[May 25 UPDATE: 9 more tickets JUST released. Register now to welcome the weekend!]
As part of our 10th anniversary celebrations, The Carleton is proud to present a couple of PEI’s most talented songwriters – Catherine MacLellan and Nathan Wiley (with full band) – as well as Peterborough’s Mary-Kate Edwards, on Friday, May 25th. Show time is 8 PM and tickets are only $20.
Catherine MacLellan has become one of Canada’s finest and favourite singer-songwriters on her own merits. She’s kept away from the media circus and celebrity scene, preferring to live at home in rural P.E.I. She’s worked diligently at her craft, releasing a series of remarkable, creative albums, culminating in the Juno Award-winning The Raven’s Sun from 2014, to go along with multiple East Coast Music Awards, Canadian Folk Music Awards, and Music PEI Awards. Most impressively, she has chosen to carve out her career path without trading on her family name.
That’s pretty hard to do, when your father is one of the country’s most famous songwriters. Gene MacLellan wrote two world-wide, multi-million selling smash hits: “Snowbird” by Anne Murray, and “Put Your Hand in the Hand” by Ocean. There are dozens more gems, including “The Call”, “Bidin’ My Time”, “Shilo Song” and “The Reunion Song”. But Catherine insisted on making it on her own.
But now, that’s changed. MacLellan has gone from shying away from those songs to fully embracing them, with a stunning new album celebrating her father’s musical legacy. If It’s Alright With You – The Songs of Gene MacLellan contains 13 of her father’s most famous compositions, songs that propelled him to fame nearly 50 years ago, and remain the gold standard for Canadian songwriting.
Catherine’s been a regular on our stage from the beginning and we’re thrilled she’s making the trip over to see us to help us celebrate. If you’ve never seen this national treasure, it’s time you did.
Hailing from the Maritime town of Summerside, PEI, Nathan Wiley first earned acclaim for his 2002 debut Bottom Dollar, picking up an East Coast Music Award (ECMA) for Alternative Album of the Year in the process. He made good on the promise of that release with the ECMA-winning follow up High Low two years later. His blend of classic sounds with a modern, slightly world weary perspective struck a chord with listeners, as songs full of subtle melodies and lyrics addressing those unquenchable yearnings inside all of us wormed their way into their ears.
The Steve Berlin-produced The City Destroyed Me followed, as well as the recently released Bandits EP and while he’s not often seen off the Island, Nathan continues to play and record and we’re very excited he’s with us on our 10th anniversary.
Mary-Kate Edwards is a singer-songwriter born and raised in Peterborough, Ontario. The child of a piano teacher and storyteller, the marriage of storytelling and music is instinctual to her. She began playing piano when she was 6 years old, and was raised listening to the likes of Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, and Norah Jones. Her music is dynamic and emotional, striving to write about feelings difficult to describe.
Mary-Kate released her debut EP, Blueberry Pie in March 2017. The EP was produced locally in Peterborough by James McKenty, her backing band is made up of Trent students.
Blueberry Pie is, “catchy in its moodiness, in its reflection about impossible love, in its irrevocable element of pain” Tyler Majer, Trent Arthur. Across “the EP are magical moments of musical unity. Sewing its instrumental roots into a combination of piano and strings at its forefront, it’s in the moments that they merge with Edwards’s sweet, emotive vocals that everything comes together” Jonathan Frahm, For Folk’s Sake