram-calibre photos. I love Lunenburg so much and will jump at any opportunity to go, and of course, any opportunity to relish in Atlantic Canada’s world-class music industry is a day well spent. 

The venue where The Barra MacNeils and Heather Rankin played yesterday is absolutely stunning, albeit very hot in the summer when packed with avid music fans. St. John’s Anglican Church was built in 1753 and was the second Church of England built in Nova Scotia and is still in operation to this day. The history of Lunenburg is nuanced, but many Protestant settlers came to this part of Nova Scotia from Germany as part of Edward Cornwallis’ plan to grow the colony’s Protestant population in direct relation to the Catholic Acadians and Mi’kmaq who, of course, already lived in what is now Nova Scotia. Many of the first congregation of this church were Lutheran Germans, and the church was built during the French and Indian War, using wood from an disassembled church in Boston. It was the site of a catastrophic fire in 2001 where nearly two thirds of the church was destroyed, but the town rallied and accomplished a miraculous restoration, which included even incorporating broken shards from the original stained glass windows into the new ones. The inside is even more gorgeous and unique than the outside, and it has lovely acoustics for performances. 

It seems rare, suddenly, to have an opportunity to see The Barra MacNeils perform so close to Halifax outside of Christmastime. I’ve gotten used to being able to see them at the Cohn in December as part of their always epic jaunt across the country where they perform material from their three Christmas albums, but their discography is expansive; they have released seventeen albums since 1986, so I could have easily listened to them play a set three or four times as long to give them the time to cram in all their hits. The Barras: siblings Sheumas, Kyle, Stewart, Lucy, and Boyd, who hail from Sydney Mines, are incredible multi-instrumentalists and a large part of their set was lively fiddle-driven tunes, with piano, flute, mandolin, and guitar as well, and Jamie Gatti on bass. As hot as it was the audience was eager to tap their toes, and clap their hands, and bop in their chairs. Lucy treated us to some step dancing as well. Among the songs I recognized from their albums, they led the audience in sing-along renditions of “Misty Moisty Morning,” a bit of wishful thinking in this drought, and “Coaltown Road,” which really showcases the group’s tight vocal harmonies. I loved getting the opportunity to experience the iconic “Rattlin’ Roaring Willie” live, which feels like it lives in my bones from all the times that I’ve listened to a recording of it. Another highlight of the set was hearing Lucy sing Rita MacNeil’s anthemic “Home I’ll Be,” which was absolutely gorgeous. There are definite similarities between Rita MacNeil’s voice and Lucy’s, and even just similar pronunciation of words because of similar regional accents which really roots Lucy’s version back in Big Pond and conjures our collective memory of Rita so evocatively. 

It’s a testament to the Barra MacNeils that they are able to keep such a large audience crammed into church pews, especially up in the balcony where my cousin and I were sitting, in such a joyful mood for the entirety of their set when it is so sweltering inside.

If you’re in Cape Breton later this summer you can find the Barra MacNeils at the Highland Arts Theatre in Sydney on August 19th, at the Doryman Pub in Chéticamp on August 23rd, at the Markland in Dingwall on August 24th and then later in the year, of course, at Celtic Colours in October. You can find their albums wherever you stream your music, buy your music, or at their Merch Store.

Next Heather Rankin, joined by Jamie Robinson on guitar, Lisa MacIsaac on fiddle, and Kim Dunn on piano took the stage. Rankin started her set with “Goin’ Down the Road,” a sort of sorrowful Bruce Cockburn song which he wrote for the 1970 Canadian film of the same name, which sees two Cape Bretoners leaving their home and heading to Toronto in search of better work opportunities. It’s interesting because Rankin tends to sing songs from the, historically, male perspective. Both Rankin Family hits “North Country” and “Fisherman’s Son,” which she also sang in her set, are also stories with male narrators sung in a female voice. In the case of “Goin’ Down the Road” Rankin is able in this duality to capture both the wistfulness of leaving, but also the longing of those who are left behind, even that of Cape Breton herself.  

In addition to performing consummate fan favourites “Tell My Ma” and “Mairi’s Wedding,” which are also from her days with The Rankin Family, and “We Walk As One” from her first solo album, she really shows off her eclectic vocal range with two choices of cover songs: the light and breezy “If I Needed You,” written by Townes Van Zandt and popularized by Emmylou Harris and Don Williams in 1981, and the similarly sweet, but more belty “Those Memories of You”, written in 1987 by Alan O’bryant and popularized by Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt. My two favourite newer additions to Rankin’s set are the Gàidhlig “O Teannaibh Dlùth Is Togaibh Fonn,” also a sort of homesick call to the younger generations of expatriated Scots to not let the language die out. The entire piece sounds as though it were written expressly for Rankin’s voice, but especially the ending, where she repeats the refrain with mounting urgency; her voice just soars. On a much lighter note I also love her newest single “Comin’ Up Short,” written with Jamie Robinson, which humorously chronicles the pitfalls of being five feet tall. For musical theatre lovers “Comin’ Up Short” reminds me of the sort of song you might here at Joe’s Pub in New York City, or at Statler’s Piano Bar before it closed in Toronto, where you would hear songs like Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich’s “Taylor the Latte Boy” or “Sweet Dreams” by John Bucchino, songs that sound like they are from musicals, but are in fact stand alone sort of contemporary parlour or cabaret songs. You can watch the playfully irreverent music video for “Comin’ Up Short” directed by Greg Vardy (Martina of Tracy & Martina) here. 

Heather Rankin will be performing as part of Under the Spire Concert Series at Historic St. Mary’s in Kensington, Prince Edward Island on August 22nd, at Kings Playhouse in Georgetown, Prince Edward Island on August 23rd, at Levee on the Lake in Sackville, New Brunswick on September 14th, and then at the Horizon Stage Performing Arts Centre on September 20th in Spruce Grove, Alberta. You can find her albums wherever you stream or buy music.

The Lunenburg Folk Festival always has an incredible line up of artists, and of course this year for their 40th Anniversary was no exception: Cassie and Maggie, Catherine MacLellan, Dave Gunning, the Good Lovelies, Ian Sherwood, Lennie Gallant, Quote the Raven, Terra Spencer, among many others were performing there over the last four days. I wish I could have spent more time there and seen more performances. I definitely recommend that folks follow along with all the Folk Harbour Festival’s programming as they have events throughout the year as well.

Happy 40th Anniversary, Folk Harbour Festival; Nova Scotia is lucky to have you!