Publications and Music
Guthan Prìseil: Guthan agus Òrain Gàidheil Cheap Breatainn/Precious Voices: Voices and Songs of the Cape Breton Gael
by Anne Landin
This book features 21 Gaelic songs from Cape Breton. Each can be heard on the CD packaged with the book while the Gaelic lyrics and English translations can be read on facing pages. Many have never been published before. Others were chosen because they tell an interesting story, or because of a singer's particular style, or because of rare verses not often heard.
Rush, Rock Music, and the Middle Class
Dreaming in Middletown
Chris McDonald
The soundtrack of late 20th-century suburbia "A well-researched, provocative glimpse into one of the most popular, yet oft-overlooked bands in the history of rock." —Theo Cateforis, editor of The Rock History Reader
"McDonald makes an important contribution to our understanding of the middle class as a force in North American rock culture, and at the same time offers a pioneering look at one of the most idiosyncratic and influential bands of the past four decades. This book should be welcomed not only by those with an interest in hard and progressive rock, but also by anyone who wishes to understand the role of social class in recent popular culture." —William Echard, Carleton University, author of Neil Young and the Poetics of Energy
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Folklore of Nova Scotia
By Mary L. Fraser
Introduction by Ian Brodie
Mary Fraser was a pioneer in researching and recording the folklore of Cape Breton and eastern Nova Scotia, and this book is an invaluable source for the legends of rural Nova Scotians. Scottish, Acadian and Mi’qmaq traditions are all included.
Writes Ian Brodie in the introduction: “Folklore of Nova Scotia is a flawed, wonderful book — or a wonderfully flawed book. As I read, I alternate between exasperation and delight: exasperation from its romanticism, delight from its embrace of the contemporary; exasperation from its prejudices, delight from its efforts at multiculturalism … It is a documentary snapshot of a part of Nova Scotia’s cultural history that was changing before the author’s eyes.”
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Discovering Cape Breton Folklore
By Richard MacKinnon
For more than two decades, Richard MacKinnon -- Canada Research Chair in Intangible Cultural Heritage, Cape Breton University -- has researched Cape Breton's rich cultural heritage: from protest songs to company houses, from co-operative housing to nicknames, from log buildings to cockfighting.
In Discovering Cape Breton Folklore, professor MacKinnon revists some of his research and exposes us to some new.
Welta'q "It Sounds Good": Historic Recordings of the Mi'kmaq
Produced by ethnomusicologist Janice Esther Tulk, Welta’q: “It Sounds Good”: Historic Recordings of the Mi’kmaq will feature important archival recordings from institutions across Canada, as well as field recordings from private research collections. The vibrant musical life of the Mi’kmaw people will be showcased through 27 tracks, including traditional Mi’kmaw songs, songs by the first Mi’kmaw powwow drum group, fiddle tunes and folksongs, hymns and anthems, a lullaby, and the story of Mi’kmwesu – the flute-playing trickster.
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Lauchie Gillis CD Release
Around the web...
Lauchie Gillis - Butcher and Bard
On Maritime Magazine, the story of one man's musical legacy, and what it continues to mean to his family, and to a new generation of musicians. More
Celebration of a culture, a voice and a language: Lauchie Gillis CD Release. More
One God, One Aim, One Destiny
The story of African settlement in Cape Breton was largely undocumented and on the verge of disappearing. In 2006, the African Nova Scotian community in Glace Bay decided to restore its Universal Negro Improvement Association hall, a vital part of the social life of their community in the early part of the 20th century. They created a museum to recognize and celebrate the history of blacks in Cape Breton.
Failte: Airs and Waltzes
This second CD in the Failte series, Airs and Waltzes, again produced by the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre and its musical director, Kinnon Beaton, is an impressive selection of airs and waltzes previously recorded by many of Cape Breton’s signature Celtic musicians. The CD promises its audience a variety of enjoyable Cape Breton styles: remarkable newer compositions alongside memorable older tunes from the Scottish heritage.
Material Culture Review
Material Culture Review/Revue de la culture matérielle is a scholarly journal that provides a venue for refereed articles and research reports encompassing a range of approaches to interpreting culture through an analysis of people's relationships to their material world. Critical reviews of books, exhibitions, historic sites, artifact studies and reports on collections encourage the use of material evidence in understanding historical change and continuity.
Publishing in both English and French, MCR/RCM documents cultural artifacts, describing their historical context and role in society. Produced by Cape Breton University’s Canada Research Chair in Intangible Cultural Heritage, in partnership with CBU Press, the journal is published twice annually. MCR/RCM welcomes unsolicited as well as commissioned works.
MCR/RCM is distributed to more than 250 universities, research institutes, museums and libraries in approximately 20 countries. It is indexed in America: History and Life, Journal of American History, Technology and Culture's "Current Bibliography in the History of Technology" and Annual Bibliography of Ontario History. MCR is also indexed on the CHIP database, available through the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN).
A Cape Breton Story of Ukrainian Dance: From Village to Stage
Exhibit at CBU Art Gallery; curated by visiting scholar Dr. Marcia Ostashewski
