This year the St. Patrick's day celebrations were made extra special when Great Big Sea member Bob Hallett and Rum Ragged joined Kelly Russell and The Planks for a concert at The Rockhouse on Friday, 16 March. What a concert that would have been!
An awesome bootlegged video of Bob Hallett performing with the band and singing 'I'm A Rover' was circulated on Facebook by a fan. I have circulated an official recorded copy of Kelly Russell and The Planks with Bob Hallett singing 'I'm A Rover' from their YouTube site on my Google + page.
I have also included some screen shots about the concert from various social media sites. As always no copyright infringement intended.
Last year Kelly Russell and The Planks with Bob Hallett performed a concert at the Newfoundland Folk Festival on 13 August, 2017. Prior to the concert Kelly Russell did an interview with the local newspaper The Newfoundland Herald titled 'Herald's Q & A with Kelly Russell and The Planks' published on 4 August, 2017 by Dillion Collins.
They discussed the type of music the band plays, being advocates for traditional Newfoundland music and how Bob Hallett become a member of the group. The article contains some beautiful photographs of the band performing including Bob Hallett.
I have copied a couple of paragraphs here for those interested. The full article and photographs can be found at the Newfoundland Herald site nflherald.com. As always no copyright infringement intended.
https://nfldherald.com/heralds-qa-kelly-russell-the-planks/
"....The group currently consists of yourself, Sean Panting, Chris Batstone, Adam Staple and now Bob Hallett. Take me through the addition of Hallett to the lineup?
Last year Kelly Russell and The Planks with Bob Hallett performed a concert at the Newfoundland Folk Festival on 13 August, 2017. Prior to the concert Kelly Russell did an interview with the local newspaper The Newfoundland Herald titled 'Herald's Q & A with Kelly Russell and The Planks' published on 4 August, 2017 by Dillion Collins.
They discussed the type of music the band plays, being advocates for traditional Newfoundland music and how Bob Hallett become a member of the group. The article contains some beautiful photographs of the band performing including Bob Hallett.
I have copied a couple of paragraphs here for those interested. The full article and photographs can be found at the Newfoundland Herald site nflherald.com. As always no copyright infringement intended.
https://nfldherald.com/heralds-qa-kelly-russell-the-planks/
"....The group currently consists of yourself, Sean Panting, Chris Batstone, Adam Staple and now Bob Hallett. Take me through the addition of Hallett to the lineup?
Chris had kind of been nagging us all for the past couple of years, ‘By’s we should get back together, do a few gigs, what’s on the go?’ Sean had a conversation with Bob Hallett one night who expressed a desire to play music, not necessarily being in a big touring band out on the road, but just to keep his hand in playing occasionally. We said that there might be a little revival of The Planks and we asked him if he’d be interested in playing with us and he said he certainly would be. Bob is now a full-fledged member of the group. We are now a five-piece.
Something like the Folk Festival has been a tremendous vessel for the betterment of local folk and trad music, certainly within the young community. What’s your take?
Something like the Folk Festival makes this music accessible and makes the stage accessible to the younger players. Outside of the festival setting and maybe one or two other events, people and musicians under 19 do not have access to a stage to perform, because all of this music happens in the bars. That’s a criticism that I’ve always had about the music scene here, it’s bars and late nights. Even for people of age going in the bars some stuff doesn’t start until 11:30-12 at night. We really need to revisit that and have more venue like the Folk Festival where the young people have an opportunity to perform.
You’ve always been a huge advocate and spokesperson for Newfoundland music, especially abroad. What would be some things you hear when you travel outside of the island?
I’ll go into schools and do presentations on Newfoundland music and Newfoundland culture and I try to emphasis to my students and open their eyes to the fact that Newfoundland music is not just for Newfoundlanders and not just popular here in Newfoundland. Whether you take this music on stages around the world people take notice. They recognize it as being similar to Irish but also recognize it has aspects to it that are very unique. It’s always fun, exciting and upbeat and Newfoundland musicians are popular everywhere and Newfoundland musicians are being recognized worldwide...."
Something like the Folk Festival has been a tremendous vessel for the betterment of local folk and trad music, certainly within the young community. What’s your take?
Something like the Folk Festival makes this music accessible and makes the stage accessible to the younger players. Outside of the festival setting and maybe one or two other events, people and musicians under 19 do not have access to a stage to perform, because all of this music happens in the bars. That’s a criticism that I’ve always had about the music scene here, it’s bars and late nights. Even for people of age going in the bars some stuff doesn’t start until 11:30-12 at night. We really need to revisit that and have more venue like the Folk Festival where the young people have an opportunity to perform.
You’ve always been a huge advocate and spokesperson for Newfoundland music, especially abroad. What would be some things you hear when you travel outside of the island?
I’ll go into schools and do presentations on Newfoundland music and Newfoundland culture and I try to emphasis to my students and open their eyes to the fact that Newfoundland music is not just for Newfoundlanders and not just popular here in Newfoundland. Whether you take this music on stages around the world people take notice. They recognize it as being similar to Irish but also recognize it has aspects to it that are very unique. It’s always fun, exciting and upbeat and Newfoundland musicians are popular everywhere and Newfoundland musicians are being recognized worldwide...."
