Buddy MacDonald with fiddle sensation at Skye

REGION -- New England Celtic Arts will present Celtic Colours International Festival late night host Buddy MacDonald with Cape Breton's young fiddle sensation Rachel Davis.

Performances will be held at Skye Theatre Performing Arts Center in South Carthage on Wednesday and at Unity College Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday. Curtain is at 7 p.m. at Skye and 7:30 p.m. in Unity. There is a pre-show jam session 45 minutes prior to curtain at Skye and Unity. Audience members are encouraged to bring their instruments and jam with the artists for a few minutes.

Buddy MacDonald is one of Canada's most respected singer song-writers and comes from a tradition steeped in Celtic and Folk music. Buddy has hosted the world famous Celtic Colours Festival Club for the last 14 years without missing a single evening. He is best known for setting to music his keen observation of life lived in the cities and rural parts of Eastern Canada. Audiences warm instantly to his infectious writing style and showmanship.

Buddy's career as a singer, songwriter, entertainer, began 30 years ago. Born and brought up on the Northern Shores of Cape Breton Island, he was exposed at an early age, to the singing and story telling of some of the great Celtic singers of his native Island. Much of his song writing is still influenced by this style he was so familiar with as a young boy. Over the years he has traveled and entertained audiences throughout Canada, the United States, Germany, Scotland and the Scandinavian countries, performing as a solo act and in different combinations with other musicians from Cape Breton.

Rachel is an award winning 21-year-old fiddler from Big Baddeck, Cape Breton, NS. From an early age, she was exposed to the Cape Breton style of music, as it was prevalent among a great many members of her family. As a result, she has listened to the Cape Breton style music all her life. Inspired by her grandfather, Clarence Long, also a fiddler, Rachel began taking lessons from him at the age of twelve years. For the past six years, she has been performing with Buddy on stage at festivals and local Cape Breton events.

Rachel’s self-titled CD has won wide acclaim throughout Atlantic Canada. Rachel was a featured performer at the Maine Highland Games in Topsham and the American Folk Festival in Bangor last August. She has just returned from an extended tour of Australia with The Cottar's Buddy & Rachel have been selected to launch a new harbor-side series in historic Boothbay Harbor at the Fisherman's Wharf Inn on Friday, June 3. The series celebrates their 65 anniversary and will feature other performers from the Maine Celtic Tour throughout the Summer. More information on the series can be found at http://www.fishermanswharfinn.com.

Skye Theater is located three miles west of East Dixfield village at 2 Highland Dr. off Winter Hill Road and Rt. 2 in South Carthage. UCCPA is at 42 Depot St. in Unity. Ticket price is $15 at the door. For reservations at the theater, you wish to attend call Skye Theatre at 562-4445 or Unity Center for the Performing Arts at 948-7469.