A pint of Guinness isn’t the most exciting thing this St. Patrick’s day.
As the holiday approaches, students prepare to storm Aberdeen St. and drink like the Irish, but celebrations of Celtic culture extend further than just the student district. Within the city’s lively music scene, there’s a massive community that loves Scottish and Irish folk music.
Ahead of their March 15 show at The Grand Theatre, The Journal spoke with The Celtic Kitchen Party, a local Trad band, to get some insight into the popularity and importance of this scene in Kingston.
The traditional folk music scene—often referred to as “Trad” music—is alive and well in Kingston, despite being far from Celtic shores.
“There’s a heavy, heavy scene in Kingston. People really love this kind of music,” guitarist Andrew Vanhorn said in an interview with The Journal.
Founded in 2009, The Celtic Kitchen Party takes influence from Irish Trad music, incorporating a wide range of instruments, from the fiddle to bagpipes. The seven member band includes Nathan Crockett on drums, Meryem Crockett on keyboard, Brian Flynn, Artsci ’91, Ed ’07 on fiddle, bodhran and vocals, Colin Skinner on pipes and tin whistle, Scott Jackson, Ed ’98 on electric guitar, Jeremy Daw on bass, and Vanhorn on guitar. ionate about preserving Celtic culture, they continue to keep Trad music alive across Canada.
Kingston’s Celtic community thrives in venues like Tir Nan Og and the Toucan where the sounds of Scotland—fiddles, tin whistles, and lively folk tunes—fill the air.
The Trad scene traces back to the mass migration from Celtic countries to Canada’s East Coast in the 1640s, eventually making its way to Kingston. Scottish and Irish immigrants brought their music and culture, and generations of Canadians have made sure not to forget their Celtic roots.
“They [Scottish and Irish] kept their culture musically. So that’s why I think it’s rising as I think people are getting more nostalgic for it. We all yearn. I think we yearn maybe forthe traditional music in these crazy times,” Vanhorn said.
The long-standing Trad music scene in Kingston is something The Celtic Kitchen Party have been contributing to for years, beginning their residency at Tir Nan Og eight years ago. They’ve become a staple of the Trad music scene, playing shows across Canada. Next week, they’re heading over to British Columbia, continuing their mission to keep the music alive.
Trad is an ever-evolving style of music, with bands such as KNEECAP and Skipinnish bringing new styles of Trad influenced music to the genre. In the recent Gaelic resurgence, Trad music is something that’s exploded in the last few years. There’s a new wave of young people involving themselves in this scene, with Vanhorn advising young musicians to “just keep playing.”
For as long as Vanhorn can , Kingston has appreciated and nurtured Trad music. The Kingston—and Queen’s—affiliation with Gaelic culture is due to a myriad of factors, cultural roots, and the city’s strong music scene.
The Celtic Kitchen Party isn’t the only Trad band keeping music alive. Kingston contemporaries such as Turpin’s Trail, Irish Root, and of course internationally recognized, The Mahones, who formed on St. Patrick’s day 1990 have all played a vital role in preserving and evolving the Trad music scene.
Vanhorn emphasized the importance of the Trad music scene in Kinston, and the kind of community it’s fostered. “People want to share this culture, before it slips away,” he shared.
He also mentioned the desire to engage with Celtic culture in Kingston, and Canada.
“There’s a saying. It’s there’s the Irish, and then those that want to be Irish.”
For those who want to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day beyond just pints of Guinness, Kingston’s Celtic music scene offers an authentic and deeply rooted experience. As a Scottish and Irish exchange student in Kingston, I wasn’t expecting to find the sounds of home here—but I did.
So, with St. Patricks day creeping closer, maybe polish off your claddagh and get yourself down to Tir Nan Og—Vanhorn’s personal recommendation—for a day or night of Trad music.
Maybe even start a ceilidh on the dance floor.
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