Celtic folk band Celtara will be looking to end off summer with a bang as they kick off their summer tour in Canmore on Aug. 23 and will finish on Aug. 27 in Water Valley. The band will also play in Cranbrook, Windermere and Calgary before wrapping up in Water Valley. The five-person band is made up of piano, accordion and vocalist Steven Bell, fiddle, harp and vocalist Bonnie Gregory, guitar and bouzoki player Andreas Illig, flute and vocals Tami Cooper and percussion Mark Arnison. Known as a driving force on the prairie Celtic scene, Celtara draws influences from the far reaches of Ireland, Norway, Brittany, Scotland, Sweden and beyond into their uniquely identifiable Canadiana Celtic sound. Rich arrangements, full-bodied vocals and dazzling fiddle, guitar, flute, accordion, percussion and piano, have fused into spirited performances for more than 14 years. "What we like to do with our music, is we'll take our raw material and use all of our different instrumentation ... instead of everybody playing the same melody all the time, we used harmonies and different combinations of instruments," said Tami Cooper on the type of music the band plays. "We're trying to find a groove of each piece ... the arranging that we do, typically takes a lot of time. When we're putting a song together, we'll weave those (Celtic) tunes into our songs and we're looking for a very rich sound, so there's interest for our listeners as well as makes it pleasing for us to play. It's changing all the time and we just want it to be very rich. We're not just pulling music from Scotland and Ireland, but we've starting playing Swedish, Danish, Norwegian tunes as well. We try to have a wide variety to interest all kinds of listeners." The band is also in the process of releasing their first album since 2011 titled Seven Long Years, which Cooper said has so far gone over very well with their fan base. "A lot of the music that's on the album, our audience will have heard quite a bit of it at least in the last few years and they've always really enjoyed it," Cooper said. "The album is called Seven Long Years because it's been that long since we've come out with our last album, but it also has the meaning that a lot has happened to us in our lives personally during the last seven years as well as it being a really common phrase in the type of folk music that we play." Cooper also said her and the band are really looking forward to the upcoming tour and hopes the public in each town and city enjoys their show. "We intend on enjoying a really wonderful and warm evening with the audience. We want our concerts to feel like it's taking place in our living room and we want the crowd to feel the same way," Cooper said. "We want to share our music, stories and laughter to have a really nice time. We love doing these types of concerts because typically they're fairly intimate ... we usually have crowds of less than 100 people which is fine by us because we feel like we get to know the crowd personally and vice versa. We're really looking forward to sharing our music with them." For more information on ticket prices and tour dates, the public is encouraged to visit www.celtara.ca.
