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January 24, 2007
Bittersweet reunion
Rankins' roadtrip off to tragic start with sister's death
The Rankin
Family has not toured together in eight years, but it feels
so natural to be back out there, it might as well have been
yesterday for Jimmy Rankin.
"Everything is there; everything is muscle reflex," said
Rankin in an interview from Grande Prairie, Alta. "It's
really great. I'd forgotten how much fun the show is."
He's back
on a month-long tour with sisters Raylene, Heather and
Cookie, as well as his late brother John Morris's daughter
Molly.
Sadly, the
tour got off to a terrible start. The Rankins, who lost John
Morris in 2000, were shocked by the death of their sister
Geraldine Coyne. She died suddenly of an aneurysm in
mid-January.
The family
was "very saddened," by her unexpected death, said Rankin.
They have
bravely picked up and moved on after attending her funeral a
week ago Monday, where they also sang in tribute to her. Two
soldout shows in Nanaimo, B.C., had to be cancelled, so the
tour began in Victoria.
Rankin
calls it "a Rankin show, with fiddle and dancing and some
new materials." The new songs come from their first CD since
1998's Uprooted.
"We
recorded a new CD in September, when we . . . made the
decision to do this tour. The promoter asked us if we could
record an EP of four songs."
Heather,
Raylene and Jimmy Rankin headed from Halifax to Nashville,
where Cookie lives, with the intention of putting together
those four songs (Cookie's Grammy-winning husband George
Massenburg was producing). But once they started recording,
the music started to pour out of them. Included in Reunion,
the aptly-titled album, are some John Morris fiddle and
piano tracks he had recorded before his death.
A few of
those songs will appear at the tour concerts, said Rankin.
"In the
show, the idea was to do a greatest hits package . . . . and
some standard Rankin arrangements of traditional music. It's
a combination of both," plus the new songs, Rankin added.
Molly
Rankin is pitching right in, and is "very, very much a part
of the show," said her uncle.
"Molly
grew up around Rankin music and her dad taught her how to
play Celtic music," he said. "About four or five years ago
she started writing songs and singing. She's got a whole
batch of original songs. For this album, we asked her if she
would like to record a song for it."
She did,
and they liked it so much, the elder Rankins asked if she
wanted to come on tour.
"I'm
really thrilled to have people see her. She's such a
multi-talented kid. She's grown up around our music and
around Cape Breton; she knows the whole thing. It's almost
like osmosis."
Rounding
out the Western part of the tour is Dawn Langstroth, Anne
Murray's daughter, who opens for the Rankins.
The tour
is going well, but Rankin admits he was a little worried
beforehand whether people would respond.
"You
really have to keep people, make people aware that you're
out there. It's so competitive. Initially I was kind of
concerned going out . . . but people have remembered.
They're coming out to the shows," he said.
The
Rankins are touring with a drummer, bass player, guitar
player, pianist and fiddler, making 10 on stage. The group
together makes a full sound that is very much like the old
days, said Rankin.
"We sing
with that intensity and perform with that intensity due to
the fact we grew up playing in dance halls where you had to
perform that way," Rankin.
"It's fun.
The audiences have been great.
"It's been
a while; I forgot how much fun it is to be on stage, sing
those songs."
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Above photo:
Margaree (by Victor Maurice Faubert)
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