Prefer Performance.
Hayes, Ian
Prefer Performance. CD produced by Richard MacKinnon [Cape Breton
University, Centre for Cape Breton Studies, 2010. Audio recordings.
Notes by Erin Martell. CD no number. Available for download at:
http://culture.cbu.ca/ ccbs/MP3_Download.html].
Soundtracks. CD produced by Richard MacKinnon (Cape Breton
University, Centre for Cape Breton Studies, 2010. Audio recordings.
Notes by Richard MacKinnon. CD no number. Available: Centre for Cape
Breton Studies, Cape Breton University, P.O. Box 5300, 1250 Grand Lake
Road, Sydney, NS B1P 6L2, Canada].
Prefer Performance is a collection of audio recordings produced by
the Centre for Cape Breton Studies at Cape Breton University. With
state-of-the-art audio facilities, these two recordings demonstrate the
Centre's newfound technical capabilities through the musical
talents of their faculty and students. The material is comprised almost
entirely of folk and Celtic music. It includes a substantial amount of
instrumental music, including two flute and guitar duos with Heather
Sparling and Chris McDonald, and several selections of fiddle-based
performances. I was particularly struck by the fine tenor banjo playing
of David Curley and Brona Graham; the addition of the banjos added a
crisp timbre and texture to three tracks of traditional Cape Breton
fiddling. The two tracks that feature the Cape Breton Fiddle Music Class
made the bold choice of recording without any accompaniment, something
that is not common within Cape Breton tradition. This decision however,
provided the group fiddling with a large, enveloping sound, familiar to
fans of Cape Breton music--it is comparable to the mass performances of
the Cape Breton Fiddlers' Association, and is now a performance
style seen regularly in concerts all over the island.
The sung portion of Prefer Performance includes more general
traditional folk songs, like CBU Choir's rendition of
"Farewell to Nova Scotia." Representing the Gaelic tradition
of Cape Breton, there is a port-a-beul, "Calum Crubach," sung
by Clare Lafferty, though I was disappointed with the length of the
performance, which totalled only 27 seconds. Of particular interest to
me was the only selection that might appear to have absolutely no
connection to Cape Breton music whatsoever, Richard MacKinnon's
blues rock track entitled "The Ticket." That having been said,
that song is actually quite representative of a unique side of Cape
Breton--blues rock. The hard-driving blues rock in Sydney is now a
tradition with its roots in local musicians like Sam Moon and Matt
Minglewood, and can even be seen in MacKinnon's accompanists, Fred
Lavery and Gordie Levatte of the Blues Merchants.
Overall, the aesthetic of the CD tended to lean towards that of a
live, raw sound, particularly on the fiddle tracks. The decision to
record these performances as a live group preserved the natural sound of
the room, and gave it some of the qualities of a well-recorded
ethnographic field recording. My main criticism of the collection is the
complete absence of archival recordings. The CBU is home to some of the
finest archival materiais in Nova Scotia, and including a track or two
of archival material would have been a nice addition. It is clear that
Prefer Performance is intended as a means for student recruitment--a
fair portion of the liner notes are dedicated to listing the hardware
and type of work that is done in the Digitization Laboratory at the
Centre for Cape Breton Studies and the Folklore Department. Clearly a
testament to the enthusiasm of the faculty and students, as well as how
much the community supports the school and program, this is a CD that
truly shows what is happening in the Folklore Department at CBU.
The other CD, Soundtracks, is an anthology that was used to raise
funds for a scholarship for university students who are developing a
professional music career. As a way of commenting on this, virtually all
of the performers on this recording are "gigging" musicians
who have been involved in CBU as either students or faculty. The content
of the CD, therefore, is fairly diverse. It includes singer-songwriters,
pop rock, Irish traditional music, Cape Breton fiddling, and even some
J. S. Bach. As such, it is a wonderful example of the heterogeneity of
music in Cape Breton--all of these recordings are examples of regularly
occurring music in and around the CBU community. While there is
certainly a strong fiddling tradition in Cape Breton, the music of the
local Ukranian community and the Cape Breton Orchestra are equally
important parts of Cape Breton culture.
The CD prominently features two exchange students from the
University of Limerick, button accordionist Caroline Murphy and fiddler,
bouzouki player Neil Fitzgibbon, who appear on a total of five tracks.
Exhibiting wonderful depth, playing traditional Irish instrumental
selections accompanied by Sheumas MacNeil of the Barra MacNeils, the
accordion playing of Caroline Murphy is a highlight. Richard MacKinnon
also appears on this anthology as well, but this time as the frontman to
a blues rock band, The Byegones. They cover "Your Cigarettes and
Coffee" by Peter Narvaez, yet another classic example of a
well-respected folklorist with a successful music career.
In comparison to Prefer Performance, Soundtracks is considerably
more commercial in nature. This can be seen in the prominence of
contemporary rock and singer-songwriter selections, as well as its more
polished aesthetic. I found that there was a lack of balance in the
ordering of the tracks, however, with many of the cleaner, carefully
produced tracks in the first half, and then the live, more ethnographic
style recordings taking up much of the remainder of the album. I found
this second release to be similar to the first, in that it has many of
the same performers, but overall, it is significantly stronger, the
production displaying greater confidence, perhaps because the purpose of
the release was largely economic rather than for academic recruitment.
In addition to creating a scholarship fund, it has also been a
meaningful way to encourage and nurture young musicians by allowing them
to be part of a significant economic venture.
Ian Hayes
Memorial University of Newfoundland
