The Cottars Cape Breton’s young quartet brings Celtic music to the shores of Japan By Alexa Thompson Allister MacGillivray defines the word “Cottars” as Highland tenant farmers who fled Scotland during the Clearances of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Even the Domesday Book (1086) comments that Cottars were peasants, not quite of the same social status as villans, free common villagers or village peasants of any of the feudal classes lower in rank than a lord. What a wonderful name for a young group of talented musicians from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia who, with their individualistic style, are bringing alive again songs that may not have been heard for 300 years. The Cottars • Photo by Andrew MacNaughton It was in the tiny community of Iona on Cape Breton Island in the summer of 2000 that brother/sister duos Jimmy and Roseanne MacKenzie and Ciarán and Fiona MacGillivray first met. They were then aged 10 to 13. As Ciarán explains, they got together after the show, found they got on well enough, and decided to combine as a single group. “We feel like we’re a family now. It’s been five years and with all the concerts and places we’ve been, hotels and planes, we keep together really well.” These kids are all multi-instrumentalists who were first exposed to Celtic music at a very early age. Ciarán, 17, and his sister Fiona, 16, are the children of author/composer Allister MacGillivray (“Song of the Mira”). Between them they play piano, guitar, harp, tin whistle and bodhrán (a type of handheld drum, often played with a stick), and they step-dance. As a duo, they have performed for the Governor General of Canada, been guests on the Celtic band Barra MacNeils’ Christmas Special, and appeared on the Pit Pony television series. Jimmy, 18, and Roseanne, 15, are the MacKenzies. Roseanne is a fine singer and step-dancer and reputed to be one of Cape Breton’s most accomplished traditional fiddle players. Jimmy, the eldest of the group, is the guitar specialist, but he also plays bodhrán and other stringed instruments. The Cottars’ debut album, Made In Cape Breton, was released in 2002 to critical acclaim. The second, On Fire, which came out last year, features Ciarán’s first published composition, “Planxty Mira Medley.” A third, as yet unnamed, is in the works and scheduled for release in early 2006. So what is it about these young musicians that has so captivated audiences? It is certainly their energy and their professionalism. But as well, they are bringing to a world audience the old traditional tunes of Scotland, arranged in innovative ways. As Ciarán explains it, his father has an extensive library of old tunes written two or three hundred years ago, many of which have never been recorded. “At least 85 per cent (of songs on the albums) are unknown. We try to pick out material that is unknown or at least less well known. Sometimes we might be the first to record an old tune.” And if the tune is known, the Cottars will put their own sound onto it, making it uniquely theirs. It’s Allister MacGillivray who does the arrangements for the Cottars. He is the musical director, song researcher and co-producer all rolled into one, while mother Bev is the road manager and Valerie MacKenzie, mother of Jimmy and Roseanne, handles merchandizing. Quite a family affair. So what is it like to be a member of the Cottars and at the same time a teenager? I spoke with Ciarán MacGillivray while the group were in Toronto on a photo shoot before returning to Cape Breton and school. ___________________________ “Sometimes we might be the first to record an old tune.” ___________________________ So much of their success, he feels, is down to coming from an area steeped in Celtic music and traditions, surrounded by so many wonderful musicians. “It’s hard to be big-headed among so many brilliant musicians,” he says. “Not all of them get the chance we got, but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve it. When we win an award we know it’s because we come from a long line of (talented) musicians.” (The MacGillivrays come from Albert Bridge, a tiny village with at least one musician in nearly every household.) In many ways they are ordinary teenagers. They spend time with friends. Enjoy socialising and getting together with family. And it’s a big family, so parties are lively, with lots of music and song. There have been some concessions. Ciarán and Roseanne were both actively involved in sports, which they have largely given up as a group decision not to engage in anything that might cause an injury. You can’t play the fiddle with a broken arm. And you can’t step-dance with a twisted ankle. Schoolwork as well is not quite as well structured as it might be for other high school students, though education remains a priority for all four of them. Classes are missed when the group is on tour and they work hard to keep up their grades. Some teachers provide assignments for them to take with them; others will offer catch-up classes during lunch or after school on their return. It works because everyone in the community, teachers included, is supportive of the kids — and naturally very proud of them. And it’s no wonder they are proud: these four youngsters have brought traditional Celtic music to all parts of the world. They have performed for Senator Edward Kennedy and his family, played at Symphony Hall in Boston, been to folk festivals in Calgary and Edmonton, not to mention the Tonder Festival in Denmark. They’ve played The Hugh’s Room in Toronto, Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. They have been from Glace Bay in Nova Scotia to Vancouver, Boston to Los Angeles, and every place in between. And right now they are finishing up a tour that has taken them to Connecticut, Michigan, New York City and Kansas City. How do you handle all that travelling? When you’re young, you take it in your stride. Says Ciarán, “I enjoy the travel. Absolutely love it! There are days when I wake up in a hotel and don’t know where I am. Days on planes where I don’t know where we are going. We switch planes in transit and only my mother knows where we are going. Different hotel rooms. Different countries. Different cultures. There is nothing like it, all this performing and travelling. That’s what’s so exciting about the music industry. You wake up one morning and you’re told you are going to play somewhere you’ve never been before.” ___________________________ These four youngsters have brought traditional Celtic music to all parts of the world. ___________________________ Take their last tour of Japan in December 2004, this time to promote On Fire. It was, says Ciarán, an unbelievable two-and-a-half weeks. “We visited the Hiroshima Bomb Museum. It was breathtaking but I was shaking standing there, in the only building still left erect after the bombing. You look around and you realize that for miles in all directions there was nothing. It made you stop and think. The whole tour was like that. “The Japanese are so hospitable and so respectful of ancient traditions (other than their own).” He was surprised at how much young Japanese people knew about Celtic and Western music. They knew of the traditional Irish band the Chieftains, appreciated both Scottish and Irish music, but also had a healthy regard for Avril Lavigne. The four tried to learn a little Japanese so they could make comments on stage, something about the weather perhaps or the town in which they were playing or the friendly people. It was extremely well received. It seems that not many English-speaking performers take the time to learn a bit of someone else’s language. That, to Ciarán, is crazy. Half the fun of travelling is getting to know other people, and to get to know them, you need to have a feel for their language and culture. They even held an impromptu step-dancing class in the conference room of their hotel, with the help of a translator who explained the moves and the significance of the music. For Ciarán and for the rest of the Cottars, this is part of the magic of performing and travelling. “When I stepped off the plane, I realized that Cape Breton was on exactly the opposite side of the globe to Tokyo. It had taken us 20-plus hours on a plane. So you get a sense of what a small world it is after all. You feel so connected. You get to Japan and you find out there are connections (like knowing each other’s music) even though they are very different as well.” It’s hard to put into words, but it would seem that music is a common bond between cultures as diverse yet as old as both Celtic and Japanese. And these four young people are “spreading Celtic music as far and as best as we can.” Darn right they are. This article first appeared in Celtic Heritage at www.celticheritage.ns.ca. Alexa Thompson is the editor of and a contributor to Celtic Heritage magazine. She is of Scottish descent. This website: Copyright © 2006 Dream World Media, LLC. / Urban Mozaik Magazine. 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