The Worry Birds was formed in January 2010. Lead singer and song writer Zach Smith had been playing and touring with the Celtic rock band "Pogey" for five years and was finally ready to start his own group. Zach had played with Adelle Meagher (double bass) in the past and had talked about performing together again but wanted to find a good fiddle player before moving forward with the new project. Fortunately, Adelle knew Bhreagh MacDonald (fiddle) with whom she had played in a previous band. Bhreagh agreed to come over and jam and The Worry Birds was born.
When The Worry Birds first started they knew their goal was to play original music but that was about all they knew. They practiced regularly and managed to arrange a couple of Zach's songs but got stuck on a song called "Lonely Road". This song had been performed by Pogey many times and it contained drums and certain riffs that were difficult to realize with the Worry Birds' instrumentation. It needed to be drastically changed. Over a number of rehearsals, a concerted effort was made to re-arrange "Lonely Road" and at long last the band was able to come up with an arrangement that bore little or no resemblance to the Pogey version. It was this lengthy process that really helped define the "Worry Bird" sound.
The Worry Birds' sound brings together the influences and backgrounds of all three members to create what could be described as "Celtic influenced folk". Adelle has a classical background and is therefore proficient in the use of the bow as well as the more common pizzicato. Bhreagh, being brought up in the Cape Breton fiddle tradition, plays with the strong sense of groove inherent in that idiom and also has a great ear for harmonizing along with a song, and Zach brings his many years as a touring drummer/percussionist to the guitar resulting in a driving, rhythmic playing style.
This band began in 2005, and has evolved and grown ever since. Playing a fantastic mix of blues, jazz, swing, salsa, bossa nova, Latin, rock, ballads, and even the odd country tune, it is a real crowd pleaser. The 12 teaching and/or professional members play trombone, various saxophones, trumpet, coronet, flugelhorn, piano, drums and other percussion, electric guitar, and bass and are accompanied by the talented vocalist Wendy DeMarco. They guarantee they'll make you want to "shake your booty."
John Barr sang in his native Scotland for a number of years as lead singer with a local Scottish folk group called "The Gaels". In 1988 he moved to Canada and while living in Niagara-on-the-Lake became a member of a Music Dinner Theatre group called "Curtains Up". In 2006 he and his wife Tatjana moved to Lunenburg and opened up a café called Simple Moments, where live music performed by John and many other local musicians could be heard every Friday and Saturday night. In 2011 in support of the local Food Banks of Lunenburg and Mahone Bay, John with the backing of a sponsor combined the talents of many local musicians and produced a Christmas CD called "Our Gifts We Share".
John performs with a variety of musicians in different local venues, including the local Lunenburg Farmers' Market. Singing about songs of the Sea and the Celts, his musical repertoire includes Scottish, Irish and Canadian Folk, as well as Blues and Soft Rock. Combining musical talents with Art Cole, the two are known as the musical duo Cole Har Barr.
Art Cole – Born in Halifax, Art Cole is a third generation performer and a 37 year resident of Lunenburg County. He has been "plucking the strings" in many different combinations and with many other performers across the province but in latter years mainly on the South Shore. Pop, Country, Celtic, Traditional Sea Songs, Blues and Jazz are familiar items on his song list. Art's solo show will be sure to have your toes tapping and your voices joining in to his eclectic repertoire of sea songs, novelty tunes and other old favorites.
Mike Aubé is an alt-folk songwriter on a mission to "comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable". Like Woody and Arlo Guthrie before him, he blends humour, a sense of social justice and a love of nature into what Canadian Musician Magazine called "playful and catchy folk...clearly Canadian".
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Witchitaw is a southern country rock band of experienced musicians from Nova Scotia, Canada. Witchitaw's members are no strangers to writing, recording and performing music around the world. Three of the group's members enjoyed a great deal of success for eight years with the Canadian show-band, Country Generations. Brothers Jason and Jamie Spinney and bass player Terry Salsman, recorded four CDs in Nashville with Country Generations. They also toured Canada, the U.S.A, and even Australia in 2004. As those successful tours came to a close the idea of the group Witchitaw was born. Witchitaw began performing high profile gigs as early as 2007. Guitarist Jason Burns and keyboardist Dohn Kendall joined the group in early 2010 to complete Witchitaw's current roster of musicians. Over the past two years the band has toured the Maritimes headlining several events such as the Western Nova Scotia Provincial Exhibition, Souris P.E.I., Summerfest and the Cumberland County Exhibition in Nova Scotia. |