By Darlene Barss

Playlist Friday is about The Pitch of Prince Edward Island. It may be the smallest province but it is full of talent.

PEI is known as a home for traditional Celtic music. The epitome of PEI musical culture is the fiddle, piano and step dancer. The Ceilidh (Scot’s Gaelic for gathering essentially) has long been the most common place for this type of music to be found. This music was imported straight from the Highlands of Scotland and remained unchanged for centuries. On the island it mixed with Irish and Acadian musical tradition, but Scottish style still dominates. Today musicians on the island are expanding beyond the fiddle in many cases, incorporating other Celtic instruments. Traditional Celtic Music on the island also takes the form of popular Maritime or East Coast Music, which is what some have described as an amalgam of Celtic Music and Sea Shanties. This type of music is also heavily influenced by the traditions of Newfoundland and is very commonly found in Pubs all over Atlantic Canada.

Such bands as Two Hours Traffic, Boxer the Horse, Coyote, Haunted Hearts, The Danks, English Words, Racoon Bandit, The North Lakes, Milks & Rectangles and Paper Lions were successful on the PEI rock/pop music scene. PEI also has an active blues scene with such bands as The Blueprints, Plain Dirty Blues Band, and the blues-rock band Bad Habits. The indie rock culture is quite strong in Charlottetown for its size and can be heard at several venues throughout the city. There is also a small but growing Bluegrass music scene on the island, as demonstrated by such bands as the Saddle River String Band and Nudie and the Turks. (Taken from Wikipedia)

On the playlist you can hear some of the up and coming artists from PEI such as Whitney Rose and The Lonely Kid. You can also hear some of the 2017 nominees for the East Coast Music Awards from the province such as Dylan Menzie, Ten Strings and a Goat Skin, Lennie Gallant and Paper Lions. The ECMAs are being held April 26-30, 2017 in Saint John, NB.

Take a listen to the playlist. How do you find the pitch of Prince Edward Island? Is it perfect?