Seancara ( “Old Friends” in Olde Irish) is a trio formed by old friends to explore new approaches to traditional and contemporary Celtic music. Former ClanTerra founders Chris Daniels and Barbara Rose Olorenshaw have teamed up with Chris’s son Jay to create a unique sound particularly suited for concert and event performance. Seancara’s broad repertoire ranges from driving jigs and reels to haunting aires and ballads, and includes innovative approaches to favourite traditional pieces.

For more information, check out their website, or send them an email.

Mac MacKenzie is a traditional Celtic folk singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist performing original and traditional music, seasoned with influences drawn from a diverse range of folk traditions. He plays a whole Toyota Echo full of musical instruments including the Uilleann Pipes, Tin Whistles, Appalachian Dulcimer, Guitar, 24-string Cruite (Celtic Lyre), Didjeridu and Bodhran. Mac sings in English, Scottish Gaelic and Irish and his singing style is strongly influenced by the old, traditional Gaelic styles known as Sean Nòs (Gaelic for ‘oldstyle’).

Tonight, Mac is joined by friends and fellow musicians Cindy Warnock on Tin Whistle and Bodhran and Mark Ryan on Guitar and Bodhran.

Steph Gabriel Lovatt is a native of Dublin Eire.

She grew up in post war Europe.

It was about 40 years after the Irish Free State was formed.

Grandmothers told stories of the troubles.

It was during Churchill’s embargo of food ships coming into Ireland.

Everyone was poor.

It was also a time of a huge cultural reawakening when Irish people went deeply back into their roots.

Going to a ballad session was what everyone did.

The ballads were an oral history.

Events recorded in the emotions of the people.

Accounts of love, war, parting, separation, deportation, prison ships immigration, loss.

Songs of beauty. Songs of hope and love of the land.

Always sang with a defiance of spirit and a calling to account.

Some Irish ballads are sung in the Sean Nos style.

Sung without music as many of the very old songs are.

Remembered through mothers and Grandmothers.

Steph Lovatt is continuing in this tradition and telling the stories as the history of the Irish peoples continues on all shores, and new pages are written.

Steph will sing two songs in the Sean Nos style, and one with guitar.

Steph is a singer and songwriter presently living in Calgary.

For more information send an email to Steph.

Growing up, music and singing were an important part of life. My Scottish and Cape Breton roots lie dormant for many years until a chance encounter with the music of Stan Rogers. Traveling down the windy road of Celtic, traditional, and contemporary folkroots music has kindled my passion for storytelling through music. Being inspired by folks like Stan Rogers, David Francey, Maria Dunn, and many other talented local musicians and friends have kept me working at honing my skills. My love of singing and sharing music has given me opportunity to meet good people and share in the magic of making music. Dabbling in music around town, at summer camps, and most recently in the classroom has been a rich and satisfying experience.

For more information, send an email to Paul or phone him at 403-289-3832.

John Spearn (var. Spearin) is Canadianafolkrootsceltic. You’ll instantly catch these deep influences threaded through John’s fine vocals, lyrics, and rootsy, guitar-mastered songwriting works. His grant-supported Canada Songs and Northern Sightlines CDs have taken him from sea to sea to sea as a major festival performer, workshop host, and historical curriculum author. His Canada Songs Project has received several award nominations. This is pure Canadiana: forgotten but deserving heroes, the humility in our international image, and a superb range of tender ballads through to raw, foot-stompin’ stories that need to be told. A brand new third CD, Lonely Heroes (five years in the making), is now available. Please check Canadian Folk Music Magazine (Autumn 2007), MySpace and YouTube for features.

To find out about John, check out his website at www.canadasongs.com and his MySpace page.

You can also send an email to John.

Originating in Ireland & England respectively, Anne & Terry have performed together at various functions in Calgary since the mid-90’s.

Both are involved with the Irish Choir – Anne as Musical Director and Terry as soloist …. sometimes even singing in Gaelic. It’s debatable whether he knows what he’s saying then !

Both Anne & Terry were also involved with the production Gortnamona which enjoyed a long run in Calgary & Vancouver and is being staged in Vancouver once more in March ‘08.

Sora is a Celtic singer/songwriter from Calgary with an organic sound, which sits quite comfortably between classical and folk. Her natural style and rich voice, first evident on her debut CD of art folk songs “Winds of Change”, has only deepened and mellowed like fine red wine. Currently, Sora is working on a new album filled with her own poignant compositions.

For more information, please visit her at corvidmedia.com or on MySpace.

When highschool friends Evan Webb and Brad Christie met Colleen Dauncey through mutual friends at a local music show, they decided to form a musical group of their own. In addition to the boys playing both guitar and percussion, Colleen tackling keyboard duties, and the occasional appearance of various additional instruments, all three band members also provide the vocals for this project. Calling themselves Greenward, this group of 20-somethings have set out to share their unique combination of folk, pop, and rock influences with anyone looking for good music and a great time.

If you would like to contact Greenward, don’t hesitate to send an email. A sampling of Greenward’s music can also be found on their MySpace page.