Cape Breton's top 5 Celtic music destinations - Canadian Living Magazing Online
Travel to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, for these top 5 fiddle-friendly venues.
Cape Breton's signature sound is Celtic fiddle music, and purists still play it just as their ancestors did. Yet, thanks to a younger generation of artists, you'll find everything from ethereal old-school harmonies to edgy Gaelic rock at these top 5 destinations.
1. Celtic Music Interpretive Centre
5471 Route 19, Judique, Inverness County on the west coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
If you don't know a jig from an air or a MacMaster from a Barra MacNeil, make the CMIC your first stop. Packed with classic recordings and other archival material, it has instrument demos daily from May to mid-October, plus fiddling workshops in summer. Weekly concerts and "open tune" sessions (think "open mike" nights for players) run all year.
2. The Red Shoe Pub
11573 Route 19, Mabou, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
Owned by the Rankin family (Cape Breton's most famous singing siblings), this former general store takes its name from an old reel about homemade footwear stained crimson with paint. In addition to traditional pub grub, the Shoe serves up hot music nightly, June through mid-October — and one Rankin or another is often on-site.
3. The Barn at the Normaway Inn Margaree Valley
691 Egypt Road, Margaree Valley, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
Don't let its pastoral setting fool you. The Barn at the Normaway Inn offers a full-on, floor-shaking, rafter-rattling island experience. You can listen to infectious tunes and dance till you drop for only $10 at events from June through October. Off nights, performers get unplugged and intimate in the vintage inn's living room.
4. The Savoy Theatre
116 Commercial Street, Glace Bay, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
Built to evoke a Victorian-era concert hall, the Savoy has been hosting big-name acts since it opened in the 1920s. For a sneak peak, watch the White Stripes' Under Great White Northern Lights DVD. Its climax is a Savoy show in which guitarist Jack White is outplayed by the obscenely talented — and sometimes plain obscene — Ashley MacIsaac.
5. Community ceildhs
Inverness County, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
Down-home jam marathons called ceilidhs (pronounced "kay-lees" if your Gaelic is rusty) are the purest expression of Capers' twin passions for fiddling and step dancing. They are held in church halls and rec centres across the region, but Inverness County is ground zero. A driving route dubbed the Ceilidh Trail even winds through it.
1. Celtic Music Interpretive Centre
5471 Route 19, Judique, Inverness County on the west coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
If you don't know a jig from an air or a MacMaster from a Barra MacNeil, make the CMIC your first stop. Packed with classic recordings and other archival material, it has instrument demos daily from May to mid-October, plus fiddling workshops in summer. Weekly concerts and "open tune" sessions (think "open mike" nights for players) run all year.
2. The Red Shoe Pub
11573 Route 19, Mabou, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
Owned by the Rankin family (Cape Breton's most famous singing siblings), this former general store takes its name from an old reel about homemade footwear stained crimson with paint. In addition to traditional pub grub, the Shoe serves up hot music nightly, June through mid-October — and one Rankin or another is often on-site.
3. The Barn at the Normaway Inn Margaree Valley
691 Egypt Road, Margaree Valley, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
Don't let its pastoral setting fool you. The Barn at the Normaway Inn offers a full-on, floor-shaking, rafter-rattling island experience. You can listen to infectious tunes and dance till you drop for only $10 at events from June through October. Off nights, performers get unplugged and intimate in the vintage inn's living room.
116 Commercial Street, Glace Bay, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
Built to evoke a Victorian-era concert hall, the Savoy has been hosting big-name acts since it opened in the 1920s. For a sneak peak, watch the White Stripes' Under Great White Northern Lights DVD. Its climax is a Savoy show in which guitarist Jack White is outplayed by the obscenely talented — and sometimes plain obscene — Ashley MacIsaac.
5. Community ceildhs
Inverness County, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
Down-home jam marathons called ceilidhs (pronounced "kay-lees" if your Gaelic is rusty) are the purest expression of Capers' twin passions for fiddling and step dancing. They are held in church halls and rec centres across the region, but Inverness County is ground zero. A driving route dubbed the Ceilidh Trail even winds through it.
