Highland Soles with Special guests David Surette and Susie Burke to perform at Skye

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New England Celtic Arts will host a rather ambitious version of Highland Soles by the Maine fiddle and dance duo of Ed Pearlman and Laura Scott with special guests David Surette and Susie Burke at Skye Theatre Performing Arts Center in South Carthage, Maine on Sunday August 2nd.The concert starts at 7:00 PM. This is the first in a series of four special Sunday concerts being held at Skye Theatre in August. A pre-show jam will start at 6:15 please bring your instruments and join in.

The fresh & exciting dance and music of Highland Soles are rooted in the traditions of Scotland and Cape Breton, with a good dose of innovation. Dancer Laura Scott (“a showstopper”–Boston Globe) and fiddler Ed Pearlman (one of America’s top fiddlers in the Scottish style) are joined by virtuoso family members Neil, Lilly, and Jessie Pearlman on mandolin, piano, fiddle, and dance. Laura & Ed have worked with many of today’s top Celtic artists over the past 25 years. Based in Maine, the band presents high-flying Highland dance, hard-hitting Cape Breton step dance, feisty Scottish Highland folk dances and new choreographies with compelling music, both traditional and original. Also offered will be the works of Robert Burns in honor of his 250th anniversary.

Laura has performed with Natalie MacMaster, Alasdair Fraser, Battlefield Band, Joe Cormier, Tony Cuffe and many other great Celtic artists. As a teacher she is well grounded in tradition (member of the British Association of Teachers of Dancing, and on the Judges Panel of the Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing) but also loves to push the artistic envelope and meld Highland, Cape Breton step and Highland folk to reflect the vital pulse of Scottish music.

Ed has performed many styles of music, but has specialized in Scottish/Cape Breton fiddling for 30 years. He directed the Boston Scottish Fiddle Club for 18 years, and has taught many workshops and lessons, including Maine Fiddle Camp and the Blazin Fiddles camp in Beauly, Scotland.

Susie Burke and David Surette have made a name for themselves as one of the finest acts on the lively New England folk scene. Together since 1988, Susie and David have built a steady following for their own blend of contemporary, traditional, and original folk and acoustic music. Burke’s vocal style is at once stunning and heartfelt, and is matched by Surette’s fluid fretwork.

Susie Burke has been singing on Seacoast stages since the early 80s, as a soloist, a member of several local bands, and in several duos, including one with guitar whiz Harvey Reid. Her musical tastes and influences are varied and many, encompassing contemporary and traditional folk, swing, country, topical songs, and accapella singing, with detours along the way for Broadway show tunes and classic ballads.

“She posesses one of the finest, purest ballad sopranos heard in folk music today” writes Scott Alarik in the Boston Globe.

David Surette has been performing in the Seacoast area since the mid-80s, both with Susie and with a number of other groups and musicians. He is well known as a top-notch accompanist in New England’s contra dance and Celtic music circles, and is also in demand as a studio musician. As a multi-instrumentalist, David brings a variety of stringed sounds to the duo; Folk Roots magazine notes that his “bouzouki, guitar, and mandolin playing is exemplary.” In addition to performing and recording, Surette maintains an active teaching schedule, and is head of the folk department at the Concord (NH) Community Music School. He was awarded an NEA travel grant in 1994 to study the traditional music of Brittany, France, and has written a book of Celtic guitar arrangements for Mel Bay Music.

Skye Theater is located 3 miles West of East Dixfield village at 2 Highland Drive off Winter Hill Rd and US RT. 2 in South Carthage. Ticket price is $10.00 at the door. Call New England Celtic Arts at (207) 562-4445 for reservations and directions. More information at: http://www.necelticarts.com.

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