Once again it’s that time of summer when you have to press the kilt and shine up the brogues.
The 24th annual Highland Games is upon us in Canmore (Aug. 30-31) and, along with the events, dancing, food and fare will, of course, be the music.
The year’s Ceilidh (a social event with Scottish or Irish folk music and singing) will feature Solstice from Montreal. The Celtic folk band, consisting of Pat Lesyk (vocals, acoustic guitar), Richard Irwin (vocals, drums), Bill Gossage (bass), Dave Gossage (Irish flutes, harmonica, whistles and electric guitar), and Kate Bevan-Baker (vocals, fiddle) has been making new fans across North America and Europe for over a decade by incorporating an eclectic mix of bluegrass and Canadian maritime music, with flute, whistle, and fiddle anchored by driving acoustic guitar rhythms and powerful vocals.
The band just returned from a European tour, and is now ready to join the Bow Valley Highland party.
“It was fantastic, we were in Germany first, played a couple of shows there, then we went to Belgium and played five shows there and then we went up to Amsterdam and finished up there. It was pretty fast and furious and we were playing every night basically,” said Dave Gossage. “It’s been about two years since we were there last, but we go there whenever we can. The summer is when we go out and do our festivals and touring.”
Gossage’s main instrument is the flute and he was playing in jazz bars before being fully recruited into the Montreal Celtic fold. “I was also playing guitar in rhythm and blues bands and funk bands and a friend of mine, a Scottish guy who was on the scene playing for a band called Orealis, one day he asked me, ‘do you want to learn this music and play with us and tour?’ So I went to Celtic music 101 and started to really learn how to do it,” Gossage said.
Solstice stays in fine musical form by being one of the regular house acts at Hurley’s Irish Pub in Montreal, and knows how to keep a crowd entertained. The group of musicians met in a pub where the seed of Solstice was planted through pints, revelry and a love of performing traditional Celtic music.
“I’ve played with Jonathon for years; we used to play at a pub called the Old Dublin Pub in Montreal together in a trio and I’ve have another band, kind of a concert style Celtic band, and Jon’s in that band as well,” said Gossage.
Gossage started out as a jazz musician, and slowly but surely the traditional music he heard growing up in a Celtic household seeped into his playing.
“If you have Celtic roots you grew up listening to this music. My grandmother was a fiddler and my mother is Irish so we’d hear this music all the time,” Gossage said. “Another reason is a lot of the playing is tricky music – it’s technically difficult.
“To play the reels and jigs, it’s technically difficult music; you either grew up just playing that style or if you want to shift over to it you have to have your technique together to do it and for jazz players we already have a lot of technique.”
Gossage has played pretty much every western musical genre including rock, funk and R&B. He says it all adds up to being a well-rounded musician and being able to put on a great show for the crowd.
Gossage says thanks to his family background he was able to jump right in and not feel totally out in left field. Solstice knows they’re walking into a Ceilidh and is ready to get the crowd dancing. “People want to get up and have a good time … and we’re ready to bring that.”
Canmore Highland Games events includes Taste of the Highlands, Saturday (Aug. 30), from 6-10 p.m. in the Big Rock Festival Tent in Centennial Park – tickets $20 advance through TicketPro at 1-888-655-9090 or $30 at the door. Taste of the Highlands includes food, wine, scotch and beer tasting in a Celtic lounge atmosphere.
For the Highland Games on Sunday (Aug. 31), gates to Centennial Park open at 7 a.m. and there is a pancake breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Individual piping and drumming competitions, as well as heavy sports, begin at 8:30 a.m.
Highland dance competitions begin at 9 a.m. and the beer garden in the Big Rock tent opens at 10 a.m., with food concessions opening at 10:30 a.m.
At 12:15 p.m., a drum major competition will take place and sheep dog demonstrations begin at 12:30 p.m. Music in the Big Rock tent stars at 12:45 p.m., with Gail and Karl and Wheat in the Barley.
The official opening ceremonies begin at 1 p.m. and at 1:15 p.m., the 78th Fraser Highlanders will hold a black powder rifle demonstration.
At 1:45 p.m. there will be a pipe band competition, with another sheep dog demonstration at 4 p.m. A tug of war will take place at 4:45 p.m. and the grand finale for the Games, the massed pipes and drums, will take place at 5 p.m.
