Live Music Review: Celtic Colours – Cape Breton Keyboard

I was looking forward to this night in order to see the stage at UCCB Boardmore Playhouse covered in ebony and ivory. Actually, from where I was sitting, I thought that the night should have been sponsored by Roland keyboards! Tracey Dares was the host and what was to come was an interesting and fun-filled evening. Ryan MacNeil, Dougie MacPhee, Patricia Chafe, George MacInnis and Maybelle Chisholm were all given the opportunity to play some of their own choice cuts and each player demonstrated a rather different perspective on the instrument. Emotion overflowed George MacInnis with every key he touched, Maybelle Chisholm had all kinds of tricks up her sleeve as she danced up and down the keyboard, Patricia Chafe played a couple of the many, many pieces she has written, Ryan MacNeil gave the grand piano a good working over with his groove-laden style, while Doug MacPhee seemed to sit effortlessly at the bench and play in his own legendary way. If that wasn’t enough, we also witnessed various pairings up with players, most memorably Dougie and George and Tracey. Hearing three generations of accompaniment truly took the cake…until everyone sat behind the keyboards and began to bang out some tunes for a finale. That was truly bizarre, and no doubt is a rare occurrence indeed.