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All in the family for Canada 150

Robin Grant
Northern News Services
Friday, March 3, 2017

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Contemporary folksinger Thelma Cheechoo says Canada's 150th anniversary has caused her to reflect on the past and future.

NNSL photo/graphic

Jimmy Rankin has been playing music since his early teens, after joining his family in the internationally acclaimed Rankin Family, which has received several awards and nominations over the years. The Cape Breton musician will be on stage at NACC tomorrow night. - photo courtesy of NACC - photo courtesy of NACC

NNSL photo/graphic

Contemporary folksinger Thelma Cheechoo is opening the NACC concert tomorrow evening for Jimmy Rankin. The Yellowknife-based musician said she is honoured to open for Rankin, who is a friend and collaborator. - photo courtesy of NACC

"I look at it as a celebration," she said. "Many people have many stories to tell, and I think music and arts are interesting because you're telling a lot of stories."

That's why Cheechoo said she feels honoured to be opening for Cape Breton-born singer-songwriter Jimmy Rankin tomorrow night at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre.

It will be the centre's second show celebrating Canada's birthday.

The concert's theme, family, explores the importance of family in Canadian culture.

As an indigenous woman growing up, Cheechoo said storytelling played an essential role in her life.

"You learn a lot about history, and you learn who you are," she explained.

Similar to Rankin - the two are friends and collaborators - Cheechoo grew up in a musical family. Her father played the fiddle, and her mother was a multi-instrumentalist. The family would tour together under the name, The Cheechoo Family, while living in northern Ontario when she was young.

Cheechoo later branched out into a solo career, releasing her first independent album in the 1990s. Her music attracted attention across Canada and the U.S., which resulted in opportunities to open for Blue Rodeo and Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Tomorrow evening, Cheechoo will be performing songs from Stay, her latest album, which was nominated for Best Country CD at the 2015 Indigenous Music Awards. The performance will include a gospel number and a rendition of Wayfaring Stranger, a song from the 1800s which she said is proving popular with fans.

"It's a really old song, and the author is unknown," she said. "I started adding it to my live shows, and people seem to like it."

Cheechoo says playing this show will be sentimental for the Cree musician.

"My parents, who passed on, were big fans of the Rankin Family," she said. "It's nice to be able to share the stage with a Canadian icon like Jimmy Rankin. So it's going to be bittersweet for me."

Jamming with Yellowknife musicians is important to her, too. Cheechoo said her band will be composed entirely of residents - Pat Braden, Andrea Bettger and Greg Nasogaluak of Priscilla's Revenge.

"I thought it would be fitting," said Cheechoo, who moved to Yellowknife two years ago.

From Jimmy Rankin, Yellowknife can expect a roller-coaster ride of a concert.

"It's a very entertaining show," he told Yellowknifer. "It's a high energy singer-songwriter show. I try to cover songs from all the records. It's music spanning my entire career, so I always include Rankin Family songs."

Rankin has been playing music since his early teens, after joining his family in the internationally-acclaimed Rankin Family, which received several awards and nominations at the Juno awards over the years.

Rankin's first major composition, Fare Thee Well Love, on the group's 1992 album, was named number one on the RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks charts and went quintuple platinum.

"I try to keep it spontaneous," he said, adding he is fond of performing on smaller stages "I've been doing a lot of that in the past couple years. I've come to love doing it. It's a perfect sized audience. It's intimate and at the same time very engaging."

The concert will include the guitar playing talent of Jamie Robinson, who is his longtime collaborator.

Rankin said his last couple of records have veered off into country music, especially his latest album, Back Road Paradise, which was released in 2014.

"Stylistically my show, it composites different styles from rootsy maritime material, story songs to country songs," he said.

"It's good night of entertainment. Hopefully, you won't be disappointed. I don't think you will be. Nobody has thrown anything at me yet."

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