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Vancouver Island-based Eileen McGann has long been acclaimed as one of Canada’s finest Celtic singers and songwriters. For almost 40 years she has toured across Canada, the US, Great Britain and Ireland, bringing her rich, poetic lyrics and soaring melodies to festivals, clubs and concert halls.
Her seven solo CDs have received international 5-star reviews, and many “top ten of the year” listings. Eileen’s CD “Beyond The Storm“ was nominated for a 2002 Juno Award as “Best Album: Roots & Traditional” and her “Pocketful of Rhymes” CD garnered her a CFMA nomination as “Traditional Singer of the Year”. BerLen Music has published a comprehensive “Eileen McGann Songbook”, with 50 of her compositions, as part of their “Essential Canadian Songwriter Series”, and three of her songs are included in the new Rise Again songbook, the sequel to Rise Up Singing.
Born in Canada to Irish parents, she began her professional career as a singer of the traditional Celtic songs she grew up with, but soon also became known as an outstanding writer of songs that, while often showing Celtic influence, are strongly and distinctively Canadian.
Thematically, Eileen’s songs show unusual breadth, from incisive political and environmental ballads, ditties and anthems, to story songs from modern and ancient sources; from celebrations of the Canadian wilderness to powerful songs of the spiritual journey. These diverse songs are united by strong, singable choruses, flowing melodies, lyrical depth and a clear unified vision that make her in many ways a "thinking person's songwriter".
She has played almost all the major folk festivals across Canada and Great Britain, often multiple times, and continues recording and touring, as well as following her second profession as a painter of vibrant Canadian landscapes. She teaches workshops on songwriting, voice, traditional music, painting, Celtic knotwork art and creativity.
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