The MacKENZIE PROJECT

Just two days after meeting for the first time to form The MacKenzie Project, the group gave an outstanding performance of Celtic music in Wadsworth Auditorium.

The Friday concert was the band's first ever show, but if group leader Roseanne MacKenzie hadn't shared that information no one in the audience would have been able to tell. The blending of Donogh Hennessey's guitar, Kimberly Fraser's piano, Pauline Scanlon's vocals, and MacKenzie's fiddling and step dancing created a seamless fusion of sound. The music was a combination of traditional Irish songs and fiddle sets in the style popular in MacKenzie's home of Cape Breton Island, Canada.

Although the group members only had a couple days to practice as a unit, they each had extensive experience with other ensembles. MacKenzie was a member of Cape Breton quartet The Cotters for five years. After The Cotters disbanded, she decided to continue her career with a new group. Her search for bandmates brought her fellow Cape Breton-native Fraser, who had an incredible piano solo and also dueted on fiddle and step danced with MacKenzie. Mutual connections brought Scanlon and Hennessy to the group. The pair of Irish musicians previously worked together on Scanlon's 2004 album Hush, and each spent time with the Sharon Shannon Band. Hennessy was also part of the Irish band Lunasa.

The group displayed incredible chemistry on stage, and was able to achieve an impressive level of audience interaction. The audience responded well, clapping along with many songs and laughing at the anecdotes Scanlon shared before most of the songs she sang. During one song, a fiddle and step dancing duet by MacKenzie
and Fraser, MacKenzie invited anyone with step dancing experience to come up on stage and join them. Surprisingly, three audience members displayed their talents by doing just that and were met with great applause. During another song, Scanlon asked for and received assistance with the chorus.

Although all the songs had the same high energy and rich sound, those featuring Scanlon were the most impressive. She gave her personal touch to traditional Irish songs like "Wearing the Britches," a ballad about a fighting husband and wife and their struggle for power over each other. Her powerful yet delicate voice brought out the emotional side to each song that she sang, and did so in an Irish brogue which made her performance even more appealing. Also notable was the tune "A Case of You," which Scanlon described as the best expression of love that she had ever heard. Its chorus stated "I could drink a case of you and still be on my feet."

If The MacKenzie Project's first concert was any indication of its future, it will certainly be successful. Although their Celtic sound may not be mainstream, their talent and charisma will probably be enough to bring make them leaders in their genre and win over fans being exposed to Celtic music for the first time. Upcoming plans for the group include several U.S. tour dates in March and April and perhaps the release of an album by the end of the year.

- Maureen McManus - The Lamron (Geneseo, NY)

City celebrates Celtic culture with family-friendly festival Saturday.

Irish tradition was honored Saturday with ceremony and celebration at Tara Feis.

The city-sponsored, family-friendly precursor to the St. Patrick's Day Parade celebrated its 16th year at Emmet Park with food, arts and crafts, games and live performances.

This year's headlining act was The MacKenzie Project, a Celtic ensemble of musicians and dancers from Ireland and Canada.

The group - composed of Roseanne MacKenzie, Ashley MacLeod, Donogh Hennessy and Pauline Scanlon - performed a mix of ancient reels and contemporary songs.

Hundreds of people gathered around the main stage to listen, while a hundred more enjoyed corn dogs, funnel cakes and green-and-orange-striped snow cones at dining tables set up in the middle of the festival.

Nearby, boys lunged at one another with sabers made from blue balloons, hissing to punctuate each swipe.

Irish dancers, fresh from performing on the main stage, exchanged their step shoes for Crocs and wandered around in curly-haired cliques.

One woman wearing a T-shirt that read "Irish is as Irish does" turned toward the children's stage, where Sean Driscoll, dressed as a pirate, incited a mini-kiddie mosh pit with his acoustic guitar.

Tara Feis first-timers Julie and Frank McHugh were impressed by all the attention the city lavished on the Emerald Isle.

"And being from Boston, we're pretty picky," Julie said. "I don't want to be disloyal, but Savannah is doing a bang-up job."

- Amy Morris

Photos at: http://savannahnow.com/node/241398
- Savannah Morning News

Billed as a Celtic-folk supergroup, The MacKenzie Project brings together members from both sides of the Atlantic, from Britain and Canada, and from groups such as The Cottars, Lunasa and Sharon Shannon Band.

Currently on their first Canadian tour, the multi-faceted quartet brings its sound to Sherwood Park's Festival Place tonight.

It all started with Cape Breton fiddler-singer Roseanne McKenzie, who roped in lead vocalist Pauline Scanlon, and producer-instrumentalist Donogh Hennessy, from Ireland.

Completing the group is Cape Breton fiddle and keyboard fave Howie MacDonald (a regular with the Rankins and Natalie MacMaster).

Between their youthful energy, serious chops, impressive musical pedigree, and their mix of traditional and contemporary material, the band could turn into one of the next big Celtic folk hits.

The MacKenzie Project plays Festival Place at 7:30 tonight. Tickets are available from the box office at 449-3378 or through Ticketmaster at 451-8000.

- Roger Levesque
- Edmonton Journal - April 21, 2007

Tracking down musician Roseanne MacKenzie takes a bit of work: she has an agent in Charlottetown who refers calls to a manager in Boston, who says MacKenzie hasn't started her Western Canadian tour yet and can be reached at home in Cape Breton.

A telephone interview for 1 p.m. Atlantic time, won't work, the manager says, as MacKenzie will still be in school at that hour.

Of course, this globetrotting, rising Celtic star, with agents, managers, and a band named after her, is only 17 and has to pack her homework along with her fiddle when she hits the road.

The Grade 11 student is keen to finish high school so she can take up music full time. But in the meantime, she is determined to keep her options open by maintaining her grades. She missed 80 days last year, when her former band, the Cottars, was touring with the Irish music stars, the Chieftains.

“It has been a bit of a juggling act, but I try to maintain a balance between performing and school, and keep my marks up, in case I want to continue my education at some point.”

Home is Baddeck, N.S., which is famous as the long-time residence of Alexander Graham Bell. But more importantly for an aspiring young Celtic musician, is its location just down the road from St. Ann's, where the world-renowned Gaelic College of Arts and Crafts is located and she was able to learn from the likes of Buddy MacMaster.

MacKenzie's parents loved music and enjoyed singing along and keeping time when the songs started at parties and family gatherings, but did not play any instruments. She fell in love with the fiddle when, as a seven-year-old, she saw Buddy MacMaster's winsome and talented niece Natalie performing on the Fred Penner's children's show.

“Right then, I decided I wanted to play and have been enthralled by the fiddle ever since. Growing up in Cape Breton, music is just such a big part of you.”

With her [guitarist] older brother Jimmy, she teamed up with another sibling act, Ciaran and Fiona MacGillivray, when she was 11 to form the Cottars. With a big push from Irish Canadian tenor John McDermott, who performed in Trail last week, the group was soon recording and touring as far a field as Europe and Japan.

“(McDermott) has been a very big influence and a continual source of support for me,” MacKenzie said.

After a messy break-up last year of the Cottars, of which she will say only, “it's best not to go there,” MacKenzie was keen for more musical experience. Her handlers set her up with two Irish musicians, singer Pauline Scanlon and guitarist Donogh Hennessy, and rounded out the new group with Cape Breton pianist and fiddler Howie MacDonald, who has toured with Natalie MacMaster and the Rankins.

Of the blend of styles, Mackenzie said that while Cape Breton music has its roots in Scotland, it is also influenced by Irish music, and is ultimately a creation all of its own.

“We were so isolated and cut off from the world that we really developed a style all of our own. You almost have to be from Cape Breton to play it.”

The group performs a mix of Cape Breton and Irish songs, with Mackenzie also singing back-up to Scanlon and throwing in some step dancing.

- Raymond Masleck

The Mackenzie Project performs Tuesday at the Charles Bailey Theatre at 7:30 p.m.
© 2007 Trail Daily Times
- Trail (BC) Daily Times - April 16, 2007