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| Waterside Stage Goes Canadian at Newport Folk Fest The annual Dunkin' Donuts Newport Folk Festival will again this year showcase some of the top East Coast-based Canadian folk artists on the Waterside Stage, Saturday, August 4. The musicians scheduled on the intimate seaside stage include Vishten, the Duane Andrews Trio and The MacKenzie Project. The group Vishten was formed in Moncton, New Brunswick, at the beginning of the new millennium by traditional Acadian musicians/dancers Pastelle and Emmanuelle LeBlanc. Their music is a hardy mixture of the French, Irish and Scottish styles of Eastern Canada, with fiery fiddling and powerful step dancing taking front and center. Their unique stage show re-creates the joy and energy of the "kitchen party, " the informal community gatherings where all are welcomed to sing, play and dance. These rhythms and melodies are inseparable, and reflect a special joie de vivre unique to the Acadian culture, with flying fingers, tapping feet, and an unabashed sense of celebration. Vishten is comprised of dancer Pastelle LeBlanc who also plays piano, accordion and sings, Emmanuelle LeBlanc who sings, dances and plays piano, bodhran and Irish flute with her twin sister Pastelle and fiddler Pascal Miousse. Newfoundland's Duane Andrews is a gypsy jazz/folk guitarist who has been a mainstay of the Canadian East Coast music scene for over a decade. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, producer and filmmaker as well, Andrews has worked with a variety of artists including Canadian jazz legends such as Mike Murley and Doug Riley, folk icon Ken Whiteley, Afro-Newfoundland group Mopaya, Irish fiddle master Seamus Creagh and the Chieftains to name a few. Andrews plays a unique fusion of gypsy jazz with traditional Newfoundland music, which is a mix of French, Irish, Portuguese and English influences, synthesized with his own original style and compositions. The MacKenzie Project is simply one of the most exciting new ensembles in Celtic music today. A "supergroup" of sorts, it features some of the hottest young performers from both sides of the Atlantic, with each member coming to the group from successful careers in their own right. The concept for the group grew out of Roseanne MacKenzie's desire to continue her career, especially as a touring artist, in the wake of the break-up of the well-known Cape Breton quartet The Cottars in the Summer of 2006. A dynamic fiddler, stepdancer, and harmony vocalist, the 16 year-old Roseanne thought it was far too early to hang up her bow and dance shoes. The full lineup of this year's Dunkin' Donuts Newport Folk Festival is as follows: Friday, August 3: Linda Ronstadt with opening artist from Berklee, Madi Diaz at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Saturday, August 4 at Fort Adams State Park on three stages: The Allman Brothers Band, North Mississippi Allstars, John Butler Trio, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Assembly of Dust, The Nightwatchman [Tom Morello acoustic], Martha Wainwright, Sloan Wainwright, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Phonograph, Vishten, Duane Andrews Trio, The MacKenzie Project, Lonesome Brothers. Sunday, August 5 at Fort Adams State Park on three stages: Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, Emmylou Harris, Amos Lee, Alejandro Escovedo, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys, Cheryl Wheeler, Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Julie Lee, Hazel Dickens, Dudley Connell, Diana Jones, Sierra Hull & Highway 111. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |