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Racket in the family: the Barra MacNeils have reason to celebrate
By Laurel Munroe
Cape Breton Post
The Barra MacNeils and their families have a tiny reason to celebrate.The musical siblings from Sydney Mines welcomed a new family member into the fold Monday, when Sheumas MacNeil's wife, Monica, gave birth to a healthy baby boy at around 7 p.m.
Malcolm Hugh is the first grandchild for the Barras' parents, Jean and Columba, and the first nephew for Sheumas's bandmates Kyle, Stewart and Lucy, and younger brothers Ryan and Boyd, of Sl?inte Mhath.
"We're all pretty excited today," Kyle MacNeil said Tuesday.If Malcolm Hugh had waited a few days, his dad may have missed his arrival.The Barras head to Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday, where they will showcase at the prestigious North American Folk Alliance for festival buyers and promoters from all over the continent.
It will be the band's second U.S. showcase this year; last month, they showcased in Manhattan - and the performance has already paid off.
"We picked up a few festivals from that," says Kyle. "I'd say we'll be spending the entire summer in the States this year."After more than a decade of winning fans in Canada and the United Kingdom, the Barras have been steadily making inroads in the lucrative U.S. market over the last couple of years.
"We're seeing progress . . . it's a very gradual thing," Kyle says. "You've got to just get down there and play in all the places you can possibly play. But in a short time there's been a big increase in interest in the band.
"There's a whole new light on the horizon and it looks really positive for the future."
Plans are in the works to take the Barras' successful Christmas show, the Barra MacNeils Celtic Christmas, into the New England market this year. The show - already a hit in the Maritimes and Ontario - was a runaway success in its inaugural tour of Western Canada in November and December.
Aside from the hometown crowd, the group's biggest fan base is likely in Southern Ontario, where they will perform a mini-St. Patrick's Day tour next month, including a March 17 date at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
After that, the siblings will take some time off to prepare for a new recording, a follow-up to 2000's Racket in the Attic, considered by many to be their best effort.
At this point, Kyle says, they're not sure what direction the next album will take.
"Right now we're gathering material and looking at what's worked for us in the past. We've been talking about that a lot lately and there's a lot of good, positive energy."
The title cut from Racket in the Attic will be used in the upcoming film Men With Brooms, a Canadian curling comedy starring Paul Gross, Leslie Nielsen and Molly Parker.
Gross, of Due South fame, is also producing the film and insisted it feature an all-Canadian soundtrack. Racket in the Attic appears in a "climactic scene," says the Barras' manager, Phil Dubinsky.
The film is due for release early next month.
By the way, Men With Brooms is not the band's first brush with the silver screen. They appeared in Margaret's Museum, Island Love Song and The Little Kidnappers.
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