The Bookends

Event Details

Event type: All Ages / Licensed

The Bookends, from Stratford, Ontario, are Celtic instrumentalists who keep audiences of all ages spellbound and fast-footed with their masterful arrangements. Filled with good natured banter, fascinating footnotes, and a steady switching of instruments, they deliver a show of energetic enrichment, and fantastically frenzied fun. Building on a library of traditional Irish and Scottish gems, they draw on rock & roll, classical, world, and folk music to hone their own sound and pen their own compositions – with arrangements that compel even the hardest of metalheads to dance jigs.

The Bookends have occasionally performed as the backing band for multi-platinum international sensation Loreena McKennitt. In 2021 they were headliners in the gold-standard of Canada’s festival scene: the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival (virtual edition). Also in 2021 they began a performance and collaboration relationship with the renowned Stratford Symphony Orchestra and were, fittingly, featured in a book – Just Us Folk – We Shift and Remain, by legendary journalist Jan Vanderhorst. In their 2019 jaunt to Ireland, the group played with artists from several Celtic supergroups, including Lúnasa, Kilfenora Céilí Band and Cherish the Ladies.

The Bookends released their first album, “Chapter One” in 2020. Roots Magazine Canada marveled that The Bookends “think outside the box” in their music and album promotion – crediting them with boosting the local economy during the pandemic lockdowns of 2020. The album has enjoyed airplay on radio and popular podcasts.  They have just released their 2nd album "A Celtic Celebration" with the Stratford Symphony Orchestra.

Event Link: More Info