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Celtic Colours will be exploring its Cajun and Appalachian connections in 2011 with this year’s Artists in Residence: songwriter Ron Bourgeois from Cheticamp and Old Time Appalachian fiddler and singer Bruce Molsky from the US.

“We’ll be getting to know more about our Celtic cousins to the South as we broaden our understanding of the roots and branches of Celtic traditional music,” says Joella Foulds, the Festival’s Artistic Director. “An emphasis on song this year will help tell the story of the connections and how they came to be.”
Celtic Colours opens October 7th with a concert in Port Hawkesbury called Distant Sons and Daughters and closes October 15th with a concert featuring the Barra MacNeils and guests from throughout the festival in The Barra MacNeils’ Celtic Roots and Branches at the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion in Sydney.
Festival organizers are very excited to welcome the Black Family from Ireland for the first time including sister Mary Black, BeauSoliel avec Michael Doucet from Louisiana, dancer, Nic Gariess, and Appalchian singer and banjo-player, Sheila Kay Adams.

Artists new to the Festival this year include Ireland’s, Alan Kelly Gang, the April Verch Trio from the Ottawa Valley, Scottish Gaelic singer Kathleen MacInnes, and Cape Breton’s own bluegrass legends in the making Crowdis Bridge.
As usual, Celtic Colours will present a full complement of Cultural Experiences in communities all around Cape Breton Island and the nightly Festival Club at the Gaelic College in St. Ann’s.