It’s boxing day.  Sipping cider, and relaxing after a busy year.  Rambles.net just put out a wonderful review of my new album, Weave.  Go into Rambles.net and it is in the music section under Celtic.  It will also be added to the reviews on my web page.  I also keep a fairly active blog on myspace.  Both my website and myspace will have upcoming venues and there will soon be new venues added so keep checking back for the new year. 

The guestbook and photo gallery are coming, they really are!  It has been a year of re-learning the music business and becoming more savvy on the computer.  In between the learning curve I have scraps of songs lying around the house and have slotted away time in the new year.  The phones are being turned off and I will write!

Several songs on Weave are now playing on several Internet radio stations and podcasts.  Weave the Yarn was top of the charts on some of these stations.  Thank you to all new fans that have heard my music on these podcasts and purchased an album through CD Baby! Have a good new year’s whether you are dancing and partying with a large group or keeping a quiet evening at home.  On with 2007! Cheers
Mary             

Hello and welcome!

Well, it is 1am and I can’t sleep, so I thought, “why not write a post.”  The house is quiet and my 3-year-old IS asleep. 
Autumn leaves are falling and the weather is a bit nippy.  It is a nice time to be performing however, and please visit the concerts section for an updated list of concerts this fall including a showcase during Music Nova Scotia Weekend.  There is also a new review about some of the songs on Weave coming from the folks at We Are Listening all the way from London, UK.   Weave is slowly making its way into papers and magazines both store and Internet and more reviews will be added in the coming months.

I’m planning to launch another section called “other items”.  This includes a series of stories called “Stories From the Shore.”  I have been writing these little ‘moment in life’ stories for the past couple of years and emailing them to friends who have been phoning me laughing (sometimes at one in the morning!).  So if you feel like a giggle, check in on the latest tale. 

Fall – time of the quieting of nature, of harvest, of preparation for winters sleep - and the perfect time to write new songs.  May your fall be a good harvest in whatever your endeavours!

Cheers
Mary

Hello and Welcome.

It has been a long time between posts and I promise to speed that up.  It has been a busy summer between swimming lessons for my three-year-old, rehearsals, and preparing and mailing packages!

Weave is now available on CD Baby, a very reliable Internet store.  You can also download the tunes to your ipod from itunes and some people are buying the album AND downloading it to their ipods – so thank you to all friends and fans who have bought the CD either through stores, the Internet, or off the stage.

I just finished a fabulous weekend at the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival.  There were so many incredible performers with wide ranges of styles both vocally and instrumentally.  I am always inspired by this and went home Sunday evening and wrote my first song in months with more in the back of my head forming.  Performing in Lunenburg always has a special place in my heart as many of my songs were inspired by people and events from there – and well just growing up around the sea. 

Well – there were so many highlights to the festival but I have to say one of them is when I was singing the song Brideship on the Main Stage and I heard this big echo and I thought, “oh, I didn’t know the tent had an echo.”  Then, (while I was singing!) I realised it was my daughter, Tessa and her two cousins Jane and Maddie (all close in age) belting away the chorus.  The other highlight was to watch all three, as well as their older cousin Isabel and her friend Libby, bop and hop to Wild Irish Man.  Another was playing the six string nation guitar built by George Rizsanyi and toured by Jowi Taylor.  The guitar is made of more than 60 pieces of things relating to stories of history and culture of Canada.  It was a complete honour!

I did a brand new workshop called “The Joy of Singing”.  The workshop is designed to help singers and non-singers (or really people who don’t think they can sing) open up and free their voice.  It was a great success and there has been positive feedback.  I am super excited about doing these workshops and may include an afternoon before a gig – so as dates are decided in the fall I will post along side the date whether I will be giving a singing workshop as well.

News News! – Weave will be released in Toronto in the fall.  More info will follow as I firm up a date so keep posted! 

Till then!

Cheers
Mary

Hello and welcome to my website!  There will be more and more things added and sound clips are coming to the site very soon.  We will soon have a guest list plus press pictures and things will grow as we get it right. 

This week has been quite the whirlwind.  My old band members, Laurence Stevenson (fiddle) and Don Moore (guitar) arrived late Wednesday night on June 7^th around 11 PM direct from Toronto. 

The next day we pre-taped two songs on Breakfast Television at 12:30 (whew! remember those 5 am live shows!) and at 3pm I had an interview with Glen Meisner on Atlantic Airwaves that aired June 10^th.

Later that night we jammed on a few new tunes I wanted to do in the second set.  Friday we rose earlier and did the Duane Lowe show at noon, with 4 songs and an interview.  There was no pre-tape here.  It was live and after getting used to the large TV screens with our faces all over them, we relaxed and had a great time.  Duane is a dream TV show host, herself being relaxed and calm and witty amongst the moving TV cameras and the fuss.  No rest for the wicked!  We went immediately into a 2-hour rehearsal with the rest of the band and played with a great bunch of musicians.  Scott Ferguson played percussion; John Chiasson played bass and Ross billard was on the keyboard.  Jennah Barry and my sister Norah Knickle sang harmonies on the unaccomapanied song “Tarry” and all went well.  There were some tense moments as certain main speakers in the sound system decided they were on union break but Steve O’Rourke, sound man extraordinaire, got them all working again after he sprinkled his sound magic on them.