Bob Oldfield
Vernon Folk Roots
Vernon Folk Roots Society winds up its successful 10th season with a final show featuring siblings Cassie and Maggie MacDonald from Nova Scotia.
Playing music from the deepest roots of Canada and its very earliest musical traditions, Cassie and Maggie put their own present day spin on the typical Gaelic sound of east coast Canada.
They have been described as ‘exciting, innovative and mesmerizing with a talent that is surpassed only by the sheer joy they exude in performance.’
Born to a family of deep Nova Scotia roots and a rich musical history, the two have been enchanting audiences around the world for well more than a decade.
Cassie points to man she calls her ‘fiddle maestro grandfather’ who was a well-known east coast performer who released six 78rpm records back in the mid 1930s. She regards him as the musical glue that has inspired her wider family which now numbers a ‘mere’ 54 singing and dancing musicians and storyteller cousins.
Showing further respect, Cassie is proud to talk of her grandfather’s connection to B.C. as he was an engineer who worked on the construction of the Coquihalla highway.
The sisters are looking forward to driving the highway this time in the May sunshine instead of the awful conditions they faced in the darkness of a February some years ago.
“We’ll be thinking lots of our grandfather as we drive and we look forward to seeing the scenic beauty of the highway this time,” she chuckles.
Sadly, the siblings will be arriving in Vernon without any merchandise to sell as everything they had was stolen when their vehicle was broken into in California.
“Not a thing was left,” muses Cassie. “And the car was locked, safely, we thought, inside the hotel compound. We are so very, very thankful that we had at least removed all our instruments. The merch suitcases are heavy to
haul inside after a long day and a show we had performed so this particular night we made the decision to leave them in the car. The next morning they were gone.”
Cassie and Maggie MacDonald will be live on stage at the Vernon Folk Roots Society show which takes place at the Vernon Jazz club on Thursday, May 16, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available from Ticketseller.ca.
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