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The McDades
McDades make it something special
Mainstage finale leaves audience screaming for more, and more

By STEPHEN PEDERSEN Arts Reporter | At the Folk Fest | 6:08 AM


THE McDades, Edmonton's smokin' roots, Celtic and traditional band, ripped up the mainstage finale in the tent on Blockhouse Hill on Saturday night at the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival, with a command performance for a lively audience that leapt to its feet and screamed for it like starving wolves.

The McDades were something special, all right, but down here where we eat, sleep, live and breathe Celtic music, they didn't sound all that Celtic, even though the influence of fast fiddle reels could be felt in their extraordinary repertoire of improvised solos and unisons of fiddle and alto pennywhistle over Middle Eastern-influenced Balkan scales.

Rhythmically, cajon drummer-percussionist Eric Breton and guitarist Simon Marion laid down a continuous pattern of variable accents, aided and abetted by bassist Solon McDade, that acted like a red-hot griddle sprinkled with popcorn kernels. It drove — as it was meant to do — fiddler Shannon Johnson and alto pennywhistler Jeremiah McDade to extremes of technical acrobatics. Though the dancing popcorn that resulted was musical, it left us with a craving for more and more, just like the real thing.

Jeremiah McDade, a graduate of McGill University's jazz program, also played soprano sax in a solo or two that would have fit right in among the best bands at the Atlantic Jazz Festival. He sang as well, as did his front-line siblings (Solon played bass up front rather than behind the band), and then, just when we thought we had heard it all, Jeremiah amazed and dumbfounded us with multi-phonic, didgeridoo-like throat singing on a hot jazzy riff.

This is a group that has to be heard to be believed, and even then you don't believe it. 0 Comments :: Permalink :: Mon 10/22/2007 7:08 PM