Music
Press
"Nonie & Eugene paid us a visit last season as an opener. We enjoyed them so much that we invited them back to headline this season. This past Sunday (Feb. 16/03) on a very cold winter night Nonie & Eugene's music warmed our hearts and spirits. The music ranged from a beautiful version of the standard "Danny Boy" to a driving blues Nonie original. Eugene comes from fine Irish pedigree (a cousin of the famous Sands Family) and he is a skilled instrumentalist (particularly on his vintage Martin mandolin). Nonie presents an entertaining mix of original and traditional songs intermixedwith some wonderful stories. a standing ovation at the end of the night. Well deserved." - Ian Davies
Hi Nonie, I'm an on air announcer at radio Woodville, lower north island here in N.Z. I absolutly love and adore your album MOON LIGHT DREAMS. Your excellent cd fits my program format beautifully, as I run my CELTIC COUNTRY CORNER - Di Watson
WHAT a voice! Oh no, not another “Danny Boy” I thought, on seeing the playlist. Can’t we have a moratorium on recording it? But how wrong I was. A most moving musical arrangement, with some dramatic, soaring whistle. And she sang it so very thoughtfully: like she had just written it herself. Quite SUBLIMELY put across, in fact.She chooses not to sing the “political” third verse (that Fred E Weatherly never wrote anyway!) and sings the song with great sincerity and wondrous breath control. It just breasts the tape marginally ahead of her version of Alistair McGillivray’s lyrical tribute to Cape Breton’s most famous river “The Mira”; and the traditional “Buachaill on Eirne”. - Dai Woosnam - Grimsby, England , 11/02
"Maybe it's time to rename Ladies of the Grand the Grand Ladies of the Blues. The female super-group of mostly local musicians united for the second time to assert that the blues is not a men's club. With Margaret Stowe on lead guitar, Maureen Brown on drums, Silvia Wright on keyboards and accordion, Nonie Crete on rhythm guitar and harmonica and Christine Bird on bass, the Ladies surrendered no ground to their male counterparts. In fact, their standing ovation earned the impromptu group an onstage invitation to return to next year's festival, which they happily accepted. The Ladies' set was capped off in style with a trio of torchy songs by special guest Cheryl Lescom." - KW Record
"That she's a newcomer to these ears is an indicationonly of the wealth of independent talent in this country that rarely gets mainstream exposure, more's the pity. This set of 12 delightful andaccomplished original pieces, ranging in style from melodic Anglo-American balladry to bluesy rock, gutbucket saloon songs and country folk, reveal Crete as a powerful and engaging storyteller with an extroardinarily sweetvoice and a mean harmonica." - Greg Quill of the Toronto Star Jan 2004
"Girl in a Crazy World is as good an original folk collection as this area has seen in quite some time, with great songwriting and brilliant playing." - KW Echo Weekly Entertainment Magazine MARCH 11 - 17 By Declan Kelly
Nonie Crete reaches another level with 5th cd, Girl in a Crazy World' the album features some of Toronto's best acoustic musicians'. She has grown with every recording, but this is the first to reflect technically her development as an artist. She has never sounded better. - KW RECORD'S Robert Reid Jan 31 2004
"the strongest song on the album “Let It Rain”. It is a nakedly raw and compassionate song about the loss of a loved one, and in this case presumably, a mother. Many of us - myself included - have lost our mothers in a not dissimilar way, and by golly, we don’t half relate to such searing “honesty of experience” as Nonie presents us with in this song.It is one of two songs I expect to be widely covered. The other is another song with a sweet melody and the most limpid of lyrics: “Take Me As I Am” . This song has that same quality of heady new romance that I recall a great song of yesteryear providing: Rosemary Hardman’s "Lady For Today”. - Dai Woosnam of Kevin's Celtic & Folk Music CD Reviews
Wow! She's gotta go somewhere. I've been in the folk music business forseveral years now and still never get tired of hearing new and exciting performers. She excites me." - Russ Musgrove : Mundy's Bay Folk Society
"She has a fabulousvoice that will knock your socks off and she's a great guitar player and harpist, Nonie is a solid entertainer who impresses everyone who hears her." - producer Paul Mills, aka Curly Boy Stubbs
Discography
cds
1. Maybe I'm a Loner
2. River Grand
3. Moonlight Dreams
4. Harmonys in Holidays
5. Danny boy and Ballads
6. Girl in a Crazy World
Photos
Bio
Nonie Crete
Nonie has toured folk festivals and house concerts from east to west in Canada and in the U.S. In Ireland Nonie was featured on BBC and performed along with Clannad and Altan at a concert in Donegal . The response to her music was overwhelming and included such heartwarming praise as that from the mother of internationally reknowned artist Enya. She told Nonie she was moved to tears by the song 'Let it Rain' that was inspired by Nonie's own mother. Recently she tried out her acting skills as Jenny Diver in James Gordon's hughly successful Folk Opera "Hard Scrabble Road" at the River Run Centre in Guelph. Now Nonie can add the blues to her repertoire as one of the "Ladies of the Grand River" with such great musicians as Marg Stowe, Silvia Wright, Christine Bird, Maureen Brown and Cheryl Lescom. The Grand Ladies went on to get a standing ovation at the Blues, Brews and BBQs Festival in KItchener this summer of Aug 7th 2004. Nonie has recently finished her 7th recording and much anticipated CD project "GIRL IN A CRAZY WORLD" with producer Paul Mills:
Links
