Veteran Maritime family band the Barra MacNeils will be stopping in Ottawa this December as part of their holiday tour.
The MacNeils’ Christmas performances have become a family tradition across multiple generations. The band will perform its signature mixture of Celtic folk and holiday standards.
The Barra MacNeils have released three Christmas albums, drawing on their experiences of musical Christmases growing up in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia. Lucy MacNeil’s performances of ‘O Holy Night’ are a highlight for many fans. The group typically employs a wide variety of instruments, ranging from piano and guitar to bodhran, bouzouki and tin whistle.
The band consists of siblings Sheamus, Kyle, Stewart, Lucy, Ryan and Boyd MacNeil, as well as ‘honourary sibling’ Jim Gatti, and began performing in the 1980s, when Lucy was only 10 and her brothers only teenagers. They became nationally known through performing with fellow Nova Scotian Rita MacNeil, including on her Christmas specials.
They have since won multiple East Coast Music Awards and had a certified gold record, their 1993 album ‘Closer to Paradise’, which included successful singles like ‘In the Wink of an Eye’ and ‘We Celebrate’. Celtic folks acts like this are popular from Irish and Scottish pubs to large venues, and often advertise shows through poster printing.
The Barra MacNeils will perform at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre on December 12.
