Congratulations to the Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association as they celebrate 50 years of great music! I’m no fiddler, but have been listening to and enjoying the music since I was a child. My grandfather, Michael Campbell, and his better-known brother John Francis (both from Iona, don’t you know) were fiddlers.Read More
Author’s Note: Back in 2004, I was writing for The Cape Bretoner and one of my first interviews was with Shauna Doolan, who passed away a few days ago, leaving behind a tremendous contribution to the Cape Breton music scene. I am grateful to be able to have parts ofRead More
I was debating just launching into my CBRM council coverage a week late without explanation but decided that would be the coward’s way out so instead, I will confess that I missed the memo about the January 31 meeting. In my defence, the last Tuesday in January is not theRead More
Editor’s Note: I asked Spectator contributor Don Clarke to write something about what’s happening in his neck of the CBRM these days and here’s what he had to say. Making music Last week, I spoke to Glace Bay musician Aaron Turnbull about the local music scene and his personalRead More
Key changes I know nothing about music but, as with pretty much all subjects, I like to hear what people who do know something about it have to say, which is why this week I’ve been following a discussion about the demise of the key change in popular music. ToRead More
McKenna & Co I was going to call Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) a many-headed hydra but that’s the wrong metaphor, it is decidedly more of an octopus, with tentacles everywhere in everything—railroads, ports, real estate, nuclear power—but just one head, as the Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation reported back in 2013:Read More
Three Celebs and a Baby I recently swore off home reno shows after a friend pointed out to me that they are the worst thing you can possibly watch when you’re looking to improve your own living space because the key to their miraculous design transformations is the removal ofRead More
Buy buy Writing about Destination Cape Breton and the Cape Breton Partnership these past couple of weeks has been like returning to earlier, simpler times when publicly funded agencies and their dubious achievements occupied a lot of my brain space. But it all feels a little darker these days. TourismRead More
When last I spoke to Shauna Walters in these pages, it was November 2020 and she was coming off a successful series of summer concerts, staged in her own backyard. I knew (because we’ve talked about it) that her goal was to one day launch a full-fledged spring festival soRead More
More than 100 years after shipyard workers in Lunenburg, N.S., shaped wood and metal to build the Bluenose schooner, the tradition of local, hand-built excellence lives on. But now, instead of fishing boats, it’s fighter jets — Brett Ruskin, CBC, 6 April 2022 It’s such an apt comparison. LikeRead More
