Company Road

Four MacDonald siblings start new country-driven band

PORT HOOD — From the Rankin Family of Mabou to the Barra MacNeils of Sydney Mines, a string of Cape Breton bands have found musical success with their siblings.
Topics : Company Road.The , Port Hood , Mabou , Brennan.Company Road

And now the MacDonald family of Port Hood — specifically Brennan, Mitch, Kelly Jean, and Gordie — are hoping to join the ranks, as a new country-driven band, Company Road.

The four have long dreamt of pooling their musical talents in one group but up until last year, they were unable to make it happen.

“We’ve always wished and wanted to do something together as a family but we all had different employment situations and (we were in) different provinces and different countries at certain times. Logistically it was just impossible,” recalled Brennan.

So when an opportunity opened up for the four of them to spend some time together recently, they took over the Red Shoe Pub in Mabou for a weekend to play, record and videotape some original material.

“It was a bit of a challenge but in the end some of the stuff came out really great,” he said, noting they’re hoping to eventually release a DVD of footage from that weekend.

Among the songs that came out of their recording session was “Cry,” which is the first single they’ve released, and Kelly Jean said they’re excited about the positive response to the song and video.

“It really gives us the drive to push forward to write and create more original music as a family,” she said, adding, “‘Cry’ was written by Brennan, which was something that I think came pretty naturally to him. I took right away to the song as I am very drawn to slow and sappy tunes. I think we can all relate to a time in our lives where we dealt with heartache or losing someone.”

Brennan, who has played with a number of successful bands over the years including Kilt, Gin & Juice, and Crossfire, said Company Road’s sound is very distinct and inspired in many ways by their father’s favourite music.

“Dad was a huge country fanatic so we couldn’t walk through the kitchen without the AM radio blasting country music. It was just his thing and that became a very normal thing for us to sing,” he said.

Their father, Cecil, also played into the name the four settled on for the band.

“Company Road is actually where our father grew up in Port Hood,” explained Gordie. “Dad also wrote a country song with this very name. It’s a song about the house he grew up in, which was torn down a few years back, and the changes Company Road has gone through over the years. After he wrote it he presented each of his kids with a written copy and performed it for us as a Christmas gift a few years ago. So besides having a pretty good ring to it for a band name, it seemed to fit in more than one way.”

For Mitch — who became a household name in the summer of 2008 finishing in the runner-up position on the sixth season of Canadian Idol — playing with his brothers and sister feels very natural.

“To be honest, when I play with Company Road I really do feel like I’m sitting in my kitchen no matter where we play,” he said, noting that writing and collaborating with his siblings has been a great experience. “We work pretty well together, mostly because it’s easy to tell each other if we don’t like how something sounds. That can be the hardest thing to do if you’re writing with someone you don’t know so well. Yes, we still have our arguments but that too helps us shape and mould out songs. We just want to make and play music together and have fun with it.”

While still in the very early stages, the four siblings are excited to see where their music takes them.

“We’re going to make a run at it, we’re going to see what the world thinks of us,” said Brennan.

Company Road will be making a hometown appearance during a Chestico Days afternoon concert in Port Hood on Saturday.

For updates and more information on the band, visit them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/companyroad. They also have website under construction at www.companyroad.ca.


ljgrant@cbpost.com
- Cape Breton Post

Four MacDonald siblings start new country-driven band

PORT HOOD — From the Rankin Family of Mabou to the Barra MacNeils of Sydney Mines, a string of Cape Breton bands have found musical success with their siblings.
Topics : Company Road.The , Port Hood , Mabou , Brennan.Company Road

And now the MacDonald family of Port Hood — specifically Brennan, Mitch, Kelly Jean, and Gordie — are hoping to join the ranks, as a new country-driven band, Company Road.

The four have long dreamt of pooling their musical talents in one group but up until last year, they were unable to make it happen.

“We’ve always wished and wanted to do something together as a family but we all had different employment situations and (we were in) different provinces and different countries at certain times. Logistically it was just impossible,” recalled Brennan.

So when an opportunity opened up for the four of them to spend some time together recently, they took over the Red Shoe Pub in Mabou for a weekend to play, record and videotape some original material.

“It was a bit of a challenge but in the end some of the stuff came out really great,” he said, noting they’re hoping to eventually release a DVD of footage from that weekend.

Among the songs that came out of their recording session was “Cry,” which is the first single they’ve released, and Kelly Jean said they’re excited about the positive response to the song and video.

“It really gives us the drive to push forward to write and create more original music as a family,” she said, adding, “‘Cry’ was written by Brennan, which was something that I think came pretty naturally to him. I took right away to the song as I am very drawn to slow and sappy tunes. I think we can all relate to a time in our lives where we dealt with heartache or losing someone.”

Brennan, who has played with a number of successful bands over the years including Kilt, Gin & Juice, and Crossfire, said Company Road’s sound is very distinct and inspired in many ways by their father’s favourite music.

“Dad was a huge country fanatic so we couldn’t walk through the kitchen without the AM radio blasting country music. It was just his thing and that became a very normal thing for us to sing,” he said.

Their father, Cecil, also played into the name the four settled on for the band.

“Company Road is actually where our father grew up in Port Hood,” explained Gordie. “Dad also wrote a country song with this very name. It’s a song about the house he grew up in, which was torn down a few years back, and the changes Company Road has gone through over the years. After he wrote it he presented each of his kids with a written copy and performed it for us as a Christmas gift a few years ago. So besides having a pretty good ring to it for a band name, it seemed to fit in more than one way.”

For Mitch — who became a household name in the summer of 2008 finishing in the runner-up position on the sixth season of Canadian Idol — playing with his brothers and sister feels very natural.

“To be honest, when I play with Company Road I really do feel like I’m sitting in my kitchen no matter where we play,” he said, noting that writing and collaborating with his siblings has been a great experience. “We work pretty well together, mostly because it’s easy to tell each other if we don’t like how something sounds. That can be the hardest thing to do if you’re writing with someone you don’t know so well. Yes, we still have our arguments but that too helps us shape and mould out songs. We just want to make and play music together and have fun with it.”

While still in the very early stages, the four siblings are excited to see where their music takes them.

“We’re going to make a run at it, we’re going to see what the world thinks of us,” said Brennan.

Company Road will be making a hometown appearance during a Chestico Days afternoon concert in Port Hood on Saturday.

For updates and more information on the band, visit them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/companyroad. They also have website under construction at www.companyroad.ca.


ljgrant@cbpost.com
- Cape Breton Post