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October 11, 2006
The Judique Flyers pack them in at community centre
by Frank Macdonald, Inverness Oran
A person
couldn’t be blamed for wondering why organizers even
bothered putting out the chairs in the Judique Community
Centre for Monday night’s concert considering how much time
the sold-out audience spent on their feet applauding the
performers.
Standing ovations were the order of the day, so it wasn’t
surprising that when Buddy MacMaster walked on the stage he
received a standing O. “You’ll probably all walk out when I
start to play,” he quipped as he started to play, and the
audience sat and listened to the man whom host Ian McNeil
described as a person people like to be near because “It’s
good to be standing close to greatness for a while.” The
ovation was extended when MacMaster finished his set.
It was an
evening exemplifying the nature of the Celtic Colours
International Music Festival which is celebrating its 10th
year. Stellar Cape Breton fiddlers Buddy MacMaster and Jerry
Holland, each a headline performer in his own right, were
joined on stage by Ferintosh, a baroque group featuring
David Greenberg on fiddle, Abby Newton on cello and Kim
Robertson on harp, their energetic offerings bringing to the
stage the step-dancing and then the self-choreographic
Highland dancing of Sabra MacGillivray set the tone.
What
followed was a musical buffet from fiddler Liz Carroll and
Celtic guitarist-vocalist John Doyle, Buddy MacMaster, those
popular Danes, Haugaard & Høirup, and master composer and
fiddler, Jerry Holland.
The
evening’s concert paid tribute not just to the musicians and
the music, but honoured in its title one of the great
characters of Cape Breton, the Judique Flyer. The old steam
engine made its daily runs from Port Hawkesbury to
Inverness, a 50-mile feat accomplished in as little a eight
hours, barring breakdown. The Judique Flyer, Ian McNeil
noted, was immortalized in a song of that title by Lake
Ainslie lyricist Stanley Collins. The name was also
immortalized in Judique fiddler, Buddy MacMaster’s third
recoridng, Judique Flyer.
There was
nothing slow about the Judique Flyers on Monday night in
Judique, and from the engine to the caboose it was standing
room only.
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