Kathleen Gorey-McSorley and Bid the Muse

Date: July 29, 2013 - August 04, 2013
Location: Douglastown Community Centre, 28 St-Patrice, Douglastown, Gaspé, Qc.
Information:
The 2013 Douglastown Irish Week will take place from July 29 to August 4. Throughout the week several professional artists will entertain us with their rich and extensive traditional Irish repertoire.

Big Shows and Smaller Shows:
The Makem and Spain Brothers will start the evening shows series under the tent on Thursday, August 1. Conor and Rory Makem currently live in the United States and are sons of Tommy Makem, the reknowned artist from Armagh, Ireland, who helped expand the popularity of Irish traditional songs. The brothers sing with Liam and Mick Spain. The band’s repertoire is nearly inexhaustible.

The next evening we will be entertained by Kathleen Gorey-McSorley from New Brunswick. Kathleen is well-known for her great talents as a fiddler and dancer. She is currently studying traditional music in Dublin. She will give a show with two of her Irish friends, Maria Gerehan at the piano and Eoghan

Mac An Ghail on the accordion, flute and whistle. The weekend shows will end.

Saturday with Salty dog, a band from Montréal, back in Douglastown their popular performance in 2011. The first part shows will feature Marie-Hélène Dion and Mathieu Fournier, a new generation of Gaspé traditional fiddling, followed by Debbie Sams and her friends on Friday and Tammy Adams on Saturday.

The short late afternoon concerts at the Holy Name Hall are also back. We will have the opportunity to hear Louis Vallée, in a tribute to the music of Turlough O’Carelan, and Laura Risk and Gìenn Patterson who will present a few old-time tunes of the Douglastown area.

Genealogical Presentations:
Two professional genealogists will come to promote the interest in family history. Réjean Martel, involved for many years in the Société de généalogie de la Gaspésie et des Iles-de-la-Madeleine, will talk about the Irish families of the Gaspé Peninsula­ from Rivière-au-Renard to Pabos including Douglastown. Gary Schroder, president of the Quebec Family History Society will be with us to give two training sessions to help you find your ancestors in Quebec and Ireland.

Workshops for Everyone:
Irish choir, fiddle, square dance and foot-tapping are the main autistic Workshops offered this year. These Workshops are given in French or! and in English and they are designed to please groups of all ages. Two new Workshops in Celtic knot drawing techniques and Celtic jewellery making also be given. We suggested that you register early since places are limited. Our web site is in progress; you can visit it at wwwsemaineirlandaise-irishweek.com.

Info: (418) 368-0288; sid-diw@hotmail.com. - Gaspesian Heritage Web Magazine

The Imperial's Gonzo Theater will also host some interesting concerts, including an evening of fiddle, mandolin and whistle playing as well as step dancing with Kathleen Gorey-McSorley of Fredericton , New Brunswick, whose show is as exciting as it sounds and has been thrilling audiences in Ireland, the United states and Canada over the last year. Kathleen will be joined in the venue for her 7:30 pm Friday show by Carolyn Holyoke on piano... - Irish Music

It's going to be a busy summer for local fiddle and stepdancing sensation Kathleen Gorey-McSorley.

Local fiddle and stepdancing phenom Kathleen Gorey-McSorley says she’s excited about the release of her new CD, dubbed Cheoil Binn, on July 8 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 7:30 p.m. Fans can also catch the 15-year-old artist this weekend when she performs in Officers’ Square on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. The talented 15-year-old artist is slated to perform Saturday at 6 p.m. in Officers' Square, but she can barely contain her excitement about an upcoming CD-release party she'll host at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on July 8.

That'll be the first chance local fans will have to pick up copies of her new disc Cheoil Binn - which means 'sweet music' when translated from Irish.

The 14-song effort shows off the impressive range in Gorey-McSorley's fiddle-work, and features strong piano support from talented local musician Carolyn Holyoke, guitarist and banjo player Patrick Lamey and multi-instrumentalist Ryan MacNeil.

Standout tracks include mid-tempo pieces The Skinner Set, The Flying Pig, and album closer The Blacksmith's Set - which features the perfect blend of fiddle, banjo and tin whistle - and some strong numbers played a little closer to the floor, such as The Birthday Set, The One With All The Reels, and Sunshine Set.

Gorey-McSorley said she's quite proud of her sophomore release.

"It's more like me. In the last CD, I really wanted it to be super-cool and we got that from putting different instruments in there that maybe normally wouldn't be in fiddle music," she said.

"But this time I wanted to keep it cool, but from the actual sets and things that I was doing.

"So I arranged all the sets and Carolyn Holyoke did the chord arrangements and I'm really happy with it. It's traditional, but there's still me in there."

She'll be taking the album on the road this summer, with performances at the Miramichi Irish Festival and trips to Maine, Cape Breton, and Quebec leading into a special trip to Ireland - where she'll participate in the All Ireland Fleadh competition in Cavan Town, in the County Cavan.

Gorey-McSorley, who lived in Ireland for several years, said she's looking forward to the two-week trip in August, which will be jam-packed with fun educational opportunities.

"A few days before the Fleadh, I'll be going to Scoil Eigse, which is music school, for four days," she said.

"I went there the last time I was in Ireland and I had so much fun. I learned between 16 to 18 tunes in four days. Then I'll participate in the competition.

"I can't wait. It's so much fun."

The fiddler said she still has a lot to learn about her instrument, so that's why she has to balance the time she spends being a teenager and the time she commits to practising the fiddle.

"My friends are pretty good about it. Sometimes they'll all be going out to a movie or something and I'll be like, 'No, I've got to stay home and practise,'" she said.

"But I don't mind it. My friends understand when I can't make it to something. I love playing music and it's worth the sacrifices to spend that time on the fiddle."

- The Daily Gleaner

Kathleen Gorey-McSorley is one ambitious young woman. While others her age are mourning the end of summer and preparing to return to the classroom, Kathleen has launched her debut CD, Caitlin Is Ainm Dom or My Name is Kathleen. That's no small feat for a 13-year-old.
"Ever since I started playing the fiddle, I wanted to make a CD," she said.
Kathleen started fiddle lessons when she was eight years old. A student of Fredericton's well-known fiddle instructor Krista Touesnard, she quickly took to the instrument and has been turning heads with her dynamic reels and jigs ever since.
A chance meeting with Danny Crain, owner of Outreach Productions and producer of the recording, started both Kathleen and her parents talking.
"I was called to fill in for this band whose fiddle player couldn't make it, and one of the guys who was playing with the band was Danny Crain," she said. "He heard me and said I should consider making a CD. My parents took me out one day to visit Outreach Productions, that's the recording studio. I really liked it there. It was really professional and all the staff were really nice. That's when we decided to do it."
Once the decision was made, she then set to picking out her sets and arranging tunes.
"I just picked my favourite tunes. The ones I play the best, but some of them were really new," she said. "One of them I'd only been playing for about two weeks, but all the tunes were polished before I went into the studio."
Kathleen's repertoire is largely a mix of Maritime and Irish music. Like most good musicians playing traditional-based music, she absorbs tunes from just about everywhere.
"I listen to lots of CDs and I go to lots of workshops," she said. "Krista gives me some of the tunes, others were from books. I find tunes everywhere."
Once she finalized her sets for the recording, 14 in total, it was then time to think about who she wanted to have join her in the studio.
"I have really great accompanists," she said. Of those appearing on the album, two names stand out in traditional music circles. Kimberly and Skip Holmes, two very well-known Nova Scotia musicians, add a variety of instruments to the album including piano, mandolin, bouzouki, and guitar. Kimberly and Skip both worked with Prince Edward Island fiddling sensation Richard Wood, appearing in a similar fashion on a number of his recordings including his debut, All Fired Up.
"We drove to Nova Scotia to meet with Kim and Skip and put the arrangements together there," said the 13-year-old fiddler.
Kathleen had become friends with the two through her instructor, who has hosted the pair for workshops at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre.
A number of local musicians also contributed to the recording of Kathleen's CD under the guidance of producer Danny Crain, who arranged for a whistle player and percussionist to join the project.
"Danny had really great ideas all throughout the process of making the recording," said Kathleen. "He said he wanted my first CD to be something I would always be proud of so everybody put a lot of work into it." Looking back at the experience, Kathleen is quite proud of what she has done.
"It was better than I though it was going to be," she said. "It was super fun and a really good learning experience." Now with the final product in her hands, Kathleen is excited for the challenge of getting her music out there.
"We're hoping to get it out to radio stations. Also, when I have gigs and am performing, I'll try and sell them there too," she said.
With her proud parents supporting her every step of the way and helping her shape her flourishing music career, the sky is the limit for this young teenage fiddler. Keep your eyes and especially, your ears open. This is just the beginning of something exciting.

- HereNB

Gary Morris has more spirit of the Celt than ever. He and wife and music partner Tammy Morris have just returned from a five-week tour of Europe and the U.K, the last days spent in Ireland. The land of the shamrock, hedgerows, ancient standing stones and music so impressed him that even before leaving its green shores, he booked New Brunswick's Irish fiddling teen Kathleen Gorey-McSorley to appear on his Valley Jamboree on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Sussex Regional High.

The jet-setting pair of musicians didn't touch back down on Canada's terra firma until last Wednesday so Gary's guest list was far from complete by my deadline. Along with 15-year-old Kathleen, the only other acts confirmed were: the Bonny Kilburn Dancers, Port City Jamboree multi-instrumentalist Reg Gallant, and everybody's favourite country fiddler Allison Inch, who Gary introduces as "the nicest man on earth."

Gary says there will be several more guests, including regulars Tammy, Jeannie Clark and Cheryl Ellis, who are three of the province's finest vocalists; comedian Eunice P. Doolittle; singing bassist Dale Butland; lead guitarist Art Boyd and the rest of the great Valley Jamboree band.

Kathleen is a celebrated master of Celtic, Appalachian, old time, country, Cajun and French Canadian fiddling styles. She also plays piano, mandolin and tin-whistles, is an award-winning Irish dancer and acclaimed Cape Breton step dancer. As a member of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra, she also has a growing classical violin repertoire.

Kathleen already has had considerable international exposure of her talents, having performed in Ireland, Scotland, the United States and many parts of Canada. A couple of the highlights of her travels have been: competing in the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann at County Offlaly, Ireland, and the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championships in Ottawa.

Tickets for Saturday's jamboree are for sale at Hampton Pharmasave; Kennebecasis Drugs in Rothesay, Grand Bay Pharmacy, Colpitts in Petticodiac and Morris Music in Sussex, Rothesay and Saint John.
- Telegraph Journal

Gary Morris has more spirit of the Celt than ever. He and wife and music partner Tammy Morris have just returned from a five-week tour of Europe and the U.K, the last days spent in Ireland. The land of the shamrock, hedgerows, ancient standing stones and music so impressed him that even before leaving its green shores, he booked New Brunswick's Irish fiddling teen Kathleen Gorey-McSorley to appear on his Valley Jamboree on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Sussex Regional High.

The jet-setting pair of musicians didn't touch back down on Canada's terra firma until last Wednesday so Gary's guest list was far from complete by my deadline. Along with 15-year-old Kathleen, the only other acts confirmed were: the Bonny Kilburn Dancers, Port City Jamboree multi-instrumentalist Reg Gallant, and everybody's favourite country fiddler Allison Inch, who Gary introduces as "the nicest man on earth."

Gary says there will be several more guests, including regulars Tammy, Jeannie Clark and Cheryl Ellis, who are three of the province's finest vocalists; comedian Eunice P. Doolittle; singing bassist Dale Butland; lead guitarist Art Boyd and the rest of the great Valley Jamboree band.

Kathleen is a celebrated master of Celtic, Appalachian, old time, country, Cajun and French Canadian fiddling styles. She also plays piano, mandolin and tin-whistles, is an award-winning Irish dancer and acclaimed Cape Breton step dancer. As a member of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra, she also has a growing classical violin repertoire.

Kathleen already has had considerable international exposure of her talents, having performed in Ireland, Scotland, the United States and many parts of Canada. A couple of the highlights of her travels have been: competing in the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann at County Offlaly, Ireland, and the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championships in Ottawa.

Tickets for Saturday's jamboree are for sale at Hampton Pharmasave; Kennebecasis Drugs in Rothesay, Grand Bay Pharmacy, Colpitts in Petticodiac and Morris Music in Sussex, Rothesay and Saint John.
- Telegraph Journal