It’s all instrumental
Musician, composer work together to release first album
Two of Cape Breton’s best known and respected musicians have teamed up to release a new instrumental recording later this month.
Scott Macmillan and Colin Grant will release their debut duo recording “Good2Go,” July 15, at the Normaway Inn in Margaree at 8 p.m. Other releases will be held July 19 at the Island Sunset Resort in Belle Cote at 6 p.m.; The Doryman in Cheticamp at 2 p.m. on July 30; St. Ann’s Bay United Church in St. Ann’s Bay, August 5 at 7:30 p.m.; Governor’s Pub, Sydney, 2 p.m., August 13 and St. John’s Parish Hall, North Ingonish later that same day at 8 p.m. More Maritime appearances are in the works for the fall.
The album was recorded at FMP Matrix in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia by Scott Ferguson with Jennyfer Brickenden as executive producer. The recording features 15 tracks of acoustic instrumental medleys, including several of Macmillan’s and Grant’s original compositions arranged with traditional and contemporary tunes from Cape Breton, Scotland, Ireland, and beyond.
In July of 2015, the pair sat down at Macmillan’s home in Brook Village and began compiling new and old tunes from their collective traditional and original repertoires.
Until that time, they had performed off-the-cuff performances together in venues ranging from the Doryman Tavern in Cheticamp to Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. Tunes from Scott’s tunebook “Scoobie Tunes” which hadn’t yet seen action were spun into classical, jazz, funk, rock, and blues directions.
While the resulting album Good2Go follows a traditional music path of tunes combined into medleys, the musical interplay between the two musicians speaks to the experience, chops, and element of good-old belly rubbing humour that keeps the tunes on a fun, lively path.
The CD is available for preorder at www.scott-macmillan.ca/store. Purchasers can then download a digital copy of the album in mp3 format, and the physical CDs will be shipped as of July 15. In the event of a postal strike, CDs will be mailed as soon as possible.
Grant and Macmillan will also be sharing the sheet music of the albums tunes on www.scott-macmillan.ca/scottfree and through Facebook.