Beginning June 30, the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Society is pleased to present, on behalf of our Admiral Sponsor, the Town of Lunenburg, and our Skipper Sponsor, the Lunenburg Board of Trade, a series of Sunday afternoon concerts on the Town of Lunenburg Heritage Society Bandstand.

We also thank our two Bandstand Sponsors, Ironworks Distillery and TD Canada Trust Bank.

Concerts are at 2 pm every Sunday from the Canada Day weekend to the Labour Day weekend.  In the event of rain, the concert is moved into the Central United Church Hall on Lincoln Street.

Tea & Biscuits is a choir of 26 very talented enthusiastic young girls with beautiful voices between the ages of 9 & 19 years of age who meet on Monday evenings at Leslee Barry’s house for tea and song.   This spirited choir is polishing up a lush program of snappy folk and gorgeous choral arrangements all of which will be pleasingly familiar to the listener.

Norma MacDonald is a creature of dichotomy; joy/sadness, city/town, past/future, art/science, dog/cat. Her music reflects the mixed feelings of one who is in a constant state of flux along these spectrums and the nostalgia felt for both extremes.

The New Waterford, Nova Scotia native’s third album Morning You Wake, produced by Halifax multi-instrumentalist Phil Sedore (Amelia Curran, Catherine MacLellan), is undoubtedly the songwriter’s most diverse collection of sounds and stories to date. From the starry-eyed waltz “Bright as you Dare”, to the Neko Case-ean “Comeback Kid” to the elegiac Springsteen flood-of-emotion of “Swollen Sky”, her sound mixes the sincerity and grit of car stereo old-country with the polish and sophistication of satellite radio North-Americana. This latest recording also finds MacDonald tackling her hometown’s history; “Blackhearts of the Company” is based on the life of William Davis, a coal miner who was shot and killed by mining company police during a protest in 1925.

Well-known to shoppers at the Lunenburg Farmers’ Market, The Dairy Farm Kids – a.k.a. the Rhodenizer Family – have entertained the people of Lunenburg with their unique blend of Celtic, folk and spiritual music. Justin on guitar, Luke on keyboard and percussion, and Jessica and Michaela playing fiddle.

Whether performing with her full band in front of thousands, as a vibrant acoustic duo with guitarist Seph Peters or solo in a kitchen of her native Inverness County playing the old tunes of her ancestors, Gillian Boucher never ceases to inspire with the dynamic expression of her music. On stage or in the classroom, Gillian is most comfortable with violin in hand and has been since the age of 10.  An avid explorer, she more recently calls Turkey her home, exploring the flavours of the culture, food and music of this East-meets-West country; however, never straying far from her niche as she has delighted audiences in Scotland, England, Canada and New Zealand — all part of her regular touring circuit —  just this past year.

With a collection of small instruments, a notebook of multilingual dreams, and a good pair of stompin’ boots, Mary Beth Carty beckons us towards the mystical roads of Galicia, inviting New Orleans and Tibet into her voice to make the journey ever more interesting. A desire to tame technology and mix it with tradition has inspired an eclectic collection of songs that this multi-talented artist is eager to share.

During the summer of 2006 three creative musicians came together to form Celtic Rant. Kelly MacDonald on keyboards, Rob Wigle on guitar and mandolin and Victor Fraser on guitar launched their debut CD Celtic Rant in the fall of 2007.  During the summer of 2008 they welcomed Rob Greene to make it a foursome.  Rob adds a new musical dimension to Celtic Rant with Scottish smallpipes, guitar, fiddle and bagpipes.

Celtic Rant blends the precision of Victor Fraser’s Celtic guitar with the tradition of Cape Breton piano by Kelly MacDonald and the spirited repartee of Rob Wigle’s mandolin.  Their performances draw from a repertoire of East Coast Celtic tradition: instrumentals, sea shanties, Irish ballads — not to mention original compositions. Their robust vocal harmonies pay a tribute to 200 years of traditional celtic music.  Celtic Rant performs throughout the Maritimes.

Warm as summer sunshine, real as the truth, intimate as a long overdue visit between old friends … such is a Jonathan Edwards concert.  Four decades into a stellar career of uncompromising musical integrity, the man simply delivers, night after night – songs of passion, songs of insight, songs of humor, all rendered in that pure and powerful tenor which, like fine wine, has only grown sweeter with age.

This is one veteran performer who is neither grizzled nor nostalgic.  These days Jonathan Edwards, a vital and relevant artist in today’s folk and Americana scenes, is most likely to be found on the road with longtime accompanist Stuart Schulman on bass, piano, fiddle, and vocals and Taylor Armerding, formerly of Northern Lights, on mandolin and high-tenor vocals.  “I’ve been … doing what I do best, which is playing live in front of people.  I’ve been concentrating on that and loving it,” he says.

And if you are not sure who Jonathan Edwards is, hum a few notes of his “Sunshine (Go Away Today)”  — that fierce proclamation of protest and independence that resonated with thousands and thousands of frustrated and angry young men and women when it was first released in 1971 — and it will all come back to you.  Almost 40 years later, at show after show, the song continues to be embraced by faithful followers and new fans alike.