The Barra MacNeils – An East Coast Christmas is a musical potpourri of traditional MacNeil family favourites gleaned from Christmas ceilidhs, midnight masses and the general festive frolic that accompanies each holiday season. With their captivating vocals, distinctive harmonies and extraordinary musicianship, The Barra MacNeils inject new life and energy into the sights and sounds of Christmas, prompting the Halifax Daily News to call them “a treasure of the East Coast, rich with tradition and unmatched in ensemble performance”; and the Globe & Mail to call the recording on which their concert is based “one of the best Christmas albums of all time!”
The five MacNeil siblings – Lucy, Boyd, Stewart, Kyle and Sheumas – combine on a vast array of instruments including accordion, guitar, piano, fiddle, bodhran, mandolin, banjo, Celtic harp, tin whistles, bouzouki, flute … all underpinned by the nimble-fingered Jamie Gatti on bass. The result is a sound that is unmistakably The Barra MacNeils, one moment a rousing chorus, then a hauntingly beautiful Gaelic ballad, the next a flurry of foot-stomping instrumentals, which of course pulls one then another into a step-dancing revelry. For a delightful seasonal celebration, don’t miss An East Coast Christmas with The Barra MacNeils!
