Asked what it's like performing alongside his siblings, Stewart MacNeil of the Barra MacNeils bursts into laughter. “That's what we do,” he said.
Indeed it is.
The Barra MacNeils, a musical group from the coal mining community of Sydney Mines, on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island, features five of the six MacNeil siblings — Lucy, Boyd, Stewart, Kyle and Sheumas.
The band is named after the Scottish island of Barra, the ancestral home of the clan MacNeil.
Their brother Ryan, a former member of the band, has moved to South Africa. Bass player Jamie Gatti joined the Barra MacNeils going on two decades ago. “He's just part of the family,” Stewart said.
The siblings, growing up in an area where music is “a part of the fabric of everyday life,” as Stewart puts it, started performing together in 1980 as kids and teens.
Due to their youth, they could only perform on weekends and school holidays.
“I think we're better at it now than we were when we started,” joked MacNeil, adding the band's vocalist, Lucy, only 10 when the Barra MacNeils formed, has never sounded better.
“It does get more complicated. Especially when you're home, and you're trying to set up rehearsals and everything.
“There's kids that have to be driven to hockey and what have you. Things happen at their own pace. That's something I've discovered as time goes on. Everything will happen, but sometimes it just takes a little longer. But that's OK.”
Despite the complications that come with maturing families, the Barra MacNeils have set aside the time to tour with their latest album, "On The Bright Side."
Fans of traditional Cape Breton music will be interested to know that North Bay is one of the stops on the group's upcoming Ontario tour.
You can take in the Barra MacNeils at the Capitol Centre starting at 7:30 p.m. June 1. Stewart said the show will feature a mix of older material and songs from the new album.
Promotional material says the album features fiddle tunes “you know will erupt into a flurry of step-dancing on stage” to heart-wrenching ballads sung by Lucy to songs that feature the lads singing a capella.
Bizarrely enough, the album features a cover of an ABBA tune, “The Way Old Friends Do.” Stewart said they ended up recording the song because a fan from Chicago suggested it would sound good.
“It has this real end-of-the-night chorus,” Stewart said. “It works really well. It's more or less a capella when we do it. We have a little bit of accordion.
“It worked out really well. The times we've sung it so far, it's already become a fan favourite. A good suggestion by one of our great fans.”
Tickets to the concert are available through the Capitol Centre box office..
May 27 - Pembroke Festival Hall Centre for the Arts - Box Office: 613 735-2182
May 28 - Cornwall Aultsville Theatre - Civic Complex Box Office: 613 938-9400
May 30- Belleville Empire Theatre - Box Office: 613-969-0099
May 31 - Orillia Opera House - Box Office: 705 326-8011
June 1 - North Bay Capitol Centre - Box Office: 705 474-4747
June 2 - Collingwood Gayety Theatre - Box Office: 1 888 353-3203
June 3 - London Grand Theatre - Box Office: 519 672-8800
June 4 - St. Catharines Partridge Hall, FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre - Box Office: 905 688-0722
June 5 - Sudbury Fraser Auditorium, Laurentian University - STC Box Office: 705 674-8381
June 7 - Brockville Arts Centre - Box Office: 613 342-7122
