Lucy MacNeil
Every year I look forward to Symphony Nova Scotia’s Fusion series where mostly local musicians of a wide variety of genres perform a concert of their music with symphonic arrangements. The season kicked off this weekend with Lucy MacNeil and The Men of the Deeps in a tribute to Rita MacNeil, and it was glorious.
Rita MacNeil was born and raised in Big Pond, Cape Breton, and her family later moved to Sydney. In her early years Rita travelled quite a bit between living there, and being in Ontario, working hard toward a big break in the music business. She released her first album, Born A Woman, in 1975, and this featured music that she wrote while she was involved in the women’s movement in Toronto earlier in the decade. By 1979 her career had taken off, and in 1990 she was the bestselling country artist in Canada. Lucy MacNeil was born and raised in Sydney Mines in a musical family. She started performing with her older brothers in 1980, and they put out their first album, The Barra MacNeils, in 1986. From this vantage point Lucy MacNeil had a front row seat to the flourishing of Rita MacNeil’s career, which makes her an ideal person to perform a concert in her honour with Symphony Nova Scotia.
Rita MacNeil’s song “Working Man” was inspired to the Princess Colliery in Sydney Mines. She wanted to capture the physical and mental hardships experienced by these coal miners, who were such a vital backbone of their communities, while sacrificing their own health and safety every day to provide this essential service. The song was released in 1981 on her album Part of the Mystery. This song peaked at #11 as a single on the UK charts in November, 1990. The Men of the Deeps, is a choral ensemble where each member has at least two years experience working in or around a coal mine. It was formed in 1966 “to preserve the traditional settler music and folklore of the Canadian Maritimes, and particularly the Cape Breton region.” MacNeil and the Men of the Deeps performed together at Expo 86. The Men of the Deep’s Music Director, Dr. John C. (Jack) O’Donnell, created an arrangement of “Working Man” to include the choir. After that MacNeil often performed with The Men of the Deeps, and even toured with them. Their collaboration album Mining the Soul was released in 2000.
The Symphony Nova Scotia concert was conducted by Scott Macmillan, who also arranged most of the Rita MacNeil songs that Lucy MacNeil sang in the show. I’ve attended quite a few shows at the Cohn where MacMillan’s arrangements have been performed, but this was my first time seeing him conduct the orchestra. The overture that he created to begin the show reminded me, in the best way, of a piece of music that you’d hear if Rita MacNeil had her own Disney World (or Dollywood) style amusement park- there was something about the way the horns and the drums were working in the music that gave it an additional patriotic fanfare, which immediately made the concert feel like a triumphant, exciting event.
Lucy MacNeil came out and sang seven Rita MacNeil songs in the first set, five of which I would characterize as some of Rita’s most well known songs, and two, I would say, that are less familiar to folks. MacNeil started out with “Part of the Mystery” from the 1981 album of the same name, and, I think it has to do in part from their being from a similar part of the Island, but Lucy MacNeil’s voice has certain elements in common with Rita’s, so hearing her sing a song like this one, not only is Lucy doing the song beautiful justice, but you feel Rita being conjured in a way that isn’t always the case when her music is covered. “Part of the Mystery” comes from a mystic side of Rita MacNeil that maybe is less well known than her role as a feminist trailblazer and a songwriter who captured the stories of the people in her community so poignantly. This song was inspired by an encounter that she had with a fortune teller who told her not to wear just black onstage, to always add in a bit of colour to keep an “evil from penetrating through.” MacNeil was very much a seeker in her life, and this song really exemplifies her reckoning with feeling “like a wick in a candle, part of the question and part of the answer” to the great mysteries of the universe.
Next Lucy MacNeil sang “Reason to Believe” from the 1988 album of the same name, which Rita wrote for her mother, Renée, who died in 1972 when Rita was just in her late 20s. It is a heartbreaking portrait of grief from a young woman reckoning with how short her time was with her mom, a woman who both offered her unconditional love and support, and who she also had a complicated relationship with. Yet, in her mother’s absence it is that foundation of love that she grabs hold of, and that seems to become part of the answer she is seeking in “Part of the Mystery,” a way to ground herself in the faith that her mother is always with her. Lucy MacNeil, who lost her own mother, Jean, in 2023, pours so much emotion into this song, and her voice really soars beautifully.
“Old Man,” which Rita MacNeil wrote for her father, Neil, is a reflection on his long vocation as a carpenter, and imagining what it must be like to travel through a community knowing that you had built so many of the houses there. This song suits Lucy MacNeil’s voice especially well, as she sings, “And to think, my God, you did it all with these tired old hands that are now holding on to what’s left of your life.” I really heard the emphasis on the word all and the word left, and in them a fierce admiration for the capacity for Neil’s work, and the creeping sadness that we feel when we realize that our parents have suddenly become elderly, and we have to confront the idea of a life someday without them.
I loved the song “Dream Forever,” which I’d never heard before. It reminded me a little bit of the first time that I heard “Doors of the Cemetery;” it has a completely different vibe from what we often associate with Rita MacNeil. I wish I could find a recording of it. Lucy MacNeil also sang “My Island Too,” which seems to have been on the vinyl of Part of the Mystery, but isn’t on the digital album I have. MacNeil has become so synonymous with Cape Breton Island, her hometown of Big Pond in particular, it is wild to think of her writing a song where she is literally asking to belong there. Yet, it’s important to remember that MacNeil, like so many before and after her, left Nova Scotia, and went west, in her case to Toronto, and there, to this day, is this weird capacity that Nova Scotians have of revoking social citizenship when folks move elsewhere, unless they become famous, of course. Here the lamenting repeating line is literally, “Can this be my island too?” Is she asking ‘can I still be a Cape Bretoner even if I don’t live there’- or is she asking ‘will it be economically sustainable for me to come back home?’ Regardless, it is an interesting reflection on her feelings of identity and belonging as she moves through the world unsure of whether Cape Breton is inherently hers to claim. Similarly, it struck me as Lucy MacNeil was singing “Home I’ll Be,” another song that really suits her voice gorgeously, that part of the deep grief that many of us feel here is of being uprooted twice. For those of us with Scottish and Irish ancestry whose ancestors came here under the duress of colonialism, and for those of us with Acadian ancestry whose ancestors were forcibly removed from these lands once before, feeling forced to leave Cape Breton, and Nova Scotia more broadly, in the 20th and 21st Century to find employment and more lucrative opportunities is a sort of double grief. For Cape Bretoners especially, who really found a spot that mirrored a lot of stunning geography of their Scottish homeland, it hits deep to perpetually watch “the young ones go.” I really heard that in the way Lucy emphasized “banish thoughts of leavin,’” as I think that remains a dream for many of us here, that we can be a place the youngest generations are excited and able to invest their futures in, and for them to stay remain connected to their roots.
Kim Dunn, Chris Corrigan, John Alphonse, and Bruce Dixon, the Rita MacNeil band, joined the Symphony musicians in bringing this music to epic life. Kim Dunn sang a rendition of MacNeil’s song “Time And Again,” a very simple little ballad from a later album called Blue Roses, which was a lovely interlude in the show.
There are few as grounded in the specific cultural and historic roots of Cape Breton Island than the Men of the Deeps. They came into the theatre through the house wearing their signature coveralls with their headlamps on, led by their musical director Stephen Muise, who has a long history with the choir, as his father, Yogi, was a member before Stephen was even born. Both Yogi and his own father had been coal miners at Number 12 in New Waterford. There are so many songs about mining, and The Men of the Deeps treated us to “Pieces of Coal,” “Working at the Coal Face,” “Coal Town Road,” “The Coal By the Sea,” and “Coal Tattoo,” just to note the pieces with the word coal in the title, and The Men of the Deeps have covered eleven albums worth of songs. I don’t have a familial connection to the mining industry; I come from largely a long line of farmers, and then I have a great grandfather who was a letter carrier and a grandfather who was an RCMP officer, but I can understand the visceral urge to write about this unique, precarious experience of mining- where you can go for long stretches without seeing sunlight, where you are forming incredibly close camaraderies with the men that you’re working with because the work is so dangerous, isolating, and trauma bonding. We know about men losing their lives in explosions, and suffering from serious chronic illnesses from the coal dust in their lungs, but “Coal Tattoo” tells of how even more minor injuries in the mine could leave lasting marks when the coal dust got into a cut and left a permanent tattoo on the skin.
The coalminers are also part of the backbone of Nova Scotia’s labour movement, and their song “Let Us Thank You,” adapted from “Forty Hour Week” by Alabama, could certainly be the anthem of a festival like Mayworks. There is a growing interest among younger folks in the labour movement and workers rights here in Halifax; I feel like they all would be remiss to sleep on the opportunity to learn more about Rita MacNeil and the Men of the Deeps. I’m not sure if the 1990s Celtic Revival has skewed younger people’s perception of Nova Scotian folk music, and Celtic traditions in particular, but at its heart, music like Rita’s, the Barra MacNeils, and the Men of the Deeps tell the story of working class folks, men and women, and it is an important part of a rich and nuanced history of this place.
The audience on Saturday afternoon were so quick to sing along with songs like “Home I’ll Be,” “Flying On Your Own,” “Rise Again,” and Working Man,” reinforcing this beautiful shared sense of community and culture that I think emanates from the mines, from Cape Breton, and permeates into the rest of the province in a way that informs our identities, and connects us so ardently with one another. Hearing this music in arrangements with the symphony creates an impressive bridge between the hyper local and the international. We don’t need to be told that we have world class singers and songwriters here, but it feels invigorating to spend an afternoon relishing in it.
The next Symphony Nova Scotia Fusion Concert is Alex Cuba on October 23rd, 2026 at 7:30pm the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium (6101 University Avenue, Halifax). Tickets for that show range in price from $36.50 to $90.50 based on seating. To learn more about all the upcoming Fusion shows this season, or to book your tickets to see Alex Cuba please visit this website. You can also phone the Box Office at 902.494.3820 or visit in person at 6101 University Avenue.
Lucy MacNeil is at Celtic Colours performing in The Usual Suspects at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre (601 Reeves Street, Port Hawkesbury) on October 9th, 2026, and then at The Savoy Theatre (116 Commercial Street, Glace Bay) on October 10th, 2026, and then at Big Spruce Brewing in Baddeck with Rob Durando on October 11th, 2026 at 2:30. For more information or to buy your tickets please visit this website. The Barra MacNeils’ Christmas Tour starts November 13th at the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney, British Columbia, it comes to the Cohn on December 20th, and home to the Savoy on December 21st and 22nd. For all tour dates, more information, or to buy your tickets, please visit this website.
The Men of the Deeps have upcoming Atlantic Canadian Tour Dates, and then will tour Ontario at Christmas.
Saturday, October 17, 2026 Centre 200 Sydney, NS, Celtic Colours Closing Ceremonies Showtime: 7:30 PM
Friday, October 23, 2026 St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Parish, Sydney, NS Showtime: 7:30 PM
60TH ANNIVERSARY GALA Sunday, November 1, 2026 Savoy Theatre, Glace Bay. Show Time: 7:00 PM
Wednesday, November 4, 2026, DeCoste Centre, Pictou. Showtime: 7:30 PM
Thursday, November 5, 2026, Marigold Theatre, Truro. Showtime: 7:30 PM
Friday, November 6, 2026, Fredericton Playhouse, Fredericton. Showtime: 7:30 PM
Saturday, November 7, 2026, Confederation Centre, Charlottetown. Showtime: 7:30 PM
Sunday, November 8, 2026, Imperial Theatre, Saint John, Showtime: 7:30 PM
Thursday, November 12, 2026, Capitol Theatre, Moncton, Showtime: 7:30 PM
Friday, November 13, 2026 Astor Theatre, Liverpool, Showtime: 7:30 PM
Saturday, November 14, 2026 Knox United Church, Lower Sackville, Showtime: 3:00 PM (Matinee)
Sunday, November 15, 2026, SAERC Auditorium, Port Hawkesbury Showtime: 3:00 PM (Matinee)
Please visit this website to buy your tickets and for more information.
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