Jimmy Rankin and Friends

  The packed house at the Mary Webb Centre for the Arts in Highgate certainly got their money’s worth on Saturday Mar. 22, 2025. Jimmy returned to the MWC for the fourth time, bringing with him this time two outstanding musicians and songwriters, J.P Cormier and Catherine MacLellan. They took turns singing and playing their own songs and ones of those who they admired. Jimmy started things off with the beautiful Irish Red. JP then sang a song that his mom used to sing to him, Jimmy Brown. Catherine sang a couple of songs about boats, although she told us that she does not like boats. She feels claustrophobic when out on the water, while she knows that others feel relaxed. 

  For many of the songs, JP quietly added background accompaniment on his guitar. For one of his turns, he played a truly amazing medley with his fingers seeming to fly over the strings. He was awarded a standing ovation for that.

  As many in the audience knew, Jimmy was part of the Rankin family from Cape Breton Island who toured together for 10 years. I saw them at least once when I taught in Sioux Lookout. When the group split up, Jimmy was without a job and he went to Italy to write songs and tour that area. He went to the St. Francis Assisi Cathedral and he played a beautiful song about St. Francis. JP sang an interesting song, Billy Likes Boys. When Catherine was younger, she spent a summer with some friends planting potatoes and she sang about being surrounded by beautiful people.

  They continued to enchant the audience with a wonderful variety of songs and stories about their history singing and writing songs. One song that Catherine sang was the beautiful Snowbird, made famous by Anne Murray. This song was written by Catherine’s father, who has been gone for 30 years, and was also a prolific songwriter.

  It was obvious during the whole concert how passionate they all were about their music and how much they enjoyed playing with each other, even though this had been a short concert tour. As would be expected, they got a standing ovation and came back on stage for an encore. When the show was over, they went down to the art gallery and talked with audience members and signed CDs, albums and t-shirts. We certainly hope to see them again.

  Special thanks to our sponsors Total Comfort Heating and Cooling, Village on the Ridge Retirement Village, Mayor Darrin Canniff plus Councillors Morena McDonald and John Wright.

l-r: JP Cormier, Jimmy Rankin and Catherine MacLellan